Warning: Spoiler Alert
The title of this episode suggests that this will be Melinda May heavy, starting with a flashback to happily married May. Coulson and May stand on a large cargo plane full of agents. Coulson claims that SHIELD is creating a new initiative. Instead of locking of those with powers, they want to create a team. An Avengers reference to those new to the MCU. This flight is the beginning of the ‘Bahrain’ incident.
Present day, May stands before Bobbi and Agent Weaver. They want information that Coulson would have given her about “Theta Protocol”. She gives them nothing. Only that if she’s running her base, she can get Coulson in quietly.
Skye and Jiaying (Mommy) start working towards controlling Skye’s ‘gift’. From a safe distance, Jiaying got Skye to focus on hearing a rock. Instead, she could hear the mountain. Then shook the mountain enough to cause a small avalanche of snow.
Skye: I moved a mountain…
Coulson’s team surrounds a cafe and subsequent street corner where an 0-8-4 asset is sitting. Coulson gives the no hostility hard sell, but she’s not buying it. The asset has no intention of going somewhere safer. She wants the conflict. She wants pain. Some locals with guns come and essentially escort her away from the SHIELD agents.
The Bahrain situation continues to fly south. Coulson opts for the SHIELD agents to enter the building and ‘do their thing’ so he can evaluate what kind of monster they’re dealing with.
Skye continues training. This time trying to hold a note from across the room from water in a wine glass. She’s actually able to play notes on all of the wine glasses before they shatter. Which prompts Skye to share with Jiaying her fear of feeling comfortable as home like comfort is always followed by something horrible. One ‘change’ even happened on her birthday, which is ironic since she doesn’t even know when her birthday is. This back and forth is especially poignant since Jiaying is her mother. Then Skye moves closer and asks why Jiaying cares what happens or where she goes.
Jiaying: July 2nd. (she walks away then turns back) You were born on July 2nd. It was a hot night and for some reason I decided to clean the house before I woke your father.
Skye: Oh my God. He said you didn’t age.
Jiaying: Cal, he went over to the neighbor’s house to borrow their car, but he didn’t speak any Chinese. So um, it was a mess.
Skye: It’s you. You’re my…
Jiaying: Deep down, I think you knew.
Skye (nodding subtly): I was too afraid to hope.
The reunion is actually very nice. Skye is hesitant, but Jiaying’s answers seem satisfactory. Until Mom says this has to remain their secret. Their ‘people’ have strict rules and Skye could be perceived to be a threat.
In our Bahrain flashback the tumblers are starting to fall into place regarding why May earned the name “the Cavalry” from this op. Friendly fire or something of a more supernatural variety took out all of their agents. Once May gets inside, all of their agents are standing lifeless. Then one says the phrase “I need your pain”, then like zombies smelling brains they all turn on her.
At present, May is trying to navigate through what is real and what is not pertaining to this claim that Coulson’s secrets are dangerous. Simmons has evidence that he’s burning through money, consulting with May’s ex-husband, and bought a hundred bunk beds. Which Mack believes is to build another base for people with powers. May is now demanding that Simmons opens the toolbox. Inconvenient considering Fitz has the real one.
Jiaying tells a story of an untrusting example of what happens when these chosen people don’t follow the rules. This is story of Eva. It’s also the story of why people call May the Cavalry. The fight is lopsided in Eva’s favor. Including taking a bullet to the leg. May is able to stab Eva and she went down, but those under her spell did not. Jiaying mentions stealing crystals. But if wasn’t for her. It was for her daughter, Katya. Before May went in, she called her husband and told him they had a little girl as a hostage. The girl was no hostage. The girl, as Jiaying describes it, had a darkness about her. The daughter went through the mist, as Skye did skipping a number of steps.
I hadn’t completely noticed how the May in the flashbacks was a nicer, warmer version of the May we know now. May hardened the day she was forced to kill a young girl. All of the talk with her husband about starting a family, all her happiness, all her hope evaporated to nothing like the blank stare in her catatonic state as she held the little girl she was forced to kill. Needless to say, this was the catalyst for everything including her divorce.
Jiaying requests that Skye (Daisy) have one dinner with her father. She resists but Cal made a promise to Jiaying that he would find their daughter and he did. He deserves this much for that. Then she will take him away from here. Amidst the awkwardness in the air, Skye does a nice thing for Cal. She mentions that she just met her mother today, and she taught her things. Which has never happened before. And thanked him for being responsible for making that happen. Then she opens the door for Cal to tell a story about the day Skye was born. She does the math on the birth year and the number 26 seems to stall everyone.
Lincoln enters the room. He sees exactly what Raina had described earlier. A dream where Skye is happy, a bouquet of daisies on the table, sitting with her mother and father. Then he says under his breath, “It’s not a dream, it’s real”.
In a public restroom, Fitz is able to open the toolbox. Its daunting, but Fitz is able to remote access Coulson’s tablet. He informs them that he’s being followed (they’re right outside the door knocking). Fitz informs them that the Toolbox is safe, but he may not be. And if they could somehow get him out of there, working with them would be very much preferred.
