Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: T.A.H.I.T.I. (1x14)

I'm... impressed. This was a pretty good one. Still not up to the standards I might have wanted, but there was actually some good emotional weight and character moments here. Let us look at the plot.

Skye is dying, and it looks like even S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top doctors can't do anything to save her. Coulson decides to find the people who brought him back to life, in order to save Skye. The team still have Ian Quinn on board as their prisoner, and it seems S.H.I.E.L.D. wants to bring him in. When the team disobeys orders and keeps Quinn on board, the Bus is boarded by Agents John Garrett and Antoine Triplett. Garrett, an old friend of Coulson and Ward's former handler, decides to allow Quinn to remain on board just until the team finds a way to save Skye.

While being interrogated, Quinn reveals that he shot Skye because the Clairvoyant told him to. That way, Coulson would try and find the people who revived him, and thus the Clairvoyant would finally find out how Coulson survived. Fitz and Simmons discover, in looking over Coulson's medical files, that he was treated at a place called the Guest House. When they arrive there, Coulson, Ward, Fitz, and Garrett break in, taking down the guards as they go. Once inside, they realize that the entire place is rigged to explode. Working quickly, Fitz finds the drug they've been looking for while Coulson finds a room marked T.A.H.I.T.I.

This room contains more drugs and also a creepy, humanoid corpse, which seems to be the source for the drug. Rushing back up to the Bus, Coulson tries to stop Simmons from injecting Skye, but he is too late. Skye had been on the verge of death, and Simmons had been willing to try anything. To everyone's immense shock and relief, Skye stabilizes, and it seems like she'll be okay.

The last scene shows Lorelei, an Asgardian, arriving at a hotel in Death Valley. She mesmerizes a man to drive away with her, leaving his poor new bride stranded.

So, I always have complaints. And I'll go ahead and start with them.

First of all, are they trying to give Simmons a love interest in the form of Agent Triplett? Because, no. Fitzsimmons forever. I don't approve.

I generally just found the characters of Garrett and Triplett to be out of place. Why were they there? It feels like they're just trying to endear us to other characters outside of the main six so that we can have an emotionally poignant death at some point in the future. I don't know. Right now, they seem fairly useless.

But, there were good things!

Coulson's freak out over Skye was pretty poignant. I don't really like Skye as a character all that much, but I'm feeling the genuine love that Coulson does have for her, even if I don't understand it exactly. Also, just Coulson in general. What he discovered in that room marked T.A.H.I.T.I. was freaky as hell - enough so that he was willing to let Skye die rather than see her go through it. However, I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop - what's wrong with Coulson now? What's changed about him?

Simmons is my favorite character on the show, I've decided, and part of that comes from the amazing talents of Elizabeth Henstridge. Her love for Skye and her fear of being unable to save her were palpable.

The entire scene down in that medical facility was actually very well paced and intense. The explosives, the rush to find the medicine, all of it. And I'll admit to some real curiosity - those guards, the high security - what exactly is being hidden? Was that weird drug-producing corpse actually an alien? I want to know!

Also, while I continue to find the Clairvoyant a rather mediocre villain, I will admit it was pretty genius when we found out that Quinn had shot Skye so that Coulson would finally reveal how he survived. Quinn's involvement in the whole thing was quite interesting.

With this show, I'm always waiting for the characters to become just a bit more developed. I'm always waiting for the exciting twist that will push everything into focus. For me, it hasn't happened yet. Still, I didn't have a bad time watching this episode, so we'll chalk it up as a win!

7.5/10