Sarge seems strangely unbothered by his capture and confinement, confident that he retains the upper hand. Fitz, Simons and Enoch jump out of the fire and back into the frying pan. A new lead on the Shrikes might not be the good news the team hopes for.

After May banged him on the bonce and headed back home to base, viewers might have been forgiven for thinking our heroes’ troubles were over. But this is SHIELD – problems don’t get solved all that easily, and an adversary over one hundred years old who’s travelled the universe fighting an intergalactic threat won’t just roll over because you’ve put him in handcuffs.

Clark Gregg is obviously having great fun playing the role of an indifferent, cocky antagonist who just happens to be wearing the face of his previous incarnation in the show, and it’s that combined with the show using the effect it knows the familiar visage will have on us (and his former comrades) that make his scenes compelling. Even standing in a cell and in cuffs, Sarge is certain of himself. He’s always one step ahead, and it’s fascinating to watch that play out.

Meanwhile, Enoch’s apparent rescue of Fitz and Simmons doesn’t go quite according to plan, as his fumbling of the unfamiliar tech sends them right back to Kitson. Lest you forgot, there’s a price on their heads there for having cheated at casino games using a synthetic, and it turns out that the owner of the planet doesn’t have a short memory for these things. Just when it looks like they have run out of luck (on a casino planet of all places) they may have a lifeline, but experience teaches us that this may not play out to be the unalloyed good news it might first appear.

Back on Earth, various members of the SHIELD team are struggling. Mack isn’t sure he’s got what it takes to be in command. YoYo is cut up about the death of Keller. Daisy is catching up on everything she missed but really just wants to get back to space. May is just trying to hold it together.

But there’s no time for any of that because the Shrikes obviously represent a threat. With Deke’s help they manage to trace two of them, but even that isn’t the win they were hoping for. By the close of the episode, it’s starting to become an awful lot clearer why Sarge is quite as smug as he is. One thing’s for certain – things are heating up.

Verdict: Pacey, focused yet varied. After a shaky start this season is really starting to find its stride. 8/10

Greg D. Smith