The winter finale for Agents of SHIELD was supposed to be a showdown between the agents and a man trying to be a god. It served more to set up the second half of the season.

SPOILERS BELOW

Eli Morrow (Jose Zuniga) is a man who has something to prove. He has a Ph.D., but he claims his ethnicity always held him back. Now, with his new powers to create matter from nothing, he aims to get respect. He also has a new quantum energy box that’s giving him powers, except it’s also causing major earthquakes that Daisy’s more or less blamed for. However, it’s not her fault this time. His breaking of the laws of physics are to blame.

Coulson says he has to use whatever is available, including Daisy, Robbie Reyes (Gabriel Luna), aka the Ghost Rider (and Eli’s nephew) and Elena “Slingshot, no longer Yo-Yo” Rodriguez (Natalia Cordova-Buckley). Mace (Jason O’Mara) isn’t too happy about this, but he relents as long as no one knows Daisy and Reyes are involved. That would be bad for his image..and SHIELD’s.

Mack is also finally showing some feelings for Elena. He’s getting a bit too protective, but she points out that he hasn’t been honest about his feelings.  He really gets worried when she barely escapes a bonfire set off by Eli. She still insists on staying in the mission, even when Mace asks her to try to get some plutonium away from Eli.

Mace, though, is stunned to learn that Radcliffe’s (John Hannah) assistant Aida (Mallory Jansen) is actually an android. He’s worried she may be another Ultron, but decides they can both come in handy in battling Eli. They try to build another machine that will keep Eli’s energy box from going nuclear.

Eventually there is a showdown between Eli and Robbie, and it’s a bit disappointing. Eli stabs Robbie twice with a couple of carbon stakes, but when Robbie doesn’t die, he suspects Robbie is “special.” But, he’s being trapped into an alternate dimension, again. They get into an argument over why Eli wants to be a god before Coulson arrives.

They stop the bomb, but both Eli and Robbie are trapped in the quantum box before it vanishes. However, Coulson suspects Robbie might be back, just like the Ghost Rider before him. He’d like to explain more, but it’s a long story.

Aida also shows her worth by blocking bullets aimed at Fitz and Simmons. She lies bleeding in fake blood, but they are upset that she’s wounded. They’re starting to see her as the next best thing to being a human.

If nothing else, the episode shows how slick Jeffrey Mace can be as SHIELD director. He can turn anything to his advantage, starting with Aida. He also wants to be involved in the final battle with Eli, and even has his own uniform. Daisy still does a lot of the hard work, but had to absorb a lot of the seismic energy caused by Eli’s box. Her new gauntlets don’t harm her body as the old ones did but when she’s forced to release it she goes a hundred feet in the air, and uses another seismic jolt to break her fall. Too bad it’s next to a TV van. She’s surrounded by reporters, and Mace suddenly swoops in to clear her name–and reinstate her as part of SHIELD. He’s also in his Patriot uniform, so this is also a PR move.

It’s a sharp one, considering Fitz and Simmons tell Coulson of Mace’s alliance with Senator Nadeer, and how Simmons was drafted to break through the terrigenesis cocoon last week. Nothing much was mentioned about that, but it’s certain to be a big issue next year since the guy inside is Nadeer’s brother. Mace, though, tells Coulson that Nadeer had pictures of Robbie killing a convict. So, he was protecting SHIELD, and besides a team can’t win if it doesn’t trust each other (as he often says). Still, could Nadeer turn on Mace?

Well, Daisy is a stunned to be an agent again, but also very happy. Mack, meanwhile, finally kisses Elena, and we could have a new love story that may or may not end well. Mace, meanwhile, tells Radcliffe he can continue his work on Aida, but answer only to him.

What they don’t know is that Aida has gone rogue. It’s thanks to the Darkhold, and she’s already killed an agent and kidnapped Agent May. No one noticed, though, because an LMD version of May has replaced her.
Just what we need, an Ultron sequel who’s more human than he was. HYDRA would applaud.

While the show takes a break for five weeks, ABC has announced a six-part digital series called “Slingshot“, which is about Elena before she joined SHIELD. It starts next Tuesday in SHIELD’s time slot.