I love a good old-fashioned cliffhanger and ABC just gave us a juicy one. Skye's first and last friends on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Lincoln and Mike Peterson, were taken by Hydra. From what we know about the criminal organization, they are in serious danger. Never mind the fact that Hydra still has no idea who poisoned over half of their leaders and they now have two S.H.I.E.L.D.s to fight. Hydra is hot on the "trending" tail of people with superpowers, just like Director Coulson, Robert Gonzales, and Gordon the Inhuman teleporter. Remember, Deathlok may be a cyborg now, but he started off this series as a superhuman who was given powers by Project Centipede, a Hydra group that was within S.H.I.E.L.D. at the time.
Early on in the episode we learned that Ethan, an Inhuman who left Afterlife to go on a seemingly harmless backpacking trip, was kidnapped by Hydra as well. Jiaying and Gordon thought he went missing, but we already knew better. Ethan was experimented on by Dr. List and died on the table. The doctor actually seemed bored and discouraged by his work — did anyone else notice how much luster was lacking in his "Hail Hydra"? Has this man had no other success stories since Wanda and Pietro Maximoff? While Daniel Whitehall wanted to dissect and understand gifted individuals, it seems that List and his Hydra partner Baron Von Strucker have a different goal. My guess is that they want to replicate Inhuman powers.
Here's my question — is there a Hydra mole in Afterlife? How are they able to find the Inhumns so easily? We've only met Gordon, Jiaying, and Lincoln there so far, and I don't want to believe that any of them are evil. We later saw a Hydra woman using a computer to detect "incidents" of quantum entanglement bridges. Put in simplified terms, they're able to locate and have been looking for Gordon, who can teleport.
It's not so easy to catch a human portkey, is it Hydra? Skye and her father were able to escape with Gordon. However, Mike and Lincoln (who had been trailing Skye's daddy/daughter date) got slowed down by a bizarre Hydra weapon and taken in. Lincoln, who studies Inhuman abilities in Afterlife, could be a vital resource for Hydra or Coulson. Let's hope he doesn't end up on List's table before it's too late.
Images: Kelsey McNeal/ABC; Giphy
