“The Team” is episode seventeen of season three of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
At the end of the previous episode, “Paradise Lost”, Coulson and the others, except for Daisy and Lincoln, had been captured after Gyera broke free and took over the plane. Lincoln suggested to Daisy that they use the Secret Warriors she had set up, so the first thing they do is pick up team members; Joey from Biscayne Bay, Miami and Yoyo from Bogota, Columbia. With two of the team members speaking Spanish, there are a fair few subtitles in this episode. Daisy says that they don’t know much about base they are going to, including defences and troops.
Although the Zephyr has been captured, and Gyera has escaped from it, Coulson and the others are still fighting. Daisy’s team manages to get them out of the base in the Zephyr quite easily, along with a captured Gideon Malick.
Since his daughter, Stephanie, was killed in the previous episode by the HYDRA God, Malick has suffered a crisis of faith. The Other – whose name of Alveus, which is Latin for Hive, also found out in the previous episode – had punished Malick for cheating during the Traveller ceremonies by killing his daughter, the only thing he truly cared about. With his loss of faith, the once-head of HYDRA may turn on his former god – but he had foreseen his own death in “Spacetime”.
Hive said as the Zephyr left that HYDRA had someone on the inside now. According to Malick, Hive can infect Inhumans and make them loyal solely to him – which is why Gyera transferred his allegiance. When Fitz and Simmons autopsy an Inhuman who was killed during the escape, they discover that this is true – Hive can infect Inhumans, meaning that all four who went into the base are at risk, and there currently is neither a test nor a cure to identify the infection.
Coulson locks down the base and keeps things quiet from the Inhumans. Not knowing who, or how many, of them are infected by Hive, he doesn’t want to risk telling them what’s going on. Daisy quickly figures out that something is going on, and her team starts to break apart. The Inhumans and the rest start distrusting each other, which helps no-one, but who is truly infected?
Another cliff-hanger ending.