Courtesy of ABC
Warning: Spoiler Alert
In the aftermath of Jiaying’s ploy to start a war and pin its fallout on Gonzalez, Skye tells Simmons to leave. This is about to get ugly. Simmons reports to Coulson with bad news. Gordon and an associate teleport onto a Quinjet and take out the one asset in the plane and removes another. The associate takes off in the Quinjet and hovers it over Afterlife. Then opens fire. Tempers rise culminating in a standoff between May and Skye. Both thinking the other’s side provoked this. Cue the student vs teacher fight.
After Skye and Lincoln are asked to leave Jiaying so she can rest, Skye goes straight for Raina. Raina saw this coming. Skye wants answers and Raina is enjoying this a little too much. While beating around the bush in a metaphorical sense, Raina divulges that Jiaying is “not leading our people, she’s misleading them. You’re destined to lead, not her.”
Gordon has returned with the SHIELD agent from the hijacked Quinjet. Gordon apparently knows all about Jiaying’s plan. The SHIELD agent is there to aid Jiaying in her healing. She apologizes then puts a hand on either side of his head and drains his life-force from him body.
Ward and Kara kidnapped Bobbi for the basic satisfaction of forcing a confession from Bobbi. Bobbi was directly responsible for the torture Kara suffered at the hand of Hydra. Or so they think.
Jiaying welcomes Skye after she’s had some time to heal. Skye is worried and conflicted. Jiaying is certain the only way to secure their safety is to stop hiding and take the fight to SHIELD. She then puts the gift from Gonzalez in her hand.
Jiaying (to Skye): Bring this back to me if you decide to join our fight.
Coulson has pieced together enough to know that Jiaying orchestrated this entire thing. Then Hunter and Fitz come in to explain how that was not the only example of SHIELD getting played. Agent 33 disguised herself as May and escorted Bobbi to the Quinjet. Hunter and May depart.
Ward has drugged Bobbi with a cocktail that will keep her from feeling the pain he is inflicting. Then wear off in time for her to feel all of it. She just needs to ‘confess her sins’. She gives no apology, only an explanation. She made a decision to compromise a safe house in order to save the lives of 12 agents. It’s the right call and one she’d gladly make again.
The ‘Council’ wants to dive in with guns blazing, but Coulson will not consider it until he has more information. Ironically, Mack walks into the frame and for maybe the first time, agrees with Coulson. Coulson visits Cal in their holding cell to gauge what’s really going on. Cal plays the part as we assume he was instructed to. The viles he took before being detained Simmons almost has a grasp on. A number of random ingredients, none of which belong together. She believes it is his lackluster attempt at a super strength serum. Any normal person would be in the hospital. He should be dead.
Jiaying meets with Raina in private. Raina has seen the plan play out. And to Jiaying’s dismay, she relays the information that they only way the Inhumans survive is not with either or Jiaying or Raina, but Skye. Skye is the key. Raina gets a little bold and a little too ‘matter of fact’ for what she is and what she knows for Jiaying’s liking. Raina tells her that her people will see her for what she is, even in the darkness. Jiaying says no they won’t and stabs Raina in the throat. Thinking her plan is still intact, she turns to discover that Skye witnessed the whole thing.
Following the commercial break, Skye confronts Jiaying. And in one fell swoop, all the tumblers fell into place. Skye knows that Jiaying killed Raina and then immediately pieced together that she killed Gonzalez, intentionally to start a war. Jiaying did not deny it. Instead of listening to reason, Jiaying has Skye knocked unconscious, for her own good. I was starting to like Jiaying until last week.
At the holding cell, Cal is becoming increasingly strange. The increased dosage of his serum is affecting him. After some odd discussion, Coulson comes to the realization that Cal is there to take out SHIELD Agents. Or in his words, as many as he can.
May and Hunter have tracked the stolen Quinjet to Spain. The pain inhibitor cocktail Ward gave Bobbi is wearing off and the pain is visible. The long needles Ward has run under her finger nails and down the length of her fingers is figuratively as painful to see as it might be to feel. Bobbi tries to get into Ward’s head when he leans in to say “You don’t know me”. After she says “yes I do” she breaks free from her shackles, slams Ward’s head on the table and kicks him with both feet across the room. The fight sequence is significant. Kara even joins in the fun. Gaining the upper hand, Ward clocks her in the back of the head then from the looks of it, snaps her femur.
Ward: Do you have something to say to Kara?
Bobbi: Yeah. I’d do it all over again.
With a gun in hand pointed at Bobbi, Kara hesitates. “This isn’t right”. The satisfaction of remorse is not there. Bobbi’s willing to die for the cause, which does nothing for Kara’s closure issue.
Coulson and Cal are still at it, at least verbally. Cal cannot see the deception from his wife as being a bigger monster than anything Cal can or has done. Then the serum causes Cal to flatline. They take him out of the cell (causing me to yell at my television). Fitz and Simmons try to bring him back. They give him an adrenaline shot that wakes him up in a hurry. He flips off the gurney. Then in dramatic fashion slow rises. His finger nails are black and pointy. His facial bone structure is inflated.
Cal: You were looking for a monster…?
Locked in the lab, Cal is growing his rage. Apparently, the adrenaline was the missing ingredient. It doesn’t take long for him to break through the door. Coulson, Fitz and Simmons fire night-night rounds into his torso, but it only seems to slow him down. Coulson orders Fitz and Simmons to leave.
Bobbi’s sim card in her cell phone has reactivated. It’s a trap and Hunter and May know it. Bobbi is shackled again and even muzzled this time.
Positioned behind a door and Ward has set up some sort of Gatling gun rig pointed at said door. If Bobbi has no regard for her life, they’ll take someone’s close to her.
In the secret big black magic boulder room, SHIELD has doubled the guards. That doesn’t stop Gordon from transporting two of his men to take them out. An unidentified Inhuman woman walks towards Mack in the hallway. Before she gets to him, she begins splitting into multiple clones of herself. Lincoln appears which brings our Inhuman count to 5. The moment Agent Weaver asks a colleague if they have anyone else below still fighting, we see Mack donning some heavy gear. Mack will redeem himself to me if he goes all John McClane here.
Jiaying arrives aboard the SHIELD ship. Gordon informs her that anyone left unaccounted for will be found shortly. She opens a briefcase that reveals a number of the same Diviner crystals that she used to execute Gonzalez.
Coulson is able to pin Cal to the wall with an SUV. There he decides to have a seemingly one way conversation. Suggesting that Jiaying is a monster of a soul and Cal knows it. Everything Cal did was for his family, but this monster he claims to be isn’t him. Cal eventually breaks. The monster subsides and the truth comes out. The truth is that the Hydra/Whitehaul situation changed her. He pieced her back together but she was never the same. Coulson suggests that the monster that Jiaying is, does not work with who Skye is. Then Cal, after moving the SUV with his engineered strength says something I wasn’t exactly expecting.
Cal: I promised to protect our daughter.
Coulson: Does that include protecting your daughter from her? (Cal grunts angrily) You know Skye now. Her compassion. Jiaying is out for blood and there’s no way Skye will go along with that. Think about the danger that puts her in.
(Cal moves the SUV like a heavy dresser)
Coulson: She’s not my daughter, but she’s the closest thing to family I’ve got. I will save her no matter what the cost.
(Cal grabs Coulson by his collar lifting him slightly)
Cal: Please….Let me help you.
The Inhumans onboard begin to move. Skye is locked up in a holding cell. Then barely in view Mack knocks out one of the clones. They’ve put inhibitors on her wrists so she’s powerless. But Mack is looking for a different skill set and hands her a laptop.
Hunter and May’s team descend on the building Bobbi’s held in. Ward and Kara watch on a closed circuit. Bobbi tries to get her chain in the line of fire. Ward and Kara take out a couple of agents, then May gets on the radio and sets up a trap for Kara. As Hunter opens the door Bobbi leans her chair enough to take the bullet for him. Right through the chest.
Kara, trying to be clever a surprise the SHIELD agents as May has changed her face to look like May. Ward comes out from behind a dark corner and puts four shots in her torso. That is in Kara’s torso as she only looks like May. The lights go out on Kara just as Ward realizes what he’s done and for once actually looks affected by it.
Meanwhile Skye tries to find a mainframe computer, what she finds is Lincoln. He attacks her while she tries to explain. Shooting herself after killing Gonzalez, killing Raina, and now killing unarmed SHIELD agents all lined up paints a pretty clear picture of Jiaying. Just as Lincoln spills the location of the crystals, Mack comes in and cracks his skull with what looked like a sledge-hammer.
Hunter and May return to the HQ with Bobbi barely clinging to life. Melinda calls Andrew just for comfort. Fitz gets ready for the next stage of events when Simmons walks in. She tries to spit it out and fails, but based on their new redefined relationship Fitz continues on. Then Jemma drops the bombshell that this viewer has been waiting for since the escape pod incident.
Simmons: I just saw Hunter with Bobbi and it made me realize…its just that we never spoke about what you said at the bottom of the ocean.
Fitz: This? Now? You want to talk about this now?
Simmons: It means a lot to me that we’re friends again. Maybe when you get back, we…could…finally…talk about it.
Fitz: It’s…There’s nothing to discuss Jemma.
(Fitz tries to walk past her when Simmons clutches his hand and he turns to her)
Simmons: Maybe there is.
(They both lock eyes in the moment)
Coulson: Agent Fitz, we’re on the move.
On the Quinjet, a team plus Coulson, Fitz, May and Cal, Fitz finds a pattern in the distress beacon. Skye put a code in it. The code says simple “it’s a trap”. Coulson orders all other inbound SHIELD agents to fall back. They however, press on. Jiaying is not pleased about less SHIELD agents and orders Gordon to release the mist on the ship.
Gordon goes to check on Skye’s cell. Instead of finding Skye or some hint that she’s escaped, he finds Mack. Mack is seated holding a bright red fireman’s ax.
Mack: It’s Gordon, right?
Gordon: And you are?
Mack: I’m the guy who kills Gordon.
Skye confronts Jiaying on what she’s doing but Jiaying can’t see it. She departs leaving Ms. Clone to stall Skye. Considering its five against one, Skye is actually handling the situation. For a moment. In the hall Lincoln walks in on May taking out a couple Inhumans. Skye is now getting pretty efficiently handled when Lincoln and May walk in .
In the room with the crystals, Coulson and Fitz arrive to find Mack sans Gordon. Fitz quickly sets up some tech on the walls designed to keep Gordon from teleporting. Gordon comes back before Fitz is ready, but he’s able to trap Gordon moments later. Then Coulson gives it the old Little League try to knocks Gordon down. Stunned but not out, Gordon jumps to his feet.
Gordon: I’m trapped in here, that’s not possible! What did you do?
(Fitz finds a long pipe and tosses it up in order to catch it)
Fitz: Science Biotch.
Skye confronts Jiaying as she tries to load crystals onto a Quinjet. Jiaying tries to turn this around blaming SHIELD for starting this war decades ago. Skye tries to explain that she is so consumed with hate that she can’t see this for what it is. Then Jiaying gets calm. Jiaying gets close, too close. Then puts her hands on Skye’s head and begins to drain her life-force. While Skye clings to the last moments of life, she is able to summon enough strength to shake the Quinjet. This distracts Jiaying enough for Skye to break free and send the Quinjet over the edge of the air craft carrier.
Coulson, Mack and Fitz continue fighting Gordon who can only teleport to different spots in that room. Then Gordon teleports and lands directly behind Fitz. This is the moment when I thought Fitz was dead. As it turns out Gordon by teleporting to that spot impaled himself. As he falls, the single crystal he was holding plummets toward the floor. If it breaks, everyone in the room is dead. Coulson, again channeling his inner little league baseball player dives and is, barely, able to catch the crystal. Then the mist, somehow jarred loose begins to consume his hand and move up his arm. Then MACK CHOPS OFF HIS HAND WITH THE AX! Thus, preventing the mist from spreading.
On the deck of the ship, Jiaying catches Skye off guard and tries to drain her life-force again. This time Skye is able to get her hands on Jiaying as well. Draining life-force vs. ability to move things. During this struggle, Cal walks out.
Cal: You don’t have to do this, please. Stop. You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to live with this pain.
(Cal slowly places his hands on Jiaying’s neck and shoulder)
Cal: I will.
(Then Cal snaps Jiaying’s neck)
Jiaying (barely audible): Cal, what are you doing?
Cal: Keeping my promise.
(Cal lifts her up until her light goes out)
Bobbi wakes up and in doing so wakes up Hunter who probably has not left her side. Hunter tells her to rest, there’s a long road ahead for recovery. He begins to say, “and then…” but she cuts him off. Then Bobbi looks at Hunter and says, “I can’t do this anymore”. Question is, work as a SHIELD agent or does it revolve around the relationship between her and Hunter?
May is set to take some time off. Maybe even to rekindle the lost relationship with Andrew.
Andrew hands Coulson a blue file. A thick blue file. “Recommendations for the new program”. Andrew even signs off on Skye’s readiness for whatever this is.
Cal and Skye walk down a corridor, presumably for Cal’s detainment. They have maybe the first real, impactful, emotional family moment. Embracing what he’s done, Cal doesn’t reach for the unlikely. Only asks that while he probably going away for good, that Skye might come visit from time to time. A request she seems glad to agree to.
Ward sits in a bar drinking and looking pissed. A tall bald guy comes in and gives him a list of names. The list is not long enough for Ward’s liking. He takes out the tall bald guy and informs his lackeys they now work for Ward.
Cal opens up his own veterinary clinic as if nothing ever happened. Skye walks up and he doesn’t recognize her. Even gives the pitch about free adoption days. They wiped his memory in order to re-insert him into the world. Ironically, Coulson approved of the TAHITI approach with Cal.
Whatever this new program is puts Skye in the middle of other people with abilities. This being different from the Avengers Initiative. Skye insists it be anonymous. And Coulson agrees. Ironically, Coulson is letting Skye drive Lola. How is that not the big story of the day.
The camera pans down, under water, where the Diviner crystals are seeping their mist into the ocean water. Then a quick set montage of fish being caught, bundled, and turned into Fish Oil capsules.
Fitz and Simmons are working in the new holding area for the big magic, liquefying boulder rock. Fitz is trying to breach the conversation of dinner. Simmons is reading it as going to the mess. That is not Fitz’ aim. It takes a moment but Simmons picks up what he’s putting down. During which, Fitz bumps into the case hold the big rock.
Simmons walks around the big rock and noticed that its gone momentarily. Then suddenly, the door of the case opens, knocking Simmons to the floor. It liquefies, falling out of the case, swallowing Simmons and dragging her back into the case and as a part of the now solid boulder. I think I need a moment.
Courtesy of ABC
