As season five of Agents of SHIELD heads towards its climax, fans are still wondering if the agents can finally break the time loop that may lead to the end of the world.
This week, Fitz and Simmons are forced to help Ruby fulfill her supposed destiny as Destroyer of Worlds, and it goes very wrong, Also, a hypnotized Talbot takes a very important person.

SPOILERS BELOW

This episode took a very dark turn. We had a kidnapping, a shooting, physical threats, an imploding body and a very big death that was also revenge.
The earth, meanwhile, could still be destroyed.

The big death is Ruby Hale, who went out in a blaze of glory and a pool of blood. Finally, Dove Cameron was fairly convincing when she threatened Fitz and Simmons into repairing the chamber that would merge Ruby and the gravitonium, making her the Destroyer of Worlds. Once that happened, though, the metal was about to tear her apart. Only a small amount was put into her, but it changes her.
For a while, she floats in the air. She even slams Fitz and Simmons against the wall. She touches Werner, and his body implodes. Finally, she cries real tears, and realizes she has made a horrible mistake.
Not only that, the mineral is driving her insane. She didn’t have just the mineral in her but the consciousness of Dr. Hall (from season one) and Ian Quinn (from season two) in her. General Hale (Catherine Dent), and even Daisy, try to calm Ruby down, but the gravitonium is taking its toll on her body and mind.
Shockingly, it was something else that killed Ruby. Someone cuts her throat with a chakram…and it’s Elena! She wanted revenge for Ruby cutting her arms off last month, and she did it in a drastic way. She claims killing Ruby saved the world, even after Ruby’s body explodes from the gravitonium inside her.
Yet it looks like the time loop has not changed, and now Elena may be partially responsible for the fate of the world, too. More on that later.
Even though Ruby Hale did some horrible things for HYDRA and her mother, you can’t help but pity her. Even Daisy hoped she could be saved and maybe rehabilitated. That chance is gone, because a deadlier destiny seems to be stronger.

The other main plot is Talbot’s mission. It’s actually an attempt to kidnap the young seer, Ruby (Lexy Kolker). Talbot (Adrian Pasdar) takes a lot of interest in her drawings, including one showing the Zephyr in flight, possibly headed to space. Ruby and her mom Polly (Lola Glaudini) see him, and Ruby is not surprised at all. She drew Talbot standing on a shattered Earth, and that it would happen “soon”. She also drew pictures of the chamber Ruby entered, and her body with “people” inside her.
Talbot knocks Polly out with a sleeper hold, and yet Robin does nothing. She also saw this coming.
It must be tough on a little girl having visions of the future she can draw, and sometimes know what they mean. Even worse is drawing predictions that you know will come true, and not knowing how to stop them.

Coulson is able to save Robin and her mom, but tries to stop Talbot from killing himself because he can’t finish the mission. Coulson even tells him to shoot him, but Mack is there to shoot Talbot. Let’s hope he’s not dead, but what will be left of him after all this?

Meanwhile, Coulson grades Daisy on her leadership abilities. He thinks she is coming along, despite her fellow agents having some complains. She can be a good director for SHIELD, in about ten years or so. The main concern is whether there will be a future at all.
Coulson also comments on the fact Deke is falling for Daisy, even if he’s reluctant to admit it. While they’d make a great couple, he’s from the future and will be the grandson of Fitz and Simmons. If the time loop is broken, he goes back to the future. Maybe Daisy can find an ancestor of Deke’s.

Getting back to the death of Ruby, General Hale is understandably distraught over what has happened. Even though Elena thought Ruby had to die to keep her from cracking the world, the pain of a mother losing a daughter will be used in a cruel way.
As the episode closes, Hale meets with Qovas (Peter Mensah) of the Alien Confederacy. It’s revealed he wants the gravitonium, and knows SHIELD has it. He asks if she cares if he has to kill all of SHIELD to get it back, and she says she wouldn’t object.
The world is still in trouble. It looks like the aliens are set to invade the Earth, and could be the real Destroyer of Worlds.

This season has been very stressful for everyone. Coulson is facing death, and is fine with it even if the agents are not. Elena killed who she thought was the Destroyer of Worlds, and also thinks Coulson must die to break the time loop. Fitz submitted to his dark side to seal a crack in reality by forcing Daisy to get her seismic powers back.
On top of that, it looks like they are powerless to stop Earth’s destruction, according to a little girl’s drawings.
Is there any way to fix the present and the future? If they don’t, and wind up in space in the Zephyr as the Earth cracks, it would be all for nothing.

Let’s say, though,  SHIELD does save the Earth. Does that mean Enoch the Chronicom doesn’t send the agents of the future and everything resets? Fitz would have a second chance at dealing with his dark side, and Elena gets her arms back. Maybe it also means Ruby doesn’t die, and somehow decides HYDRA isn’t for her. That would only matter if they all remember the dark present/future they experienced, and make sure it won’t happen again.
Then again, it also means the agents wind up in the diner to get arrested for the shooting of Talbot at the end of season four. Maybe that will end differently.
However this season ends, the agents deserve to wind up in a much better place…even if they find out about Thanos.