What. The. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.
Nope.
Nope I do not like this. Take me back. Make it stop. Let's just... ugh. Let's just do the plot. I am upset.
This entire episode was non-stop go-go-go.
As HYDRA tries to shoot the Bus out of the air, May uses evasive tactics to escape, and then goes to meet up with Coulson and the rest of the team to formulate a plan to get Skye out.
Meanwhile, Ward brings Raina and Skye to San Juan, and takes Skye to meet her father. Turns out, his name is Cal. He tells her the story of what Whitehall did to her mother. He also tells her that her own name is Daisy. Whitehall himself is there at the HYDRA base in San Juan to oversee the plans to reach the city. Whitehall makes Skye pick up the Obelisk, which Skye does successfully. Whitehall is excited to see if Skye is as "special" as her mother. Cal is furious. Whitehall has Cal, Ward, and Skye all tied up to keep them out of the way for the time being.
Cal manages to escape from his bonds, leaving Ward and Skye behind while he goes after Whitehall. However, Coulson and the team show up at this point, ready with their plan to extract Skye, and to seal off the entrance to the underground city. Coulson shoots Whitehall, killing him. Cal is furious because he wanted revenge against Whitehall. He tries to kill Coulson. Ward, meanwhile, gets free and also sets Skye loose, thinking to get her to safety. Skye takes advantage of Ward's trust in her and shoots him several times, running off. Skye shows up and sees Cal beating up Coulson. She threatens to shoot her father if he doesn't leave Coulson. Cal runs off, promising that Skye will someday see how special she is. Skye is devastated that she couldn't bring herself to pull the trigger and kill Cal. She runs off to fix the situation, with Coulson, injured, calling after her.
Agent 33 discovers that Whitehall is dead, and she does not know what to do next, since her allegiance to Whitehall was absolute. She finds Ward, who convinces her to help him escape.
Meanwhile, Fitz, Simmons, and Tripp have been arranging a detonation device to seal the tunnel to the city. They are using old technology because their new fancy gadgets don't work down there. Fitz manages to set up the system, and it all seems good to go. They are all sad because they know that Mack is still down there, and they aren't sure if he's dead or alive.
Skye discovers that Raina has taken the Obelisk and gone down into the city. Skye follows her down there. May finds Coulson, who insists, despite his injury, of following Skye down the shaft and into the city as well. May reluctantly allows him to do so. Then, when Tripp finds out that Coulson and Skye are down in the city, he decides to go down after them, despite the fact that the whole place is rigged to explode, and despite Fitz and Simmons begging him not to.
Down in the tunnels, chaos ensues. Raina and Skye make it to the Temple, Raina holding the Obelisk. Tripp manages to join them, but Coulson is unable to reach them, due to Mack - still a monstrous fighting machine - detaining him. The temple seals itself off with Raina, Tripp, and Skye inside. The Obelisk lights up like a crystal, and something strange starts happening. Both Skye and Raina begin to be encased in a hard shell. Tripp reaches forward and knocks the Obelisk off of the altar where it had rested. He too is encased in the hard shell.
As Coulson desperately waits outside of the temple, unable to get in, and the others all wait above ground, Skye breaks free from her casing. She seems to have some new sort of power, which causes the earth to rumble with earthquakes. Tripp's weird shell casing crumbles, and he crumbles right along with it.
The last scene shows some sort of alien with no eyes. He has another Obelisk, also known as a "Diviner," which reveals to him that there is "another one," whatever that means.
My complaints are pretty minor, honestly. First of all, Lance and Bobbi were in this episode too, but I didn't mention them once in the whole plot summary, because they felt totally useless to the actual story. With Tripp gone now, it seems like Lance and Bobbi are our only new-ish characters who are sticking around, and I still maintain that I'd prefer Tripp and Mack over the two of them. They just aren't as interesting! I'm annoyed about that.
There was one moment of insincere acting there at the end, when Tripp thought that Skye was dead, and he yelled out "nooo!" It's a really hard thing to get right, the whole dramatic "no!!!" yelling. Elizabeth Henstridge (Simmons) had to do it at the end of Season One, and she did an excellent job. This attempt from B.J. Britt, who plays Tripp, could have gone a bit smoother. It's a small thing, but it's a pet peeve of mine.
Mostly, though, all is awesome.
Skye has some sort of earthquake power now! How cool is that! Great animation on those last bits, as she slo-mo came bursting out of that mold. Really awesome. You could just feel the power radiating off of her.
Great acting from Chloe Bennet throughout this whole episode. Skye was so upset and torn when her father was telling her the story of her early life. You could see her curiosity and her life-long hunt for a family warring with her disgust at this man's actions. What's really interesting is the contrast between Skye's treatment of Cal, and her treatment of Ward. Whereas she cannot bring herself to shoot her father, even while he was hurting Coulson, she shoots Ward without a second thought, when he was trying to help her escape. I think the difference here is that Cal is a little off his rocker, and he has good reason to be. He knows that these evil actions are a means to an end. Ward, on the other hand, would have done anything for Garrett, including kill Fitzsimmons. (Sure, you can say he did what he could to give them a chance, but if push came to shove, he would have ended them).
Speaking of Fitzsimmons... There wasn't a ton of stuff there for them, but I do love the way that they continue to work nicely together. Fitz is getting better and better every episode. Serious props to the script writers, director, and actor for portraying a really gradual, subtle recovery. He's not suddenly better one day, but in this episode he was struggling for words far less than at the start of the season. Also, they hugged! Or, more like they grabbed on to each other for dear life when the world started shaking. But I'm counting it and you can't stop me.
May! She didn't have a lot to do here, but there were some really interesting things going on to parallel her to Agent 33. I mean, duh, they have the same face... but it's a lot more than that. Agent 33 is loyal to Whitehall above all else, even though that loyalty is because of brainwashing. May is loyal to Coulson due to friendship and long years of partnership. Even so, you get the feeling that May would feel just as lost without Coulson as Agent 33 did when she saw that Whitehall was dead. I loved it when May called Coulson "Phil." That's one of my favorite tropes ever, when characters who normally call each other by last names switch to first names in moments of desperation or sadness. So awesome. Also, awesome flying skills at the start of the episode. May is amazing.
Tripp is dead!!! Nooooo. I complained about it earlier, but it was a really strong narrative move, I've gotta say. I can't wait to see what comes out of this. Fitz and Simmons are going to be so upset. I mean, they all will be. But I can just picture those two with totally broken hearts.
One of the things I liked about this episode was how loyal the entire team is to one another. Think about it - Raina goes down into the city, and Skye follows her to stop her. So, Coulson follows Skye. So, Tripp follows Coulson and Skye. If May hadn't been smart enough to do the right thing, she would have jumped down there after Coulson. If Ward knew that Skye was down there, he probably would have followed, too! (Not that Ward is a part of the team. Because he most definitely is not).
I think I'll leave off before I get carried away. I'm super bummed that I have to wait through a hiatus to figure out what's next! What's going on with Skye? Is Tripp truly gone forever? And Mack as well? Now that Whitehall's dead, what's next for Cal, Raina, and Ward? Will Fitzsimmons repair their relationship? (Let's be real, the last one is the one I care about the most...)
8.5/10
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