Skye’s secret came crashing out amidst a minor extra-terrestrial invasion on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2, episode 12.
Drawing blanks
Lady Sif washes up in Portugal with her sword, but no memories. She is looking for “Kava,” or something.
Meanwhile, May urges Skye to control her emotions and stop holding back, but Skye is scared of “losing it.” Hunter tells Bobbi he’s joining the team permanently, and Coulson offers Mack a spot as a field agent.
Team Coulson collects Sif in Portugal. Thanks to a viral video, the team figure out that Sif lost a fight to a Mystery Man. Said Mystery Man invades a hospital because he’s turning blue.
While combing the scene of the fight, Hunter shatters a lamppost frozen by liquid nitrogen. Bobbi and Skye hunt Mystery Man down to a hospital supply room and watch him turn from blue to human as he plugs in a canister of nitrogen. He easily takes out Bobbi and escapes when Skye’s fear causes another gun-exploding quake — unnoticed by Mystery Man.
Recouping on the Bus, Lady Sif has a clue — the word “Kava” means “keys” in Kree. (File that one away for the Marvel crossword, folks.)
Scratch it off
Bobbi — who is fine — suggests to Mack that they “bring Hunter on board” Whatever It Is They’re Up To. Mack sinks this idea immediately, because:
1) Hunter will feel totes betrayed at the secret.
2) Following said betrayal, Hunter might take the other side.
3) If said side-taking occurs, Hunter is a bad man to have as an enemy. “He loves you and he probably will always love you,” Mack tells Bobbi. “But I still think he might be capable of killing you.”
Plus, betrayal makes people unpredictable. “You remember how it felt when our friends turned out to be Hydra,” Mack reminds Bobbi.
“We’re not Hydra!” she insists and WHOA, okay, stop the presses, that’s a relief.
For like a second.
“The best thing would be if he decided to leave,” Mack says ominously, “and he wasn’t anywhere near here when we pull the trigger on this thing.”
Tik-Tak-Toe
The pieces of Sif’s mystery click when May finds the Portuguese city of Chaves, which also means keys (#crossword). Sif remembers that she was chasing the Kree there, plus it’s the place where Daniel Whitehall dug up his Obelisk.
Skye begs off the mission, which is fine because the team apprehends MysterKree Man easily — and his big trunk thing, too! But MysterKree Man, Vin-Tak, insists that he means no harm, and wants to restore Sif’s memory with his truncheon (#crossword).
Back at the Playground, Bobbi blows off Hunter while unsuccessfully analyzing the truncheon. She asks to slow things down, and Hunter angrily agrees.
Origin stories
So everyone reconvenes at the Playground, and that’s when this party really gets started.
Vin-Tak swipes the truncheon and restores Sif’s memory, but the tension rises again when Sif remembers that Asgardians really don’t like the Kree — and the feeling is way mutual. That animosity stems from what Vin-Tak calls “the tale of Terrigenesis.”
It seems “one vicious faction” of Kree had a nasty habit of genetically modifying humans and other alien species to create soldiers; the modifications were activated by Terrigen crystals. The Bad Kree built the alien city and brought the Diviners, but the Good Kree found out and “put an end to that dark chapter of our past.”
“Until now,” Skye says. Vin-Tak agrees. He came to Earth to hide the experiment’s success from the Kree Empire… and to destroy the abominations created by Terrigenesis.
Skye is like, “Not this again.”
And it gets worse: Simmons reports that the box of Obelisks is empty.
No angels
Sif and Vin-Tak are united in agreement that whoever has been Changed by the Diviner must be obliterated.
“You must understand,” the Kree says, “these creatures are weapons. Abominations. Even if they don’t know it.”
And that’s just about enough for Skye, who starts sending tremors through the entire base. May immediately knows that Skye is the source of the problem.
“Skye,” Coulson asks gently. “What’s causing this?”
“I am,” she whispers, and, shaking, slides away from the rest as a set of windows explode behind her.
Sif wants to take Skye to Asgard; Vin-Tak just wants to kill her, much to a protective Fitz’s consternation. Skye insists that she can control her power.
“That’s not what you were designed for,” Vin-Tak tells her. “You were designed to destroy.”
May grabs Skye and races to the prison in Vault D while Coulson sends Fitz for “Bambino.” Everyone passes Simmons on the way, who quickly puts the pieces together and is left fragmented by the answer.
Vin-Tak comes up against Bobbi again; fortunately, Fitz arrives with Coulson’s massive gun — the Bambino — and knocks him out. Bobbi wipes his memory with the truncheon.
May locks herself and Skye in the cell, urging Skye to control her emotions. Sif breaks through the digital wall and Skye stops the quake by shooting herself with an ICER — much to Lady Sif’s surprise.
What cannot be understood
Coulson and May drop Sif and Vin-Tak off to be collected by Heimdal. Coulson insists that keeping Skye is logical, but Sif tells Coulson that he may not be able to affect the outcome of this Change.
“There are tides in the Universe you cannot swim against,” she says.
In Sif’s wake, Mom and Dad discuss their problem child. May admits that there seems to be something larger afoot; the team’s very first mission brought them Skye, and their most recent one brought her to the temple.
And then there’s Agent Lumley’s resonant warning — “Wherever Skye goes, death follows.”
Turning inward
Back at the base, the team cleans up Skye’s mess. Fitz maintains that, with the way Simmons was talking, he did the right thing in keeping Skye’s secret.
“Skye is my friend,” Simmons insists. “She’s different!”
Bobbi, Mack, and Hunter agree that they should have been told about Skye’s powers. “We should be protecting her!” Fitz insists.
“We’re the ones who need protecting from her,” Mack says.
Unfortunately, Skye hears this as she leaves the base. She heads straight for the safe room in the Bus and slams the door, locking herself inside.
And the intrigue isn’t over. Later that night, Hunter confronts Mack about The Secret, and demands to know who the “backup” is. So Mack chokes Hunter into unconsciousness, realizing as he does so that this is a very temporary solution.