Only current season spoilers will be marked.
Ho Yay:
- In the pilot, Fitz slaps Ward on the ass.
- Fitz seems to develop a case of hero worship or possibly a crush towards Ward as the season progresses, and he does not take it well when he learns that Ward is actually a HYDRA agent, immediately trying to justify how and why Ward would be in the service of such an evil organization. He even tries killing Garrett in the hopes that it'll free Ward of his HYDRA brainwashing. Sadly for Fitz, it doesn't work.
- When they meet again in Making Friends and Influencing People, Fitz breaks down into a teary panic attack before slipping into a vengeful rage. Interesting that this is the same betrayed reaction that Skye had, when she had actually been romantically involved with Ward.
- The entire episode of The Hub was made because of the onscreen and offscreen chemistry between Brett and Iain.
- Despite being an evil surrogate father/son relationship, Garrett and Ward often come across as being very flirty with each other.
- In "The Beginning of the End", Garrett tells Deathlok that he loves him too when the latter told him that he's ordered to "not leave his side" during the raid on the Cybertek facility by Coulson's team.
- Mack and Fitz have some serious amount of Ship Tease between them:
- In "Heavy is the Head", Mack almost immediately places himself as Fitz's supporter after speaking with him, and is the only one capable of fully understanding him. The attraction is apparently reciprocated, as the Simmons projected by Fitz's subconscious mind immediately takes a liking to Mack and pushes Fitz towards him.
- Also in that episode, Simmons compliments Mack's butt. The twist? This Simmons is a projection from Fitz's brain, which means yes, Fitz checked Mack out. One could argue that Fitz knows Simmons is attracted to black men and his hallucination of her is acting accordingly, but Fake!Simmons seems to rave about Mack more often than necessary, as if giving Fitz an excuse to check him out.
- It's worth mentioning, given the lampshaded Ho Yay between him and Fitz, that Mack's talk about his exes in "I Will Face My Enemy" was completely gender neutral, in a seemingly deliberate way.
- "A Hen in the Wolf House:" Imaginary Simmons comments to Fitz that Mack is really good-looking. And all the while acting rather defensive, Fitz acknowledges that he clearly agrees, since this Simmons is actually his subconscious. And this is just before she encourages him to move on from her, in a clearly romantic sense.
- In "A Fractured House", Simmons is confronted with Fitz's new friendship with Mack. The result is very similar to a love triangle, with an awkward silence filling the room when Simmons walks in to see the two giggling together, Mack and Simmons arguing the moment they are alone together, and Mack standing up for Fitz, claiming Simmons doesn't accept the real him.
- The jealousy subtext continues in "The Writing On The Wall", with Simmons throwing a rather petty jab towards Mack regarding his "Corpse Diem" philosophy while budging between him and Fitz.
- Most notable is the subtext of their exchange, with Mack telling Fitz to take what he wants like he owns it, and Simmons bitterly responding that you should earn and work for what you want. The implication being that she is referring to Fitz's friendship, and she is framing herself as the loyal long term friend suddenly replaced by someone new
- Also from "Writing on the Wall," Mack and Fitz are standing very close together while watching Coulson in the memory machine, and the first time we see Fitz able to speak without stuttering or searching for words is when he and Mack are playing video games together.
- Also, when Simmons asks if anyone wants to leave before she starts an autopsy, Fitz immediately raises his hand when he sees Mack do so.
- Fitz's teary "please be careful" to Mack before he goes into the underground city in "Ye Who Enter Here", and his panicked reaction to hearing him scream as he is being possessed. Note that the last time we saw Fitz react to something like this, it was Jemma jumping out of the plane in "FZZT".
- Fitz telling Simmons he's leaving the lab to be in the garage with Mack sounds suspiciously like an "I'm breaking up with you for someone else" speech.
- Also, Mack seems to snap out of his possession for a second when he sees Fitz pulling a gun on him.
- "Aftershocks" also has Fitz trying to make sure Mack is OK after recovering from his Brainwashed and Crazy moment, and quickly shutting Hunter up when he makes a joke at his expense over it. Mack is also quick to apologize when he lashes out at Fitz during it, and the two continue to work closely together. At this point, it has to be intentional.
- In "Love in the Time of HYDRA", when Skye uses the acronym "DL" for the term "Disabled List," Fitz automatically assumes Skye is talking about the "down low." Make of that as you will.
- Continues into "One Door Closes" with Mack's "you know I'd never hurt you" line, him physically shielding Fitz from an explosion, and Fitz seeming especially distressed at Mack being The Mole for the other SHIELD. Mack not only shields him, but when he realizes what's about to happen, he starts calling for Fitz to get away from the wall, and when he doesn't, Mack screams out his name, grabs him in his arms and pulls him to the ground. To top it off, Mack is injured badly enough from his efforts to require urgent medical attention, and Fitz encourages Simmons when she is asked to check up on him.
- In "SOS" they see to be back on good terms, with Mack's proud "attaboy, Turbo" after he kills Gordon, and they are seen talking towards the end.
- The two ended up spending little to no time working together during the third season, but the Ho Yay returns with a vengeance in the fourth season, with the two running repeated missions together and bringing back the 'Turbo' nickname. Though, now both are dating female characters.
- Given the amounts of Ship Tease between Mack and Fitz, the relationship between Mack and Tim, the engineer who died for his attempt to make a Heroic Sacrifice for Mack, whose death drives Mack to tears and which Bobbi specifically consoled Mack about, has taken Mack directly into Ambiguously Gay territory for some viewers.
- In "Face My Enemy", when Fitz tells Hunter about his relationship with Simmons and how she didn't return his feelings for her, Hunter says that as far as he's concerned, that's her loss. It's more a Heartwarming Moment, but it does come across as a little flirtatious all the same.
- Bakshi's devotion to Whitehall goes beyond respect. Make of that what you will. After the latter's defeat and death, he's noticeably shocked to find out, and later admits he misses him.
- Mack and Hunter's scene in "The Dirty Half Dozen", where Mack promises to make up for what he did to Hunter, comes across as slightly flirty.
- After Fitz retrieves a photo of Will from Simmons' phone, Hunter is clearly impressed at the guy's looks, then hurriedly states he has a hog face. It's ostensibly to spare Fitz's feelings regarding the guy he lost out to, but out of context really comes across as someone in a Transparent Closet.
- In Maveth, It!Will's interaction with Fitz could be interpreted as flirting with a little context removed, with them sharing awkwardly close looks, Fitz explaining that he'd imagined this meeting a dozen over times, and It!Will's admission of understanding why Jemma likes Fitz. At one point they look like they're about to kiss.
- In The Inside Man Coulson and Talbot's interactions and a short instance of 'holding Coulson's hand' via carrying his prosthetic hand got a few turned head, despite the later's wife and son.
- Played for Laughs in Season 5, when Hunter and Fitz jokingly tell each other "I love you/I know" right before Fitz goes into cryosleep.
Les Yay:
- In "T.A.H.I.T.I.", Simmons is very clearly distraught at Skye's condition, and admits that she doesn't want to contemplate life without her. Towards the end, her hand is practically glued to Skye's forehead.
- In "Making Friends and Influencing People", Skye casually declares she loves Simmons.
- "A Fractured House" features Simmons protectively stepping between Skye and Ward, and promising to kill the latter.
- In "The Writing on the Wall", Skye pulls her gun on Coulson only after he pushes Simmons into the wall.
- In "A Wanted(Inhu)man", the two share a moment after Daisy brings Jemma flowers following her return.
- In "Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire", Daisy (currently a rogue agent) lures Jemma into what Jemma describes as 'bad girl shenanigans'. During which, though Jemma had to be 'coerced', she's also clearly having a blast hanging out with Daisy again throughout and the two stay by each other's side throughout.
- In "Self-Control", Daisy and Jemma spend basically the entire episode only able to rely on each other, as the rest of the team has been replaced by LMD duplicates. When the two first encounter the other and are unsure if its really them, Daisy ends up pulling Jemma into a hug, quaking as she does so to confirm their identities, before Jemma tearfully embraces her, before Daisy tends to Jemma's wounds. After Jemma begins to break down, Daisy reassures her and declares how she'll take on everyone to protect Jemma, which she does. At the end, Jemma returns the favour by patching Daisy's injuries up, and together the two prepare to enter the Framework to save their friends, holding hands as they do so.
- And again, in Season 5's "A Life Spent", Daisy spends the entire episode solely focused on one, single objective: Find Jemma and make sure she's safe. To do so, she willingly breaks into the locked off areas of the Lighthouse, taking on Kree guards and all without any plan, as she wanted to get Jemma to safety as soon as possible. As a result, she gets captured, but she's seemingly willing enough to brave whatever she has to in order to protect her friend.
- In "Fear and Loathing on the Planet of Kitson", Daisy and Jemma, under the influence of some kind of alien drug, forget about Jemma's obsessive search for Fitz entirely in favor of spending time together, effusively complimenting one another, caressing one another's faces, saying they love each other, and so forth.
- In "A Hen in the Wolfhouse," after Morse rescues Simmons, Simmons spends the rest of the episode looking at her like she's just found her soulmate and can't say enough about how amazing she is.Simmons: If it hadn’t had been for Bobbi, I would never have made it out. Probably be brainwashed. Happy to comply with who knows what. She’s amazing.
- It seems to be reciprocal as well; at the very least, Bobbi is clearly flattered by the gushing.
- While escaping from the HYDRA office building, Bobbi accidentally touches Simmons' breasts.
- Jemma touches Bobbi just a tad more than necessary when checking up on her after the fight with Vin-Tak.
- Raina's interactions with Skye in "Ye Who Tread Here" are dripping with implications of romantic obsession. She proselytizes about their shared destiny, seems far too amused to wear matching attire with her, and declares how glad she is they have found each other with a wondrous look on her face.
- Then in "S.O.S", she calls herself Skye's "guardian angel" and even dies for her sake.
- Similarly to Raina, Ruby's fangirly obsession with Daisy reeks of Foe Romance Subtext. She talks about her frequently, defends Daisy to her mother and even has a poster of her on the wall, like she's a prepubescent girl with a crush on a famous celebrity. Her antagonistic interactions with Daisy in "The Honeymoon" are incredibly flirtatious, and she even tells Daisy "you're much prettier in person." Supposedly, she's obsessed with defeating Daisy, but replace the word "defeat" in Ruby's dialogue with...any number of other verbs and see how the connotations change.
- In One Door Closes, the fact that Isabelle is in contact with Agent Hand on the day SHIELD falls, calls her "Vic", and seems a lot less eager to go down with the ship once she learns Hand is likely to survive, all implies that their relationship in the comics has carried through to the show. Pity they're both dead.
- Bobbie seems to fangirl Isabelle as much as Jemma fangirls Bobbie. "I like your whole... thing."
- Jiaying's first interaction with Skye can come across as a come-on when you keep in mind that Skye doesn't know they're related. Jiaying invites Skye to stay in Afterlife for at least a few days to see if she senses any "connection between [them]."
- Daisy is quite taken by newly discovered Inhuman Elena, aka Yo-Yo, constantly marveling at how much easier everything is with a speedster on the team, and being the only one to immediately accept her reasoning for not wanting to join the Secret Warriors full time while still hoping they can get together again soon, and giving her a watch that can instantly contact them.
- May tells her new student Piper to just address her by her name. She responds "I can do 'May,'", then immediately realizes how that sounded. Piper's actress, Briana Venskus, seemingly implies Piper had a thing with May, too.
- In "The Honeymoon", when referring to Daisy, Piper mentions "she's not my type, but I get it."
- "Hot Potato Soup" reveals there's actually an in-universe case, as Real-Person Fic shipping Quake and Black Widow (Quack) becomes popular after she becomes a SHIELD agent again.
