Closure

"Closure" is the ninth episode of the third season of ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the fifty-third episode of the series overall. It aired on December 1, 2015. It was written by Brent Fletcher and directed by Kate Woods.

Plot
While Coulson and Price are having dinner at her apartment, Ward fatally shoots Price through the window with a long-distance sniper rifle, and then calls Coulson to claim responsibility, revealing that Hydra is planning to reopen the portal to the barren planet, Maveth. Evading Hydra agents, Coulson returns to the Playground and interrogates May, Daisy, Fitz and Simmons about their time working with Ward on the Bus, hoping to find his weaknesses and exact his revenge.

Devising a plan to draw Ward out, Coulson enlists Hunter and Morse to help him, and orders Mack to become acting director while he is carrying out his plan. They track down and kidnap Thomas, Ward's younger brother, who co-operates fully once he understands the situation. Fitz, Simmons, and an ATCU team led by Banks investigate the abandoned Project Distant Star facility, but they are attacked by Giyera, who kills Banks and his agents and abducts Fitz and Simmons, bringing them to the Gloucestershire castle, where Hydra are repairing the portal manipulator. Giyera tortures Simmons to get her to reveal how she escaped from Maveth, while Ward makes Fitz listen for the same purpose.

Coulson calls Ward to inform him of his brother's abduction, and Thomas keeps him on the phone long enough for Morse to track his location, taking the opportunity to deride him as even worse than their parents and Christian. Furious, Ward takes over Simmons' torture until Fitz finally gives in, agreeing to accompany the Hydra team through the portal and help them bring back the ancient Inhuman (though he hopes to leave the creature and the Hydra agents there, and instead rescue Will). Malick convinces Ward to lead the mission to Maveth, declaring him the finest Hydra soldier in history and the only man worthy of this task. While Mack marshals a taskforce (including Lincoln and Joey) to launch an assault on the castle, Coulson, Hunter and Morse get there first in their quinjet, just as Malick opens the portal using the Monolith pieces. After Ward and his team go through with Fitz, Coulson dives from the quinjet into the portal, and is knocked unconscious upon landing on Maveth.

Starring

 * Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson
 * Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May
 * Brett Dalton as Grant Ward
 * Chloe Bennet as Daisy Johnson / Quake
 * Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz
 * Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons
 * Nick Blood as Lance Hunter
 * Adrianne Palicki as Bobbi Morse
 * Henry Simmons as Alphonso "Mack" MacKenzie
 * Luke Mitchell as Lincoln Campbell

Guest Starring

 * Powers Boothe as Gideon Malick
 * Constance Zimmer as Rosalind Price
 * Juan Pablo Raba as Joey Gutierrez
 * Andrew Howard as Luther Banks
 * Mark Dacascos as Giyera
 * Tyler Ritter as Thomas Ward

Trivia

 * This episode scored 3.84 million viewers upon its initial airing.