Coulson is unaware of a dark secret May is hiding, even as the two grow closer; Aida is determined to find the Darkhold.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. picks up where the intriguing conclusion to the winter break left us with Aida running around trying to get the Darkhold and May replaced with a Life Model Decoy.

The episode basically runs two stories, both of which are pretty solid.

First, there’s Aida and trying to get the Darkhold. She goes with an all out assault and that gets the team working to stop her with a lot of action and some great jokes about the fact there’s a killer robot on the loose. There’s lots of pop-culture references that give the tone of the episode an entertaining one with jokes flying around, especially comments about the Terminator franchise.

What’s more interesting is the weaves this part of the episode pulls off. I’m not going to ruin it, but at first I thought things were wrapped up and settled, but boy was I wrong. In fact, what seems like the end is only the beginning as we learn more about what’s really going on as far as the Darkhold.

The second part of the episode has to do with Senator Nadeer and that mysterious Inhuman. We learn a lot there and again I don’t want to ruin things but Daisy, Jemma, and Director Mace go to deal with that. It’s an interesting new dynamic with Daisy back and not fully trusting her new boss and vice versa.

What I particularly enjoyed was this episode tying into something from earlier, the Watchdogs, that felt like it had been abandoned. They look like they’ll be the big bad for the rest of the season as there’s someone lurking in the shadows. As long as it’s not Hydra again, I’d be happy with that.

The episode is a pretty solid one coming back from an uneven first half of the season to deliver an entertaining hour that had a lot of action and more importantly really sets up where the rest of the season is going.

Overall Score: 7.70