"Parting Shot" is the thirteenth episode of the third season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
After tracking Malick to Russia, Bobbi and Hunter become involved in an assassination plot; the team is changed forever as they race to save lives in the balance.
Plot[]
Bobbi and Hunter are held prisoner at an Interpol black site in Moscow. The Interpol agent in charge of the black site interrogates each of them separately to get them to confess to the assassination of a Russian official. Neither of them says anything of substance to Interpol. When the agent in charge shows Bobbi a picture of the man she's accused of assassinating, he misconstrues her admission that she didn't kill him to mean her ex-husband did, and has his men take Hunter away to face a Russian trial.
39 hours earlier, Bobbi and Hunter track Gideon Malick to Siberia after stowing away on his plane to Russia. The rest of the team oversees their mission from Zephyr One. While surveying the military base where Anton Petrov brought Malick, Hunter shares with Bobbi his growing dissatisfaction with S.H.I.E.L.D. over how soft they are on their enemies. Bobbi spots an Inhuman kept in restraints at the facility, but they themselves are soon spotted by a nearby patrol. After they fight the Russian soldiers, Bobbi and Hunter meet back up with the rest of the team so Mack, May, and Daisy can join them in infiltrating the base. Once inside, Hunter and May find the body of a member of the Prime Minister's attaché. Meanwhile, the rest of the infiltration team makes their way into the base's computer room so Daisy could hack into their system and keep a remote eye on Gideon Malick. Bobbi steals a Russian soldier's clothes so she can get closer to the meeting between Gideon Malick and Anton Petrov. She overhears Petrov tell Malick that the Russian Prime Minister is opposed to idea of building a sanctuary state for Inhumans on Russian soil only because his opposition supports it. General Androvich, himself an Inhuman, killed the Prime Minister's staff member in his rage, and Petrov currently has him imprisoned on the base. Rather than keep him in chains, Malick suggests they use the general's abilities to eliminate the Prime Minister before he could further get in their way.
The team finds out that the Prime Minister is already on his way to the base, giving them only a short amount of time to stop Malick's coup. Mack, meanwhile, discovers a mysterious figure on the camera footage that FitzSimmons believes to be an Inhuman assassin. Petrov and the general greet the Prime Minister when he arrives at the facility just as the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on the ground surround the room. The Prime Minister realizes that Petrov and his men are all traitors when he mentions the missing member of his attaché. Before Petrov's men can harm the Prime Minister, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team throws down smoke bombs to engage them. Hunter grabs the Prime Minister while Bobbi, Daisy and Mack try to contain General Androvich and May fights the rest of Petrov's men. While trying to escape the base, Hunter kills Anton Petrov before he can kill the Prime Minister. The general, however, realizes what's going on and sends his shadow the figure Mack saw in the footage earlier to fight the three agents. FitzSimmons believes the shadow is actually a manifestation of the Darkforce that can act on its own. The general escapes while Daisy, Bobbi and Mack fight his shadow. Nothing they do has any effect on the entity, however. It leaves after easily taking down Mack and Daisy, and soon sets its sights on the Prime Minister. The shadow soon corners its target, and Hunter has no more luck fighting it than his comrades. With no other options remaining, Bobbi finds General Androvich and kills him, causing the shadow to disintegrate. Before they can enjoy their victory, Russian soldiers swarm the facility and arrest Bobbi and Hunter.
Back in the present day, Interpol reunites Bobbi and Hunter in one interrogation room and gives them some time alone. As they consider their options, both of them realize there's no way they can both get out of this. The Prime Minister, President Ellis, and Coulson (pretending to be an advisor to the ATCU) watch all of this from the other side of the two-way mirror. Coulson goes into the interrogation room to speak with them. He uses his fake hand to temporarily disable Interpol's audio, allowing them to speak in private. Coulson tells them what they need to do so the extraction team could pick them up, but both Bobbi and Hunter refuse rather than risk exposing the rest of the team. Interpol clears them of any charges, and the Prime Minister allows them to return to the United States. When Coulson returns to the plane without Bobbi and Hunter, he reveals to the rest of his team that they aren't coming back.
Some time later, Bobbi and Hunter are at a bar talking about what they should do next now that they aren't S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. A waitress gives them a drink paid for by someone who chose to remain anonymous. The two of them look around the bar and see Simmons sitting at a booth. More drinks start coming their way, and they realize the rest of their team is there, giving them a "spy's goodbye."
Elsewhere, Gideon Malick meets with his daughter, Stephanie, while shooting clay pidgeons. She asks him when she can finally meet their "guest." Gideon says their "guest" is still coming together and, and he still hasn't figured out what he's planning. Stephanie, however, seems to know what his plans are, to change the world.
Cast[]
- Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson
- Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May
- Brett Dalton as Hive
- Chloe Bennet as Daisy Johnson/Quake
- Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz
- Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons
- Nick Blood as Lance Hunter
- Adrianne Palicki as Bobbi Morse
- Henry Simmons as Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie
- Luke Mitchell as Lincoln Campbell
- Powers Boothe as Gideon Malick
- William Sadler as Matthew Ellis
- Ravil Isyanov as Anton Petrov
- Kristof Konrad as General Androvich
- Ivo Nandi as Inspector Duval
- Bethany Joy Lenz as Stephanie Malick
- Endre Hules as Prime Minister Dimitri Olshenko
- Julia Aks as Waitress
- Roman Varshavsky as FSO agent
- Vladimir Orlov as Russian soldier
Continuity and References to the Marvel Cinematic Universe[]
- Stephanie Malick is introduced.
- Gideon Malick appears.
- Matthew Ellis appears.
- Darkforce appears.
- Carl Creel is mentioned.
- Glenn Talbot is mentioned.
- Grant Ward is mentioned.
- Lincoln Campbell is mentioned.
- Andrew Garner is mentioned.
- Joseph Stalin is mentioned.
- Hive is mentioned.
- World Security Council is mentioned.
- Advanced Threat Containment Unit is mentioned.
Trivia[]
- Bobbi Morse's codename "Bird" is a reference to her codename from the comics, "Mockingbird".
- Daisy mentioned dating a Russian hacker, this could be a reference to Kurt Goreshter from Ant-Man.
- This episode is a backdoor pilot for the "Marvel's Most Wanted" series set for the 2016/2017 season. The show will feature Bobbi & Hunter's adventures post S.H.I.E.L.D.
Gallery[]
