Following directly on from "Absolution", Daisy Johnson begs Hive to control her again, but Lash's powers have rendered her immune.
Lincoln defeats James but is badly wounded, and Daisy, having found the crucifix in Fitz's jacket, decides to fulfil her vision of a S.H.I.E.L.D.
Radcliffe is revealed to have been working on a robotics project, the "Life Model Decoy", as part of which he uploads his artificial intelligence AIDA into the prototype android.
In April 2016, Kevin Tancharoen revealed that he would be directing the season's finale, and was "just starting to dive into the treatment and the outline and the script and everything and just getting into it".
[1] Later in the month, Marvel announced that the episode (the twenty-second of the season) would be titled "Ascension", and would be written by executive producer Jed Whedon.
They revealed before the airing of the episode that they would "play a game of hot potato" with the items to keep the identity of the dying character a mystery for as long as possible.
He also admitted that "some of the potato-tossing in the finale is just to mess with viewers": "Some of it's pretty meaningful as it passes hands, and some of it's painful for the audience.
"[3] After the episode reveals Lincoln Campbell to be the "Fallen Agent", the executive producers said that they felt the character earned his "heroic" death after the way he had developed throughout the season.
[5] 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.
[2] 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, Lola Glaudini as Polly Hinton and Amanda Rea as AIDA.