Coulson, Bobbi, and Hunter rush into the containment room to prevent Fitz from feeding himself to the monolith. They get to him just in time. Fitz notices a dab of sand on his cheek. Impossible sand, because that was a clean room – unless it came through the monolith portal. Carbon dating shows the sand comes from a planet that predates the Earth. Finally, Fitz has a ray of hope.
They seek out the help of Professor Randolph, an Asgardian who has experience jumping time portals. Coulson blackmails him into helping them figure out the monolith. He agrees and they take him back to check out the monolith. Its movements appear random, but Randolph assures them it is not. It just might not be timed with anything on this planet. Randolph agrees to help get Simmons back, but they must promise to destroy the monolith. Fitz shows him the scroll, and Randolph recognizes the Hebrew letters, carved into the wall of an English castle.
Randolph, Coulson, Bobbi, and Fitz fly to the castle, and indeed the word is etched on the wall. Not only does it mean death, but it can also mean “death by punishment.” Coulson finds a trigger in the wall that opens a secret passageway. They head in and discover an oddly-shaped room that looks suspiciously like Dr. Frankenstein’s lab. Pulling levers and pushing buttons turns on the machinery and opens a pit in the center of the room. Fitz is pretty sure that it was built to contain the monolith, and Coulson calls Mac and Daisy and have them deliver it to the castle.
With the monolith settled into the hole, Fitz pulls a series of levers, making the machines whir and pieces move. The whole thing comes to life and the monolith turns liquid. Daisy collapses in pain, blood dripping from her nose. The machinery breaks and everything returns to normal. Daisy’s spell was brought on by a pulsing sound that only she could hear. The team figures out that the room is a speaker and the machine is an amplifier. The chamber is made to resonate to “unlock” the monolith. Daisy can open the portal herself.
The team gets to work. Daisy thinks she can hold it open for about a minute before it becomes too intense for her. The plan is to drop a reinforced probe into the gooey monolith, but at the last second, Fitz hooks the line to his belt and jumps in. He finds himself in the same sandy wasteland we saw Simmons in. He screams for her, and when hope seems lost, she answers. (We later find out that she only knew he was there because she saw a flash when he entered.) The two make their way to one another, and there is a prolonged scene of them reaching for each other’s hands… missing… then grabbing again.
Topside, Daisy is getting weak and Coulson panics, instructing his team to haul Fitz back. They do, but not before an explosion turns the monolith to black rubble. A moment with baited breath, and Fitz appears from beneath the rubble. Another moment, and we see that Simmons made it back, too. Back on the plane, Simmons has no signs of radiation or infection, but her mental state is quite fragile.
Meanwhile, Ward is going around, torturing spoiled, wealthy rich kids. But he has a greater purpose. These are the children of former Hydra leaders, and he is looking to see who is strong enough to follow in their parents’ footsteps. He finds one, von Strucker, and enlists him to join his new Hydra team. When we last see von Strucker, he is signing up to be in Dr. Garner’s psychology class.
Also: May has been hiding out in Arizona with her father, but Hunter convinces her to join him in his hunt for Ward; and Daisy is getting frustrated that Dr. Garner hasn’t yet cleared any Inhumans to join their team.
Check out a preview of next week’s all new episode!
