Stuck on the wreck of the Zephyr in the middle of a raging gravity storm, Daisy, FitzSimmons, May and Coulson need a way out and fast if they are to act on Robin’s last prophecy. But can they still trust Deke? Meanwhile, Kasius ups the stakes against the humans of the Lighthouse.

Last week’s episode was a little heart-wrenching for those of us who have stuck with the Agents of SHIELD from the beginning. Though Robin herself was not a character with whom we were overly familiar, the revelation that May had brought her up as her own was a real gut punch for a character with May’s… complicated history. So this week, they must have eased up on us, right?

Well, yes and no. there’s two main threads to focus on, as one might expect: the gang on the wreckage of the Zephyr, stuck in place and trying to work out exactly how to get back to the others and grab Flint – apparently the key to everything – and Mack, YoYo and Flint on the station, facing off against Kasius and his Kree army. Neither of these things is particularly light and breezy.

For Team Zephyr, there’s the death of Robin, the impossibility of the odds stacked against them, the fact that according to the video she was shown last time out, Daisy definitely does appear to have been responsible for all this coming to pass, and the knife-edge of Deke’s changeable loyalties and what he might or might not do with the right push. It’s a cauldron of emotions, and when FitzSimmons make a discovery as they poke around the Zephyr, things get more complicated still. Throw in the added complication of Sinara stalking them, and the stakes are, at points, almost unbearably tense.

Thank goodness then, for Enoch. Seriously, this character needs to become a permanent fixture. His dry observations of the circumstances in which they find themselves, his back and forth with other characters – May in particular – all serve to lighten what might otherwise be an unbearably bleak scenario. There’s a certain Data from TNG/C-3PO vibe to the way the character operates – at once incredibly knowledgeable and oddly naïve – and it is balanced just right to take enough edge off the tension without descending into farce. I truly hope that we see more of the character: he’s been a delight so far and nowhere more so than this time out.

Meanwhile, Kasius is turning particularly nasty as he gets increasingly angry/desperate. His latest ultimatum is chilling, both in content and in the particular method of its delivery. Finally we are seeing the mask of calm slip, and what it conceals is not pleasant. YoYo and Mack get to bicker again, the former desperate to just get on and fight, the latter more cautious. Stuck between the two is Flint, eager himself for action and frustrated by Mack’s protectiveness. It’s like a dysfunctional sci-fi family with a buddy movie vibe, the quips and barbs flying almost as thick and fast as the action, and it works very well.

Nevertheless, things for both our sets of protagonists hang on the slim thread of trust. Can Coulson and co trust Deke to have their backs, or will he be swayed by the words of Voss, still desperate to kill Daisy and stop any of this coming to pass? And can Mack and YoYo rely on Flint and the humans of the Lighthouse to play their part, or will Kasius find a way to divide and conquer? Neither question gets answered until late in the episode, and both contain not a little surprise.

Verdict: Excellently paced, and with tension and revelations at every turn, this is the real beating heart of SHIELD in full action. By turns dark, grim, hopeless, and funny, this is real human drama played against the most fantastical of backdrops. Only this show, at this point in its life, could have gotten away with it. 9/10

Greg D. Smith