Director Mace speaks at a public event honoring Daisy. Daisy spots a sniper. Mace throws the podium he was using to stop the fire. Daisy stops the sniper, but not before an agent dies. 

Director Mace is taken to safe house and General Talbot takes charge of S.H.I.E.L.D. in his absence. Fitz urges Radcliffe to avoid S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ for a few days, but Radcliffe worries that without him there to watch over LMD May, her actions may draw suspicion. 

Daisy confronts the sniper, who claims that the attempted assassination was only phase one of a larger plan. The quinjet carrying Mace, Coulson and Mack crashes.

Radcliffe and Aida visit unconscious May. Radcliffe confronts Aida about killing Nathanson, but Aida claims she only did it to protect Radcliffe. Radcliffe tells her that the LMD May is a more advanced model than her.

Talbot tell Daisy and May to track down the missing quinjet while Simmons works on restoring communications. Director Mace searches for missing agent Burroughs and his briefcase. Coulson wants to know why the briefcase is so important. They spy a truck with tech to scramble their communications. 

May wakes up and attempts to escape, but is caught by Aida. Radcliffe has to stop Aida from strangling May. Daisy comes across LMD May sitting behind the wheel of Coulson's car, Lola, and asks if May was ever allowed to drive her. LMD May recounts an image from the memory of the real May and voices the opinion that something is off. 

Mace, Mack and Coulson watch a bunch of soldiers collect Burroughs' body -- and the briefcase. Talbot questions the sniper, who is ex-Hydra, about the quinjet crash. Simmons discovers a file called Project Patriot and asks Talbot why he steered her away from it. Talbot tells her there's a reason why Mace is never too far away from the briefcase. 

Coulson and Mack take out the soldiers while Mace grabs the briefcase. It contains a syringe, but before Mace can use it a soldier shoots it and breaks it. Turns out, Mace is not a real Inhuman; he only has powers when he injects himself with the syringe.

Talbot admits to Fitz and Simmons that they used the serum invented by Daisy's father to give Mace Inhuman powers. Ex-Hydra allies of the assassin show up in the woods to kill Director Mace. 

Simmons joins Talbot in the interrogation room and scares him with the old Aida's severed head. He admits to working with the Watchdogs to take down the quinjet. Coulson encourages Mace to suit up and pretend he has powers to scare the assassins. 

Mace lies and tells the assassins that the briefcase contains a cure for Inhumans. The talks dissolve into an attack. Daisy and LMD May show up in the nick of time to save the day. 

Radcliffe realizes that the relaxing simulation for May was rejected because she is more relaxed when in conflict. They decide to create a simulation where she has something to attack. Fitz tries to restore power to the old Aida's head without SImmons knowing. 

Coulson confronts Talbot about his decision to turn Director Mace into a fake Inhuman. Mace asks Talbot to leave the room, and relays his memories of the attack on Vienna to Coulson. He offers to resign and reinstate Coulson as director, but Coulson tells him they still need him as the face of S.H.I.E.L.D. However, Coulson demands to be back in charge of tactics. LMD May examines an injury she received in battle.