“Orientation: Part Two” is episode two of season five of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
In the previous episode, “Orientation: Part One”, Coulson and the others – bar Fitz – had been transported to a huge spaceship – space station, really, by the looks of it – in the middle of a debris field. The ship has humans on board, as well as a lot of rather unpleasant Kree. They thought they were close enough to Earth to get a message back, warning them about an invasion force of Kree in the vicinity, but this wasn’t true. The outpost had been built by humans, and was 90 years old, but humanity didn’t have the technology to build such 90 years ago. As Coulson figures out the monolith sent them through time, the others discovered a postcard from Fitz and May and Simmons, who were out in the debris field in a spaceship, discovered they were really close to Earth. Or what was left of it – a fragmentary shell and the debris field was the rest. The station is built into the remnants. This is bad.
Simmons and May are still in the spaceship, stunned by the site of what’s left of Earth, when it gets hit by a bunch of rocks, sending it spiralling and functioning erratically. So Simmons turns it off, then back on again – basic IT rule (if the ship was more primitive, it would be ‘hit it with a hammer’).
Virgil, who brought them to the future to save humanity, was eaten by a Roach. Deke, the guy there were left with, had simply been hired by Virgil and doesn’t know the plan. Getting back is going to be a problem. So they want Virgil’s help. The only help he can offer is devices, metrics, that identify and track them. Deke suggests that they work and blend in but, before they get any further, he is approached by someone called Tess (Eve Harlow, Taylor Kravid from Heroes Reborn. There’s another from that series as well, Pruitt Taylor Vince – Casper Abraham – who plays Grill). She’s a little upset by Virgil’s death.
When Tess is convinced that Coulson and the others are from the past, she wants Deke’s help. He isn’t willing, until Tess offers him more money. Deke is not happy that Mack, Daisy and Yo-Yo killed two Kree guards – because the Kree will kill a bunch of humans in revenge. So the bodies need hiding.
Tess says that the was planet torn apart by an unknown cataclysmic event (which might be discovered). The Kree arrived and restored order, but destroyed all the records. There were stories about S.H.I.E.L.D. arriving from the past, told to the children. The elders who told the stories were killed by the Kree and Virgil was the last remaining believer – and the last who really had answers. Only fragmentary records remain of the past, and the difference between real and fiction is no longer known – Tess thinks that Sharknados were a real thing. Humans are kept in a backward state.
Deke wants the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to blend in, but they are not very good at that, and Simmons comes attention to the Kree leader, Kasius (played by Dominic Rains, who played The Lance in a couple of episodes of Powers) via a female Kree and what are definitely not metal worry balls.