Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 3.04: "Devils You Know"

“Why’d I let you talk me into this? I had a garage, a workbench full of new tools. My own espresso machine.”
-Mack

This particular episode of “S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn’t really a stand-out to me. It very much seemed like it was just set-up to move characters from one of the season’s stories to the next. It was a transition episode. The S.H.I.E.L.D. team tried to investigate yet another murder of Inhumans, and to do so, they tested their potential new alliance with the ATCU. Most of the team is not happy about the alliance, as you’d expect. Hunter also tries to put his “kill Ward” plan into place. He needs a little help from his friends to have a chance at succeeding, though. And most importantly (to me, because I am very invested in Fitz’s happiness, because he’s adorable), Fitz learned that Simmons is really desperately trying to get back to the other realm where she was trapped thanks to the portal.

The episode starts with a young couple making dinner, and it quickly becomes obvious that they’re Inhumans. They’re OG Inhumans, as in they were at Afterlife – they’re not Inhuman thanks to the fish oil supplements. They also happen to know that the Terrigen has been released (that’s what got into the fish oil supplements). Their dinner is interrupted by the appearance of Alisha, an Inhuman we me before who can basically astral project herself to other locations (her true physical form is with our S.H.I.E.L.D. friends). The non-Alisha Inhumans mention that they both got an e-mail about how OG Inhumans need to band together. The three Inhumans are still trying to figure out what to do when Lash attacks. The Inhuman couple are killed, and Alisha is in very bad shape.

Daisy and Mack are first on the scene, and they are less than thrilled when Coulson brings in the ATCU. Especially since the ATCU tried to capture Daisy in the last episode. Coulson, Bobbi, and Fitz comb the crime scene for evidence while Daisy and Mack try to find Lash. Fitz manages to snag a laptop that might be helpful, especially considering the e-mail we learned about at the beginning of the episode. The ATCU figures out that all the OG Inhumans who have been killed received an e-mail with a virus that made it easy for Lash to track them. Daisy then takes this to the next level, tracking the virus to an IT guy who works for the Social Security Administration, Dwight Frye. Daisy is shocked that the ATCU didn’t know about him, considering he’s a government employee. I think Daisy’s instinct is right.

S.H.I.E.L.D. and the ATCU both pay Frye a visit, although he completely freaks out when he comes in contact with Daisy. Frye is Inhuman, too, and his superpower is having a bad reaction every time he’s in the presence of another Inhuman. He’s basically an Inhuman divining rod. Coulson uses his robotic hand (and sarcasm) to threaten Frye into admitting he’s been working with Lash. Because his power makes him so uncomfortable around other Inhumans, he is totally cool with Lash’s Inhuman killing plans. The ATCU decides to take Frye into custody, and Daisy and Mack tag along to check out the holding facility. Lash attacks the transport, though, seriously injuring Mack and killing Frye. Daisy sees Lash change into something resembling a human silhouette, meaning he/she/it is likely an Inhuman.

Elsewhere, Hunter is progressing in his quest to kill Ward. Ward has something big planned using weapons Hunter procured, so Hunter wants to take care of that and take care of Ward in general before Bobbi is recovered enough to be back in the field. I guess he’s afraid of Ward targeting her again. May is worried that this is a suicide mission, so she heads back to S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ for reinforcements. To her chagrin, she runs into Andrew there. We learn that he left her, not the other way around (in their most recent parting), although we don’t quite know why. They have a super awkward conversation where Andrew tries to apologize for how things when down, but May doesn’t really want to have anything to do with him anymore. She says that now each of them has left the other once, they’re even.

In the course of the work he’s been doing to move up in the new Hydra, Hunter finds himself in a room with Ward. Ward knows who he is, obviously, and the encounter doesn’t go well for either of them (although I guess it’s somewhat better for Ward). Hunter can’t hold out against Ward and his goons for long, but luckily May’s got his back. Ward seems to be genuinely worried that May is on the scene, but he’s got a contingency plan. Some of his goons (including the trust fund baby who has been taking Andrew’s class) have been tailing Andrew. Ward says that if Hunter and May don’t back off, he’ll have Andrew killed. May wants to call it off, because she still cares about Andrew, but Hunter charges into the fray, taking that option away. A huge explosion engulfs the store Andrew had been patronizing, and presumably he doesn’t survive (we’ll see what happens). Ward is shot in the fray, but he manages to get away to fight again later.

There’s also some FitzSimmons drama in this episode, which makes me uneasy because, as you should all know by now, sad FitzSimmons makes me sad (or, to be more precise, sad Fitz makes me sad, because Fitz is adorable). Simmons has been working on a research project that she doesn’t want anybody to see, so naturally this peaks Fitz’s curiosity. It also helps that Bobbi just doesn’t get all the little quirks of how he and Simmons used to work, so she doesn’t hand him a blue baggie for biologicals like she’s supposed to. Fitz gets very worried about Simmons when he takes a look at her research and figures out that she is trying to recreate the monolith, presumably to reopen the portal. With some prompting by Bobbi (on both sides), Fitz confronts Simmons about his discovery, and Simmons admits she needs to go back to the land at the other end of the portal. She promises to tell Fitz everything if he will help her, and of course he agrees.