Time stood still tonight on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 1, episode 13! Check out our recap, and share your thoughts on “T.R.A.C.K.S.”
Here’s what happened in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 1, episode 13, “T.R.A.C.K.S.”
Chugga, chugga, poof, poof!
As the episode begins, Team Coulson plans a heist aboard an Italian train in pursuit of a mysterious and heavily-guarded item recently purchased by Ian Quinn from a company called Cybertek. The team goes undercover to track the item to Quinn.
Once aboard, the team set up in their roles. May and Ward will tag The Package as a glamorous couple, while Fitz and Skye run communications as conspicuously-in-love (and conspicuously American) tourists. Simmons will play Coulson’s daughter, which she treats like the role of the lifetime.
After May tells Ward that she told Coulson about their relationship, she climbs up to the top of the train to find The Package with infrared glasses. Meanwhile, Simmons’ staged histrionics inspire Stan Lee’s sympathy and distract the Cybertek guards.
Suddenly, the communications fail. Coulson goes to investigate and finds Ward barreling towards him in a conductor’s uniform. He yells at Coulson about a grenade; they jump off the train. When they land, one of Quinn’s minions (Quinions?) tosses the heretofore dubbed “Time Bomb” behind them onto the tracks…
…and the entire train disappears.
For my next trick…
Ward was on his way to tag The Package when coms went down, but he was distracted by violent Quinions. He tells Simmons to hide in the luggage car with Fitz and Skye, and then runs off the train with Coulson. The two are puzzled, but hopeful for the rest of the team, until they find May’s infrared glasses in the dirt.
After taking a mysteriously hotwired truck to get back to the Bus, Coulson confirms with his Italian contact Russo that Cybertek knew they were coming.
Ward tries to analyze the Time Bomb in the lab, which proves more difficult than Coulson and Ward anticipate. Ward raises the subject of his sexytimes with May, and Coulson – somewhat reluctantly – engages. He tells Ward that their relationship is against protocol, and if it becomes a problem, he will be reassigned guarding “Blonsky’s cryocell” in Alaska for life.
Ward understands.
The Italian contact arrives, telling Coulson he knows where the team is… but he is killed from behind by a very bloody Agent May. “Wheels up in five,” she hisses.
May’s way
When coms went down, May had to bail from the roof after being shot at by Cybertek. She finds Ward and Coulson frozen on the ground by the Time Bomb’s emissions. May hotwires the truck to get them to safety, but is kidnapped by Russo, who is another stooge of Cybertek.
Russo asks May – who is strung up like a snarky piece of meat – where Coulson and Ward are. He stabs her in the shoulder, leaving her the knife, which she uses to kill everyone and follow Russo to the Bus.
Because that’s just how Melinda May do.
Back on the Bus, May lets Coulson (not Ward) stitch her up. He says the train switched tracks while Coulson and Ward were frozen by the Time Bomb. Ward observes the not-intimate moment between May and Coulson, and stiffly reports that the train has stopped suddenly in the Italian countryside.
Pit stop
May, Coulson and Ward locate and climb aboard the stopped train. When they reach the luggage car, a terrified Simmons shoots at them wildly with the night-night gun. When Coulson calms her, she stares at him aghast. “Where are Fitz and Skye?” she demands.
Eyes wide open
Rewind again to the coms going down. While trying to restore the connection, Fitz and Skye are attacked by a Cybertek agent. Simmons runs in on Ward’s orders, only to have another Time Bomb go off between her and the Quinion.
Relieved to find her alive, Fitz and Skye deduce that the Time Bombs contain an airborne dendrotoxin that makes the victim believe no time has passed. They leave Simmons with a spare night-night gun for protection and – observing the Quinions transferring The Package to jeeps – decide to follow it.
What’s in the box?
Skye and Fitz arrive at Quinn’s newest mansion. Skye decides to follow The Package inside, as Coulson would want her to. Fitz gives her the other night-night gun and goes to disable the Cybertek cars.
In the basement, Skye discovers The Package and a hyperbaric chamber. She peers inside the chamber to find a burned and maimed – but living – Mike Peterson.
Quinn arrives, unsurprised to see Skye – the Clairvoyant told him to expect her. He opens the hyperbaric chamber and pulls Mike out, promising to help him carry out his “orders.” Skye watches as the box is revealed to contain a cybernetic device, which is becomes a futuristic leg when attached to Mike’s stump.
Quinn taunts Mike, threatening to kill him – Mike says he would not resist – and then to make him kill Skye. “She’s not who I’m supposed to kill,” Mike says.
“What the hell did you do to him?” Skye demands of Quinn after Peterson leaves; Quinn’s answer is to shoot her repeatedly in the gut.
“I’m sorry. I have my order too,” he says, and leaves her to die on the floor of his cellar.
Coping mechanisms
Upstairs, the Cybertek agents try to exact payment from Quinn via Peterson. But the Clairvoyant is displeased that S.H.I.E.L.D. is on their tail, so Peterson just kills them instead.
Which is one way to cut costs if, you know, you really have to.
Coulson’s team arrives, but Peterson is ordered not to engage them. May cuffs Quinn and Coulson finds Skye in the cellar. She has no pulse, so Simmons orders the team to put her in the hyperbaric chamber. Once her body temperature is lowered, Skye starts – barely – to breathe.
Back on the Bus, Simmons says that Skye needs surgery; if they keep her temperature so low much longer, she may suffer permanent brain damage. Overwhelmed, Simmons breaks down in Fitz’s arms.
Ward deals with the situation by punching a jeep, which is always helpful. “It’s not your fault,” May says, holding his hand. “Blaming yourself won’t help her.”
“I’m not blaming myself,” he glowers.
Baby steps
Stalking along the edges of a playground, Mike Peterson asks his handler if he can see his son.
“Not yet,” is the response. Peterson must stalk away on his new leg, revealed to be stamped with the name “Deathlok.”