“The Other Thing” is episode five of season six of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
At the end of the previous episode, “Code Yellow”, Sarge and Snow had taken May. This episode opens with May on a beach with Coulson. This would appear to be a memory, and the beach would presumably be the one on Tahiti. There are some more bits from this memory through the episode. May gradually struggles awake in the back of Sarge’s truck; she asks him why she feels dizzy. Because she has violent tendencies, so Sarge drugged her. The truck comes to a stop and Sarge gives some supplies, including a tablet, to Snow. He tells Snow that they are pretty isolated, and it’s a bag and gag. To check in when she’s done, as Snow is the only one that Sarge has left. Snow is willing to stay and keep May ‘company’ but Sarge declines. As to what Sarge wants with May? He wants to turn her.
At the Lighthouse, Mack is informed that Deke is out of surgery and sedated. Khan isn’t used to Deke being quiet. Mack spies Yo-Yo and follows her, wanting to know how she’s doing. She’s been working with the prisoners. So far, they’ve only told her that their boss is called Sarge. That wasn’t what Mack meant. He wanted to know how Yo-Yo was doing after having to kill Keller after he got an alien bird parasite inside him. The conversation regarding relationships isn’t awkward at all. Mack tells Yo-Yo that Benson is working on the bird-thing. Yo-Yo wants Mack to stay on top of Benson. Mack wants to know if Benson made a mistake that got Keller killed. Well, if Benson hadn’t pulled out the knife that impaled the bird-thing, Keller would probably still be alive. Still, it’s not like anyone could know that.
On the Zephyr, Enoch has gone on a depression jag again. At the end of “Fear and Loathing on the Planet of Kitson”, Daisy and Simmons found Fitz, but only seconds before the bounty hunter took him. Daisy tells them they only have enough fuel for one jump, so where did the bounty hunter take Fitz? Enoch says he will never forget his one and only friend. Simmons and the others tell Enoch that he has them as well. Enoch replies that the last time they met – in “Orientation: Part One” – he had forcibly abducted them and sent them into a dystopian future.
This is admitted to be true, but in the future Enoch sacrificed himself for them, and without him they would never have saved the Earth from destruction. Yes, the human race has been saved from and extinction level event. All because of Enoch. This confuses Enoch though; if he completed his mission, why are Chronicom hunters after him? Daisy thought that it was the Confederacy. This would apparently be preferable. The Zephyr shakes at this point, and there is a Confederacy ship in front of them. Followed by many more ships. Enoch comments on this with a simple ‘Oh dear.’
With Snow gone, Sarge is talking to May. He says he has been to a lot of worlds, but never one where people recognised his face or acted like they know him. Sarge also has an entire box containing knives like the one used to kill the bird-parasite.
On the Zephyr, the others are preparing to be attacked when Enoch tells them that the ship is identical to the one that came after Fitz and Enoch. If they wanted them dead, the Zephyr would have cut them in two. He decides that perhaps it isn’t the Confederacy, and opens the two. AS woman comes through. Who Enoch greets as Altarah. Enoch’s superior before he came to Earth and no fan of him (although, judging by some later conversation, the relationship was a little deeper than that).
Piper and Davis are locked up and Daisy, Simmons and Enoch are following Altarah. The ship looks a little damaged on the inside. To the comment that they thought it was a Confederacy ship, Altarah tells them it was. Now it isn’t. The Chronicom homeworld was destroyed, and the Confederacy sent ships to pick through the bones. They got more than they bargained for.
The destruction started with minor distortions in the fabric of space, that released a plague. Could this be similar to what is happening on Earth? The effects spread to fast. Altarah wants to know how to travel through time, just like Daisy, Fitz and Simmons did, so the destruction can be prevented. All that remains of the Chronicom race is on the ships. Altarah doesn’t believe when told they don’t know how to travel through time. Even though it’s true enough.
Back on Earth, Sarge believes Coulson was an imposter. May believes the other way around, because she knew of all of Coulson’s life. She wants to know how much of his own life Sarge remembers. Snow returns with a man and Sarge tells Maty to kill him. She refuses, and starts telling the man he will be okay when the others shoot him in the head. Sarge and Snow leave May with the body, Sarge leaving May’s handcuff keys behind and one of the knives. Behind May, the body moves and she quickly discovers there’s something wrong. There’s definitely something special about the knives.
Sarge had previously given a slight impression that he was fighting to save planets, not destroy them. The incidental causalities on the way disguised this. An ends justify the means guy. Benson discovers something odd about the bird-parasite. Something he has never encountered before. S.H.I.E.L.D., however, has.