SHIELD are forced to make an alliance with Sarge in order to try to stop the end of the world, but can he really be trusted? Meanwhile, Fitz and Simmons find that Izel’s crew are starting to behave very strangely.

Unusually for SHIELD, there’s one ‘reveal’ here that I saw coming right from a certain point in the last episode. That said, it’s an entertaining episode with plenty of twists and turns along the way.

On Earth, having made a deal with Sarge to save the lives of everyone on board the Zephyr, Mack now finds himself forced to honour that deal… after a fashion. The SHIELD director doesn’t trust Sarge any more than he should, and so the deal is done on his own terms, with Daisy and May accompanying Coulson’s doppelganger on the truck together with the manic Snow and one other additional guest.

But this is Sarge – a character who’s clearly had multiple contingencies in place at every possible step. The writers don’t invite the audience to trust him and then try to spring a twist on us, preferring to make it obvious that he’s up to something (helped by Clark Gregg’s excellent performance) and leave us constantly wondering exactly what it might be and when and how it might play out.

Meanwhile in space, Fitz and Simmons are getting increasingly frustrated, unable to find any way to contact their friends on Earth even as they can see their home world through the porthole. Izel remains fairly mysterious, telling them in the vaguest terms exactly what she’s looking for on Earth and why. It’s clear that there’s more here than meets the eye, especially when the rest of the ship’s crew start to behave very oddly, but can our favourite star-crossed scientists/lovers figure out exactly what’s going on in time?

Back on Earth as Sarge’s plan slowly reveals itself, there’s twist after twist, proving that he really is prepared for anything. The only question is, will the Earth manage to survive this latest threat against it, or find itself the casualty of so many different sides fighting against one another rather than anyone working properly together?

Verdict: Really starting to up its tempo and with some clever and imaginative twists as it goes. I am looking forward to seeing the endgame of this one. 8/10

Greg D. Smith