Everyone’s story got a heavy dose of perspective on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 3×08, and nothing will ever be the same.
Atonement
On the subtler end of the perspective scale, Agent May opened Lincoln’s eyes to the fact that hey, maybe not everything is about him. May is still overwhelmed with guilt for Andrew’s current straits — certainly only made more potent by her intense self-recrimination — so she shoulders the burden of Andrew’s sins.
May’s apology to Lincoln for the loss of his friends is as heartfelt as it is unnecessary (May, of course, is not to blame for the awful situation). But with the tension diffused between the badass and the Inhuman, Lincoln finally has the chance to offer his own perspective: that May deserves his thanks for shooting Andrew, and saving his life.
So now there might be two people in the Playground who tolerate Lincoln.
Heartache to heartache we stand
Meanwhile, Fitz and Simmons gain some perspective on their evolving relationship, but remain poised between enlightenment and impenetrable gloom.
Simmons cracks under the pressure of Fitz’s unwavering efforts to retrieve Will from Planet Hell, which have now strayed into symbology. “It’s too much,” Simmons protests, and of course, it is. She is caught between two men she loves, two men to whom she owes her life and her sanity; Fitz’s intensity and the blank spot of Will are two points of pressure sealing Simmons into a vise of guilt.
At the same time, Fitz believes he has found all the perspective he needs. “We’re cursed,” he proclaims. “The bloody cosmos wants us to be apart.”
No Fitz, they’re called Tancharoen-Whedons.
Fitz’s certainty is not shaken, even after he and Simmons share two watershed kisses together — the first furious and angry, the second tender and… really quite exquisite. Ahem.
As scientific and factual as Fitz has always been, it is clearly easier for him to blame fate for his and Simmons’ lost opportunities. This perspective has allowed him to bull forward in pursuit of Will — but now that his fear is exposed, along with Simmons’ confessions, Fitz is clearly tempted to abandon the whole effort.
Luckily, “fate” offers up a different perspective, just in time.
Charade
But first, Rosalind Price gets to see a new side of two men she thought she knew.
Playing the part of a smitten lover, Coulson basically seduces Price into coming to the Playground (which suddenly sounds very wrong) where he is simultaneously heading Operation Spotlight — Bobbi and Hunter’s deep-dive into ATCU Headquarters.
Even after surrendering his virtue to Price, Coulson remains unconvinced of her loyalty, unnerved by her reference to Project T.A.H.I.T.I. when they first met. He locks her into the containment room and demands Price reveal any ties she has to Hydra.
It has been noted that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has drawn from the well of “being betrayed by those closest to you” multiple times over its relatively brief run. While it’s a fair critique, the impact of those serialized betrayals on Coulson is blatantly clear in his scenes with Rosalind. The Director presents an ice-cold front to Price, reducing her choices to a binary allegiance to either S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra.
These scenes also highlight just how much of Coulson and Price’s relationship has been pure performance on both sides. Intimacy without trust is classic spy fare, but it isn’t a place Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has visited often — especially since Ward slept with May under false pretenses.
After so much disingenuousness, it’s almost impossible to get a read on Price. The head of the ATCU wavers between hot and cold, shock and rage — but finally lands on earnest surprise when Coulson (via Bobbi) reveals that the “off limits” floors of her headquarters have been used to infect people with Terrigen.
The man in charge of that area — who coincidentally also recruited her to work at NASA — is none other than Presidential Advisor Gideon Malick.
Coulson, it turns out, was right. Price does have a connection to Hydra — she just didn’t know about it.
Hopefully.
Everything you thought you knew
So. Lincoln’s been getting perspective on May, Fitz and Simmons have been getting perspective on each other, Coulson’s been getting perspective on Price, and Price has been getting perspective on Malick.
But Gideon Malick doesn’t need any perspective. Malick has the widest view of all.
And he offers that perspective to Ward.
This comes in the form of a small piece of Monolith, and a story about the genesis of Hydra. Sit back, ladies and gentlemen, because the mythology of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has officially let go of its earthly tether.
Long before the Red Skull and World War II, Hydra was formed to seek out a colossally powerful Inhuman, who had been banished through the portal eons ago. The evil organization exists not to rule the world itself — but to recall and serve beneath their master as it dominates the Earth.
To that end, Hydra has been sacrificing people through the Monolith for generations. That sacrifice is why Malick is willing to work with Ward on S.H.I.E.L.D. Ward can destroy them — but not before Malick learns how S.H.I.E.L.D. managed to get someone back through the portal.
(The answer is True Love, Malick! Not that you’ll ever be able to understand that! Also! How! Did you know that…)
Punishment
Luckily Fitz and Simmons are able to offer the rest of Team S.H.I.E.L.D. a similar perspective. They don’t know the details, but through a terrifying progression of symbology they trace the evolution of the Ram’s Head symbol from England to the monster of Hydra.
Unluckily, Andrew is stuck in a box, with no perspective whatsoever on what’s happening to him. A prisoner of Malick’s (and Will’s) “Project Distant Star Return,” the good doctor is now at Ward’s mercy.
And as we know, Ward — who floods Andrew’s box with nerve gas to torture him and awaken Lash — doesn’t know the meaning of mercy.