Hive commandeers a missile silo in order to launch the warhead containing the Primitive pathogen, but Melinda May, Mack, Lincoln Campbell and Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez infiltrate the facility to stop him, having been provided with his location by Daisy.
Meanwhile, Glenn Talbot and Leo Fitz manipulate the U.S. military into giving nuclear override codes to Coulson, enabling the team to prevent the warhead's launch.
While Fitz (having just found Mack's mislaid crucifix) ensures Hive is secure, Giyera remotely detonates a gas bomb smuggled into the Playground, which releases the pathogen into the hangar, transforming five agents into Primitives.
In April 2016, Marvel announced that the twenty-first episode of the season would be titled "Absolution", to be written by Chris Dingess and Drew Z. Greenberg, with Billy Gierhart directing.
[2] In April 2016, Marvel revealed that main cast members Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, Nick Blood, Adrianne Palicki, Henry Simmons, and Luke Mitchell would star as Phil Coulson, Melinda May, Hive, Daisy Johnson, Leo Fitz, Jemma Simmons, Lance Hunter, Bobbi Morse, Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie, and Lincoln Campbell, respectively.
[1] It was also revealed that the guest cast for the episode would include Axle Whitehead as James, John Hannah as Holden Radcliffe, Natalia Cordova-Buckley as Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez, Mark Dacascos as Giyera, Adrian Pasdar as Brigadier General Glenn Talbot, Derek Phillips as Agent O'Brien, Patrick John Hurley as General Andaz, Dorian Gregory as Undersecretary Walter Thomas and Hart Turner as Hudson.