Chaos Theory

"Chaos Theory" is the seventh episode of the third season of ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the fifty-first episode of the series overall. It aired on November 10, 2015. It was written by Lauren LeFranc and directed by David Solomon.

Plot
With Werner von Strucker comatose and hospitalized, May returns to the Playground and learns Andrew is at another facility, the Cocoon, re-assessing Joey Gutierrez. She goes there and confronts Andrew, revealing she knows he is Lash, at which point he panics and shoots her with an Icer. Lincoln secretly meets with Mack, explaining he has deduced how Lash found the other Afterlife Inhumans. Jiaying had a ledger containing a list of their names, which was recovered by SHIELD after her death, meaning someone inside SHIELD is Lash. Meanwhile, Fitz recovers data from the phone Simmons took to the barren planet, and is deeply moved when he finds a recording of her talking about the history of their friendship and the future she imagined them sharing. He also notices similarities between the logo of Project Distant Star and a symbol carved into the Monolith chamber in the Gloucestershire castle.

May awakens in a disused Culver University building, and Andrew explains that Jiaying's ledger was booby-trapped with a Terrigen crystal, which he accidentally triggered six months earlier, causing his Terrigenesis. As his transformations into the Lash form began, he found himself compelled to find other Inhumans, judge their worthiness, and kill them. He broke up with May to protect her from himself, but now he wants her to help him hunt for unworthy Inhumans. He believes she was right to kill Katya Belyakov in Bahrain, and tells her that he is following her example.

Coulson arranges to attend a NORAD meeting with President Ellis, in the guise of Price's consultant. En route Price joins him aboard the new Zephyr plane, but her and Daisy's different attitudes to dealing with new Inhumans cause friction. Upon being joined by Mack and Lincoln, Coulson deduces that Andrew is Lash, and immediately goes in search of him and May, accompanied by Daisy, Mack, Lincoln, Price and an ATCU team. Coulson confronts Andrew and attempts to calm him, but Lincoln attacks Andrew in revenge for the deaths of his Afterlife friends. Transforming, Andrew defeats Lincoln, Mack and Coulson, slaughters the ATCU team, and tries to kill Price, who is saved by Daisy. May intervenes and talks Andrew down, but once he reverts to human form, she shoots him multiple times, forcing him into a containment module.

Agreeing to stay with SHIELD, Lincoln explains that once Andrew's Inhuman transition completes, he will remain in the form of Lash permanently. To slow this process, May agrees to let the ATCU put him in stasis, in the hope that they will find a cure. Coulson goes back to Price's apartment with her, and they have sex. She later calls Gideon Malick (an apparent colleague), who is in the middle of a meeting with Ward.

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
 * Matthew Willig as Lash
 * Blair Underwood as Andrew Garner

Trivia

 * This episode scored 3.49 million viewers upon its initial airing.