On another planet, Daisy and Coulson are in an Inhuman containment module. Coulson doesn’t look too hot, and Daisy is trying to MacGyver something together. Coulson calling out her name melts into the …
Present Day: Daisy wakes up by herself inside of an Inhuman containment module.
The team is on its way to secure a nuclear missile. Lincoln hands Mac the kill switch to their vests in case they get Hive-controlled.
Simmons enters Daisy’s containment cell and starts to interrogate her. Simmons is the only one she hasn’t hurt personally. Attempting to remember anything she can, Daisy informs them that the warhead is in a missile silo on an uncharted island.
Hive has his men try to detect SHIELD’s cloaking technology. However, our smart agents are already one step ahead—the quinjet emerges from underwater and finally lands on the island.
In Coulson’s office, Talbot argues with his superior, General Andaz, about giving him the kill code for the warhead. Andaz can’t authorize it. It doesn’t matter because the Fitz is already collecting data points for …
Mimicking Andaz. Fitz looks like an actor for Hollywood’s latest visual effects-laden film. As they contact the Undersecretary, a computer processes Fitz’s image and makes him appear like Andaz. Both Talbot and Fitz are successful in getting the Undersecretary to hand over the kill codes to Coulson—who so promptly speeds right in with his car and retrieves it.
Already short on time, Coulson reads a ridiculous amount of codes back to Fitz, who types it into the computer as quickly as possible. At the last moment, the team succeeds—the countdown for the missile is stopped. An infuriated Hive uses fear to force Radcliffe to fix it.
Hive leaves to search out SHIELD. He detects Lincoln in a dark room and calls him out.
Coulson visits Daisy at her containment module. He wants to know what “absolution” means. He comforts her by telling her that she’s only a temporary prisoner. However, Daisy doesn’t want to be forgiven and feels that she deserves blame for everything that has happened.
Hive continues to taunt Lincoln and dares him to kill him. He warns Lincoln that if he dies, he’ll only find another body. Lincoln sees an escape and runs, leading Hive right to Mac and Yo-Yo—who have been setting a trap, albeit a bit incomplete. But Yo-Yo quickly finishes with her speed it and with Lincoln’s help, charges it up.
The trap inundates Hive with excruciating pain, causing Ward’s memories to surface. When Hive’s team finds him, the Inhuman speaks as if he’s Ward and is also disoriented and confused. Hive finally commands his team to disconnect the warhead.
Yo-Yo finds the hostages and quickly releases them. May continues to fight the Primitive Inhumans. Right when one lunges at her, Radcliffe shoots the Primitive Inhuman, saving May. He’s elated that she’s SHIELD and begs to go with her, knowing that Hive will kill him at any time. May is too late in getting to the warhead as it floats off right out of her grasp.
The team exits with the hostages, but is intercepted by Hive. Yo-Yo quickly throws a special trap at Hive which imprisons him in a gel matrix containment unit—freezing him and rendering him harmless.
Back at SHIELD headquarters, Coulson inspects the frozen Hive. Talbot is impressed with the team’s performance and congratulates them. Meeting Radcliffe, Talbot commands him to turn all the Primitive Inhumans back to normal.
Against all security protocols, Mac pays Daisy a visit to tell her that Hive has been captured. Daisy is still immensely guilt-ridden for her actions. Mac forgives her no matter what. Daisy fights him, but he embraces her. She sobs in his arms.
Fitz discovers that Simmons has been planning a romantic getaway for them. She feels that they deserve a bit of fun after this whole Hive ordeal. Before leaving, Fitz finds a stray crucifix (the same one seen in Daisy’s vision).
Coulson initiates a lockdown for the base. As Fitz works in the hangar, he notices a crate with the label reading “Absolution, Montana.” The box suddenly explodes, releasing Hive’s pathogens. It instantly transforms one of the agents nearby into a Primitive Inhuman. The rest of the team watch everything transpire on security monitors. Fitz is unable to get to safety due to the lockdown. He tells Simmons about a mutual professor’s compiler theory. She goes right into action and is able to hack a door open. Fitz sees it and makes it in safely.
The newly transformed Primitive Inhumans see Hive’s gel matrix containment unit and break him out. Daisy—knowing what Hive is truly after—tells Mac that the Zephyr has high-altitude capabilities and has a functioning delivery system. She quickly hacks her cell containment module and is delivered into the Zephyr’s cargo hold.
As Hive enters the plane, Daisy exits her prison and greets him. She finally kneels down in front of Hive, begging him to take her back.
Ascension Part Two:
Daisy continues to beg Hive to take her back. He happily accepts her, but he’s unable to infect her with his nanites. After Lash removed them, he made her impervious to Hive’s influence. Angered and frustrated, she unleashes her quake powers on him.Coulson and the rest of the team try to make their way to the hangar. Radcliffe reveals that his Primitive Inhumans are basically brainless with the memories of previous talents—which allows them to operate weapons and other things. Mac learns that the Primitive Inhumans are advancing into the base via the vents. Fitz and May discover that Daisy is missing. In the hangar, Daisy continues to wage a ferocious battle against Hive. She ends up overpowering him and stabs him multiple times. However, there’s no effect on Hive whatsoever. When his Hydra team arrives, he knocks her out. Hive’s plan is to take Daisy as insurance to keep SHIELD from shooting them out of the sky. He’ll leave a few Primitive Inhumans to destroy the base. As Hive starts to regain his lucid self again, he starts to remember how to fly the Zephyr.
Mac exits into a hall where a Primitive Inhuman fires a barrage of bullets at him. Miraculously, he isn’t hit. That’s because Yo-Yo, with her speed, saved Mac. However, she’s hit in the abdomen and is critically injured. Mac carries Yo-Yo to his workshop. In another location, Simmons hides from the attackers in the base’s cellar.
The Zephyr finally takes off and starts to ascend vertically. Hive plans to use the containment module that Daisy arrived in as a lifeboat after detonation of the warhead. Little does everyone know, Fitz and May have already boarded the Zephyr.
Yo-Yo is bleeding out too fast. With no medical supplies in sight, Radcliffe suggests using a blowtorch to cauterized Yo-Yo’s wound. Mac performs the procedure after Yo-Yo requests that he do it.
The Primitive Inhumans finally break into Simmons’s hiding place. One approaches her, but doesn’t detect her. Eventually, a noise causes all of them to exit the cellar. Simmons hypothesizes that the heat from the furnace may have masked her detection. She turns the furnace on high.
Yo-Yo is running a fever due to an infection. The team needs to move her, but it would be impossible with hostiles everywhere. Feeling the temperature rise, Radcliffe deduces that Simmons may have figured out that the Primitive Inhumans use infrared as eyesight. He tests this theory out on himself and it works.
On the Zephyr, May takes out one of the Primitive Inhumans, and Fitz goes to work trying to free Daisy. Giyera surprises them, knocks out May and holds Fitz at gunpoint. Fitz pleads for his life and warns Giyera that if he dies, an unseen hidden weapon will take them down. After a bit of back-and-forth, Giyera allows Fitz to show him. When Fitz gets into the right position, he kills Giyera with an invisible gun and frees Daisy.
Coulson and team move through the halls and find refuge in Coulson’s office. Surprisingly, they run into Simmons. With no way out, Coulson calls an automated quinjet. He commands his team to stay behind while he goes alone to intercept the warhead.
The Primitive Inhumans drag Giyera’s body to Hive, revealing the presence of SHIELD. Suddenly, Coulson’s quinjet docks onto the Zephyr
As the doors open, Hive greets Coulson and the two trade a few words. However, Coulson reveals that Hive’s been talking to a hologram, with all of this being a distraction. The rest of the team are already onboard.
Hellfire ambushes Lincoln, but Lincoln is able to fight back with an assist from May in knocking him out. Hellfire, though down, ignites an object, causing an explosion which seriously injures Lincoln. Daisy talks to Lincoln, apologizing for everything she’s done. He sees her crucifix (knowing that it pertains to her vision of someone dying) and makes her promise not to try and sacrifice herself to atone for her sins.
Meanwhile, Coulson has plans to have a volunteer fly the warhead into space via the quinjet, where it can detonate and harmlessly disburse the pathogen. When the team looks back at Lincoln again, Daisy is gone. Lincoln’s efforts were futile in trying to stop her.
The Primitive Inhumans arrive and the team engages them. Daisy, in the Zephyr, uses her quake abilities to transfer the warhead to the quinjet. Hive confronts her, but Lincoln blasts Daisy out of the quinjet and flies off. He quickly ascends to a high altitude.
Daisy radios him. He tells her that this was his fate. Reaching for her crucifix, she discovers that it’s now gone and in Lincoln’s possession. Right before the radio goes dead, Lincoln tells Daisy that he loves her. As the quinjet reaches space, Daisy pleads with the team to save Lincoln. They’re powerless to do anything, as the quinjet cannot be controlled anymore.
Lincoln and Hive trade a few last words, noting how beautiful the world is. With the scene matching up to Daisy’s vision, the warhead detonates. It’s six months later and the team is tracking Daisy. From newspaper clippings on Coulson’s stakeout board, it seems that Daisy has gone rogue. The wife and daughter of Charles (the Inhuman who gave Daisy her vision in “Spacetime“) meets Daisy in public. When Daisy gives the daughter a wooden carving made by her father, she exposes herself to Coulson and the rest of SHIELD. Quickly, yet calmly, she exists the area. Arriving at a remote alleyway, Daisy uses her quake powers and launches herself to the top of a building. When Coulson and team get there, they have no idea where she went—as if she disappeared into thin air.
Post-Finale Stinger: Dr. Radcliffe arrives home to celebrate the last day of hearings. He talks to his artificially intelligent computer, AIDA. Radcliffe regrets that Fitz isn’t able to join him for a special project. When AIDA presses Radcliffe further, the scientist reveals that today is her “birthday.” We soon see the silhouette of what seems to be an artificial body housed within an obfuscated incubation chamber.
Badass Moment of Part 1: Yo-Yo gets three badass moments here: one, quickly patching up Mac’s Hive trap because he did things a bit too “slow”; two, quickly laying down the Ghostbusters-style Inhuman gel matrix containment unit and imprisoning Hive; and three, saving Mac from a barrage of bullets. Damn, that girl is fast!
Badass Moment of Part 2: Fitz tricking Giyera and unloading a clip into him with an … wait for it … invisible gun!
Best One Liner from Part 1: Not really a one liner—well, more like a line of noises. Fitz doing vocal exercises before impersonating General Andaz via visual effects technology.
Best One Liner from Part 2: The hilarious words recited by a holographic Coulson right after he tricked Hive: “I always wanted to do this. Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope—”