Agents of SHIELD - 'Deals with Our Devils'

"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

In the wake of last week's explosion, Coulson, Fitz and Robbie have disappeared, while Eli is manifesting and manipulating carbon from nowhere to escape SHIELD custody. Director Mace is understandably shaken.

May suggests that Eli must have hired the Chinese to get the Darkhold for him and Mack is keen to pursue that angle at once, but Mace want to know what they are dealing with before he loses anyone else(1). He tries to call in Simmons, but she is examining the perpetually cocooned husband of Senator Hatesinhumans in a black site somewhere and gets bagged and dragged as soon as she manages to break some of it off him. Radcliffe refuses to even try to read the Darkhold, recognising that it is too much for a human mind to contain.

We then flash back to find the Coulson, Fitz and Robbie have been translated to some other phase of existence and are drifting further from the light, into… something bad. Robbie believes it is Hell, and apparently so does the Rider, which escapes from his body and drives Mack to seek out the Chinese gangsters who might be responsible. Robbie hitches a ride with Daisy in his car, while Fitz seemingly manages to communicate with Ada, prompting her to volunteer to read the book, since her mind can't be affected in the same way.

 

"Magic, bitches."

Robbie catches up with Mack and makes a new deal with the Rider: Come back to him, give him revenge on Eli, and he will be the vessel for all of the Rider's revenges. He vanishes, and Ada creates a magical portal through which Fitz and Coulson are able to escape just as Simmons returns to base. Later, Ada is seen creating a magical brain, because apparently no-one thought that resetting her brain after she learned the terrible secrets of the universe might be a major benefit of getting the robot to read the Notcronomicon.

I'm deeply concerned that Simmons may have been brainwashed or implanted with some sort of control technology, since she didn't follow up 'Fitz, you're alive' with 'you'll never believe what happened to me today.' I'd like FitzSimmons to catch a break, but they just look so adorably woobie when things go wrong that I can't see it happening. And speaking of things going wrong, Mace's reaction to the crisis – recover, regroup, reposition – made me like him a lot more; he's a good balance between the man of action and the considered strategist, and I hope he doesn't turn out to be evil.

(1) "We sharpen the axe, then we cut the tree."

"My axe is plenty sharp; and also a shotgun."