This is Phil Coulson’s worst day ever, and it won’t get better for some time.

A lot of things happened during this week’s episode, including several deaths, shocking decisions and a return to the blue planet that now has a name, Maveth. It also shows that Grant Ward is officially more evil than Kilgrave.

*** SPOILERS BELOW ***

It all started calmly, as Coulson shares hamburgers with ATCU chief and official ally Rosalind Price (Constance Zimmer), and talks about Banks (Andrew Howard) not being happy about this date, and Malick (Powers Boothe) and his plans for HYDRA and Inhumans. Then, a bullet silently breaks a window and kills Price. Of course, that bullet comes from Ward. It’s the start of his plan to eliminate Coulson once and for all.

However, Caulson won’t go down without a fight. After he gets through several HYDRA grunts, he gets back to base. He is hurt, physically and emotionally. Seeing him taking off his shirt to see his wounds, then seeing that matchbook from the pub from a date makes you feel for him.  You get almost as mad as he is.

He now has one thing on is mind, killing Ward. He looks for any edge, even asking uncomfortable questions of May and Daisy. He plans to break a lot of rules to avenge Rosalind.

What he does learn from Daisy is that Ward acts as he does not because he feels nothing, but that he feels too much. She even compares herself to him: Ward had a father figure in Garrett while she had a mother figure in Jiaying. Both learned things, but she used her knowledge much better.

Meanwhile, Ward is preparing to put Coulson down, but Malick says he should forget about getting closure and just look forward. Malick wants to use five stones from the Kree monolith to reopen the portal to Maveth and bring back that Inhuman who was banished there.

Still, Ward wants his closure, and is able to grab Fitz and Simmons with the help from Giyera (Mark Dacascos), the man who can levitate things. He’s able to kill Banks by making his gun betray him. From there, Ward uses some old-fashioned torture (while Giyera uses flying hammers on Simmons) to get what he wants. He does it so cool and calmly, he’d give Kilgrave from Jessica Jones sleepless nights.

Coulson has some trump cards, though, like Ward’s brother Thomas (Tyler Ritter), who talks about living in an extremely dysfunctional family. He confirms Ward did toss him down that well deliberately when they were young. Having the brothers talk on the phone does help Coulson locate Ward, at the castle in England where they brought back Simmons from Maveth early this season.

Back at the base, Mac is temporary director, and he finds out what happened with Fitz and Simmons. Daisy wants to go after them, and they do…by promoting Lincoln (Luke Campbell) and Joey Gutierrez (the guy who can melt metals, played by Juan Pablo Raba) to agents. Mac’s only order:  “Step up and do your damn job, or let the bad guys win.”

They get the message.

At the castle, Malick is ready to open the portal, and tells Ward to postpone his closure against Coulson. He prefers Ward lead a team to Maveth, and Ward decides to do just that. After all, this is what HYDRA has been aiming for, and it’s time he starts leading. Fitz is forced to be part of the team, too. Simmons tells him not to go, and says she’s willing to die. Fitz won’t hear of it. He doesn’t want to lose her again.

Meanwhile, Coulson is ready to jump off the SHIELD plane to get to that castle, and Ward. Lance wants to join him, but a couple of missles from HYDRA stop them from leaping off. Coulson does jump…and goes right through the portal just as Malick closes it. That’s something he didn’t expect.

He lands in Maveth and hits his head. He should recover, but what will Ward’s crew think if they find him? The final showdown may happen, but in a blue dust storm in another world.

This week’e episode was packed with action and twists from start to finish, and would make a great cliffhanger that we’d ponder for the next three months.

Thing is, it’s not over yet. Next week, we’ll see what Ward and his crew find in Maveth, and whether whatever it is will make us hail HYDRA. It’ll be likely to find Coulson, too, leading to the real finish.