Hale tries to break Coulson, while Creel begins to question his loyalties.
Tropes in this episode:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Coulson notes that Hale has taken his cot, chair, and Cap'n Crunch. He's especially miffed about that last one.
- Assimilation Backfire: Creel tries to absorb the properties of Gravitonium, but instead he absorbs the consciousnesses (or at least echoes) of Franklin Hall and Ian Quinn, who exist within it.
- Back for the Dead: It's a deleted scene
from S1, placed here instead, but Ian Quinn reappears for the first time since the end of Season 1, in a flashback where he's absorbed by the Gravitonium. - Brick Joke: Talbot's line about Coulson's teleportation leaving them in a wintery forest and asking why it couldn't be beaches with palm trees is a jab towards Coulson's experience with T.A.H.I.T.I., to which Coulson replies it's not really his thing anymore.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Robin and her mother Polly are retrieved from hiding to help.
- To a lesser extent, Hall and Quinn, although both are in the Gravitonium.
- Call-Back:
- When Creel first touches the Gravitonium, we get an S1 flashback of when Coulson was forced to drop Hall into the Gravitonium.
- While choking Coulson, Creel quotes Hall's line about "experimentation without thought of consequence" from "The Asset".
- Chekhov's Boomerang: The use of "Phillip J. Coulson" makes a return here.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Kree teleportation device has settings for latitude, longitude, and altitude to target where it sends travelers. Coulson realizes that by not adjusting the third, he can beam himself and Talbot anywhere on Earth instead of into space.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Creel definitely has an edge on Ruby in a straight fight and even her attempt to kill him fails to work, but she does a lot better than you'd expect a waifish girl like her to do against someone twice her size with superpowers.
- A Death in the Limelight: Averted. The episode appears to go down this route with Creel, who gets the most characterization he's ever had in the series. Robin's drawing only shows Coulson and Talbot escaping, and Creel stays behind to perform a Heroic Sacrifice to help them escape, with the show seemingly performing a Hope Spot when Ruby throws her chakram at him when he lets his guard down, but he ultimately survives.
- Dirty Business: Simmons says that morally-questionable actions that bring results, similar to what Doctor Leopold did, have become necessary. Because of this, she not only tricks Mack but also Fitz in order for her plan to work. Yoyo is also unrepentant over locking Mack in Fitz's cell and going along with Simmon's plan.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: Yo-Yo has a bit of trouble getting used to her new arms, accidentally crushing a water bottle and having a gun go off by itself when she picks it up.
- Double-Meaning Title: The name of the episode refers to the reveal that Gravitonium is sentient, due to Franklin Hall and Ian Quinn getting absorbed into it. After Creel touches it for an experiment, he is left with voices in his head, instead of taking on the properties of the material. It also refers to Coulson's attempts to keep Talbot quiet during their escape.
- Enforced Method Acting: Invoked in-universe; Fitz wasn't in on the plan to spring him from his cell, so his terrified reaction when Simmons supposedly drank acid was genuine.
- Evil Is Petty: Since Coulson refuses to cooperate, Hale has taken his cot, chair, and Cap'n Crunch cereal from his cell. Coulson even calls her petty over these.
- False Roulette: Subverted. Simmons tries to prove that she's invincible by setting up four beakers: three filled with water and one filled with deadly acid, then having Yo-Yo shuffle them before she drinks three of them, with the logic being that if she really can't die, then no matter which three she picks, they will contain water. On the third, she collapses and screams in pain as if she drank the acid, and Mack is tricked into letting Fitz out of his cell to help, only to be locked in the cell himself while Simmons reveals that she's actually fine. It certainly seems like the roulette was faked and all four beakers contained water, but then Simmons dumps out the fourth and shows that it really did contain acid.
- Foreshadowing:
- Creel talking of hearing "them talk" sets up that it's not only Hall's voice he's hearing, but also Quinn.
- Robin’s drawing shows Coulson and Talbot, but not Creel. Creel ends up staying behind to buy them time as they escape.
- Talbot tries to apologize to Coulson, said he resisted as long as he could. We find out in the next episode what he ended up not being able to resist.
- Internal Reveal:
- Creel discovers that Talbot has been kept imprisoned and tortured by Hale, instead of being in medical treatment like she claimed. This is enough for him to turn on her.
- Robin's mother infers from Robin calling May "mom" that she isn't in Robin's future, which she had already suspected from her absence in Robin's drawings.
- Simmons and Fitz tell Elena about their relationship to Deke.
- I Want Them Alive!: Hale specifically demands Creel be taken alive, as she needs him for her Gravitonium experiments. Then she repeats herself to make sure her daughter understands. Ruby, believing that Hale intends to replace her with him, tries to kill him anyway.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Ian Quinn met his just deserts a long time ago; he was absorbed into the Gravitonium courtesy of a vengeful Franklin Hall, who gave it sentience, and Raina, who complied with Hall's demands.
- Magical Defibrillator: Coulson's heart stops outright after a solid hit from a Mecha-Mook - Creel absorbs the robot's metal, turning himself conductive, then uses the robot's own power source to electrify himself while touching Coulson over the heart. This somehow works.
- No Indoor Voice: The episode's title is dropped in the episode in reference to Talbot's inability to speak softly when Coulson wants to be stealthy. "THIS IS MY INDOOR VOICE!"
- No-Sell: Ruby tries to toss a chakram into Creel's chest, but he shifts himself into wood to avoid any harm from the hit.
- Not Named in Opening Credits: David Conrad and Ruth Negga aren't listed in the opening credits to keep their cameos in The Stinger as Ian Quinn and Raina, respectively, a surprise. And also because the actors didn't actually return, it is actually a deleted scene.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: In the Lighthouse's original timeline, Deke didn't know his grandparents' real names since Fitz and Simmons had to change their names to hide from the Kree Watch, so he only knew them as Bobo and Nana, respectively.
- Reckless Gun Usage: Yoyo inadvertently does this as she tries to grip the gun that Mack put down. She inadvertently shoots it into a wall, just barely missing Fitz and Simmons. This only serves to reaffirm their theory that they are invincible.
- The Reveal:
- The Gravitonium is sentient, due to absorbing Dr. Franklin Hall.
- Turns out Ian Quinn didn't go into hiding like everyone thought: Hall, inside the Gravitonium, made a deal with Raina to lure Quinn into a trap so that Hall could finally have his revenge by absorbing Quinn into it.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Up until now, adult Hale has always been presented with her hair up and in her Air Force uniform. With her hair down and wearing civilian clothes, she doesn't look half bad.
- Shout-Out: Coulson refers to Hale's team as "The Evil League of Evil".
- Stable Time Loop:
- It's demonstrated twice in the same scene. The first time has Simmons drinking three beakers of water and avoiding the acid to show that she does not die. The second time is Elena's Reckless Gun Usage moment, just barely missing Fitz and Simmons.
- Polly knows that Robin's drawings mean that she doesn't make it into the future and is well aware that May (who came from the future) is about to take on the role in her place.
- May asks Robin about "Phillip J. Coulson", knowing that the past Robin will see this from the future and dispatch Enoch to collect the team.
- Teleportation Rescue: Coulson saves himself and Talbot by using Hale's teleportation device to send them somewhere else on Earth. Unfortunately that "somewhere" is a wintery mountain range.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: Mack thinks all this we're-invincible-because-of-the-time-loop talk from Yo-Yo and Simmons is madness which will get them both killed.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: In the words of Deke, Daisy has become "a hard-ass" since Fitz restored her powers. Fitz-Simmons have noticed.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Elena and Simmons pretend that the latter has accidentally drank acid, so that both Fitz and Mack will panic and let Fitz out of his cell to help her.
