[CaptainCrunch]

First of all, Welcome back Shield. I know that I sometimes came across as overly critical of shows like Discovery, but after watching this episode, it made me realize how much of a difference strong writing can make to a show when combined with exceptional acting.

Episode thoughts in spoiler

Spoiler!

Jesus Christ, I feel like I got a bit fooled on this one, an episode that started with a lot of lighthearted welcome back to earth moments turned incredibly dark and grim in the snap of a finger, and a lot of assumptions that we made turned out to be wrong.

There are words to describe this episode. Shocking, crushing, devastating.

The funny thing was that up until a point you thought that the team was going to return to earth and avert the end of the world, but it might not be possible, or if it is the cost of doing it may mean the end of everything.

The episode starts with the whole team returning to the Lighthouse from the future, and they decide to explore it thanks to the handy aid of a hologram of General Rick Stoner played by the awesome Patrick Warburton. Stoner was the predecessor of Nick Flury and it shows as he was wearing the cheesy 70's era canvas white suit that was popular in the 70's and he talks about the advanced gear waiting for them there that will make them think that they're in the 80's and that they'll be able to communicate through the mysteries of Electronic Mail.

The hero's through monitoring see a beacon in St Louis and see that its a similar wave length to the one that Hive used to call to the Kree and since the light in the sky is mentioned in the end of the world prophesy, Shield with the exception of Daisy and another Chronicom named Noah decide to stay behind.

We also see General Hale who is entrusted with ending shield having a conversation with her daughter Ruby who seems to be a dis-interested Quake fan who doesn't want to go to class.

Meanwhile the Shield team leaves and we get some genuinely nice and funny moments as they stop to breath and take in the fact that they're home, and then they steal a van and there's a nice moment where they reflected on the horrible things that have happened to them. Hive, a killer robot, a depressing future a evil virtual reality world and then Ming bitterly says "Dancing".

At the same time we find out that Deke survived the explosion and was transported to earth and they had some really funny moments of him trying a beer in a bar and cringing and asking for something that's delicious and the bar tender gives him a Zima. Deke then gets drunk and eats cheese burgers and then is arrested when he can't pay and Daisy ends up bailing him out.

Meanwhile the team reaches the beacon and find Piper who is genuinely happy to see them. But it goes bad as it turns out that the beacon was a prop used by General Hale to draw in Shield.

This is the moment where things went incredibly wrong. Piper sells out the team because she was told by Hale that she wasn't going to harm shield, at that point we see a mysterious cloaked figure entering the room with armed soldiers and the cloaked figure gives a kill order.

A massive fight ensues and we find out that the soldiers are robots. We also find a strong indication that the assassin is an inhuman as during the fight Yo-Yo leaps forwards and the assassin uses a throwing blade to chop off her arms.

Remember when I said that we made some wrong assumptions. Well I assumed in the future that Kassius had cut off future Yo-Yo's arms, but it happened here which means that the future might not be changeable. As Yo-Yo said its all happening again.

The scene with Yo-Yo standing there bleeding from her stumps was visceral and brutal and the cold efficiency of the assassin was frightening, and I have to add that the costume is Froot (Please read the Chris Jericho books to understand that term).

Shield makes their escape and return to the lighthouse. While Simmons struggles to save Yo-Yo, and poor Mack endures another emotional kick to the nards. Noah goes to put the beacon in storage but instead the beacon explodes and might have killed the latest Chromicon.

The end of the episode shows General Hale confronting the assassin and being angry about the mission going off the rails and the assassin being revealed as her daughter Ruby who seems to be all about confronting and maybe killing Quake. Hale then tells Rudy that she's a dissapointment and locks her in her room which is a cell which brings into question if Ruby is her biological daughter.

The final scene shows Hale recruiting Talbot's former body guard the absorbing man as she is assembling a team.

Some random thoughts

There were more hints around Coulson's fatal condition, they hinted that this might be the price to pay for making a deal with ghost rider last year a couple of episodes back.

Yo-Yo is armless, which indicates that she's destined to die

Is Hale forming the Thunderbolts, her own team of super powered operatives?

What is Ruby's end game with Quake?

The effects were really good and the final fight scene was rivating and brutal. The image of the Zephyr doing the batman landing at the light house looked amazing.

Is Deke the replacement for the wise cracking hunter. The shows been pretty dour and brutal this season.

Mack with another chud reference when he see's the hidden tunnels, I must watch that movie again.

You get a sense that they're setting things up in case the show isn't renewed next year with Coulson possibly dying.