Shock and “aww!” was the name of the game last night in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2, episode 16.
Bend me, shape me
Skye wakes up in the Inhuman base with glowing acupuncture needles spiked along her body. Gordon introduces her to Lincoln, her “transitioner.” Lincoln will help her adjust to the effects of Terrigenesis, and he just so happens to be young and super hot.
Skye thinks that the team is in danger and wants to get out of there, but Lincoln assures her that she is the one at risk. He shows Skye around the Inhuman compound, which might be in China, or not, but is definitely called Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters “Afterlife.”
Lincoln spends most of the episode explaining things to Skye, as the two flirt mercilessly with each other. Here are the highlights:
1) Skye can leave Afterlife at any time, but only Gordon can bring people in and out.
2) Most people in Afterlife undergo years of testing, and actually undergoing Terrigenesis is rare. So Skye has sort of jumped the queue as far as that goes.
3) Lincoln lies and says that Raina and Skye’s father are somewhere else, and definitely not in that mysteriously abandoned building over there.
4) Lincoln is a medical student from Cleveland, and his powers allow him to manipulate static energy, or something. Skye is way into this, but refuses to demonstrate her own powers (which apparently Lincoln doesn’t know, even though Gordon literally explained them in detail last week) at the Peaceful Shrine of Testing.
An unexpected visitor
That is, until Skye realizes that Raina actually is at Afterlife, and storms to the mysteriously abandoned building to confront her. Lincoln insists that Raina needs protecting just as Skye does, but Skye blames Raina for Trip’s death.
Raina fires back that Skye made her own choices – and she and Skye are the same. What Raina is on the outside, she says, Skye is on the inside.
Enraged, Skye begins to use her powers on Raina. Raina eggs her on, taunting/begging her to end her nightmare. Skye seems about to do it, when someone bursts through the door, demanding she stop.
And holy frickety-frack, it’s Skye’s mom!
Jaiying bears light scars across her face, which makes sense since Daniel Whitehall carved her to pieces in her last chronological appearance. (See also: Why her appearance is just a little bit surprising.)
But Jaiying doesn’t disclose her relationship to Skye. Instead, she defends Raina and asks Skye to stay for just a few days – she has chosen to train her. Reluctantly, Skye agrees.
Later, Jaiying comes to Cal, who has been going even crazier in a windowless room. She embraces him, whispering that they have finally been reunited with their Daisy… but he can’t see her.
Options
Back in the real(ish) world, Coulson and Hunter steal a car and hunker down in the Retreat. Coulson is conflicted about the whole “other-S.H.I.E.L.D.” scenario, wondering if Gonzales may be right about him. He and Hunter come to the conclusions that they have no good options left; Hunter suggests they try the bad options.
In spite of his willingness to try bad options, Hunter is rather distressed when Coulson triggers the Retreats alarm and brings Gonzales’s agents down on them. Coulson calmly insists that he has “backup” coming, but the two rogue agents are forced to fight off S.H.I.E.L.D. alone.
A last-ditch gambit to steal the agents’ quinjet fails as well, and all seems lost – until Coulson’s backup arrives in the eternally badass (and completely unexpected!) form of Mike Peterson (!!!)
Mike makes quick (non-lethal) work of the agents, and he pilots the quinjet easily off into the sky. He has been working for Coulson offscreen, has received a few cyborg-upgrades, and generally seems to be in a better place than he was at the end of last season.
Mike, buddy? We missed you so much.
Coulson tells the Terrific Trio what their next move is: They are going after a Hydra Head named List, who is experimenting on powered people. For that, need to get to the link between Hydra and everything else that’s going on. That link is Coulson’s bad – worst – option.
That link is Grant Ward.
Ew.
The powers that be
At the Playground, Gonzales is increasingly concerned about what he views as Coulson’s attempts to collect an army of people with powers. He interrogates May, waving the file on Bahrain in her face, but she refuses to capitulate. Bobbi tries to talk Gonzales down, but it’s unclear if her defense of Coulson and Skye makes an impression.
Later, Gonzales gives May a gun and tells her to shoot him if she really won’t trust him. If not, does she want to join the SHIELD council?
Reluctantly impressed that the gun really was loaded, May agrees. The council will now have at least one voice defending Coulson.
From the heart
While all this has been going on, Gonzales and Bobbi have failed to persuade Fitz and Simmons to open the Toolbox. Fitz flat-out quits SHIELD, but Simmons agrees to work on it for the good of the organization.
Fitz is enraged when he sees what Simmons is doing. He grabs the Toolbox, flipping it from hand to hand in defiance of Bobbi and Gonzales. Simmons angrily says that it’s best if Fitz leaves SHIELD, which he does.
Later on, Simmons confesses that she simply can’t crack the Toolbox; the intensely complex machine now amounts to a worthless piece of plastic.
Which it actually is, because Fitz has slipped the real Toolbox into his backpack, and is now heading away from SHIELD with its most valuable piece of tech… and one prosciutto sandwich with buffalo mozarella, just a hint of homemade pesto aioli, and a note that says, “Be safe! Love, Jemma.”
Not crying. Not crying.
…Maybe crying just a little.
