Nothing is certain, not even the future.
Yet some of the agents are hoping the future is still true for them as they are looking for Coulson. Meanwhile, Ruby thinks she’s the real Destroyer of Worlds, but actually does a lot of damage.

SPOILERS BELOW…

This week’s episode was a bit of a jumble as two different ways are being used to find Coulson, still trapped by General Hale (Catherine Dent) because he won’t join her insane plan to double-cross the Alien Confederacy. It doesn’t matter if he just has a bare room with no bed or Cap’n Crunch. He’s also not backing down from Creel threatening him.

Daisy thinks she can get Robin the Young Seer (Lexy Kolker) to draw something that will show where Coulson is. She could have Fitz track down where Hale’s gravitonium weapon is located, but she’d rather have him locked up. She’s still upset over what he did in “Devil Complex.”
So, Robin (Lola Glaudini) does help, thanks to a little coaxing from her other mom, Agent May. Robin says Coulson is important to “putting all the pieces together”, but also says he will die. Now, he could die like Buffy Summers in 1997, or it may be more final. The good news is Robin drew a picture of Coulson with Talbot (Adrian Pasdar) for some reason.

Back at the base, the “Invincible Three” aka Simmons, Elena and Fitz do something unfortunate to Mack in order to get Fitz free. He, Elena and Simmons think they will not be killed because they saw the future. Simmons tries to prove this to Mack with an experiment: three glasses of water and a glass with a clear and deadly liquid. Since she says she can’t die yet, she’ll choose the water three straight times. He even pulls a gun to stop her, and it looks like she chose the wrong glass. They beg Mack to free Fitz to help her, but it’s really a trick to trap Mack so Fitz can find Coulson.
It’s a mean thing to do, especially by people who think they’re bulletproof. However, they get small reminders that it could have gone wrong. Simmons almost chose the toxic liquid and Elena almost shot Fitz because she’s getting used to her new arms. That should be a sign they aren’t really bulletproof. It also proves the sooner Coulson returns as the boss, the better.
That being said, Simmons’ acting skills are impressive.

What about Coulson? After telling Creel he won’t join Hale’s “evil league of evil”, not even if he gets a bad horse, he proves Talbot’s trapped, too. They free Talbot, who’s a bit loopy considering what’s happened to him, but Hale finds out about it.  One of Hale’s robots shoots Coulson, and his heart stops. Robin was right that Coulson will die. However, Creel is able to jump-start Coulson’s heart, but that doesn’t mean he’s safe. Lots of threats could be headed towards him.

Talbot and Coulson get to the Chitauri transporter while Creel tries to hold off Ruby in full battle mode. The fight scene is pretty good, and it ends with her stabbing him with her chakram. However, he turns into wood just in time. Hale asks why Ruby almost killed Creel, and she says, “I am the Destroyer of Worlds”. So, Ruby’s off to find Coulson.
Anyway, Coulson and Talbot do land at somewhere cold, and it happens to be at the place where Robin said they would be. Someone will be coming for them, based on the picture.

The episode ends with a scene with two familiar faces from 2014: Raina (Ruth Negga) and Ian Quinn (David Conrad). It’s a piece from season one that wasn’t used, according to this Twitter post. She shows him some gravitonium, courtesy of John Garrett. It’s supposed to be a bond between them, but the gravitonium winds up bonding with Quinn. It explains why Creel thinks the gravitonium hates Coulson and wants him dead. Creel already knows the mineral is alive after he tried to absorb it.
That raises this question: if the gravitorium is infused on anyone, including Ruby, who’s in charge?

Some other thoughts:

Dove Cameron just isn’t impressive as Ruby. While she sees Werner Von Strucker (Spencer Treat Clark) try to put together the chamber that’s supposed to infuse gravitonium into anyone, she mentions that she has trained her whole life for this moment. Thing is, she sounds bored saying it. That could be explained over how she was raised, but she should have more personality.  As I told someone, Dove should have a long talk with Clare Kramer (or maybe Negga) about being a compelling bad girl. She could easily be a blond Faith with more effort.

Robin is calling Agent May “mom”, but Robin’s real mom Polly understands. She’s aware she may not be part of her daughter’s future, but May will make sure Polly is.

Deke still can’t shake his need to stir up trouble for the long con, claiming Daisy is a bit of a harsh master as the temporary SHIELD leader. He may be right, though, because she still doesn’t trust Fitz. Deke also admits traveling through time has scrambled him a bit. He’s still trying to wrap his head around Fitz and Simmons being his grandparents.

Also, Hale is out of uniform. She’s now in Corporate HYDRA mode, no longer an Air Force general. Talbot would complain a lot about that, just as he accuses his mirror reflection of being out of uniform, too. It’s still a good sign that he’s recovering.

The episode was a bit of a place-holder, with the crew lost without Coulson. It’ll take a lot for them to reunite even when he does come back, but it has to happen.
Next week will be a big one for Ruby, as she plans to be the Destroyer of Worlds. She’ll attack her mom, and then someone else (and it’s easy to guess who that is).