In the newest episode of the final season of this Marvel series, the agents find themselves in 1955 at Area 51, also known as a top-secret S.H.I.E.L.D. base. They try to find any sign of Chronicoms but could find themselves in trouble instead when Agent Peggy Carter’s former partner, Daniel Sousa, played by Agent Carter‘s Enver Gjokaj in a reprising role, lands them in hot water.
Find out what happens in this week’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., “Alien Commies from the Future!”
The Zephyr has landed. Marvel’s #AgentsofSHIELD starts now on ABC. pic.twitter.com/iwUpla1BSJ
— Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (@AgentsofSHIELD) June 11, 2020
Mack, Jemma, Daisy, Yo-Yo, Coulson, and Deke try to brace themselves as the Zephyr makes a rough landing. Mack tells them they jumped to a desert. Jemma picks up a walkie and tries to find a clear channel, a radio station coming through, and Yo-Yo hopes it’s just an oldies station. The radio announcer talks about the station’s sponsor, an auto place with the brand-new ’55 Thunderbird. “’55? As in, our giant spaceship just appeared in the sky in 1955?” Mack hopes they didn’t attract too much attention, but Coulson says he may actually have some good news. They’re just north of Groom Lake, Nevada, home of Area 51. “Probably happens all the time.”
Jemma tells everyone that their being there means they haven’t completed their mission yet, and Mack points out that some of them still don’t have a grasp on what the mission is. Daisy defends herself, saying she has a tough call to make. Mack was off radio, and they were out of time and had the father of Hydra right in front of them. Mack gets the temptation, but shooting Freddy would have given the Chronicoms exactly what they wanted. Their mission is to stop them. Yo-Yo wonders if they will know when the mission is done, or are they just guessing, jumping through time? Jemma says they’re moving forward in time; to move backward takes a piece of the time monolith and more energy than they’ll ever acquire again. A jump forward takes less, and Jemma expands on that, saying they’re kind of drafting through time in the Chronicom’s wake. They could stop after this or keep going, but she doesn’t know how many jumps. They jump until they end it, or end them. But they go when and where the Chronicoms go.
Mack says they’ll always be a step behind, so they need to find the Chronicom ship and go on the offensive. Deke says the Zephyr can scan for it on the ground and in the air, and Mack says they know the Chronicoms are there; they just need to figure out why. Area 51 is a S.H.I.E.L.D. base, and Jemma says Groom Lake was an incubator for early space tech. Coulson adds that according to the archives, in 1955, there was a classified project at Area 51 called Helius. It could be what the Chronicoms are after. Jemma realizes that Helius was an early attempt at an Ion Fusion Reactor, but it was never fully realized, and the tech was tossed. Deke admits that it wasn’t for long — the future, where he’s from, the Ion Fusion was used to power the big weapons, ship-to-ship killers. The Chronicoms did just find out they’re following them in a spaceship, no better way to stop them than with a ship killer.
“Not if we get there first.”
At a diner, Coulson tells Daisy that May isn’t herself; she was completely emotionless and went full ninja assassin on Enoch. “That sounds like classic May to me.” It’s just the reaction to Coulson that didn’t sit well. Coulson says even if May wasn’t happy to see his face, they’d think she’d be confused or mad or give him something. Daisy says May would be happy; it’s odd. “But odd is the new normal.” Coulson is a highly sophisticated robot version of himself, and they’re in a diner in the 50s.
A guy comes into the diner, Gerald Sharpe, Department of Defense. Sharpe sits down, wanting cream and sugar for his coffee, and Daisy offers him her creamer after pouring something in it. Later on the Zephyr, Mack and Yo-Yo deal with an unconscious Sharpe, tying him up. They come out of the tent and meet up with the others. Deke doesn’t think there’s much to him, and Mack thinks that when Sharpe wakes up, he should crack wide open. May joins them; Mack tells her that her orders were to rest and catches her up. Mack tells them they’re up and running, and Coulson and Jemma are headed to the base now. Daisy tells May that Coulson took the ID of the guy they have in the tent, and for Jemma, they had to get a little creative.
Coulson and Jemma drive up to the S.H.I.E.L.D. base and step out of the car. Coulson shows an agent, Lt. Carpenter, “his” ID, and Carpenter tells him that he’s on their visitor list, but his secretary is not. “She’s not my secretary. She’s my boss.” Jemma gets out an ID, showing Carpenter who she is, telling him she thinks they both agree she doesn’t need to be on the list. She takes off her sunglasses, and Carpenter apologizes. “It’s an honor. Right this way, Ms. Carter.” Jemma and Coulson start following Carpenter. “You’re enjoying this way too much, Peggy.”
Coulson and Jemma are brought down to the lab, and a scientist, Dr. Vega, shows the place off to them. Dr. Vega shows them Helius or a model of it. Helius itself is on the testing field, and he says the Ion Fusion Reactor could power a space station in perpetuity. Jemma asks how the MPs get to the base, and the scientist says they live there. Coulson then asks if anyone entered the base that morning and says the science team comes in daily. Coulson tells Dr. Vega they’ll need to speak to each of them, just routine. He fiddles with his glasses, activating a camera on them, and Deke and Daisy are watching from the Zephyr while Mack and Yo-Yo interrogate Sharpe.
Jemma and Coulson get ready to question the science team, and she tells him getting to the bottom of this may be difficult. If the Chronicoms have infiltrated, they would all look and act exactly like that. “Okay, but now you’re just trafficking in stereotypes.” Any one of them could easily be mistaken for a Chronicom. Coulson says that is true, but they don’t have to test if they’re Chronicoms; they just have to test if they’re human. All they have to do is trigger an emotional response. The questioning begins, and about halfway through, a car arrives outside the base. A guy steps out with a cane and asks if the science team has arrived. He tells Carpenter he may need a moment with a contact, and Carpenter tells him that Sharpe, the man in from D.C., is already interviewing them. And they brought a S.H.I.E.L.D. dame along. “British. Pretty. She outranks us.” The man turns around, takes off his sunglasses, revealing himself as Daniel Sousa, and asks Carpenter if he caught her name.
“Carter. Peggy Carter.”
Deke and Daisy are looking through files upon files in a mess. Daisy picks up Daniel Sousa’s file, telling Deke that he’s Peggy Carter’s old partner. They both realize that Jemma and Coulson are in trouble. At the base, Sousa gets to the lab, where Jemma, aka “Peggy,” is talking to a scientist and laughing. Sousa calls for Agent Carter, and Jemma turns around. “Glad to finally put a face to the name.” Sousa acts as if he’s never met Agent Carter, saying he’s waited a long time. But he’s surprised to find her there, running a security op in their little patch of desert. Jemma says she believes the base may have been infiltrated. Sousa tells her to call him Daniel, saying he just flew in from LA. Jemma notes that he works in the old SSR office, and Sousa tells her that he’s in charge of it. Jemma slowly comes to a realization. “Daniel, your surname wouldn’t happen to be Sousa?” Sousa tells her it would. “Which would make you the former colleague of Agent Peggy Carter.” He again tells Jemma it would. He pulls his gun out, and Jemma supposes he’ll be arresting her now.
Coulson is asking more people questions on a bus outside the base to see if any of them are Chronicoms, and Sousa comes on, telling cops to arrest him. Coulson turns around and sees exactly who it is. “Agent Sousa. Wow. Big fan.” Later, Sousa walks down a hall, telling Carpenter to keep Jemma and Coulson in holding and get him everything; he wants to know how they got onto the most secure S.H.I.E.L.D. base in the western United States. Carpenter leaves, and Sousa opens his office door, finding Daisy sitting at his desk. She gets up, showing him her ID, telling him that’s not her real name.
“My initials are ‘C,’ ‘I,’ and ‘A.'”
Sousa tells her he’s going to call her bosses and confirm, and Daisy says they would love to learn how two moles walked into the base on his watch — flawless IDs and routine questioning the scientists. Sousa wonders why the CIA is really there, wondering if it’s about the report he sent them earlier. If S.H.I.E.L.D. has been infiltrated with sleepers post-World War II, they need to root it out before it takes hold. Daisy tells him that the people he has locked up might be the key to proving whether or not he’s crazy.
As Dr. Vega shows off a wrist communicator in the lab, a woman is in the background. She subtly reveals herself to be a Chronicom as she powers up Helius. Meanwhile, May and Yo-Yo, dressed as pilots, make their way through the hallway of the base. Yo-Yo knows May is eager to be in the field, but those are civilian scientists. May gets where Yo-Yo is going, and she knows they have to go easy. They put on their masks when they get to the lab doors. “If they don’t react to his, they’re the target.” They kick down the door and throw canisters into the lab, gas coming out. Meanwhile, Sousa is walking Daisy down to where Jemma and Coulson are being held. He opens the door, Jemma and Coulson trying to hide their relief. They walk out of the small room, and Daisy tells Sousa she needs time with them alone. Sousa tells her she either does this with him or not at all. An alarm goes off, and as Sousa is distracted, Coulson breaks out of his handcuffs and pushes Sousa into the room, closing and locking the door. Daisy, Coulson, and Jemma run away.
“We’re the good guys, I swear!”
May and Yo-Yo direct the scientists out of the lab, trying to find any sign of the Chronicom. Yo-Yo sees the Chronicom, pointing her out to May and the Chronicom leaves as both May and Yo-Yo are having trouble getting themselves together. May, out of breath, and Yo-Yo make it out to the hallway, asking each other what happened since both of them were having trouble. As the Helius powers up, Daisy, Coulson, and Jemma get outside. Jemma finds Dr. Vega and asks him if it can be stopped, and he says it can’t. Coulson tells Dr. Vega he needs to evacuate the visitors, get them on the bus and drive away. The Chronicom drives up to Helius, takes out the guards, and connects herself to it. Yo-Yo and May catch up to her, hoping to buy the others sometime. May fights the Chronicom as Yo-Yo makes her way up Helius. Jemma, Coulson, and Daisy are down in the lab, and a scientist comes in, pushing back Daisy, and the three know they’re now dealing with another Chronicom.
Coulson is out in the hallway fighting the Chronicom, and Sousa is at the other end, holding up his gun and ordering them to stop. The Chronicom repeatedly slams Coulson’s head to the ground, and Sousa comes up behind the Chronicom and starts fighting him. Daisy and Jemma manage to turn off the power, turning off Helius, but also Coulson, and stopping the Chronicoms. Carpenter and a guard run up to Sousa, and he tells them he better search the base for the others. Sousa walks up to Coulson, turning him over, and leaves. Coulson is lifeless, his eyes wide open but also glitching.
The final season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT on ABC, streaming on Hulu and On Demand the following day.
