Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2, episode 10 left us trembling with emotion, theories, and “WTF!”s. Read our recap and share your feelings on “What They Become”!
Plans
May avoids the Hydra bombers with some amazingly dangerous flying and the help of Trip. (TRIIIIIP). They head to San Juan, where May has to tell Coulson that Skye is with Ward and Whitehall… and therefore, her father.
Coulson sends Bobbi back to her contact Diego, promising they will do whatever they can for Mack. Hunter comforts Bobbi, who has a Mysterious Thumb Drive, but all Hunter cares about is that their sex tape he’s not on it. She brings him along to get a message from Diego, which turns out to be a very important address.
Meanwhile, Fitz and Simmons work with heartwarming synchronicity to deduce that Alienville may have co-opted Mack to protect it. Trip (TRIIIIIP) and a Koenig plan to detonate four mechanical bomb-things from Trip’s (TRIIIIIP) Old Timey Spy Kit to blow up the temple… unfortunately, the bombs need to be activated manually.
Meant to be
Ward obnoxiously leads Skye to the Galaxy’s Most Awkward Family Reunion with her father. SkyeDad – whose name is Cal – is a wreck. He explains that Skye was born in China where he was a foreign doctor, her mother an aide and translator. They were happy.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you, couldn’t protect you,” Cal cries. But now things are different. “Everything that’s about to happen is supposed to happen,” he says. “I’m gonna take care of you.”
Oh, and Skye can’t leave.
“You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be,” Cal assures her. “This is your destiny.”
Birthright
Skye confronts Cal with the fact that he works for Whitehall. Cal loudly clarifies the specifics of that arrangement – he needed Whitehall to find Skye – and tells Skye that her mother came from a line of special people with gifts.
“You have a gift. That’s why I brought you here – so you can receive it,” he says. Skye has a birthright of transformation.
Cal tells Skye that her mother was taken by an organization called S.H.I.E.L.D. who claimed she was dangerous. He left Skye with people he trusted, but was too late to stop Whitehall from murdering her mother.
As Skye tries to absorb this information, her father is summoned to Whitehall. Cal is thrilled to finally be able to kill the man who destroyed his life.
Passing the test
Whitehall confronts Cal, Ward, and Raina with Skye’s presence and forces her to touch the Diviner. Skye scowls and grabs the metallic mystery… which leaves her unscathed and starts glowing in her hand!
Skye is like, “Alright, let’s weaponize this $#*t!” She and Cal wind up in a standoff against Whitehall, who is positively drooling at the idea of carving Skye to pieces. The good guys are either knocked out or tied up, and Skye is – once again – dragged off somewhere she doesn’t want to be.
All business
When Bobbi and Hunter find the address – and abandoned theater – Team Bus figures out that Hydra is there and basically trying to drill right through the Earth to the temple. Which is cheating, but hey, Hydra.
The team begins Operation Save Skye and Blow Up Alienville. Coulson, May, Bobbi, and Hunter infiltrate the theater from about, while Trip (TRIIIIIP), Fitz, and Simmons zip down to the temple in hazmat suits to set off the ancient detonators. They are all uneasy about coming back into contact with Mack.
Shock
Whitehall puts on his complete Evil Suit and mostly fries Cal while taunting Skye about what he’s going to do to her in order to discover her gift. But before Whitehall can start experimenting-in-pursuit-of-discovery, he’s called away over the matter of Team Coulson.
Cal recovers and trundles off to do something disgusting to Whitehall (not like that, guys.) He charges toward Whitehall, who calmly raises his gun…
…and is shot from behind by Phil Coulson.
Crazy for love of you
Cal loses it. He beats the crap out of Coulson, only stopped by Skye (who has escaped from and shot Ward – it was awesome.) She demands that Cal leave, and has no plans to involve herself in his “transformation.”
Cal agrees to go – “but I’ll be waiting for you,” he says. “After you change, no one else will understand… I will always love you, Daisy,” he whispers, and leaves.
When Skye sees what her father has done to Coulson, something in her snaps. Confused, devastated, furious, and scared, she races off to find the Obelisk and “make it right,” as Coulson begs her not to descend to the temple.
For those below
Coulson follows Skye, who has followed Raina, who has the Obelisk and is now following Mack, down into the temple. (Though to be fair, he’s aware that this is a terrible idea.) Naturally, this happens just as Fitz, Simmons, and Trip (TRIIIIIP) finish setting the explosives, and Trip (TRIIIIIP) races back down to un-set the explosives, because he’s Trip.
TRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!!
Raina and Skye make their way into a chamber with a plinth in the center. Raina is drunk on the moment and revels in the understanding that the Diviner – somehow – gives life. “We finally get to find out what we become!” she says, as the glowing Diviner floats from her hand to the plinth.
Having deactivated the bombs, Trip (TRIIIIIP) races in to get Skye. The walls of the chamber slide closed before Coulson can enter.
Butterflies
The Diviner unfolds, blossoming into crystals. “What’s supposed to happen?” Trip (TRIIIIIP) asks.
“Something beautiful,” says Raina.
Suddenly, mist shoots out of the crystals, knocking all three of them back. Outside, Mack snaps out of his alien coma.
Inside, Skye and Raina find their skin cracking, turning to black stone. Consumed by terror, Skye reaches for Trip (TRIIIIIP) but the crystals explode, knocking him away.
Horrified, he finds Skye completely calcified, still reaching out to him in mute appeal, and then begins to turn to stone himself.
TRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!!!
The black crust cracks away from Skye and Raina. The walls and floor shudder and crumble around Skye as she is reborn; the tremors reach Coulson and Mack just outside, FitzSimmons, holding each other in the level above, and May, powerless in the theater above them.
Skye – Daisy, this unknown creature – breaks free of her dark cocoon. As she comes into her power, she watches her friend fall to dust in front of her eyes.
Inhuman
A man in a room picks up another Obelisk, which shimmers and glows in familiar light. He dials a number.
“Are you seeing this?” he asks the person on the other line – who, we must assume, also has another bloody Obelisk. “There’s someone new,” the man says. “Tell the others I’m on it.”
The man hangs up the phone.
He. Has. No. Eyes.