“From the Ashes” is episode eleven of season six of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
In the previous episode. “Leap”, Mack left the base with Izel, who was possessing Yo-Yo, in the Zephyr. Izel had already killed Davis by possessing his body, then leaving it as it was just above a drop.
The episode opens with Yo-Yo coming to on the Zephyr after her possession. Her hands are bloody. Mack is in a corner, also bloody. He tells Yo-Yo that she didn’t do it; Izel possessed her body. Everyone else is safe. Izel has kept them alive because she wants information about the temple that the monoliths were meant to be taken to. Although the monoliths were destroyed in “All the Comforts of Home”, Izel says that the gravitonium device used to contain them in “The Devil Complex” still contains their energies. Izel wants to know where to take them. Mack says he didn’t tell her anything. An odd statement; is it really Mack? Yo-Yo says they don’t know anything, only Benson does. Mack says that’s a name he hasn’t heard before. No, it wasn’t Mack. Izel would like to meet this Benson.
At the Lighthouse, they can’t track the Zephyr. Only the radar cloak has been activated, so it isn’t invisible. That still doesn’t help if you don’t know where to look. May is chasing up another lead but Piper is concerned about Izel possessing them again. Daisy tells her Fitz and Simmons are looking into it. Who she then goes to see. Who have not found anything yet.
Deke is also there, not exactly making helpful comments, more repeating what Fitz and Simmons are saying. Daisy interrupts them. She just wants to know if they have any way of stopping Izel from wearing them like a sock puppet. That would be no. Then there’s the other problem, the one everybody thought was dead. Sarge. Daisy wants to know if they can believe what Izel said, that another being is inhabiting Sarge’s body. At the end of the previous episode, Fitz had told Deke that this was something they’d seen before. The Ghost Rider. Which Simmons mentions to Daisy.
May is in with Sarge whilst Simmons is monitoring with everything she can think of. Simmons also admits that May thinks Sarge is remembering them. In the room, May asks Sarge if he never questioned anything before. No, because until he arrived there, he didn’t know he had someone else’s face. It seems that when Coulson entered the rift in “The Real Deal”, the being inside Sarge got Coulson’s memories and face, only his memories were mostly missing. The being is, according to Izel, like her and someone she knows. During the interview, Sarge slams his hand down on the metal table. Which leaves a deep metal handprint. Which Sarge wasn’t expecting. Afterwards, Daisy thinks that Coulson isn’t inside Sarge, and tells May they should be trying to wake whatever is inside Sarge, because Izel said it could defeat her. Given that Izel was trying to wake it up herself, May doesn’t think this is a wise course.
A Quinjet docks with the Zephyr and Mack – Izel – tells Yo-Yo to be careful what she says. Benson, with another agent, is on the Quinjet. Mack tells Benson that this is a secret mission, because they have to be careful about who they trust. Very true and a bit ironic. The temple is a doorway between their world and Izel’s. Benson has identified three possible sites, but his money is on one at the intersection of two ley lines. Which would prove Keller right once again. Yo-Yo says she will be sure to tell Keller that. Giving a clue to Benson that everything isn’t right. Izel figures out that something is up and uses Mack’s body to stab the other agent in the neck before leaving Mack’s body and attempting to intimidate Benson.
Daisy goes to interview Sarge next. She suggests that he use what is inside him to kill Izel. After all, he’s been trying and failing to kill her for decades. Now he has something new. Sarge doesn’t think this is a good idea. He also manages to get under Daisy’s skin. Daisy takes out some of her irritation on Fitz, Simmons and Deke. All they’ve got is that the sword that Sarge said he was going to use to kill Izel could actually do that. It’s made of the same material as the Shrike-killing daggers. That still means they have to get within stabbing distance, and what if Izel has possessed one of them?
Daisy says she isn’t getting anywhere with Sarge and Simmons suggests that’s because she doesn’t want to listen to what he has to say. Daisy has a habit of walking away from things, rather than facing them, such as Coulson’s death. Simmons has recently had a demonstration, in “Inescapable”, as to why it’s a bad idea to keep things bottled up.
Izel tells Benson that one of the monoliths was of creation. It can reach into Benson’s mind and build what it sees. Humans have a great imagination, but no control. So, she opens the sphere and a person forms, that of Benson’s dead love, Thomas. Benson does not enjoy this.
Daisy finally opens the letter that Coulson left her and reads it. She returns to Sarge, and tries a new interrogation technique. Killing him. Which didn’t take last time and she’s willing to risk it taking this time, in order to get what they want. Deke finally starts making a useful contribution rather than echoing his grandparents.
The post-logo scene has a bit more from the Chronicoms. There’s evidently more to come from them.