Chapter Summaries

Evenson pranked Skye, who retaliated by smashing a basin into his face. Outside Skye’s room, Melinda warned Coulson that Evenson’s growing power might mean he was no longer truly human.

• Evenson secretly put Skye’s hand in warm water, and she rushed out of her room in a panic after wetting herself.
• Skye struck Evenson in the face with a stainless steel basin, then went to change while Evenson remained unharmed.
• Coulson confronted Evenson about provoking Skye, and Evenson said the prank would keep her from doing anything reckless before taking revenge.
• Melinda told Coulson that Evenson’s power came from extraordinary knowledge and had grown stronger, and she questioned what would happen if he seriously examined himself.

Melinda analyzed Evenson’s apparent humanity with Coulson, arguing that his cowardice, indifference, and obsession with money unconsciously anchored him to his human origins. She feared that as Evenson recognized how abnormal he was, he would eventually become wholly nonhuman, leaving S.H.I.E.L.D. unable to reason with him by human logic.

• Melinda told Coulson that Evenson’s claims of knowing his limits mostly concealed his cowardice and his habit of yielding to everyone.
• Melinda warned that Evenson might already suspect he was an anomaly, and Coulson realized that something possibly nonhuman had gone into Skye’s room.
• Coulson suggested Evenson had concealed his abnormality, but Melinda recalled that he had confessed everything to S.H.I.E.L.D. within minutes of meeting them.
• Melinda explained that Evenson’s killing intent usually intimidated people rather than preceded their deaths, while his actual killings showed complete indifference.
• Melinda argued that Evenson’s money obsession and vile personality unconsciously tied him to humanity, but she feared he would eventually examine himself and become entirely nonhuman.

Melinda warned Coulson that Evenson might either reject humanity or decide he alone was human, and she feared he would try to transform others through the powers he gave them. She suspected his interest in Umbrella Corporation was part of that plan, leaving Coulson hoping to send Evenson away to Asgard.

• Melinda argued that Evenson might abandon human society if he chose godhood, while Coulson hoped his departure would end S.H.I.E.L.D.'s run of disasters.
• Melinda warned that Evenson might instead identify as the only human and regard everyone else as lesser beings.
• Melinda explained that Evenson had given her green fire powers because he wanted to elevate her into what he considered human.
• Coulson realized Evenson might try to spread his transformation to others, and Melinda linked his interest in Umbrella Corporation to its biotechnology.
• Coulson considered pooling money to buy Evenson a home in Asgard and send him away.

Melinda warned Coulson that Evenson’s immense power and extreme ideas could make him a danger if he chose to remake humanity, so they agreed to keep him from making that choice. Meanwhile, Skye confronted Evenson about the embarrassing aftermath of her room’s leak, and he teased her about it.

• Melinda described Evenson’s past transformations and warned Coulson that he might become a demon or impose the Umbrella Corporation’s modifications on humanity.
• Coulson feared the consequences if Evenson’s ideals aligned with the Umbrella Corporation, and Melinda urged him to keep Evenson as he was.
• Evenson and Skye sat facing each other after the leak incident, while Skye struggled to speak through her embarrassment.
• Skye accused Evenson of humiliating her by making her draw a map on the bedsheets, and Evenson joked that he had only wanted to check whether she was alive.

Evenson found Skye living in a filthy room and forced her to agree to clean herself before telling him what was wrong. After Skye left for the bathroom, Evenson admitted to himself that he had nearly resorted to knocking her out and washing her himself.

• Evenson visited Skye and mocked the state of her room and bed.
• Evenson refused to hear Skye's problems until she showered and changed into clean clothes.
• Skye resisted until Evenson threatened to share an embarrassing photo he had taken of her sleeping.
• Skye countered by threatening to expose Evenson's browsing history, but Evenson threatened to control her body with Magic.
• Skye went to the bathroom with a towel, toothbrush, and clean clothes, while Evenson breathed a sigh of relief.

Skye confronted Evenson about using her, and he admitted he had deliberately avoided letting her receive CH325, warning that she did not understand how it was made or its true effects. The chapter left Skye awaiting an explanation of the medicine’s dangers.

• Skye walked out to wash up while Coulson and Melinda watched, and they realized she had forgotten to put on pants.
• Coulson praised Evenson for angering Skye enough to get her moving, and Evenson did not understand why the praise sounded insulting.
• After washing and changing, Skye met Evenson in the conference room and demanded to know why he had used her.
• Skye asked Evenson why he had put a strange machine on her when she was gravely injured, and he said he had done it to save her.
• Skye pointed out that Coulson could have used CH325 to save her, and Evenson admitted he had known about the medicine and did not want her to take it because she did not understand its origins or effects.

Evenson told Skye that Coulson’s resurrection had brought back Nahash, a devil from Hell, and warned that Coulson’s buried memories of Hell could resurface and break him. He left Skye fearing that her past leaks might send her to Hell too, though she angrily rejected his accusation.

• Skye demanded to know why Evenson had warned her against using the drug, and he said his remedial work had achieved its intended result without fixing the drug itself.
• Evenson explained that Coulson only looked normal and that the being resurrected in his body was Nahash, the Serpent of Eden and a devil from Hell.
• Evenson reminded Skye that Ghost Rider’s powers came from Hell and said Coulson’s soul had gone there before his resurrection.
• Evenson warned that Coulson’s memories of Hell, buried beneath false memories made by Nick Fury and himself, could return and cause Coulson to break down.
• Evenson suggested Skye might also go to Hell because of secrets she had leaked while working with the Rising Tide Organization, and Skye angrily rejected the charge.

Evenson explained that the Rising Tide Organization had sold S.H.I.E.L.D. intelligence to clients, including Hydra and other agencies, rather than pursuing information freedom. Skye realized she had unknowingly helped the operation and worried about where she would go after death.

• Evenson told Skye that Hydra used its cover identities to access some S.H.I.E.L.D. intelligence, while other information required covert methods.
• Evenson revealed that intelligence agencies around the world had used the Rising Tide Organization to obtain S.H.I.E.L.D. secrets.
• Skye recalled that the organization had released little of the intelligence she stole and realized its members had been selling secrets to clients.
• Evenson told Skye that some leaked intelligence might have saved lives, while other information might have helped the CIA overthrow countries or start wars.
• Skye worried that her past work might send her to Hell and asked which underworld would claim her soul.
• Evenson joked that the underworld had probably signed extradition agreements and that Mephisto would gladly pass her along.

Skye learned that the resurrection drug came from a Kree corpse and discovered that it had genetically altered Coulson. Evenson warned that the changes made Coulson valuable for research, leaving Skye to fear that she, too, might have been treated as a valuable specimen if she had taken the drug.

• Skye thanked Evenson for saving her, then learned that the medicine used on her was processed fluid from a decomposed Kree corpse and dry-heaved in disgust.
• Evenson explained that the medicine was purified, but warned that extraterrestrial substances could carry dangerous viruses or parasites.
• Skye asked whether the drug had mutated Coulson, and Evenson said Kree genetic engineering in the medicine had caused his resurrection.
• Evenson pointed out that Coulson had become a rare human subject for research into combining Kree genetic engineering with humans.
• Skye feared that she would also have become a research specimen if she had taken the drug, and Evenson joked that someone might instead turn her into a pill.