Making Friends and Influencing People

Making Friends and Influencing People is the third episode of the second season of the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the twenty-fifth episode overall.

Synopsis
Coulson and his team race against HYDRA to get to Donnie Gill--a dangerous gifted with the ability to freeze objects--while Simmons is caught in the crossfire.

Plot
Daniel Whitehall pours himself a drink. He says the first time he drank it was when he first enlisted. It was bland and immature, but has increased with value over time. He is talking to a woman called Agent 33 who is hooked up to a device that is holding her eyes open while she stares at a screen of hypnotic shifting shapes. He speaks to her in a hypnotic tone, inviting her to submit. She refuses and he says they'll start over. Jemma Simmons wakes up and gets ready for work. She walks there, having a happy, normal day and dropping her fast food breakfast in the trash. She is greeted by a security guard named Theo at the door. She goes down to a lab. Another man greets her, noting that she's early, and brushes her off. A HYDRA insignia is on the wall.

Agent Melinda May is training Agent Skye in control. She scolds her for thinking of Ward when she fires her gun, but gives her credit for keeping her heartbeat steady. Alphonso Mackenzie and Lance Hunter show up. Hunter questions Skye's credibility as an agent, having not gone to S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy. He asks if she's ever killed anyone. She hasn't. May tells Hunter to beat it, and reassures Skye that experience only goes so far. Coulson shows up and tells May that Hydra got Agent 33.

Simmons' boss is breathing down her neck, saying he's been called upstairs and need her results. She says something about cells creating trace amounts of liquid nitrogen. She sees Donnie Gill in the file her boss is holding.

Donnie is at a sunny cafe. He gets in a disagreement with the owner and then freezes him. Two men in suits show up. He freezes one and the other runs off. He takes the Lead HYDRA agent's phone and leaves.

Simmons returns home. She hears someone else inside. She pulls a gun out of her purse. She turns the corner to find Phil Coulson. Coulson mocks her empty kitchen. She mentions that maybe their dead drop shouldn't involve fast food. He brought groceries and offers to cook while she debriefs.

Simmons tells Coulson about Gill, that he must have some kind of powers and hypothesizes about the storm machine being struck by lightning. She has no solid info because she's being kept sequestered. He tells her to make relationships and she says she can't be Ward. She asks how everyone is, and Coulson says Fitz is fine.

Coulson thinks they must be trying to recruit Gill. He debriefs his team. He wants to bring Gill in before HYDRA can. He asks Leo Fitz for help, since Fitz knows him best. He struggles to speak, but with Mack's help says Gill has trouble making friends.

Skye is trying to get info from Grant Ward. Ward says he was never loyal to HYDRA, only to Garrett. He says his family tore him down and that Garrett built him up as he wanted. He says every family has its secrets, including Skye's, but she cuts him off. He tells them about HYDRA's protocol as it concerns the "gifted", which is recruit or kill. He says this amorality is why HYDRA will win.

Donnie is standing near a freighter on a dock and freezes the water.

Simmons tries to make friends at the HYDRA Laboratories. Her boss says she's wanted upstairs for questioning on a security matter. Two men come to escort her up. She goes up an elevator and is lead to a conference room where Sunil Bakshi is waiting and accuses her of lying.

Bakshi starts to grill her, calling her out for not informing her supervisor that she knew the subject of Project Blizzard. She covers by saying she didn't know who the subject was until yesterday, which is true. She goes on to say she barely knew Gill. Bakshi asks if she's loyal to HYDRA. Simmons says she's loyal to science, so as long as those loyalties match up she's loyal to HYDRA.

Whitehall continues his reeducation of Agent 33. Bakshi asks for his help, but Whitehall says he trusts him to make the decisions.

Coulson and team hear about the frozen ship in the sea. They prepare to leave on the Bus. Mack suggests that he and Fitz play Xbox with their free night, but Fitz is upset because he's not going on the mission.

Simmons' escorts bring her to a team gathered by Bakshi, who are going out to find Gill. She will go with them.

Gill is on the ship, saying he's going to make an example to HYDRA to get them to leave him alone, and then freezes the shipman he was talking to.

Fitz is talking to his imaginary Simmons. She tells him he's being paranoid and to stay out of wherever he's going, but he says she's not really here and she's gone. He enters Ward's cell. Ward says it's good to see him. Fitz is in shock.

At the freighter, Bakshi gives Simmons a communicator and says he'll be in her ear. She goes in.

Lance Hunter and Skye are getting ready to jump out of the Bus with Melinda May. They move out.

Ward tries to explain himself to Fitz, saying that John Garrett expected him to shoot Fitz and Simmons in the head but he gave them a chance to find a way out. He explains what Ward did to him and starts draining the oxygen from Ward's cell. He spills that they're going to find Donnie Gill, and Ward says they don't know what they're walking into. Simmons searches the ship for Gill. Gill shows himself, and asks what side she's on. She says his side. Bakshi tells her to convince him. Coulson's team moves in, taking out a couple of HYDRA soldiers.

Mack is playing Xbox when Fitz runs in and tells him they have to find the Bus.

Simmons continues to try to talk down Gill. He starts getting angry, and Bakshi starts telling Simmons lines to say. She begins saying them and Gill looks groggy.

Mack radios Coulson and tells him that Fitz is saying Gill was brainwashed by HYDRA. Coulson orders the field team to stop HYDRA from talking to Gill. Hunter lines up a shot. Agent May takes out Hunter when she sees Simmons. Alerted, Gill runs. Everyone gives chase. Coulson orders they maintain Simmons' cover. Gill runs into Bakshi, who speaks the brainwashing code and Gill falls under his sway. He covers their trail by freezing the door as they leave. Bakshi orders Gill to freeze the ship, and that no one left inside should leave alive. Hunter and May realize they're trapped. Skye shoots Gill, who falls into the ocean. Skye fakes a shot on Bakshi, allowing Simmons to pretend to save him. They leave, leaving the cargo on the HYDRA ship for S.H.I.E.L.D. to take.

Hunter makes good with May. Skye is monitoring channels, and nobody has found Gill's body. Skye tells May that she doesn't understand why Coulson didn't tell anyone else about Simmons. She's worried. May says she can handle it.

Coulson goes to talk to Fitz. Coulson reminds him that he's still an important part of the team, but saw what he did to Ward. Fitz says he's not a killer. Coulson explains that he hates Ward, but needs to know more about HYDRA. Fitz says Coulson should have told him. Coulson says he didn't want to pile onto him. Coulson says there's a lot more he's hiding, but says Simmons is on assignment and that's why she's made no contact.

Whitehall tells Bakshi that S.H.I.E.L.D. is becoming a problem and he wants to know who is in charge. Agent 33 walks in with a file for Whitehall, and says she's happy to comply. Bakshi asks for authorization to bring Simmons from the lab. He says he trusts her but if he's wrong they'll make her comply.

Skye goes to see Ward. She asks about the brainwashing. He says it's mostly used on high value targets. She asks if it was used on him. He says he wishes he could say it was, but he promised to never lie to Skye, so he tells her it was never used on him. She says she doesn't know what he hopes to achieve with all of this. Ward says he knows something and he wants her to believe him when he says it. He tells her that her father is alive, that he's looking for her, and that someday he'll take her to him, if she lets him. She says they're done and leaves. Outside, Skye's heart beats out of control.

Cast
Main Cast:
 * Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson
 * Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May
 * Brett Dalton as Grant Ward
 * Chloe Bennet as Skye
 * Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz
 * Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons
 * Nick Blood as Lance Hunter

Guest Stars:
 * B.J. Britt as Antoine Triplett
 * Henry Simmons as Alphonso Mackenzie
 * Reed Diamond as Daniel Whitehall
 * Dylan Minnette as Donnie Gill
 * Simon Kassianides as Sunil Bakshi
 * Adam Kulbersh as Kenneth Turgeon
 * Maya Stojan as Agent 33
 * David Diaan as Elias
 * Jarrod Crawford as Lead HYDRA Agent
 * Nicholas Roth as Second HYDRA Agent
 * Mo Darwiche as Ship's Captain
 * Jesse D. Goins as Theo

Locations

 * Playground
 * Vault D
 * HYDRA Laboratories
 * Marrakech, Morocco
 * Casablanca, Morocco
 * Sandbox (mentioned)
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy (mentioned)

Items

 * Inertial Confinement Laser Barrier
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Lanyard
 * I.C.E.R.
 * Holocom
 * The Daily Cadet
 * Atmospheric Moisture Freezing Device (mentioned)

Vehicles

 * Bus
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. SUV
 * Maribel del Mar
 * Lola (mentioned)
 * Valkyrie (toy model)

Organizations

 * S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * HYDRA
 * (mentioned)

Mentioned

 * Isabelle Hartley
 * Idaho
 * Billy Koenig
 * Carl Creel
 * John Garrett
 * Christian Ward
 * Skye's Father
 * Lance Hunter's Ex-Wife
 * Faustus

Trivia

 * The song played at the beginning of the episode is "God Help the Girl" by the band of the same name.
 * The "Maribel Del Mar" is actually the World War II Victory ship S.S. Lane Victory, located in Los Angeles harbor.