Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S1E3 - "The Asset" Recap

A truck driver is attacked by a mysterious force that sends his massive vehicle into the air before dropping it back smashing on the ground. This is no ordinary truck driver, but a SHIELD agent transporting precious cargo. Some people cut through the truck and the cargo is revealed to be not an object, but a man.

Ward trains Skye with various strengthening exercises and fighting techniques. He tells her every agent has a defining moment but also reveals that SHIELD has no truth serum so his "Level 1 over-share" was just to warm her to the organisation. The group is called in about the crashed truck and learn that Dr. Franklin Hall was the cargo. He was an asset to SHIELD that they had under tremendous protection and previously and advisor to FitzSimmons when they were in school.

At the crime scene, they deduce that only someone who works SHIELD could have known about his location. They also find a tiny object responsible for the "malfunction" in gravity that crashed the cars. They eventually track the payments for the equipment used to carry out the attack and trace it to the corporation Quinn Worldwide, headed by a man named Ian Quinn. Cut to Quinn in Malta, where in an underground facility, he has Dr. Hall hostage. They discuss the fact that they used to be students together at Cambridge. Enter a theoretical element known as gravitonium that simply put, could bend or even change the laws of gravity. Hall's research developed the theory but Quinn was the one who used his massive resources to locate (or create?) gravitonium. The object found on the scene is a prototype of the element's powers harnessed and FitzSimmons learn this from studying it. Meanwhile, Quinn has begun working on an even bigger version of this that he wants Hall to assist work on.

Agent Coulson and the other agents are trying to figure out a way to rescue Dr. Hall without violating any laws since Quinn's base being in Malta could create an international incident. But since Skye is not technically an agent (yet), she volunteers and when Ward tries to object, she reveals that she's gotten herself an invitation through her connections with the Rising Tide. Ward continues to object but Coulson overrules him and agrees that sending her in is their best option. In private, Ward reveals to Skype during another training session that his older brother used to "beat the crap out of" both him and their younger brother.

Skye is able to charm Quinn enough that he offers her a job. She appears tempted and it's unclear whether she's merely convincing with her cover or if she's re-considering her loyalty to SHIELD. But in the end, she stays true to SHIELD. When Coulson reaches Dr. Hall, he learns that Quinn is building the machine so that it will destroy the entire compound and stop Quinn. As it begins to work, the gravity on the compound begins to malfunction. Ward rescues Skye, and Coulson has to sacrifice Hall by allowing him to fall into the black liquid metal core of his device.

Following the successful mission, Ward and Skye resume their training. Skye confides in Ward that she had a rough upbringing as an orphan and foster child. In the final scene, we see what's left of the device being stored in a SHIELD vault for safe-keeping. But as the camera stays on the liquid core, a hand reaches out from it.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs on Tuesdays on ABC at 8/7c.