Warning: Spoiler Alert
Agent 33 and Grant Ward sit in a diner. All seems innocent enough, until the duo execute an armed robbery. All so that one patron in particular could be kidnapped to fix Agent 33’s face.
The SHIELD team seems almost completely divided. Coulson and Fitz in favor of keeping Skye in the fold, May and Simmons more interested in keeping people safe and powers in check. May in particular feels this whole situation could go south any minute. Removing Skye from the equation is the best option.
The kidnapped gentleman quickly fixed the nano-mask, restoring Agent 33’s face to the complete image of Melinda May’s.
Mack escorts Hunter into the headquarters of the ‘other SHIELD’. In a conference room, Hunter finds three superiors and Gonzalez (played by Edward James Olmos) to debrief Hunter on what exactly is going on. The belief is that SHIELD was supposed to operate with transparency, not operate from the shadows. With Fury out of the picture (or so they think), Coulson is the problem. A difference of philosophy it seems.
Coulson and Skye get on a large jet headed to an undisclosed location. Coulson tells the story of spending time with his Dad fixing an old junker and the appreciation gained. That junker eventually became Lola.
Agent 33 is reluctant to receive Ward’s help with nothing to offer in return. Ward sits at a table in a large hotel room. Agent 33 emerges, except this time she is borderline seductive and the nano-mask has switched from May to Skye. This starts out as you might expect, but ends abruptly. There is even a nice moment where Ward eludes to the prospect of them being together would have to include whoever Agent 33 is. Not some image of a different woman who Ward is familiar with.
Ward sympathizes with 33 and tells his own story of woe. Culminating to the conclusion that 33 needs closure. Bakshi is closure. He is being held by the Air Force. Ward gives her a ring to wear as a means to convince Talbot that she is whoever she is. This time, it’s Talbot’s wife. Once inside, 33 transforms into the first woman in uniform she sees. They begin to execute their plan when Talbot get a call from the real Mrs. Talbot, who is stuck in traffic. Talbot knows immediately that this is the work of the nano-mask again.
Coulson has taken Skye to an old Nick Fury safe house. A cabin in a secluded area where Skye can safely try to get a grip on her powers. It’s actually just a really pleasant prison, or at least that’s how Skye is perceiving it. Simmons has been working on special gloves that will decrease the intensity of Skye’s powers.
Mack returns to the bus and is greeted unceremoniously by May. There is still this gap of information and time. Mack was supposedly out keeping Hunter from getting himself killed in drunken bar fights as his go to move when his heart is broken is to drink. The assumption being that Bobbi ended things. May is buying it for now.
Talbot has corralled all of the female personnel on the base into one room (this includes Agent 33) and begins questioning each of them to discover which one is the wolf in sheep’s clothing. He gets really close. He’s pegged the correct mole, but the nano-mask is fused to her face. So as he pulls on her cheek, it’s not going anywhere. A couple moves later and they’re in.
Talbot’s wife (the real one) shows up. Talbot immediately pulls his gun on her and gives her the business as if she were the mole they’re looking for. A reference to taquitos and tears come before he even considers that she might actually be his wife.
Bobbi enters the conference room Hunter is confined to. They have a heart to heart on the scenario and the circumstances that brought them here. It gets emotional and Bobbi asks how she can meet him half way and make it work. His answer is one she can’t accept. Walk away, right now. She declines and Hunter tries to make a break for it. Takes out a number of guards before realizing he is on a base that resides on an aircraft carrier.
Mack returns to the lab just in time to overhear an exchange between Fitz and Simmons. Fitz wants to know what was in the case Simmons took to Coulson earlier. That direction is altered and the conversation moves towards Simmons’ new found fear. Fitz insinuating that it is Simmons who has changed.
Coulson and May have a short conversation about a bad feeling Coulson has as part of the treatment of Skye. Then it turns to Mack. Neither Coulson nor May buy his story.
On the other SHIELD base, it is revealed that Hunter was able to escape using one of the ship’s escape pods. They have twelve hours to retrieve him or he’s a free man. In the wind. Bobbi elects to go back in, to remove the threat that is Coulson.
After their little ‘mission’, Agent 33 stands before a full mirror. With one gesture, she reverts her face back to the way it was following the accident. Her real face with damage. Ward walks up and introduces himself as if it were the first time they met. She replies with her real name, “Carol”.
They have Bakshi duct taped to a chair with his eye lids forced open as he watches what looks like an old Windows ’95 screen saver on a massive flat screen.
Bakshi: Will my compliance be rewarded?
Carol: To be honest, it won’t really matter…
