'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' Recap: 'Laws of Nature'

— -- The third season premiere of Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." kicked off Tuesday in a trashed apartment, showing somebody's morning routine has gone very wrong.

The camera pans from spilled juice and fish oil supplements in the kitchen to the ashy evidence that somebody has transformed into a super-powered Inhuman.

The path of destruction leads from a hole in the building's wall to chaos on the street below, where people run in terror from a very confused man (Juan Pablo Raba) who has apparently gained the ability to melt metal at will.

Armed agents pull weapons on the confused Inhuman, who accidentally detonates a car when the agents try taking him into custody.

Breaking away, he hides in an alley just as his pursuers are literally blown across the street by none other than Daisy (Chloe Bennet), who, thanks to last season's exposure to Terrigen Crystals, became an Inhuman herself, blessed/cursed with seismic abilities.

Flanked by her S.H.I.E.L.D. teammates Mac (Henry Simmons) and Hunter (Nick Blood) she gives a quick meet and greet to the man we now know as Joey, before he's whisked to safety by a rocket-powered pod that takes him to the team's shiny new flying HQ.

On the ground, we spot Coulson (Clark Gregg) -- now retrofitted with a prosthetic hand to replace the one lost in last season's finale -- snapping pics of the armed unit's apparent leader (Constance Zimmer).

Aboard the "Bus," Bobbi (Adrianne Palicki) tells Joey that, like all Inhumans, his unique, alien-spiked DNA awakened his powers when he was accidentally exposed to the Terrigen that entered the food chain via his fish oil supplements. She, and later Daisy, also try to comfort Joey, which proves impossible when he learns he's being hunted after his super-powered "coming out."

We learn Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) has been literally spanning the world to find anything that could shed light on the power of the mysterious monolith that sucked in his lab partner/love interest Simmons. With that in mind, in Morocco, Fitz scams some thugs for an ancient maguffin, barely escaping with his life.Stateside, Coulson learns the mystery woman is Rosalind Price, and she's after Inhumans, too. An attempt by Coulson and Hunter to corner her on a train, backfires, however, and she and Coulson verbally spar, with each mistakenly blaming the other for a series of grisly Inhuman murders.

Mac and Daisy attempt to recruit lightning-powered Lincoln (Luke Mitchell) to help with Joey's transition, but Lincoln wants nothing to do with the pair -- until he's targeted by Lash (Matthew Willig), a monstrous mutant who quickly reveals himself to be the real Inhuman killer. The trio manage to fight him off, but Lash escapes to fight another day.

The Inhuman situation is spreading, as the Terrigen in the food supply begin enhancing people the world over. Thanks to the catastrophic events that have taken place in New York (as portrayed in "The Avengers"), London ("Thor: The Dark World"), and Sokovia in Eastern Europe ("Avengers: Age of Ultron"), people are nervous, leading President Ellis (William Sadler, reprising his "Iron Man 3" role) to publicly authorize Price's Advanced Threat Containment Unit to try to keep order -- while also denying the food chain connection.

With the artifact's clue a bust, Fitz loses it, and shoots his way into the protective room that contains the monolith, pleading in vain with the stone to do something -- anything -- that could lead him to Simmons.

In the episode's final moments, however, we find Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) marooned on a blue-tinged planet that doesn't appear to be the third rock from the sun.

Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." returns next Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.