We haven't seen much of HYDRA on Agents of SHIELD of late. In fact, the forces of darkness could be forgiven for wondering if they aren't surplus to requirements. With SHIELD divided into bitterly opposed camps, Nick Fury's cabal of do-gooders have proved entirely capable of waging a violent conflict free of outside involvement.
As covert converts to Robert Gonzales's 'real' SHIELD, Bobbi and Mack's backroom machinations have provided much of the dramatic grist across recent instalments. Now, however, their betrayal is out in the open, Agent Coulson is on the run, and it seems reasonable to wonder whether Agents of SHIELD hasn't peaked too soon.
It was fun watching the traitors in Coulson's midst plot their boss's downfall. With their dreams of a rebooted SHIELD at last a reality, though, there is a sense that the show is scrambling to figure out where to go next.
Thus, barely a fortnight after SHIELD 2.0's takeover, rapprochement is already in the air, with Gonzales offering Coulson loyalist May a place on his Politburo-esque governing council - so that if and when Coulson is reeled in (Gonzales seems to think it merely a matter of time), he will receive a fair(ish) hearing.
Coulson, naturally, has no intention of meekly sitting in the dock for a superhero version of Judgement at Nuremberg. With Hunter playing enthusiastic second banana, he's starring in his own buddy movie and visibly having a hoot.
'Afterlife' opens on a second-hand car lot, Coulson shooting the breeze with a sleazy salesman who believes this defender of the free world requires a banged up Mazda to complete his life. But Hunter, never the sort to stand on polite convention, has already liberated a grungy SUV - an outlaw gesture at odds with Coulson's ultimately underwhelming goal of returning to the Hulk-proof cabin in the woods.
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What is it with the log cabin and Agents of SHIELD this year? Already, the humble building has served as a backdrop to several key plot developments. Perhaps Coulson has a thing for mahogany finishing and the smell of pine needles.
Whatever his reasons, it is here he anticipates a pivotal stand-off with Gonzales. The idea is to lure a posse of SHIELD grunts to the location in order to make off with their Quinjet (Coulson is vague on the details - perhaps Gonzales is onto something with his charge that the SHIELD honcho is dangerously secretive).
Even on a superhero show, such a plan reeks of implausibility. And, in fact, 'Afterlife' would be a muted dispatch were the SHIELD v SHIELD arc all that was to detain us. Hurrah, then, for Skye's ongoing growing pains as she attempts to come to terms with her transformation into an earthquake-wrangling Inhuman.
Whisked off to a Shangri-La esque training centre for incipient Inhumans by eyeless Gordon, what she doesn't realise is that her superhero adolescence is soon to be the least of her worries.
Unbeknownst to Skye, wacked-out dad Cal is also resident at the Zen facility dubbed 'Afterlife' (hence the episode title) though unlike her, he is held in straight-up captivity (when he tries to fight teleport-happy Gordon, Cal is given to understand exactly how desperate his plight is).
Nor does Skye understand that the kindly woman of indeterminate age who interrupts her face-off with fellow inhuman Raina - now a human hedgehog required to deliver embittered monologues by candlelight - is, in fact, her mother Jiaying.
Presumably, this familial bombshell will be dropped before the end of the season - one final twist that will confirm for Skye that the biggest mistake she ever made was following Raina into that DNA-scrambling alien anti-chamber in episode ten.
But for the moment the outlook isn't necessarily bleak. Sure, Skye is alarmed to wake up draped in modesty-preserving tea-towels and pin-cushioned with scary acupuncture needles (they glow red and buzz menacingly). However, dishy Inhuman counsellor Lincoln is on hand to guide her through the transition. They bond on long walks in the Afterlife's immaculate gardens and, ooh, there's a promise of deep dish pizza (every so often Gordon obligingly zips to Chicago to obtain supplies).
Still, there's no getting around the grisly truth. As scarred, spine-covered Raina gleefully informs Skye: both have been changed utterly. The only difference is that Raina's mutations are on the outside, Skye's beneath the surface.
Also, there's the unpleasant revelation that Skye won't be getting better, ever. The function of Afterlife is not to reverse the effects of the Terrigen Mist - well, how could it? As Lincoln bluntly informs Skye, this is a one-way trip. She will never rid herself of her powers. All she can hope to do is control them.
Back in the cabin, Gonzales's SHIELD heavies have turned up - with a battering ram (this isn't a figure of speech, they have literally brought a battering ram). While Hunter understandably freaks out, Coulson is almost eerily chilled.
Of course he is - he's put out an SOS to Mike Peterson, aka electronics-zapping cyborg Deathlok (sorry internet, speculation of a Hawkeye cameo proved incorrect). Right on cue, Deathlok, sporting a slimmed-down new outfit, arrives, coolly zapping the bad(ish) guys.
Where to now, wonders Hunter as they commandeer a tasty Quinjet. It's time, Coulson says, for the 'best bad option' - a reach out to Agent Ward, last seen trying to help Agent 33 put her face back together.
Still, an on-the-loose Coulson may soon pale in comparison to SHIELD 2.0's other headaches. The critical data the organization requires to cement its take-over and carry the fight to - hey, remember them? - HYDRA is concealed within Fury's Toolbox.
But it can't be opened, Simmons and Fitz insist. Actually, Simmons adds, maybe there is a way. She just needs to spend lots (and lots) of time alone in a lab with the device. In a delicious final reveal, we learn what she's actually been up to - forging a duplicate and slipping the real Toolbox to Fitz (inside a submarine sambo at that).
He's walked out on SHIELD, aghast at the organisation's betrayal of Coulson - and now he has Fury's box of delights in his back pocket. As we alluded to at the outset, when it comes to backstabbing and high-stakes chicanery, HYDRA has nothing on the good guys.
