At the holiday break Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode “The Bridge” left us hanging on the edge of our seats with Coulson being kidnapped by the girl in the flower dress, Raina, and Mike Peterson being forced to double cross Coulson, but paying the price by being blown up. Where was Coulson being taken? Why could The Clairvoyant not see how Coulson died? Was Mike really dead?
Questions are (somewhat) answered over the next several episodes but, obviously, more questions keep popping up as well. We do finally find out what happened to Coulson, but there are still questions on exactly how and why. Skye’s past is revealed but the answer only gives us an even bigger question mark than before.
The interworking of S.H.I.E.L.D. are also revealed, or at least more than we knew before. We see the relationships within Coulson’s team lead the charge during episodes, both good and bad, with probably the least likely candidate of them all leaving us questioning her loyalty to the team and to Coulson.
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The Magical Place
We learn Po and Raina set up a machine to trigger the deep memories hidden in Coulson’s mind to find out what really happened to him after his death in New York. Still seeing Tahiti, his vision of getting a massage quickly vanishes and Coulson is on an operating table. Even though he pleads to let him die, a mysterious machine seems to be keeping him alive, firing pulses in his brain.
Of course, S.H.I.E.L.D. has ordered a search and rescue on Coulson, but they find him as he is still screaming in the memory machine. Later he insists to this team that Centipede put the memories in him, but then confronts Dr. Streiten, who he saw working on him, and the doctor states Nick Fury had put the order in to keep him alive.
We also find out Mike is alive, just barely, and he is missing a leg. He then receives a message through an eye implant to wait for further instructions.
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Seeds
Focusing on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Science and Technology Academy, the school that Fitz-Simmons went to, we also get an introduction deeper in the Marvel universe with an origin story of bad guy Blizzard, with, as you can guess, using a power of freezing against his foes.
Blizzard, student Donnie Gill, uses his weapon to actually draw in Fitz-Simmons, leaving the device behind, which uses technology that the duo developed while they were students there, prompting the agents to go to the academy. Donnie tricks Fitz into helping him with an issue on his “science experiment”. Donnie uses this knowledge to unleash a massive weapon to change the weather, which we find out is being funded by S.H.I.E.L.D.’s old foe Ian Quinn.
On a separate mission, May and Coulson find the ex-agent, Lumley, who was brought Skye to S.H.I.E.L.D. as a baby, and who’s female partner we see dead in photos linked to Skye’s file. After some evading, but realizing they are part of S.H.I.E.L.D., Lumley reveals he and his partner were sent on a mission to pick up an 0-8-4, an object of unknown origin, but when they got the team protecting it was dead. Then they realize the 0-8-4 is a baby. To protect the baby, Skye, they use a stolen Level 8 security ID to put the baby in the foster system, hoping to keep it hidden and safe. Against May’s wishes, Coulson divulges all the details to Skye.
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T.R.A.C.K.S.
The team takes board on a train on the hunt for Ian Quinn, and in one of the best episodes so far, we see the point-of-view of each character in an overlapping time frame.
Having learned Quinn made a $10 million purchase, the package is being delivered via train, and Coulson’s team tries to put a tracker on it hoping it may lead them to The Clairvoyant. Going undercover, the team have a calculated series of events that should enable them to find the package and put a tracker on it.
With some of the events going smoothly, many do not, leaving parts of the team fending off Quinn’s men on the train while others, voluntarily and involuntarily, leaving the train but not before they place the tracker on the package.
Ultimately, Skye and Fitz see the transfer of the package, and follow leading to a manor where Quinn is holding up. They activate the tracker, sending the signal to the rest of the agents to its whereabouts. Skye insists that she go in after Quinn. As she’s looking for the package, she finds Mike in a hyperbaric chamber but Quinn has also found her. The package folds out into a mechanical leg for Mike, and Quinn sends him out on his mission. Quinn, following The Clairvoyant’s orders, shoots Skye.
As the rest of the team get to the manor, Coulson get Quinn but realizes he has blood all over his hands. Asking where Skye is, the team search for her, finally finding her with no pulse. Simmons quickly puts her in the hyperbaric chamber, lowering her body temperature and getting her to breathe again. They get her on the bus to figure out how to save her.
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T.A.H.I.T.I.
Skye’s health is quickly going south and the team must find a way to save her. The only alternative Coulson can come up with is to find where he was healed and bring her there.
Quinn is on board the bus and the team take turns “interrogating” him. S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters gives Coulson the order to bring Quinn to them but he disobeys, hoping to find information on The Clairvoyant first. A S.H.I.E.L.D. plane is then sent to them, and Agent John Garrett (Bill Paxton), Ward’s old S.O., and Agent Antoine Triplett board and tell the team he is there to take Quinn. After talking with HQ, Quinn is allowed to stay onboard with Garrett doing the questioning.
Understanding Skye’s life is on the line, Fitz-Simmons are given Coulson’s file, and stumble on a drug, GH-325, that Coulson was given. Unfortunately, they have never heard of it. They manage to figure out, using the S.H.I.E.L.D. database to cross-reference data and the time of Coulson’s death, they find where Coulson may have been operated on. An old WWII bunker nicknamed “The Guest House.”
The fly to “The Guest House” but are quickly met with resistance. They finally breach the compound, with Garrett’s help, and once inside, a guard trips a failsafe and they are locked inside, with the bunker rigged to explode.
As they leave Ward and Garrett to find a way out, Fitz and Coulson find the room where Coulson’s vision of his brain being worked on. They find treatment room and find the drug inside a refrigerator casing. Grant finds them and advises they have only four minutes until the place explodes. As they are about to go back to the entrance, Coulson finds a room labeled “T.A.H.I.T.I.” He goes inside only to find all the “GH” viles are connected to what looks like an alien corpse.
They finally all make it out, and Fitz administers the drug to Skye, with Coulson too late in his efforts to stop them. Skye stabilizes, but then convulses before stabilizing again.
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Yes Men
Lorelei, an Asgardian enchantress who can seduce men with the power of her voice, lands on Earth in an attempt to take control. The S.H.I.E.L.D. team get readings, the same as they received in the past, of an Asgardian presence and when they land on the site, they are quickly met by the Asgardian warrior Sif, who we met in the latest Thor movie, who has come to Earth to bring back Lorelei.
When S.H.I.E.L.D. try to get the drop on Lorelei, she quickly seduces Ward, making it difficult for the team to pursue her, as he knows every part in the S.H.I.E.L.D. playbook. The bus follows Ward and Lorelei to Vegas, but they have given the team the slip.
Fitz had been working on fixing the collar that restrains Lorelei’s powers for Sif, and shows her the completed work. Fitz traps her inside the interrogation room on the bus, now being under Lorelei’s spell. Coulson and May realize what is going on forcing May and Ward to fight. Sif finally overthrows Lorelei just as Ward is about to shoot May.
Still in the recovery bay, Coulson goes to Skye and explains why he didn’t want her to take the GH-325, that he saw the serum being extracted from an alien at “The Guest House”. As Coulson finishes, May had been listening in, and calls someone on an encrypted line stating “he knows.”