The tenth episode of the seventh and final season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. aired tonight on ABC and it finally pitted the team against a powerful new villain. The episode, titled “Stolen,” is one of the most pivotal episodes of the season so far and sets up a lot for the remainder of the season.
The episode opens in a bar with a man playing darts. After a few moments, he is joined by Nathaniel Malick, who challenges him and begins to reveal information he knows about the man. Skeptical, the man questions Malick and he tells him information about his future. Understandably, the man doubts this information but once Malick shows off his quake ability, he becomes interested. Before the title screen, the man reveals his name to be John Garrett. This is sort of a familiar face, as an older version Garrett was portrayed by Bill Paxton all the way back in season one.
At the Lighthouse, the team settles in. Mack meets with Roxy Glass, who is now officially a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. after getting into the academy. She mentions that the rest of the team is enrolled as well and hopes that they’ll be reunited at the Triskelion after they graduate. After she leaves, Coulson notes that they shouldn’t be aware of the Triskelion in 1983. More evidence of the timeline being messed up. Mack urges Coulson to let him know what he’s thinking and help lead. Coulson tells him it’s time for the team to help Jiaying in her fight against Malick.
Elsewhere in the Lighthouse, Daisy, Simmons and Sousa get settled into a lab. Sousa offers to take Daisy’s bag to the bunks, which tips off Simmons that there’s something up between them. When she mentions it, Daisy quickly changes the subject. Instead, she brings up what happened to Simmons after she remembered the information about Enoch, an event Simmons wouldn’t remember because it was erased by the time loop (confusing, I know). Daisy questions why Simmons was so distraught, which seems to affect Simmons, though she still has no answers.
Mack assembles the team to discuss their plan and asks Simmons to locate Jiaying and bring her in. May begins to tell Daisy about her sister, Kora, but before she can, Gordon teleports in with Jiaying. Panicked, Jiaying tells the team that Malick is hunting them.
At Afterlife, Malick shows Garrett around and gives him his usual Kool-Aid. He prepares Garrett to use the timestream and meet Sibyl. Garrett is still skeptical, but is convinced by the promise of immortality. He puts his hands into a device and begins seeing his future, which we don’t see here but could easily see by revisiting season one.
Back at the Lighthouse, Jiaying tries to urge the team to help her and her people. Daisy explains to her that Malick has been stealing inhumans’ powers and that is how he got his. Yo-Yo offers to get in and save the captive inhumans. She explains to Jiaying that she has her powers again, thanks to her. The team decides it’s too risky to send Yo-Yo in because if she gets caught, Malick would have her powers. Coulson decides it should be him because he is “recyclable.” Gordon offers to teleport him in and, after some debate, the team agrees. Jiaying tries to go to but the team won’t allow her and Gordon agrees, though they may have different reasons for wanting to keep her safe. Jiaying finally agrees to stay but tells them they have to bring back her daughter, a plea that brings new information to light for Daisy.
Daisy confronts May and questions why she wasn’t told about her sister. May warns Daisy about Kora, explaining that she already tried to kill Jiaying. Frustrated, Daisy questions why Jiaying never mentioned having another kid when she met her in the future. May explains Kora’s suicide attempt and the fact that she may not have been alive in the future. Daisy begins to spiral, thinking about how Kora’s death may have been what led Jiaying to leave afterlife and meet her dad. Mack reels her in and explains that Daisy needs to sit this one out in order to keep everyone safe.
In afterlife, we see Lee being drained by a machine that is transferring his powers into another soldier named Durant. Malick continues to pour Garrett some Kool-Aid and he continues to drink it up. Malick instructs Kora to kill Lee and she uses her powers to do so. Malick tells Garrett he is going to get his power as soon as they take it from S.H.I.E.L.D.
Yo-Yo, Mack, Coulson and Gordon make their way to Afterlife in a quinjet. Gordon handles a gun before Mack takes it away from him. Could remarks that Gordon looks calm and he explains that this fight is “necessary” and that helps.
On the Zephyr, Deke continues to work on the time drive when Simmons interrupts. Simmons is cleary troubled and Deke notices. Simmons tosses out the idea that the time drive may never have been communicating with Fitz. Deke questions why Fitz wouldn’t be helping and Simmons doesn’t answer. Deke, now understanding what she’s thinking, tells her not to think that. Simmons argues that maybe she blocked her memories because it was too painful to remember. Deke, confident that Fitz is still alive, says they’re going to fix the drive and get back to him. And he should be confident. Afterall, if Fitz wasn’t alive, wouldn’t he have ceased to exist? We’ll get back to that later. Either way, Simmons seems unconvinced.
The quinjet lands and Gordon teleports Coulson and himself in. After a moment, Gordon is shot in the back with an icer. Malick and a gang of goons come around the corner. Coulson realizes he knew they were coming because they have the timestream.
Now a prisoner, Coulson tries to explain Sibyl’s plan to have her Chronicoms take over Earth. Unwilling to listen, Malick explains that he’s not bound by the rules of HYDRA and instead he is introducing “Anarchy.” Looks like that’s the name of his team as opposed to being the super villain alias of Kora.
Malick takes Coulson into a room where Gordon and Garrett are hooked up to the same machine we saw earlier. Coulson tries to talk Malick out of doing this but, come on, when does that ever work? Garrett is excited to see Coulson, which makes Coulson question who he is. Garrett reveals to him that he has seen his future, in which Coulson kills him. Coulson realizes it’s Garrett and drops a great line – “clever, digging up our greatest hits.” Garrett goes on to mention how he watched Coulson die multiple times and specifically brings up the Loki incident (without actually saying his name).
At the Lighthouse, Sousa catches up with Daisy. He questions her about Jiaying and she gives him the whole story. Sousa urges Daisy to talk to Jiaying. When Daisy tries to explain that it could wreck the timeline, Sousa tells her the timeline is already “screwed.” He eventually convinces her to talk to Jiaying.
On the quinjet, Yo-Yo tries to reach Coulson with no response. Her and Mack argue a bit over who is going in to help but eventually Mack convinces her it’s too dangerous for her to go.
Inside, Garrett continues to drain Gordon’s powers. Coulson tries to appeal to Kora now, but again, no. Garrett begins to panic over the potential side effects this procedure could have. As he freaks out and tries to escape he teleports out of the room. Now excited, he rushes back into the room. Malick asks him if he thinks he can control it and teleport him to a specific location. Confident, Garrett says he can and the two disappear.
In the Lighthouse, Daisy and Sousa meet with Jiaying. Daisy tried to convince her to trust them but is still trying not to give any information. Sousa forces the issue and tells Jiaying that Daisy has been to Afterlife and she has abilities. After a demonstration, Jiaying suddenly becomes a lot more trusting. She puts it together that Malick stole her powers. Jiaying begins to open up about Kora and Daisy tries to learn more about the sister she never knew she had. Daisy brings up her troubled relationship with her mother, but doesn’t tell Jiaying who she is.
In another part of the Lighthouse, Garrett and Malick teleport in. In a good gag, Garrett finds a T-shirt for the Deke Squad. Malick informs him that his job is not done and they need to split up. Garrett, who is almost annoyingly energetic and confident at this point, is completely on board.
In a cell, much like the one we saw Kora being held in a few episodes ago, Coulson breaks free of his handcuffs and begins to get ready to break through the door. A drained Gordon tries to explain to him that he won’t be able to break the door down and teleports them both out instead. Having used the last of his energy, Gordon dies on the ground in front of Coulson. Yet another change to the timeline. Does the MCU even exist at this point?
May comes across Garrett as he searches the Lighthouse. Garrett immediately recognizes her and tells her who he is. She questions how he got there and he explains that Malick told him how and that he’s around somewhere too. In typical May fashion, she begins throwing punched and the two share a very short fight scene before Garrett teleports away. May informs Daisy and the others that Garrett and Malick are in the Lighthouse. As Daisy tries to get away with Jiaying, they come across Malick.
Mack finds Coulson inside Afterlife and the two locate the room where the inhumans are being held. Mack calls Yo-Yo in and the two of them take out the guard and rescue the inhumans, though Yo-Yo does most of the heavy lifting.
Back at the Lighthouse, Daisy and Malick are in a standoff. Probably not a good idea to start quaking things in an underwater base. Jiaying questions what he has done with Kora and he lets the cat out of the bag that Daisy is her daughter. Jiaying is clearly affected by this given what Daisy told her about her mother earlier. Malick explains the whole story and Daisy becomes increasingly angered and quakes Malick, knocking him back. Malick fires back and hits Daisy much harder. As he makes his way to her, Jiaying grabs him and beings to drain his life. He breaks free and warns her to stay back. She makes another move and Malick kills her with a quake. Enraged, Daisy begins to quake everything and Malick backpedals before being shot in the arm by May, who chases him away. Daisy stops quaking and falls back. With Jiaying dead, shouldn’t she no longer exist? Well, she’s still here so maybe there’s hope for Fitz.
Sousa and Simmons make their way through the base when Garrett teleports in and grabs Simmons. Sousa fires off several shots as Garrett, but it’s too late. Garrett teleports away, taking Simmons with him.
In Afterlife, Coulson finds Kora. Coulson explains that her team is gone, keeping a gun on her at all times. She explains that she wanted to go with him and meet her sister. Before she can say any more, Coulson ices her.
On the quinjet, May video calls the team to let them know that Malick killed Jiaying and was not interested in her powers. Coulson comes on board with an unconscious Kora and we see all of the inhuman hostages on board as well.
Sousa informs May that they took Simmons as she sees and alert that the hangar doors on the Zephyr are opening. We see Malick regroup with Garrett, Simmons in tow, on board the Zephyr. May tries to radio Deke but he is working on the timedrive with his headphones on and doesn’t hear the radio. The Zephyr lifts off, giving him a jolt which leads him to take off the headphones. He then hears the radio and asks May where they’re going. She explains to him that the Zephyr has been hijacked. We see Garrett pilot the Zephyr away from the Lighthouse as the episode comes to a close.
In the tag, Malick threats Simmons as she tries to get out of her bind. She questions why she’s here and Malick explains that that Sibyl has played out their situation and in every instance in which they don’t come out on top, Fitz is the common thread. He plans to use her to get to him.
This wasn’t the most fun episode from this season, but it was a very important one in terms of the story. The timeline is now, in Sousa’s words, “screwed” and only getting worse. How is Daisy still alive? Are they going to fix everything? And I guess we know now that Fitz is in fact still alive, but for how much longer? With only a few episodes left in this final season, it seems like we’re in for quite a ride in the coming weeks.
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Wednesday nights on ABC.