Divided and desperate, both Coulson and Skye found themselves making uncomfortable connections in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2, episode 18.
Team Hot Mess
Coulson, Hunter, and Mike rescue Fitz from the field, and fly off to have an awkward and passive-aggressive meetup with Ward and Kara.
The goal is to find Hydra’s new heads, Baron von Strucker and Dr. List. Both men have been experimenting on powered people (including the poor pre-Inhuman Ethan) and Coulson fears they might have Skye.
Ward, who is only told the first half of this equation, appears to accept Coulson’s offer. In exchange for leading them to List/Strucker, Coulson offers gives his word “as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.” (we see what you did there!) that Ward can walk away — after having his memory wiped in the T.A.H.I.T.I. protocol.
That said, nobody is actually happy about this alliance. Fitz is a bundle of nerves, Coulson only wants to make Ward trust him, and Ward and Kara are using Coulson to get to their own endgame.
It is, to be honest, kind of a hot mess.
But Ward and Kara do deliver Bakshi, who is “more than happy to comply.” Ward and Kara promise that Bakshi will behave normally, in spite of the brainwashing. Fitz thinks Bakshi will double-cross them, but Coulson sends Mike in as well for insurance.
Dangerous creatures
Bakshi and Mike meet with Dr. List on an “Echidna Capital Management” plane. (At last, definitive proof that echidnas are evil.) Team Hot Mess watches suspiciously through Mike’s eye from the quinjet.
How’s that for a sentence.
List is also suspicious, but Bakshi acts exactly like the hilariously evil asshole he is. In order to gain List’s trust, Bakshi offers up Mike as a dehumanized cyborg gift.
Coulson’s side of Team Hot Mess freaks out at this development, suspecting that Ward has sold them out. The tension quadruples when they realize that poor Mike has no intention of being traded like a hog and is about to blast everyone on the plane to smithereens with his arm-rockets.
Cooler heads somehow prevail, and Fitz messages Mike to “Play along” for the time being. Unaware of the averted crisis, List orders the plane to the site of a “quantum entanglement bridge” – or, as Fitz realizes, the eyeless teleporter.
So Team Hot Mess trails the Echidna plane to their destination.
Mis-attribution
At the Playground, Bobbi and Mack admit that Coulson probably isn’t the enemy — Hydra, after all, is still out there.
You kids couldn’t have figured this out two weeks ago?
Still, Mack thinks everything will become clear when a new super-laser arrives to open the Toolbox.
Aware of this, Simmons confesses her subterfuge to May. May handles the situation by telling Bobbi a version of the story in which Fitz stole the Toolbox all on his own. Bobbi has forgotten that Simmons has actually totally taken her out once, and treats her like a confused child.
Simmons coldly agrees to track down Coulson by hacking into Mike Peterson’s feed. Later, she accuses May of being on “their” side. Simmons doesn’t care what’s in the Toolbox; Coulson, she says, is just trying to protect Skye.
Take Your Daughter to Work Day
At Afterlife, Skye is growing closer to Lincoln, though their chemistry is about as compelling as milk right now. She also feels uneasy about sending Cal away from the compound, and letting him loose on the unsuspecting public.
She shares these concerns with Jaiying, who is unsympathetic; her priority is maintaining equilibrium at Afterlife, and neither Cal nor the people he might hurt are her responsibility.
Skye is not satisfied with this. Against Jaying’s advice, she decides to go Milwaukee with Cal and soften the blow of exile.
In Milwaukee, Skye ping-pongs between anxiety, guilt, and sadness for the life that could have been. While Cal buys ice cream, she calls May and tells her to come pick up her father.
“Just don’t hurt him,” she says, dumping the phone in the trash so Simmons can triangulate their location.
May sends Bobbi and Mack to go see what the heck is happening in Milwaukee.
Cal takes Skye to his old office building, where Skye experiments with the sound of her full name — Daisy Johnson. She grows distraught as Cal continues to waver between the past and the future, and tells him that things can’t go back to the way they were.
Cal begins to get suspicious of her — even more so when Lincoln shows up.
Visions
So here’s where things start to get insanely complicated.
Cal pounds on Lincoln, but tells him to protect Skye when Hydra forces — including Bakshi and Mike — show up at the building. (Apparently this is where the quantum-whoziwahtsit led them?)
Lincoln ends up fighting Mike with his powers. This leaves both of them frazzled and smoking, but Mike catches a glimpse of Skye, which is relayed back to Fitz, who is like, “Yay, we found her!” while Team Hot Mess joins the fray.
Hunter is shot, and Ward and Coulson mow through the Hydra agents, looking for Skye — but Fitz loses sight of her as Simmons hacks into Mike’s eye. The image she and May are treated to? Ward and Coulson – fighting side by side.
“Bloody hell,” says Simmons.
Departures
As some cosmic force realizes that there are way too many variables in play here, Bakshi helps out with the overcrowding. It seems that Ward and Kara might kind of suck at brainwashing, because he easily captures Mike and Lincoln.
This is followed by another surprising exit. Skye runs across Coulson and Ward’s path, but before they can reunite, Gordon blossoms in and pulls her away into the ether — along with Cal, who jumps in on that weird group hug just in time.
With Hunter wounded and Team Hot Mess surrounded by Hydra, Ward wants to know if they’re staying or going. “You’re call, boss,” he says.
Coulson decides to do both. When Bobbi and Mack finally show up to the silent, shattered building, Coulson is waiting in Cal’s office.
“Take me to your leader,” he says.
(Dear Coulson, their leader is May, and she’s totally pissed at you.)