Agents of SHIELD Kills Ruby Hale

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for "All Roads Lead...", the latest episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Ruby Hale just met her untimely end. In "All Roads Lead...", the latest episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., she entered the particle infusion chamber and successfully bonded her cells with gravitonium, which gifted her with an array of new powers. However, before Ruby could unleash her powers on the planet, Yo-Yo used her super speed to kill her with her own weapon.

Ruby's time in the chamber didn't go exactly as planned. Though she successfully coerced Fitz and Simmons into fixing the machine, the gravitonium posed a major problem, in that it still contains the essence of Ian Quinn and Franklin Hall. So, as the procedure got underway, she noticed something wrong -- and then began to scream.

As this went down, Daisy, May and General Hale infiltrated the base. They were close enough to hear Ruby's cry, which sent Hale running. She entered the room to find Ruby screaming in the chamber, while Werner von Strucker waved a gun at Fitz and Simmons and accused them of sabotage.

"No, it's not the machine!" Hale confirmed. "Shut it down!"

Fitz quickly obliged, stopping the procedure at 8% completion. When the chamber opened, Ruby flew out -- literally. She dangled a few feet above the ground for a moment, before she collapsed to the floor and started yelling again. "They're screaming! They're fighting!" she howled.

Werner dropped to the ground to comfort her, but that proved to be a fatal mistake. "I've got you. I'm not going anywhere," he whispered, caressing her face. As she reached out to him for help, her powers kicked in. His skull collapsed under the sheer force of her gravitonium powers, killing him almost instantly as everyone watched in horror.

Staring at her hands, Ruby began to sob. "I didn't mean to!" she said. She then experienced a few flashbacks from Quinn and Hall. "Get out of me! Please make it stop!" she begged. "Please put me back in the machine! Get it out of me!"

When Simmons told her the chamber "only works one way," Ruby used her powers to fling them up against the wall. "You lied! You always do that!" she cried, echoing Hall's words.

Hale intervened, which freed Fitz and Simmons' from Ruby's hold. As Ruby sobbed, Hale comforted her daughter, promising to figure out what was wrong. This allowed Fitz, Simmons and May time to escape, but Daisy chose to stay and help control the situation.

Eventually, Hale was able to get through to Ruby using their connection as mother and daughter. As Hale calmed Ruby down, Yo-Yo entered from a back door. She witnessed Ruby using her powers and put two-and-two together: Ruby was now the Destroyer of Worlds. Realizing this, Yo-Yo took action and slit Ruby's throat, which led Yo-Yo to believe "I just saved the world." Ruby then collapsed to the floor and died in her mother's arm, but not before expelling a gravity boom that knocked everyone out.

Unfortunately for Daisy and her team, Hale came around first. She managed to escape, but left her daughter's body bleeding out on the floor. She went straight from the scene of her daughter's death to the Confederacy, where she called for Qovas. "I found what you're looking for," she said. "S.H.I.E.L.D. has it. I can tell you where they're hiding. They won't give it willingly."

"You'd have me kill them," Qovas asked, to which she replied, "I have no reason to stop you."

This last exchange between Hale and Qovas implies that the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents will have to face a full-on alien invasion in the coming episodes. Judging by what S.H.I.E.L.D. learned in the future, that could mark the beginning of the end -- and it all comes down to Hale's grief at Ruby's death. Now that she has no daughter to fight for, it seems as though she is willing to let the Confederacy overtake the planet, even though she was originally willing to work with S.H.I.E.L.D. to prevent that from happening.

Airing Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 5 stars Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Henry Simmons, Ian De Caestecker, Natalia Cordova-Buckley and Elizabeth Henstridge.

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