“The Inside Man” is episode twelve of season three of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Gideon Malick and HYDRA are finding Inhumans for the Other. They took one right from underneath S.H.I.E.L.D, and he’s taken to see the Other. The man with the paralysing stare finds out that his powers have no effect on the Other. The Other cannot inhabit other Inhumans, so he’s staying in the dead Grant Ward. He can also only inhabit dead hosts. S.H.I.E.L.D. still doesn’t know that the Other got through.
In the previous episode, “Bouncing Back”, the U.S. President announced that the new head of the ATCU was going to be General Talbot. After all, they’ve worked together before. Coulson has to chase down Talbot, who is not happy about the position he’s been put in. Talbot’s not terribly interested in working with Coulson and S.H.I.E.L.D. They’re heading to a conference in Taiwan, which is on the “alien contagion” – a term Daisy is not happy with. Lincoln is on a field mission with May, covering Coulson and Talbot, when Carl Creel, who hasn’t been seen since “Heavy is the Head”, attacks. Although it turns out that Creel is protecting Talbot.
Talbot explains that they’ve undone Creel’s HYDRA conditioning, but Coulson isn’t happy about having him going to Taiwan with them. There isn’t a choice, and Hunter is really annoyed about this, as Creel killed his friends. At the symposium, Coulson wants to get as much information from the other delegates as possible, but he’s attending undercover as a doctor from the Centres of Disease Control. The rest of the team are being even more covert, and no Inhumans are along, because they would be spotted by the gene scan. There is doubtless a spy from Malick there as well (the ‘Inside Man’ of the title); Talbot suspects everyone. He’s also not a terribly good diplomat. Some of the delegates are also quite hostile towards Inhumans. Things do not go well at the symposium.
Back at the base, Fitz and Simmons have found something odd about Creel’s DNA, which causes an argument between Daisy and Lincoln.