Agents of SHIELD - 'A Wanted (Inhu)man

And cue the Lonely Man piano theme.

The ATCU is gunning hard for Lincoln after the hospital shenanigans, and Daisy is keen to bring him in. Lincoln is less willing to be brought, especially when he realises that Mac planted a bug in his arm. He reaches out to his sponsor for help, because he used to be an alcoholic douchebag apparently (did we know this, like, at all?) When the ATCU put his picture on the news, however, his friend threatens to turn Lincoln in, and when Lincoln gives him a minor jolt to make him drop his bat, he suffers a fatal heart attack.

Lincoln, now convinced he's the scum of the Earth, offers to turn himself in to Daisy, but then Coulson makes a deal to hand him over under a guarantee of safety in exchange for the ATCU not making Daisy's picture public. Then, when Lincoln rabbits and the ATCU threaten to take Daisy in anyway (because they need to show results to justify their existence) Coulson agrees to be their adviser. Honestly, this is not a negotiation from which either Coulson or the ATCU emerges looking good.

Oh, and Daisy admits she has feelings for Lincoln.

Fitz tries to help Simmons acclimatise, but she's overwhelmed by everything. Pretty much in the stinger, she admits to Bobbi that she needs to return to the other world, which would have come as a huge shocker if it hadn't been used in the fucking trailer. Nice moves there, Channel 4.

The fuck am I even looking at?

In pursuit of Ward, Hunter contacts a dodgy mate from some past undercover shit, leading to an inexplicable scene in which a perfectly comprehensible conversation is subtitled. Seriously, it's got some heavy localised British idiom, but nothing more difficult than The Wire, I'm sure. Anyway, it leads to a Hydra 'audition', where wannabe Hydra agents fight to the last man standing for the privilege of an interview. Hunter has to fight his 'mate', who seems intent on killing him, despite which we're apparently supposed to feel that Hunter has crossed a line by hitting the guy three times and killing him stone dead. I mean, these people carry guns, and not just icers.

With 'A Wanted (Inhu)man' then, Season 3 hits its first major tonal bumps. Without having set a bar that says SHIELD doesn't kill, Hunter's actions have no real shock value (although the fight as a whole is unusually bloody,) and Coulson's willingness to make a deal with the ATCU instead of just letting Daisy, Mac and Lincoln incapacitate a swathe of frankly unimpressive goons leaves the character looking weak. Also, Ward still isn't dead.