Last week was a milestone with impending tragedy, welcome returns and a very happy moment.

It’s back to business this week. though. SHIELD finds it needs more gravitonium, General Hale has a new member to her Anti-SHIELD Squad thanks to her daughter, and Deke turns out to be very handy. There’s also a solution to Elena’s loss of arms.

SPOILERS BELOW

While SHIELD is trying to solve a lot of problems, especially the destruction of Earth, they make a little progress on a few fronts. First off, they need more gravitonium to hold back the crack in reality caused by the explosion that also destroyed Kree monoliths a couple of weeks back. To do that, they have to find scientists from the Cybertek/Deathlok program. They’re “dead” but the same guy signed their death certificates.

He turns out to be Tony Caine , an old classmate of Mack’s in the Academy. Tony was called “Candy Man” because he could get anything while Mack was called “Mack Hammer” because he liked MC Hammer. That’ll come up later. Caine’s played by Jake Busey, son of Gary, and he does a fine job here. If there is a season six, adding him would be a good idea.

Anyway, they find a “dead” scientist who reveals some gravitonium was lost in a ship called the Principia. It was thought to have sunk. However, someone figures out that maybe the ship isn’t in the ocean…but in the sky because lightning hit the mineral.

That someone is Deke (Jeff Ward), who later tells the crew that it has to recovered in a plastic box without touching it. Before this, Fitz finds him annoying because he’s thrown by things like an ocean and Twinkies. Slowly, though, he is showing he’s related to Fitz and Simmons. This is another clue…

General Hale’s robots are waiting for them, but Mack “turns this mother out” and takes care of them. They get the mineral but not before Coulson delivers a “Can’t Touch This” joke.

As for Hale (Catherine Dent), she is still recruiting people for her Anti-SHIELD squad. She chooses Alex Von Strucker (Spencer Treat Clark), son of a former HYDRA bigwig who also knew Hale a while back. He still has anger issues because he remembers everything about his dad and how he was abused. She saves him from being chemically lobotomized only because she wants the info inside his head.

Ruby, Hale’s dangerous daughter, (Dove Cameron) plays an interesting part. Apparently they knew each other when they were young, but she pretends to ignore him at first. Eventually, she hints maybe both of them can double-cross Hale and make their own team. That gets him to stay, but it’s uncertain if she was serious. With all the skills she’s learned, and the fact she throws chakrams at targets shaped like Hale, who knows what Ruby wants to do aside from have Daisy as her very own? While Dove made a splash two weeks ago, she wasn’t that interesting this week. She has just one mode: psychotic. The producers say Ruby has many layers, and she’d better show more of them soon. It’s also not certain what Hale wants to do with her team if she erases SHIELD, but there’s a hint of HYDRA 2.0.

The fact that Coulson is facing death is still hanging over the crew. May and Daisy suggest maybe the Cybertech scientists could save him, but he’s not interested. He’d rather die than be the new version of John Garrett, but the girls won’t hear of it. They get Caine to help them find a way to save Coulson, even though that supposedly keeps Earth on the road to destruction according to Elena’s clone.

Elena, meanwhile, has her own problems of living without arms. She is worried it’s a sign they can’t break the time loop. Jemma tries to reassure Elena they will rewrite the future.

Sure enough, Mack decides he can use arms from one of Hale’s robots, and make Elena quick and bionic.

One more thing:  the crack set off another illusion when Deke thinks he sees his mom. She even hints maybe he should be interested in Daisy, and that it’s important to take small steps as long as he’s in the right direction. It’s advice she got from her mother, who of course is Jemma. However, that illusion is broken by another Kree warrior that “kills” her. He’s able to get rid of him, too.

Then Deke hears Jemma giving the same advice from his “mom” to Elena. He figures out he’s the grandson of Fitz and Simmons. He doesn’t reveal this to Jemma, but makes a comment to Fitz as he walks away. The only thing left is the newly married Fitz-Simmons also figuring it out.

The episode maintained hope the agents can save the world, and they could beat Hale and her crew for now. Things are likely to change. An old enemy returns next week, and he’s made some changes.