Coulson, Mack and May do their best to decipher the mystery left to them by Virgil without raising suspicion. The opportunity to help someone makes Gemma’s new lot in life a little more bearable. YoYo lends a hand to Daisy, who’s determined to rescue Gemma at all costs.

Slightly less exciting than last week’s two-part opener, this episode is nevertheless an important one. Coulson and co. are pretty much stuck – they need to keep as low a profile as possible working their debt off to Grill, while still making use of what time and resources they can to try to find out what Virgil’s big plan was, and how they fit into it. Not easy when Grill is suspicious to the point of paranoia, his lieutenant is a sadist and they all have trackers fitted to them. An opportunity to do some serious recon is hampered somewhat by a combination of those factors, and things get interesting on several levels.

Elsewhere, Gemma is doing her best to keep her head down under the gaze of Kasius and his scary henchwoman. A little relief arrives when she is tasked with helping a young girl who is struggling with a problem she’s actually familiar with, but it’s a brief respite for poor Simmons, before the full horror of where she is and what she’s up against is allowed to reassert itself. One thing we know – Simmons is a survivor, but could this be one stressful experience too far for SHIELD’s brilliant young scientist?

Daisy is taking a far more direct approach to the issue of rescuing Simmons – she wants the appropriate key to access the sanctum where she’s being held so that she can bust in. Unfortunately, Deke is having none of it, tailing her at every opportunity and reminding her that (as far as he’s concerned) the ‘current’ parlous state of the planet is entirely her fault. Daisy’s never been a girl to listen to someone telling her not to do what she thinks is the right thing though, and that’s a characteristic that’s got her in trouble more than once before.

It all adds up to a more low-key, but nevertheless intriguing episode, with real meat for one character in particular. One thing seems certain – this isn’t going to be a situation that the gang quickly extricate themselves from and move along. That’s good, and it’s nice to see a real commitment to embedding the series within the wider, cosmic framework that the MCU is currently inhabiting. The series has been a kind of distant cousin to the movies for a while now, but it feels like this is brining it back into the fold. Whereas I’m not expecting cameos from the team on a cinema screen anytime soon, it’s nice to feel a more explicit acknowledgement that they occupy the same universe.

Verdict: It won’t be for everyone, being less action-oriented and more deliberately paced than the opener, but this episode speaks to a real commitment on the part of the showrunners to the current angle as more than a gimmick. There’s potential for all sorts of good stuff here. 8/10

Greg D. Smith