Team Coulson looks for some Gravitonium to permanently fix the rift.
Tropes in this episode:
- Abusive Parents: During his childhood, Werner von Strucker was repeatedly beaten by his father, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Coulson is describing the cool gadgets his prosthetic hand has, when Elena asks him something:Elena: Does it feel the same?
(awkward pause)
Coulson: Actually, no. It doesn't feel at all, but you get used to it. - Artificial Limbs: At the start of the episode, Coulson tells Yo-Yo that Fitz is working on replacement arms for her but doesn't have the right parts at the moment. At the end, Mack fixes that by dragging one of Hale's robots back.
- Ax-Crazy: Werner has become extremely unstable after all the horrific abuse he went through, stabbing his psychiatrist's hand.
- Bait the Dog: Hale assures Werner that they won't force him into anything and promises to set him free...then she tells Ruby to earn his trust.
- Black Humor: Yo-Yo's willing to make jokes about her condition.Mack: Guess what I got you.
Yo-Yo: I don't know, I'm stumped.
Mack: Oh, so we're doing those jokes now? - Blessed with Suck: Werner's perfect Photographic Memory means he can remember all the pain he's ever felt in his life like it had just happened to him. It's enough to make him suicidal.
- The Bus Came Back: Werner von Strucker. He's in an institution. All that abuse under his father, Ward, and Gideon Malick broke him, plus the memory enhancing machine S.H.I.E.L.D. used on him had the unintended side effect of making him remember everything, making him even more unpredictable. General Hale decides to pick him for her team because of all the knowledge he now possesses.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: The Monolith fragment is fired yet again, this time to clue Deke in to who his grandparents really are.
- Continuity Nod:
- May and Daisy bring up the possibility of a Cybertek scientist helping to keep Coulson alive, just as they did with John Garrett. Coulson immediately shuts it down, remembering how Garrett went off the deep end and did unspeakable things to save himself. Daisy and May aren't about to give up that easily, though.
- Operation Paperclip (the effort to recruit old Nazi and HYDRA scientists into American and S.H.I.E.L.D. ranks) from Captain America: The Winter Soldier is mentioned and compared to the current effort of recruiting Cybertek scientists under new identities.
- Daisy is willing to get back in the field not despite the lack of her powers (thanks to the inhibitor the Kree installed), but because of it.
Daisy: Can't destroy the world without my powers. - Connected All Along: Ruby and Werner were playmates, because their parents worked together.
- Death Seeker: After all the abuse he went through, Werner is not afraid of dying anymore, even telling General Hale to just kill him already.
- Disabled Snarker: Elena might have lost her arms, but not her wits.Mack: Guess what I brought you?
Elena: I don't know. [shrugs] I'm stumped. - The Dog Bites Back: Ruby is sick and tired of her mom's abuse and is secretly plotting to kill her.
- Dude, Not Funny!: While handling the Gravitonium-Coulson: Hey Mackhammer! Can't touch this.Mack: Now is not the time.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Fitz does not like or respect Deke. Kinda fair? He doesn't know about his work on a small-scale Framework acting as an opium den in the Future!Lighthouse. However, once Deke shows some smarts back in the present, Fitz starts to accept him.
- Eerily Out-of-Place Object: The Principia, a cargo ship, is floating in the sky due to the gravitonium getting struck by lightning. Once the gravitonium is removed, the ship falls into the ocean below.
- Embarrassing Nickname:
- Mack was dubbed "Mackhammer" in his academy days, on account of a love of MC Hammer that he made the mistake of revealing. The whole team ribs him for it.
- His buddy, Anthony Caine, was named "Candyman" for his ability to get almost anything possible for his fellow academy buddies.
- Embarrassing Old Photo: Mack's Academy photo. May notes that it can't be unseen.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Deke realizes that a ship full of Gravitonium supposedly sunk in a thunderstorm would be equally likely to have floated into the sky if the lightning charged the Gravitonium.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Hale dismisses HYDRA as a boys' club.
- Faking the Dead: All of Ian Quinn's scientists who worked on Gravitonium are dead... with all of their death certificates signed by the same doctor, which leads Team Coulson to suspect they are all invoking this trope. Sure enough, their deaths were faked so the government could recruit them under new identities.
- Fantastic Racism: Mack once again mentions his hatred of anything robotic, stating that they have no heart or soul.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Oh, Mack.Mack: I'm on a mission with the two things I fear most: drowning and heights. [robot ninja shows up] Make that three things.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Werner's got a huge scar on his forehead from the time he was tortured by Ward.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Jemma believes the future can be changed; Yo-Yo understandably believes differently.
- I Have Many Names: Tony Caine has been living with many different aliases throughout the years.
- I Heard That: When Coulson tells May to remain on Zephyr One in case they need a high-altitude rescue, he says he trusts May more than Davis (who is piloting the ship). Davis then snarks on the intercom that he not only heard that but agrees with Coulson's assessment.
- Impaled Palm: Werner stabs his psychiatrist's hand with the guy's pen. We see the blood.
- I Need a Freaking Drink:
- Yo-Yo needs a beer after losing her arms.
- Deke bemoans he needs a Zima after witnessing a fear manifestation of a Kree Reaper killing his mother, then having to fight it off.
- Innocently Insensitive: Deke asks Fitz and Simmons if they've ever been to the bottom of the ocean before, unaware that the two nearly died when Ward trapped them inside a sinking container. Fitz is especially pissed off, most likely because he suffered from severe brain damage afterwards.
- Internal Reveal: Deke realizes that he's FitzSimmons's grandson, thanks to Jemma saying something to Yo-Yo that Deke's mother liked to say to him, but at the moment he's keeping it to himself (apart from a Sarcastic Confession at one point).
- Irony:
- Fitz is very unenthusiastic at the thought of spending time with Deke, unaware he's his future grandson.
- May is unhappy being left on the plane instead of going with Coulson, Daisy, and Mack. In the beginning of the series, May just wanted to stay on the plane as the team's pilot and was unhappy when she was forced to do a field task.
- Jerkass Ball: Fitz grabs it a lot around Deke.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Mack is insistent that the story behind his Embarrassing Nickname does not leave Zephyr One.
- The Maiden Name Debate: Simmons suggests that she and Fitz should hyphenate their last names. Fitz sarcastically suggests "Simmons-Fitz", saying it rolls off the tongue.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: While Coulson's use of the memory machine was a necessary evil, it imbued Werner with perfect recall, including all of his father's secret dealings and contacts — as well as all the abuse from his father, Grant Ward, and Gideon Malick. Thus, a wannabe HYDRA agent of limited threat has turned into a focused, determined, angry young man looking for payback.
- Obviously Evil: A rule-breaker who was known for smuggling contraband in to the SHIELD Academy, for which he was expelled, who has in his recent history been recruiting semi-Nazi scientists, played by Jake Busey? Duh. Subverted. He was helping people who had been forced to work for HYDRAnote , he's glad to help SHIELD, he's super stoked to see awesome stuff like a flying cargo ship, and he leaves the show, never to betray.
- Old Friend: The doctor who signed the death certificates turns out to be Mack's BFF from his Academy days.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Mack's friend is convinced of the seriousness of the threat to the world in part by seeing how Mack has gone from a pacifist to someone who wields a shotgun axe.
- Product Placement: Hostess Twinkies get a major shoutout here. They were in the Lighthouse's food storage, and Deke really enjoys his first bite.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Due to David Conrad's retirement from acting, Ian Quinn is mentioned to have disappeared.
- The Reveal: General Hale worked with HYDRA in the past and hated it because it was far too charged with testosterone.
- Sarcastic Confession: Deke sarcastically calls a grumpy Fitz "Grandpa" after learning that Fitz is his actual grandpa.
- The Scrappy: Discussed In-Universe by Fitz, who views Deke this way and even compares him to the Trope Namer because Deke's amazement at the pre-quaked world annoys him.
- Seen It All: Mack's old buddy is in awe at the sight of a flying cargo ship. Team Coulson? Just another day at work.
- Shout-Out:
- One of Tony Caine's aliases is mentioned to be Marion Cobretti.
- Fitz complains about Deke by saying, "It's like someone let Scrappy-Doo in here."
- Werner Von Strucker is now going by Alex Braun. If you combine his given and assumed names, you get Werner Von Braun — a German scientist who came to the U.S. after World War II as part of Operation Paperclip, which is mentioned in the episode.
- Smarter Than You Look: Deke, much to Fitz and Simmons' surprise, understands how gravitonium works.
- Something Only They Would Say:
- Deke hears Simmons say a line that his mother told him her own mother always used to say, causing him to realize that FitzSimmons are his grandparents.
- Mack seems to recognize his old buddy by his "I take orders from two people..." line when he's confronted by the team.
- Super-Strength: The episode ends with Creel doing 225 pound bicep curls. Yeah, he's muscular, but he's not world-record-setting monster gorilla muscular. The record is ~250 pounds.
- That Came Out Wrong: After it's mentioned that Fitz is working on cybernetic replacements for Yo-Yo's arms, she asks Mack how he feels about dating a woman with robot arms, given his Fantastic Racism against robots.Mack: Those aren't the parts that matter.
Simmons: Mack!
Mack: That's not what I meant! - That Man Is Dead: Werner insists on being called Alex Braun, as he wants nothing to do with his father or HYDRA anymore.
- Unwanted Assistance: Coulson makes it clear once again that he does not want the team to look for possibilities of unnaturally extending his lifespan a second time. Unsurprisingly, they don't comply.
- Visionary Villain: Hale tells Werner that she is building a better future.
- We Can Rule Together: Ruby's seduction of Werner has her pulling this, rather than letting both of them suffer under her mother's tyranny. It works.
- Wham Line: Ruby's "I told him the truth", revealing that her telling Werner/Alex of her plan to overthrow her mother wasn't a lie.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Mack is afraid of heights, drowning, and robots. The Principia is a floating ship in danger of crashing into the sea, with assassin robots on it.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Elena breaks down during the episode, seemingly losing all hope of averting the Bad Future. Jemma helps her overcome it.
