Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 Premiere: Shadows Recap With Spoilers

The episode opens in Austria in 1945. Following the death of the Red Skull, Hydra agents are regrouping and gathering up whatever artifacts they can gather from their stores. One in particular is of interest, an advanced and metallic looking object that seems to have killed several other Hydra agents with just a touch.

The Hydra agents are interrupted when Agent Peggy Carter and the Howling Commandos storm the base. They capture the Hydra Agents and retrieve Hydra's artifacts for the SSR. The artifacts will be boxed up and put into storage. We catch a glimpse of one with a familiar blue hue. The advanced artifact the Hydra agents were looking at previously is placed into a box marked SSR 084. Carter and Dum Dum Dugan discuss the need for an organization like the SSR, but one that could function during peacetime, to keep an eye on all this new technology and people like Howard Stark who love to tinker with it.

Shift to the present day. May, Skye, and Tripp are monitoring Izzy Hartley and Lance Hunter purchasing information regarding the SSR 084 from a now unemployed former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Browning. He says the box, and hundreds of other items, are now in the possession of the government. The sale is interrupted when Crusher Creel, the Absorbing Man, charges in, kills the ex-agent, and runs off with the intelligence after shrugging off some bullets. Coulson's team reveals themselves to Hartley and Hunter, who aren't pleased. Hartley calls in to Coulson for orders. He tells them to go dark.

General Glenn Talbot is on television, advocating for the imprisonment of all S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra agents. He mentions that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been completely disassembled.

May, Skye, Tripp, Hartley, Hunter and another man who goes by Idaho return to base. A tech agent named Mac is disappointed that they didn't bring anything home. Agent Bill Koenig tells them that Coulson is at the base, and they all seem impressed. He wants to meet alone with May. May is annoyed that Coulson hasn't checked in in two weeks. Coulson is disappointed with how few people are still possibly loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. and how much travelling he has to do to meet them face to face. He's forced to fly commercial because the cloaking on The Bus is still out. He does say he made some friends in London. May gives Coulson the file they procured. He sees the SSR stamp and remembers it from Fury's toolbox as the very first 084, only known for the trail of bodies it leaves behind it.

Creel enters an armored truck and contacts Hydra. He receives a gift for being successful: a bag of rare diamonds, some of the strongest in the world. Creel absorbs the substances properties and transforms into diamond.

May tells Hartley's team that Coulson requires their presence. Skye walks in. May asks if she brought the material that was chipped off of Absorbing Man to the lab. Skye says she did. May asks about the mood in the lab. Skye says it's as good as can be expected.

In the lab, Simmons is telling Fitz what they should be doing with the materials, but Fitz is non-responsive, but then reveals that he's already listening for the frequencies that Simmons was asking about. In conversation, Fitz seems to have a lot of trouble recalling words. Simmons asks him about his medication. He's frustrated with how slow he's moving on his projects. May enters and asks about the material. The material turns to flesh and starts to bleed. May offers to help examine it.

Hartley's team is describing their encounter with Absorbing Man to Coulson. Hunter mentions that they usually get better pay for dealing with people with powers. May enters and identifies Creel as someone who used to be on the index, until he was crossed off by John Garrett, likely when recruited to Hydra.

Skye and Tripp are discussing how weird the Koenigs are while Skye stares at the strange writing left behind by Garrett. Coulson enters and asks Tripp to leave. Coulson wants her to go "down there." Skye isn't excited, and is a little annoyed that it takes this much to get one-on-one time with Coulson.

Koenig brings Skye to Vault D, describing all of the various security measures in place. It's where they're keeping Ward. Skye asks him about Creel and shrugs off Ward's pleasantries and small talk. Ward says Creel sounds familiar and asks to see a picture. Skye notices lots of signs of self-abuse on Ward, but she shows no sympathy. Ward tells her about Creel's history as a boxer and his ability to absorb a substance's properties and how much he enjoys killing. He tells her about white noise in between S.H.I.E.L.D. frequencies that Hydra used to communicate, saying that they're likely still using them. Ward says he'll never tell Skye a lie ever again. Skye cuts him off before he can offer her information about her father. The information checks out. They use it to see that Talbot hasn't defeated Hydra, just driven them into hiding.

Tripp bumps into Talbot in public, planting a phone on him. Coulson calls Talbot on the phone, warning him that he's in danger. Talbot doesn't listen, breaks and throws away the phone before calling for his own reinforcements. Creel attacks him, and May shows up to fend him off. Creel absorbs and uses ball and chain as a weapon. Skye electrocutes him with a stun weapon. Talbot's backup shows up, but he is whisked away by May's team.

Talbot's men have Creel in containment, but Coulson has Talbot in his own interrogation room. Coulson says he wants to work together. Coulson tries to talk some sense into Talbot, offering to work together, saying that S.H.I.E.L.D. saves lives whether they want them to or not. Talbot gets riled up and grabs his restraints, allowing Koenig to get fingerprints. Fitz is jealous of Koenig's analysis, but Simmons offers reassurance. Fitz says he still has idea, he's just having trouble expressing them and wishes everyone would stop treating him like he's so fragile.

Talbot says his team has Creel in containment, but Coulson says that's what he wanted because he wants something stored in that facility. Talbot says he will never help Coulson. Coulson shoots him with a stun gun and Talbot wakes up in a car. He makes a call and gives order, not knowing that he's speaking to Koenig.

The team is gearing up to get into the facility, but Hartley's team questions the logic of storming a facility when the government has Creel and the object on lockdown. Coulson says this is a big moment, and that the object isn't the only thing they're after. Tripp shows up in full uniform.

At the facility, Creel appears to have vanished from his cell. In actuality, he absorbed the clear plastic to become translucent, tricking the guards into opening the cell up. Meanwhile, Coulson's field team is gaining access to the facility under the disguise of being a visiting general and his entourage. The guards try to keep him out at first, but Coulson calls the phone and uses voice modulation to pretend to be Talbot, distracting them long enough for Skye to hack their system and put their fake general on the agenda.

They enter the storage facility, which has items for them to search through. Skye and May are clearly looking for something other than the original 084. Creel is camouflaged and hiding in the room. Hartley finds the 084. She opens it up and then is attacked by Creel. She picks up the 084 and her skin begins changing color as she screams in pain. The rest of the team finds her and chases off Creel, but she says she can't let go.

Hunter is in a rush to get Hartley out as the alarm sounds, but Skye and May still haven't found the other item they're looking for. They call Coulson for orders, and he says to not abort. Hunter carries Hartley out anyway. The reminder of the team come under fire from Talbot's men.

As they're escaping in the vehicle, Hartley says the item is killing her and orders Hunter to cut it off. She says it's amazing what they can do with robotics these days. May's team find what they were looking for – a Quinjet – and make their own escape. He says that Fitz thinks he can fix the cloaking, but Coulson doesn't think he can do anything. Fitz has severe damage to his temporal lobe, and he's only gotten worse since Simmons left. The Simmons he has been talking to is all in his head.

Creel catches up with Hartley's getaway vehicle, absorbs the asphalt of the street and lets the car crash into him, overturning it. He finds Hartley's severed arm, still holding the 084. He absorbs the rubber of the vehicles tire and then picks it up. Hunter wakes up and sees Hartley's dead body.

The Hydra agent Creel spoke to earlier reports the results of Creel's mission to a Dr. Whitehall, the same Hydra Agents who Carter took the 084 from in the first place.