Not every episode can be a winner. That should be the mantra of this season of Agents of SHIELD, and frankly last season too. This episode starts in the middle of a flashforward, the way most lazy episodes do. Bobbi and Hunter are in an Interpol black site. This episode shows how they got there.
34 hours earlier, Bobbi and Hunter are following a convoy towards something called The Sanctuary, which will be a prison camp for Inumans in Siberia. Or so they are lead to believe. While Bobbi and Hunter surveil the site, Hunter suggests assassinating Malick. Coulson shuts him down since it would be considered an act of war. Judging from the flashforwards to Bobbi and Hunter in a prison, things do not go their way.
Hunter brings up wanting to leave SHIELD under the guise of he and Bobbi never going on vacation. These issues come out of nowhere and only seem to be there to create drama. Before they can solve the issue, The Sanctuary guards find them. That didn’t take long. But it takes even less time for them to take down the soldiers and report back to the hovercraft.
Bobbi and Hunter saw someone restrained by BioTech. They think it’s an Inhuman. Bobbi is the only one who knows conversational Russian so she, Mack, and SkyeDaisy team up to go to the surveillance room. May and Hunter go out and find the body of the Russian minister’s personal attaché. He was murdered because he opposed the use of The Sanctuary and is pro-Inhuman. Hydra mole Petrov wants Malick to smooth over relations with the Prime Minister after the murder.
But that is not all Malick has in mind. SHIELD realizes that the Inhuman is actually a Russian general, the first Inhuman politician. Malick is trying to stage a coup. The General is an assassin gunning for the Russian Prime Minister.
Coulson orders May and Hunter to not go after Malick, but protect the Prime Minister. They set off tear gas and Bobbi’s team kidnaps the General. They learn the General can control his shadow and change its density at will. The General escapes but sends his shadow after SkyeDaisy and Bobbi. The only way they can beat it is to beat the General himself. SkyeDaisy gets knocked out and Bobbi goes to protect Hunter. She shoots the General.
Hunter kills Petrov while rescuing the Prime Minister. Both he and Bobbi are captured and sent to a black Interpol site where they are interrogated. Hunter is accused of the attaché’s murder. The only way Bobbi can protect Hunter from execution is by turning on SHIELD. It seems like an easy choice for an organization that is basically Hydra at this point.
Coulson visits Bobbi and Hunter and offers to get them out and put them in witness protection. For some reason, they refuse. Bobbi and Hunter are going to sacrifice themselves for no real particular reason whatsoever. All Hunter wanted to do was go on vacation and now he is fine with be executed. Makes sense.
Coulson made a deal with the Prime Minister and Bobbi and Hunter are being disavowed. This does not seem like such a tragedy when they both wanted to leave anyway.
This episode seems so out of place and random that it belongs on another show. Bobbi and Hunter’s farewell came out of nowhere. There had been a plan to do a spin-off show featuring these two but that was dropped.
This could be the writer’s way of dropping dead weight since there are far too many characters on the show, but its execution is faulty at best. This seemed like a filler episode full of plot and absolutely no progression until the end. This probably would have worked better as a webisode. Or this show really is running out of ideas.