On the Bus, Ward tells Raina that he’s worried about Garrett, and he wants her to talk to him, because he’s not acting right.  As she heads to do just that, Ward and Mike Peterson share a worried look.  Inside the cage, Garrett is staring at the gravitonium they stole from the Fridge, which he tells Raina he used to think looked like a lava lamp.  She tells him that Quinn expects the gravitonium as payment, but Garrett knows that she has plans for the material.  He understands everything now, can see everything, including Raina’s soul.  She tells him that Ward is worried, but he says that the drug gave him clarity of mind and a new vision of the world.  Raina seems on board with his plans, as she has no loyalty to HYDRA or anything, and she seems to understand what he’s talking about.  She’s only ever been interested in evolution, and she was disappointed when Garrett wasn’t really clairvoyant, because she had a question she wanted to ask.  Now, however, he sees the truth of the world, and she asks the question: “What will I become?”

Ready to have your heart ripped open?  Simmons and Fitz sit in the med bay, talking things out.  Fitz confesses he’s scared and hungry, and Simmons does too.  She wonders what it’ll be like, and Fitz starts to explain about death by drowning, but she’s more curious about what happens after.  “My mum always said that you shouldn’t be afraid ’cause it’s just like the way life was before you were born, which wasn’t that bad, was it?”  Simmons tries to make a joke about what life was like in the womb, but it seems like it’s all Fitz can do to keep things together.  Simmons has a different view.  “I like to think about the first law of thermodynamics, that no energy in the universe is created and none is destroyed.”  She talks about how everything that they’re made of will go on to be a part of something else, just like every part of them now was once a part of something else, perhaps even “a monkey” suggests Fitz, making Simmons smile.  (Sob!)

Fitz looks like he’s about to confess something, but Simmons starts to seriously contemplate the glass of the window.  She thinks she has a way out, but Fitz tells her that the glass is unbreakable.  However, the seal around the glass is vulnerable, especially if they can find something that will burn it at the right temperature and an ignition source, like the AED.  That will set off an explosion, letting the water in and letting them out.  Fitz jumps up and down, which really hurts his arm, as Simmons says, “Now we know that, there’s a whole new set of problems, but where do we start?”

At the Cybertek facility, the Generals have arrived for their tour.  Quinn shows them around, telling them about the Deathlok program and pointing out the device that installs it into a person.  The General wants specifics before he opens Uncle Sam’s checkbook, and Quinn says that he wants to expand to the point where they can make 100 soldiers a day.  He doesn’t want to supplement the military’s special ops units, but to completely replace the Navy Seals, the Secret Service and the rest.  His company is there to provide “security.”

Outside, Coulson and Trip are surveying the area discussing possible vehicles to steal like they’re in line at a buffet.  They finally settle on a heavily armored truck with a cannon on top and missile launchers.  Coulson asks if Trip brought the noise maker.  “Sir, I’ve bring the noise and the funk wherever I go.”  He pulls out something that looks like a toy, winds it up and tosses it among the soldiers.  It calls out in a loud voice, “Hello, friends, the enemy approaches!  Act now or they’ll win the day!”  Trip and Coulson sneak up and easily handle the troops.

Next thing you know, they’re ramming down Cybertek’s gates.  Coulson and Trip look at each other and you can almost see the actors’ personalities shine through, as the look clearly says, “This is awesome!”  They fire missiles at the troops who try to stop them, before blasting a hole in the wall of the building.  It makes a perfectly sized opening for Melinda May and Skye.

Inside, the Generals are a little concerned about the sounds of gunfire and explosions, and they don’t buy Quinn’s explanation that it’s just a drill.  Garrett, Ward and Mike Peterson show up, and Garrett’s completely dismissive of the military brass.  The General is having none of this, and wants to know what’s going on.  Garrett calls it the “dying breath of the old world.  The new world is coming.  I tasted it on my tongue.”  He tells the General to shut his mouth and give them everything they want, which doesn’t go over well.  He taunts the military guys, and when Quinn suggests a demonstration, Garrett demonstrates how he can punch into the General’s chest and rip out one of his ribs, as he says, “I’ve glimpsed the future…. This is the beginning.”  “The beginning of what, John?” Ward asks, looking shocked and disgusted.  “The end,” Garrett replies, smashing the General to the floor.

Back on the Bus, where the gravitonium is being unloaded into a van for Quinn, Ward is not happy.  He wants answers from Raina, who he thinks is “psychotic.”  Raina says that Garrett’s not mad, however, and that she agrees with him while Ward is just a follower.  She tells him that they all need the same thing now, Skye, who has an important part to play in this new evolution.  He wants to know why, but Raina only tells him that the world is going to change, and when it does Skye could finally be Ward’s.  He scoffs at that, because she thinks he’s a monster, but Raina reminds him what she told him about her parents.  She says that her true nature will reveal itself, and that Skye and Ward could be monsters together.

Coulson and Trip are attacked by Centipede soldiers, who start punching into their armored vehicle.  Meanwhile, Skye and May break in to Cybertek, with Skye holding up a backpack and saying, “This is a bomb.  You know what those do.  And you’ve seen Agent May here through the eyes of your supersoldiers, so you know what she does.  You don’t want to mess with us is my point.”  The “dealer,” aka the veteran employee from earlier, tells her that she won’t be able to hack their system and give their soldiers new orders, but they already know that the programmers just switched the soldiers to “default directive,” which surprises the “dealer.”

Just as the soldiers are about to break into the armored truck, they get a new message on their eyes which says “default directive,” ordering them to protect Garrett at all costs.  This will also conveniently lead Coulson directly to Garrett.  Coulson takes a moment to tell Trip to bring in any armed forces he can, and to make sure that if the rest of the team doesn’t make it out that Trip burns the place to the ground, before Coulson heads into the building at a sprint.

Ward’s panicking, as he wants orders from Garrett on how to deal with the situation, but Garrett’s remarkably nonchalant about the whole thing, while Mike Peterson looks on.  Garrett’s phone rings, and he answers expecting to hear Peterson’s handler, but instead Skye’s voice comes over the line with a cheerful, “Hi, John!”  She’s sassy on the phone, but Garrett’s not concerned, only excited to hear that Coulson’s nearby.  He does go out of his way to rub FitzSimmons fate in her face, telling her that her friends were “brave until their last breath,” before hanging up and telling Ward to go get Skye, which Ward thanks him for.  He tells Peterson that Ward has always been a “tender heart,” while observing that Peterson was ordered not to leave Garrett’s side.

Down under the ocean, FitzSimmons are ready to try their plan.  He warns her that the force of the incoming water will feel like 100 punches to the stomach, and then gives her another instruction.  He has a canister that will give her enough air for one full breath that will help her make it to the surface once he sets off the explosion.  However, there’s only one canister, and he tells Simmons he’s done the math and Simmons has to take it.  She wants a new plan, but he refuses to discuss it with her, telling her that he “couldn’t live if you didn’t,” take the canister.  She says she feels the same way.

“Why would you make me do this, you’re my best friend in the world?” she asks, desperate.  “You’re more than that, Jemma,” he replies.  “I couldn’t find the courage to tell you, so please.  Let me show you.”  She breaks down completely, sobbing, hugging him, and kissing every inch of his face, refusing to let him go.  He forces the canister into her hand and pushes the button, and she screams as the explosion goes off.  We see outside the med bay as she swims to the surface, dragging an unmoving Fitz with her.  She struggles to stay afloat and hold onto him, reaching up into the sky and screaming for help.  To her surprise, there’s a hand waiting to help her, and who should it belong to but Nick Fury, with his new look from the end of The Winter Soldier and hanging out the side of a helicopter.  It’s at this point that I completely lost it.

After the longest commercial break ever, we catch up with Fury, who is watching over Simmons as she wakes up inside a tube.  It’s a decompression chamber, because she came to the surface too quickly.  She tells him that she thought he was dead, and he says, “Good, we want word to get around on that.”  She tries to get out, wanting to know what happened to Fitz, and Fury assures her that he’s still alive.  His heart is still beating, but his brain was without oxygen for a long time.  He tells her that she saved him, but she says “it was the other way around.”  He found them by tracing the EKG signal Fitz rigged up, because of course Fury wouldn’t stop listening for SHIELD signals.  He was actually looking for Coulson, because “I understand you’re involved in a dispute I might want to get in on.”

Skye has the “dealer” tied up with the bomb strapped to his chest, and she tells him that she has to push the snooze button on her phone every minute or it’ll go off.  She wants to know why he’s willing to die for HYDRA, particularly if he’s there because of the “incentives program.”  At that moment, Ward shows up, telling the “dealer” that she won’t kill him, because she wouldn’t even let Ward die and she hates Ward.  She says that she feels sorry for him for betraying the people who wanted to give him a chance, especially Fitz.  “But some people are just born evil, I guess,” she says.  Clearly Ward’s “murder” of FitzSimmons has changed her mind about the nature of evil.  Ward insists that he and Skye aren’t that different, especially given the things he’s learned about Skye’s history.

Skye almost laughs, because she wasn’t calling Ward evil, she was calling Garrett evil.  She thinks Ward’s just weak.  Ward actually agrees, and blames her for opening up that weakness inside him.  He threatens to take what he wants from Skye and awaken something inside her, and he tells her that he knows she won’t use the bomb to kill everyone.  “No,” she says, “I have a weapon much better than a bomb that will absolutely destroy you.”  “Why’s that?” Ward asks.  “Because you slept with her, and she’s really pissed off.”  Boom!

May tackles him, and thus begins the most epic fight scene on the show yet, as Skye takes the “dealer” away to talk about incentives.  The two slam each other through walls and into a back room, and May picks up a circular saw and tries to cut up Ward, who then tries to strangle her with the cord.  “You said our thing was ‘no strings attached,'” Ward says.  “Looks to me like the Ice Queen got her feelings hurt.”  That’s enough to earn him a one way ticket through the wall into the next room.

Garrett and Peterson are interrupted by another noise maker, and when Peterson heads to check it out Coulson appears, echoing Skye’s, “Hi, John.”  He punches Garrett, who punches back and sends Coulson flying across the room.  “Well that’s new,” Coulson says to himself, crawling behind some tanks after his gun, which happens to be lying at someone’s feet.  It’s Nick Fury, in the nick of time once again.  “Sir?” Coulson says with surprise.  “You don’t have to call me ‘sir,’ Coulson.  Look at me, I’m dressed like I live under a bridge.”  At this point, I feel like I should be transcribing all of the dialogue into this recap.

Fury explains that Simmons told him about the tracker, while the room fills with Centipede soldiers who open fire on them.  “I went to great pains to make sure you didn’t die the first time,” Fury says.  “Now’s probably not the best time,” Coulson replies, “but I’d like to have a lengthy conversation with you about that.  It might get loud.”  “And I owe you that,” Fury says, “but right now we owe Garrett a punch in the teeth, wouldn’t you say?”

And then he pulls out the Destroyer gun from The Avengers.  You know the one.  The one Coulson pulled out on Loki, saying that he didn’t even know what it does, before being stabbed through the heart.  The one he still managed to fire at Loki anyway, saying, “So that’s what it does.”  “I know what it does,” he tells Fury this time, firing it up and using it to blast away all of the Centipede soldiers while Garrett and Peterson look on.  Fury bursts out and fires an entire magazine of bullets into Garrett, which knocks him to the floor, but only for a moment before he stands up again.

May and Ward continue their epic battle, using any tools they can find.  Ward slams May down on a table saw, which he fires up as he climbs on top of her and prepares to cut her arm off.  “Reminds me of the old days,” he says, like the biggest douche ever.  “You were never on top,” she points out, using the saw blade to launch the pipe in her hand into his face and then kicking him off.

Garrett’s surprised to see Fury, and observes that the two of them plus Coulson and Peterson make a “tag team wrestling match with four dead guys.”  Coulson does some trash talking, but Garrett is surprised that Coulson is trying to stop him, considering that he thinks they both have seen the same things, given that they received the same drug.  “We share a bond,” he tells Coulson.  “We’re blood brothers.””You didn’t tell me he was this crazy,” Fury says to Coulson.  “He’s really stepped it up a notch,” Coulson agrees.

May and Ward continue to fight, getting continually more savage as Ward throws May through another wall and begins kicking her hard in the side.  She sees something lying beside her and grabs it.  It’s a nail gun, which she proceeds to use to repeatedly nail Ward’s foot to the floor as he screams.  She punches him as he asks her to wait, but she doesn’t want to hear it and hits him hard in the throat.  “I think I’ve waited long enough for this,” she says, finally knocking him out cold with a roundhouse kick.

Skye takes the “dealer” to a room marked “incentives,” and takes out a guard to get a set of keys.  She unlocks a door to reveal a small, windowless room with a bed upon which lies a woman.  She sees the “dealer” and calls out to him by name, rushing to embrace him, and at this point we realize that the incentives that HYDRA uses are actually kidnapped members of people’s families.  Skye keeps searching the hall, unlocking doors as if she’s looking for something.  She finally opens a door and finds it, as we see Mike Peterson’s son, Ace, sitting on his bed.

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