In 1970 Gideon Malick’s father dies. He promises a colleague of his father that he and his brother Nathaniel will continue the Hydra legacy that their father left behind. Nathaniel wants him to go visit Daniel Whitehall, the villain from last season and a leader of Hydra.
Reed Diamond returns as Daniel Whitehall, one of the only redeeming qualities of season two. Gideon and Nathaniel visit him in prison. Whitehall wants the Malick brothers to forsake their father’s ways. There are different paths in Hydra, seemingly different types of religions. The Malicks’ way is a stone ceremony. When the family members come of age they choose a rock from a bag. If they pick a white stone then they are chosen to enter the Monolith as a traveler to the desert planet to find the Inhuman and bring it back. Whitehall thinks this is nonsense. He accuses their father of dishonesty.
Nathaniel goes to their father’s library and finds a copy of Paradise Lost. Inside it is a white stone with a notch in it, so their father knew which stone not to pick when drawing stones. Nathaniel is distraught but Gideon vows to uphold the family tradition even now. They promise each other that they’ll take care of each other.
In present day Malick returns to his home where his daughter, Stephanie is waiting for him. HiveWard showed up and asked Stephanie to gather the inner circle. Malick tells her that he had a vision where HiveWard kills him. He does not trust him any more. Stephanie is cut out of the same cloth as the rest of the Malicks. She refuses to believe that HiveWard would kill her father. He needs to remind HiveWard how important he is.
After Gideon’s anxiety, HiveWard reveals his motives. He knows that Gideon actually kept his father’s white stone, ensuring that he would never be chosen to go to the Monolith. But his brother was. Nathaniel gets sent through the portal and Gideon spent the rest of those years trying to bring him back. But HiveWard retains all of the memories of the hosts he infects. He remembers what Gideon did to Nathaniel.
The entire episode the bond between Malick and his daughter Stephanie has been established. She must be a true Malick because she decides that sacrificing her father to HiveWard is the right thing to do. HiveWard needs a Malick. He kisses Stephanie, even though he has all of her uncle’s memories and is basically him. But instead of killing Malick, he kills her daughter. Stephanie dies right in front of Malick. That is the sacrifice that had to be made.
Back at SHIELD, Coulson broods over a huge projection of Ward. Twice life size. But who can really blame him. Ward is a charismatic and enigmatic man. Coulson might have things to do, but gazing determinedly at Ward’s picture is top priority. May walks in and is not all surprised that this is what the Director of SHIELD is up to. May comes out swinging. She knows that Coulson enjoyed killing Ward. Now that he is alive, it makes things more complicated.
SkyeDaisy and Lincoln go to South Dakota to meet a potential Inhuman. At Afterlife, he predicted an Inhuman who could bring the dead back to life. They meet James, a potential Inhuman who puts land mines in his own yard. As soon as Lincoln says they shouldn’t use their powers in front of him, it’s pretty obvious that’s what’s going to happen. SkyeDaisy steps on a landmine and has to use her powers to save herself. Lincoln jolts James with electricity.
When he wakes up, Lincoln offers to make him an Inhuman if he shows them what he took from Afterlife. James took a Kree artifact. He knows about Hive and that he was one of the first Inhumans and was supposed to lead the Inhuman army for the Kree. This is not any new information for the audience. While SkyDaisy might not have known about this, this is not shocking news. They have not learned anything new to prompt such shock.
Lincoln takes the artifact but doesn’t give James the Inhuman crystal to give him powers. This prompts James to tell SkyeDaisy how Lincoln’s last relationship ended. He nearly murdered his last girlfriend. James gathers that SkyeDaisy isn’t surprised by this side of Lincoln, but the audience should be. The show has grown to great lengths to talk about all the bad things that Lincoln has done, but all he has been is a helpful boring guy. If there really is this darkness in him, then it needs to be shown.
It turns out that all Lincoln really did was get into a drunk driving accident. The way they go on about it they make it seem like he tried to beat her death.
Coulson, May, and Mack go and pick up Giyera, the Inhuman body guard of Malick and the one that was responsible for torturing Simmons. He takes control of the plane. SkyeDaisy has to call in the Secret Warriors to save them.
The show has been building up to this moment, but it’s difficult to be excited about it when SkyeDaisy herself basically forgot that she was even doing it. The audience has only met two of these Warriors. To make an impact, this army needs to be exponential and something we have not seen before.