Discovery came with a devastating price in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2, episode 9. Read our recap and share your thoughts on “Ye Who Enter Here”!
Visions are seldom what they seem
Caught in a feverish dream, Skye (wearing a flower-patterned dress) finds Coulson in the lab. He stares at a box – “the mission” – which she shoves away before he can touch it.
Skye watches as it becomes a music box, plinking out a haunting melody. She sees Coulson holding a baby girl, while May – dressed unnervingly in pearls, a cardigan, and eyeshadow – tells him that “sacrifices have to be made.”
Coulson lays the child on the lab table; he and May walk off arm-in-arm as Skye and the child cry out. Suddenly, Skye is holding the box, which is patterned like the Obelisk. She screams for Coulson as she turns to stone.
Coulson wakes Skye from her dream as they return to the Playground.
Communication
Mack observes Bobbi and Hunter flirting in the kitchen. “A storm’s coming,” he tells Fitz.
Mmm. Yeah.
Fitz wants Mack to come with him to Simmons, but Mack tells Fitz he’s going to have to talk to Simmons at some point.
Simmons patches up Trip, who is recovering well. Skye is aware that the doctor was her dad; she is deeply frustrated by the whole bizarre situation, and can’t shake the feeling that “something really bad is going to happen.”
Tourist season
Coulson briefs the team on their mission. Though Hydra has the Obelisk (the “key,” as it were) S.H.I.E.L.D. has found the “lock”: A temple within the hidden alien city.
This city shall henceforth be known as “Alienville” until they tell us that it’s Attilan or whatever.
Coulson plans to infiltrate Alienville beneath old San Juan, test the tunnel, and then blow the whole thing to Kingdom Come.
Friends
In Vancouver, Raina is tracked down by Agent 33, who still wears a mutilated version of May’s face. Luckily, Raina literally runs straight into the arms of the Koenig brothers.
Coulson splits May and Skye off from the team to extract Raina from Vancouver. He wants Skye to interrogate Raina… or he really just wants to keep her away from Alienville and daddy.
Love hurts
With Bobbi’s prompting, Simmons talks out her feelings on Fitz. She had no time to process the events in the sunken pod, and was devastated by Fitz’s coma and slow recovery. She desperately wants her best friend back. Though without romantic feelings for Fitz, Simmons can’t imagine her life without him.
On the Quinjet, Mack confronts Bobbi about Hunter. He wants to know if she is bringing him in on “the other thing.”
“No,” Bobbi says – and she wants it to stay that way.
Yeah, yeah, us too, good idea Bobbi, also what are you talking about?
Curses
During the extraction from Vancouver, Raina realizes that Whitehall needs her alive to handle the Obelisk. She gives Skye the Diviner song-and-dance – It’s alien technology! It reads the DNA of the worthy! It sings in Norwegian! – and tells Skye that her father thinks she can touch it.
Skye is like, “Thanks, but so much nah.”
The team makes it out, but not before Agent 33 can tell Whitehall about Raina’s tracker.
“I’ll put my best man on it,” he says.
Reasons
In San Juan, Coulson and Bobbi get blueprints of the Fort of San Cristobal from a friend. Bobbi admits that she is uncertain about Coulson’s similarities to Fury, who would have taken the Obelisk for S.H.I.E.L.D.
But Coulson assures he is different – every living person in Puerto Rico is a reason for him to destroy the weapon safely. He has no plans to accept collateral damage.
Meanwhile, Mack leaves Fitz and Simmons alone before their awkward silence kills him. (Sob.) Fitz tells her he is leaving the lab to work with Mack, as he is still not better.
“I can work for you,” he says, over Simmons’ protests and our lake of tears. “I just can’t work with you.”
Worthy
On the Bus, Raina is amused that Skye thinks she is an alien.
“We’re human, Skye,” Raina says. “We just have the potential to be more.”
#inhumans
Raina was raised on tales of blue angels – who were totally called the Kree – who came to Earth to precipitate change and lead “the worthy” to the temple. If the “unworthy” enter, well…
“I hope they’ve said their goodbyes,” Raina says.
La Garita del Diablo
Coulson, Bobbi, Fitz, Simmons, and Mack carve through the floor in the supposedly-haunted fort. Fitz’s D.W.A.R.V.E.S. descend, but stop working; Mack follows to investigate.
Mack hits bottom, and brushes a small node in a round, familiar pattern traced into the floor. Bathed in the blue glow of his flares, Mack screams as the pattern carves itself into his flesh.
The team hauls Mack to the surface, screaming like a wild thing. Just before his eyes turn red, Mack hisses a word to Coulson:
“Run.”
Protector
Skye desperately tries to reach Coulson, but soon has a more immediate problem: The Bus is surrounded by Hydra. The team can give up Raina, or be shot out of the sky.
May is not particularly fussed about surrendering Raina, even though it’s Ward who handles the deal. But Ward wants Skye as well, to fulfill his super romantic promise to take her to her father.
May is like, “Yeah, f*** no,” but Skye thinks Hydra will blow the plane if she refuses. She agrees to go with Ward, and Raina makes sure she takes the map of Alienville.
What we must
A tearful Bobbi is forced to fight Mack, who cannot be subdued by ICERs or reason. In the scuffle, Simmons is nearly knocked into the hole, and Fitz is a millimeter away from shooting Mack with real bullets when Bobbi grabs her sticks.
Mockingbird electrocutes Mack; dazed, he stumbles into the chasm he made.
“Seal the tunnel,” Coulson orders.
“What about Mack?” Bobbi cries.
“That wasn’t Mack,” says the Director.
Boom
Agent 33 reports to Whitehall, her voice crackling through the damaged mask. It seems that Ward expanded on the plan somewhat; not only was he not meant to take Skye, Whitehall had ordered him to shoot down the Bus.
“Fix it,” Whitehall orders, and 33 relays the instructions: “Shoot them down.”
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