Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3 Episode 12: The Inside Man Recap With Spoilers

We flash back to Coulson crushing Ward's chest. We then see the Hive entity enter Ward and he Ward's life flashes by.

In present day, Hive regrets not meeting Ward under different circumstances. Malick says he's made some moves to acquire more Inhumans. He then brings in Lucio, the Inhuman from Colombia with the paralyzing eyes. Lucio is blindfolded, but Hive wants to see his eyes. Giyera takes the blindfold off and flips open Lucio's sunglasses. Lucio paralyzes GIyera and the Hydra guards, but his eyes don't work on Hive. Hive sends a sand ghost of his body into Lucio.

Carla Talbot is leaving Glenn Talbot because Talbot, She's angry that he took the ATCU job. He tries to convince her to stay, but she boards her plane. Talbot is waiting for the plane to take off when Coulson comes up behind him. Talbot is angry, but Coulson says he didn't have a choice since Talbot won't take his calls. They bicker, but they need to prepare for a symposium in Taiwan.

Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D. team is preparing. Fitz thinks Hunter is over preparing, but he says they need to be ready for anything with Inhumans. Fitz loads a glove-making device into the director's cabin. Bobbi and Daisy discuss the purpose of the symposium. Daisy is upset that Inhumans are being treated like a disease, but Bobbi says people fear what they don't understand.

Lincoln is on a field op with May. May talks him through being stealthy and keeping his eyes open as they try to protect Coulson. Talbot thinks the symposium is pointless, but Coulson sees it as an opportunity to gather intelligence. Lincoln spots a mysterious figure following Coulson and Talbot. Coulson is about to leave when Absorbing Man reveals himself. Lincoln runs in and zaps Creel, but Creel absorbs the properties of a rubber tire, making Lincoln's powers useless. Coulson shoots Creel, but the bullets bounce off. May runs in and hits Creel with a tire iron. Creel absorbs the properties of the metal and Lincoln zaps him. Talbot gets out of the car Coulson locked him in and says Creel was here to protect him.

Creel is put in a containment unit at S.H.I.E.L.D. base. Fitz and Simmons question him about his powers, the experiment that gave them to him, and how he touched the Inhuman Obelisk and survived. Fitz and Simmons decide to look into Creel's DNA again.

Hunter is furious that Creel is at the base, but Talbot says he had been brainwashed by Hydra when he killed Hunter's friends. May is suspicious, but Talbot says he's reformed. Talbot insists Creel go to the symposium with them. Coulson agrees, over Daisy and Hunter's protests.

Coulson tells Daisy that she's not on the symposium op. Coulson says symposium rules state no aliens or weapons.

Hive is reading when Malick arrives and asks for a word. Dozens of books lie scattered throughout the room. Malick notes that Hive's body is not improving and suggests another. Hive says he can't inhabit an Inhuman, and that the host body must be dead. He says Ward's body will suffice for now.

Hunter is staring down Creel when May fetches him for a briefing. May says the mission is more important than revenge. May calls him on the fact that he's only an agent because of Bobbi, and that she's not sure she likes the idea of Hunter being the one watching her back.

Coulson briefs the agents on the mission. There will be five other delegates and he's convinced one of them is working for Malick. Coulson goes in under the cover of being a biologist assisting and advising Talbot. Talbot is greeted by Anton Petrov. Coulson shakes Petrov's hands and then does the same with the other delegates to gather their palm prints. They then use Fitz's device to replicate the palm prints on gloves and gain access to the delegates' rooms.

Malick leaves and orders Giyera to stay by Hive's side, but Hive orders Giyera and Lucio to bring him five living humans.

Daisy and Lincoln are sparring back at HQ. Simmons interrupts them just as things begin to get romantic. She needs Lincoln's assistance examining Creel's DNA.

Talbot and Coulson sit down at the table with the other delegates. Coulson tells them the "aliens" prefer the term Inhumans. The other agents begin investigating the delegates' rooms. Petrov offers to establish an Inhuman sanctuary in Russia, but the others are more worried about the potential for an Inhumans arms race. Hunter looks out the window and sees Creel leaving his post. He heads out after him.

Lincoln, Fitz, and Simmons perform an experiment. They take a sample of Daisy's pre-terrigenesis blood and apply Terrigen, causing the expected terrigenesis reaction. When they add Creel's blood, it neutralizes the Terrigen. Creel's blood is like a vaccine against terrigenesis.

May catches an encrypted text from one of the delegates, Ellen King. The text says "move him now." May and Bobbi try to gain access to King's room, Bobbi climbing along the edge of the building and through her window. She blows open a safe that says King has an Inhuman locked up for military experiments.

Hunter finds one of the ATCU's gel containment units with someone inside, but he's knocked out by Creel.

The symposium is about to vote when Talbot interrupts and blows Coulson's cover. Malick arrives and declares that Phil Coulson is the director of Hydra.

Hunter wakes up with a gun in his face, but May and Bobbi arrive to save him. Hunter says it was Talbot's son in the container, and May believes Talbot is being blackmailed by Malick to betray Coulson. They realize the place is crawling with Hydra agents. Luckily, Hunter smuggled some weapons in with him.

Lincoln defends the use of a Terrigenesis vaccine to maintain balance, but Daisy disagrees. She insists being Inhuman is a birthright and not a choice , and that if the government got a vaccine they'd take any choice they had away.

Malick introduces himself to the delegates, then claims that Coulson was trying to manipulate the group into putting the Inhumans into a single place so that he can wipe them all out. They take Coulson away.

Hive observes the humans that Lucio and Giyera brought him. Hive says they are innocents, but they will serve the greater good. He spreads his sand about and GIyera hears screams from outside.

Coulson is taken captive and Talbot wants his son back in exchange. Malick says he can't do that. Talbot is also taken captive, and Malick says they must all be sacrificed for the greater good. Malick tells his men to kill Talbot and Coulson. Talbot and Coulson bicker for a moment before Creel arrives, absorbs a pipe, and takes out the Hydra agents.

Bobbi and Hunter begin storming the building. Talbot explains himself to Coulson. Bobbi and Hunter clear a room. Hunter finds a laser site on him, but Creel kills the shooter. They all meet up with Talbot and Coulson. Coulson sends Bobbi and Hunter after Malick just as May arrives with Talbot's son.

Daisy finds Lincoln in his room and apologizes. Lincoln wishes he had the kind of Zen like control of his powers that Daisy did. Daisy offers to help him, but Lincoln isn't sure that she can. Daisy takes her shirt off and kisses him.

Coulson's team make the return trip home. Talbot holds his son's hand. Coulson says he won't remember anything. They shake hands as partners.

Coulson tells May they managed to pull out King's Inhuman, but Bobbi and Hunter are still looking for Malick.

The five humans are just skeletons and Hive stands covered in their blood and fluids, now looking physically whole.

Malick is on his plane and pours a drink for Anton Petrov. The toast to a sanctuary state for the Inhumans. Beneath their feet, Bobbi and Hunter have stowed away.