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A scout troop out camping in Pennsylvania is terrorized by a bizarre electrostatic phenomenon that yanks the battery out of their car and leaves their leader dead but hovering in midair. Oddly, S.H.I.E.L.D. sends in Coulson's team rather than calling up Thor and asking him, "Sooo…what'cha been doin'?" While they're investigating -- which entails Simmons getting zapped by the body like a metal doorknob in a carpeted room, May questioning the assistant scoutmaster, Fitz pouting even more than usual, Skye doing the cyber-legwork on the victim, and Ward still grumping at Skye -- another victim is taken out in a similar manner. Skye quickly finds out that both men were firefighters based out of the same station house, and were both at the Battle of New York. Coulson, Ward, and May head to the firehouse to find out who or what might be targeting these particular firefighters, and Coulson gets to watch as a third man starts showing signs of becoming a human lightning bolt. They soon figure out that the firefighters aren't being murdered after all -- they've just had the spectacular bad luck to have contracted a virus from a Chitauri helmet that the ladder company kept as a souvenir. There's no way and no time to save the third firefighter, but at least Coulson is able to sit down with him in his last moments and share the reassuring story of his own death -- or at least the version Coulson thinks he remembers.
In the aftermath, the remaining firefighters are quarantined and the team takes possession of the helmet so they can bring it to a research facility somewhere in West Africa. While en route, Simmons excitedly realizes that the virus is transmitted not by any previously known terrestrial method, but through electrostatic shock. And since she got a jolt from the first victim, she now has it herself. Which is a buzzkill that will ironically end in a very loud, killing buzz.
Coulson isolates Simmons in the lab, not that that's going to help the rest of the team when she turns into a walking Tesla coil inside a plane that's over the middle of the Atlantic. In essence, she has two hours to find her own damn cure, and it is not going at all well. Thus Coulson gets an order to jettison any "infected cargo," a directive he obviously ignores. Ward opens up to Skye about the helpless feeling of facing an enemy he can't beat up, and Fitz wastes a few of Simmons' last minutes arguing with her about how they shouldn't be in the field in the first place. But then that eventually leads to them coming up with a solution that includes harvesting alien antibodies from the Chitauri helmet. Fitz heroically joins her in the lab to work side by side while the others watch. It looks like they're going to pull it out, but when the third try apparently fails as well, Simmons takes it upon herself to exit through the rear. Of the plane, that is. And this just moments after Fitz realizes that the cure works after all. Fortunately, Ward grabs a parachute and dives after her, administering the vaccine -- sorry, anti-serum --in midair. So that turns out okay, though Coulson gives them some tough love about it afterward.
Through all this, Coulson and May have been dancing around the subject of some ahead-of-schedule medical tests he's been undergoing. He's been playing it off like it's the doctors' idea, and they show nothing abnormal, but in the end he confesses to May that he ordered them himself because of how different he feels since, you know, dying. May assures him -- from what seems like personal experience of her own -- that experiences like his change anyone who goes through them, and she gets us a good look at Coulson's scar in the process. Coulson not only buys it, he also faces some of the blowback from his earlier insubordination with another possible byproduct of his fatal run-in with Loki: a pair of great big adamantium balls. -- M. Giant
Want more? The full recap starts right below!In Wrigley, PA, around a campfire, a teenaged scout is attempting to frighten his charges with tales of "The Crying Man," when their accompanying adult pipes up that you can sometimes still hear him if you're quiet -- but then he blows up the teen's spot by whining in a rather Gilbert Gottfried-esque way, which breaks the kids' tension. If that story was scaring them up to that point, they could use some toughening up -- some camp stories I heard at that age still chill me to this day -- so I suppose the upcoming events have a silver lining. The adult, however, changes his irreverent tune when he claims to hear a humming sound; he goes to investigate, and apparently everyone present has seen a woods-horror movie before from their "THIS IS HOW IT STARTS" expressions. The teenager tries to distract them with s'mores, but just then a metal can beside him floats into the air, after which they hear a wail from nearby that sounds less like The Crying Man and more like The In The Process Of Being Dismembered Man. The teenager doesn't hesitate in rushing the kids to their truck just ahead of a bolt of electricity striking the campground, but nothing further ensues, so the teenager uncertainly opens the door and calls, "Mr. Cross?" There's no reply, so he takes the kids (questionable, but leaving them alone would be cruel) to investigate, and they don't get far before they find their unfortunate scoutmaster lying suspended in midair and apparently quite dead, with residual electricity still crackling around him. After the teenager stares in disbelief, we go to the title card, but not without two of the boys screaming in a higher pitch than Ned Flanders. I guess they at least have a reason, though.
Plane! Coulson is running on a treadmill as Simmons monitors his vital signs and pronounces them normal, adding that she'll just need to check his blood sample. He wryly says he's not a fan of being poked, and given how he died that's a pretty good line… unlike when he goes on that this examination is happening because he told his physio he was feeling "rusty" like TELL US IF HE'S A ROBOT AND MOVE ON PLEASE. (I know it's not happening until the end of sweeps at least, but it's so uninteresting, unlike -- I hope -- what will happen once he learns the truth.) Simmons replies that he's in great shape especially for "a man of your age," and because Simmons was apparently raised in a lab with a Bunsen burner for a mom she doesn't realize that Coulson might be offended by such a line. It even, might I say, comes as a shock. (Hey, if the show can indulge in silly wordplay, why can't I?)
Speaking of the lab, Ward does a quick-draw move with what looks like the night-night gun, and Fitz looks like he's into the way Ward, well, handles his equipment -- until Ward tells him that said equipment is an ounce too heavy. Skye's like, an ounce, Charles Atlas? But Ward informs her it can make all the difference in heavy winds and at long range. He then heads out, whereupon Fitz growls a mocking imitation of Serious Manly Ward that's way off in voice and accent but is still funny and gets a laugh out of Skye. Fitz is pleased, since Skye hasn't been doing a whole lot of laughing lately, so Skye confesses it hasn't exactly been fun living in Ward's doghouse. Fitz points out that she apologized to them each individually, and Skye adds that she's been studying and working so hard that you now cannot look at a local apple without going blind, yet Ward is still giving her the cold shoulder. She adds that she was only protecting her boyfriend, and Fitz is like, yeah, who cares about your ex, certainly not me, I absolutely don't lie awake at night wondering if you'd like me better if I waxed my chest like he does.
Not paying attention, thankfully, Skye babbles about people who speak the same language and mentions how he and Simmons are like psychically linked, and he's like oh, no, I've never noticed that, which means he's the only one around here who's never actually watched the show. Simmons then enters and upon hearing what happened with the night-night gun does her own Ward imitation, and Fitz looks discomfited, although that might have less to do with the proof of his and Simmons' connection and more to do with the fact that her impression was significantly better. The object of their fun then enters and tells them to gear up for a mission, but Fitz is not quite done giggling, so Ward suspiciously asks what's up. Simmons, however, distracts him by telling him Fitz accidentally left a dummy round in the pistol, and when Ward retests it, he signs off on its lighter weight. When he's gone, the group recommences their giggling, and it's too bad May doesn't walk in so we could see if they're actually capable of stopping.
At the campsite, Coulson is telling the S.H.I.E.L.D. team about the "electrostatic anomaly," and Fitz and Simmons complain that there wasn't an electrical storm around for a thousand miles. I'm no scientist, but if there had been, it wouldn't be anomalous, would it? Coulson informs them that this one had an effect they've never seen; there's some talk of how powerful the electricity obviously was, but that's nothing compared to the unfortunate scoutmaster, who is still suspended in midair in a lying position. Coulson asks Fitz/Simmons what could have caused it, and of course they talk at once and he has to be like "Time! Let's try that again!" Coulson, this is Episode Six. Either establish protocols for this type of situation (such as, perhaps, asking each of them individually to speak) or get better at sorting out two dialogue streams at once. Anyway, neither of them has a clue, so Skye wonders if it could be someone "from your uber-secret Index," but May definitively says there's no one on the Index with this kind of power. Coulson, however, consents to double-check just in case, and then Simmons notes an "endothelial discoloration" on the guy's forehead and steps forward to investigate. Fitz acknowledges that it shows the same dispersal pattern as the one they saw on the truck, and Simmons wonders if it's an entry wound that immediately cauterized. She's close, and I'd imagine she might have gotten to the speculation that it's an exit wound quite soon if not for the fact that, when she leans close, a small bolt of electricity from the guy zaps her (although she barely reacts to it), whereupon his corpse finally falls to the ground. Fitz and Simmons agree that this is "freaky," and they could throw in a synonym every once in a while rather than echoing each other, but it's hard to argue the point.
Back on the plane, Coulson and Ward come in and ask Skye if she found something on Cross, the scoutmaster, and she's like, I did, but you already knew that thanks to your bracelet gizmo that tracks my every keystroke now! As is happening quite a bit in this episode, to my delight, such babbling is ignored, so Skye tells them Cross was the local high school's phys ed teacher and varsity baseball coach, as well as a troop leader and a volunteer firefighter. No wonder he never had time to work on his Crying Man impression. She tells them he's clean, but Ward replies, "Everybody looks clean on their first go-round," and the Skye-shaped ice statue left from that comment looks chastened. Coulson agrees that Skye should keep digging, but when she's gone he turns to Ward and points out that he's being awfully tough on her and considering how steamed he was last episode, that's saying something. Ward, however, thinks Skye's got a lot more work left before she regains their trust, and rather than argue further, Coulson tells him to put Skye's work up on the monitor so May can review it "when she's done with her interrogation." What interrogation, you ask?
Why, the one of the teenager, of course! In the interrogation room, the kid looks scared, May looks intense… and then she pushes a plate of cookies toward him and tells him to have one. Hee. The kid is still so scared he practically whimpers, but from the quick look he takes at the plate, he's going to be talking soon enough, probably with his mouth full.
Coulson enters the lab/morgue to find the guy's corpse and Simmons, the latter of whom dispenses a bunch of technobabble, as is her wont. Coulson, however, notes that Fitz is waiting safely in the other room, and when Simmons explains that he detected "a strange energy" coming off the body, Coulson amusedly notes he's afraid of it. And while I think Fitz's jumpiness/queasiness/anythingness is overused, the guy did die here. This is pretty low on his scale of irrationality. However, with his manhood in question, he barks about the smell and the decaying flesh corrupting his workspace and then he and Simmons argue about a dead cat whose liver Fitz might accidentally have eaten? Probably not, otherwise I can't imagine his already delicate stomach would ever have recovered to handle food again. Simmons turns back to her boss and shows him a scan of Cross's brain, which Coulson notes looks like "a burnt baked potato," and if you don't stop grossing Fitz out you'll never get him back in here to do any work. Simmons tells him that the power output was almost double that of a lightning bolt, and then May comes in to report that the kid is clean. Simmons tells them that Cross' suspension in midair was due to his molecular density being temporarily altered by an unknown energy source, but she should know more once she examines some of the victim's brain tissue. While you're asking questions, shouldn't you add "what made him stop floating" to your list? Fitz then pipes up that a satellite is picking up another electrostatic event only a few short kilometers from their position, and S.H.I.E.L.D., shouldn't you have a fancy shorthand for that like "We're picking up a Code Zap?"
Cut to Coulson, May and Ward on the ground driving toward the source, which Skye says is localized in a nearby farmhouse. She gets to work researching who lives there, but presently, the readings on the monitor wink out and Fitz reports the electrostatic readings are gone. Coulson murmurs to May that they need a shortcut, so May swerves through a crop field for five seconds, which is not nearly as dramatic as I was hoping. Couldn't she at least have knocked over a scarecrow? At the farmhouse, they discover that the barn is barred from the inside, but May jump-kicks it open (that's actually not nearly the most powerful technique she could have chosen, but it looks fancy), whereupon they find another male victim floating much higher off the ground than the first one. Coulson dispatches Ward to search for "whoever did this" while May concludes that the victim was scared and sees a familiar burn mark on his forehead. Ward reports that there's no one in the vicinity and no tracks of any kind, so Coulson requests real-time SAT surveillance for the surrounding area. Skye, however, has discovered an interesting connection -- the new victim, "Frank Whalen," and Cross were both volunteer firemen at the same station -- and were both responders at the Battle of New York. Skye concludes that they're looking for a killer, which doesn't really seem to fit the facts in a traditional way but still makes things interesting.
Elsewhere, a heretofore-unseen man carefully polishes a helmet/face mask combo that's ornately enough designed to fit into the Marvel universe. He puts it down and exits -- whereupon it generates a familiar jolt of electricity. Given the part about the Battle of New York combined with the ominous music, some quick math yields answers of "Chitauri" and "really, really not good for Simmons."
Back in the barn, Fitz and Simmons have a drone fly around the guy's corpse, and much as Simmons did earlier, the drone gets zapped with a jolt that sends the body falling to the ground. Simmons sees something in the guy's wounds that makes her want to get him back to the lab ASAP, but Coulson, May and Ward are already speeding their way toward the firehouse. It's night by the time they arrive, and Coulson IDs them as being from S.H.I.E.L.D., adding that S.H.I.E.L.D. was on the ground with them in New York. The captain does not exactly jump for joy at the news, but he doesn't protest either as Coulson sends May and Ward to check the place out, after which the guy we saw polishing the helmet appears and sweatily asks what's going on. The answer will depend on whether you like to be eased into bad news or not, my man. Back in the lab, Simmons has made the leap she was close to earlier -- the electricity came from within the victims -- while back at the firehouse, Coulson has broken the news about Whalen and now notices that the sweaty guy, "Tony Diaz," ain't lookin' so good.
When Diaz excuses himself, Coulson tells his team to cover the back door and then goes in pursuit, while back in the lab, Fitz and Simmons discuss the possibilities attendant to Simmons' new theory -- until Skye realizes that the satellite is picking up a new reading in the firehouse. Coulson catches up with Diaz, who confusedly asks if he hears a humming noise, and I guess I should point out that in the cold open, Cross didn't appear to feel ill the way Diaz does now, which seems like an inconsistency given that Diaz at this point looks like he wandered over from The Walking Dead. Coulson, looking more and more concerned, says he doesn't hear anything before asking if Diaz was in New York with the others -- and then a metal pan floats up into the air behind Diaz, prompting Coulson to draw his gun and tell him to stop it. Diaz doesn't understand, but May reports that she's found a Chitauri helmet, a picture of which she immediately sends to the science team. Simmons concludes that the thing caused a cranial discharge, while Diaz tells Coulson that the helmet is just a souvenir from the battle, and someone first touched it a couple nights ago, as it was rusty. Simmons urgently pipes up for May not to touch the thing before explaining that Diaz isn't using a weapon -- he's infected with an alien virus.
Diaz tells them he, Cross and Whalen were bored and decided to clean the thing, and then his brain catches up with his mouth as he realizes, like Whalen and Cross, he's a dead man. Coulson tells his team to clear everyone out and closes the door, whereupon Diaz despondently concludes that he's going to end up like the others. Coulson grimly asks him to sit and then essentially asks if there's anyone to whom he can pass on some last words; when Diaz just stares into space, Coulson tells him he's been where Diaz is, "so please believe me when I tell you, you don't have to be afraid." Well, it's a nice sentiment, Coulson, but forgive me if I dispute your authority given that you haven't actually had a double-strength lightning bolt explode out of your forehead. Diaz foggily wonders what he means, so Coulson tells him he got hurt once, "and… I died. Some say it was only for eight seconds, but I know it was more than that." I'll say! At least he doesn't mention how magical a place is Hawaii. In all seriousness, though, this is the best bit of work I've seen from Clark Gregg so far as he earnestly tells Diaz he knows he wasn't here -- he was there. Choosing to believe, Diaz asks what there is like, and Coulson smiles that it's beautiful, which even affects May, listening on the comm. However, a knife then floats into the air and Diaz looks at Coulson: "You'd better get going, buddy." Coulson doesn't want to -- it's fairly clear -- but he does, and once he's taken a place at May's side and she's looked at him with some concern, they see electric blue light flare up from within. I'm telling you, people may be enamored of Coulson's quippery, but what will make the character work for me is his heart. Or whatever took its place.
It's now light, and Fitz scans the three away-team members for signs of electrostatic energy, but they come up clean. Skye and Simmons watch as the other firefighters are led away to be quarantined as is S.H.I.E.L.D.'s protocol while the helmet is packed in a biohazard casing to be transported to "The Sandbox," described as a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility across the Atlantic that specializes in hazardous materials. Coulson notes that if Simmons is right about the virus, the firefighters could be infected and much like the thing with Cross not feeling ill earlier, this is sacrificing consistency for the sake of delaying a reveal, but in this case we already know Simmons got zapped, so shouldn't someone on the S.H.I.E.L.D. team realize that they all should be tested since they all were exposed to the first two victims? Coulson adds that Simmons needs to find a cure, and she agrees to do so. We see people in hazmat suits put the helmet in the interrogation room and then in the cockpit, Coulson hears from May that they've got an ETA of about four and a half hours. He obviously sounds out of sorts, so May asks if he's okay, and when he gives an unconvincing answer, she asks if he wants to talk about his physical. Rather than bring up the fact that Simmons called him old, he says everything's fine and she must really care because she keeps the conversation going by asking if he'd tell her if something was wrong. He does no better at selling an "Of course," but he's spared further interrogation by Simmons calling that she's found something. May does, however, offer that "Phil" did everything he could for Diaz, and Coulson smiles and nods gratefully even if he doesn't really believe it.
In the lab, Simmons shows Coulson an extreme magnification of brain cells from the firefighters, and we see electricity still being generated at the cellular level. She excitedly tells him that the friction caused by cleaning the helmet must have activated "some long-decaying Chitauri organism," and I'm surprised no one wonders if that might not have been an accident; it'd be an interesting gambit of biological weaponry to coat their helmets with something lethal to aliens in case they fell into the wrong hands. Simmons excitedly concludes that they're dealing with a propagating virus that spreads via electrostatic shock -- unaware that a metal tool is floating into the air behind her. Coulson goes wide-eyed for a moment, but lets Simmons babble obliviously as he walks to the door. When she finally catches his look of grim death, she asks if anything's wrong, and he sighs, looking like he's going to vomit, "I'm so sorry, Jemma" -- before hitting the door control and locking her in. This, I also liked. Simmons whirls and sees the tool floating in midair and then touches it; it falls to the ground as she breathes, "Oh no." Well, good motivation to get working on that cure.
When we return, Fitz and Simmons are sitting back to back with the glass wall separating the lab and the cargo hold between them. Fitz tries to cheer her up, but she's clearly despondent and he's just as palpably terrified, which is some good silent work from both actors. Near Fitz, Coulson tells the rest of the team that they think Simmons only has about two hours. With creeping dread, Skye asks if S.H.I.E.L.D.'s scientists won't be able to come up with a treatment in that time, but while Coulson says they will, May regretfully pipes up that they're in the middle of the Atlantic and won't be able to reach the Sandbox or anywhere else for three hours, and the news gets worse, as if they don't contain Simmons' electricity, the pulse she releases will blow the plane out of the sky. And while that would probably mean another appearance from Fury, I can understand why they think it's a bad idea. Coulson tells the team that the only person on board with the knowledge to find a cure is Simmons herself, and he's willing to stake his life that she will, but as we see Simmons' agonized face again, May points out she's just a kid. So we've got a character we care about (I… think?), a ticking clock, life and death not just for her but possibly for the whole team. It doesn't matter so much that we assume she's not going to die; it's what this time teaches us about her and the whole team that makes it meaningful. Solid drama!
Fitz does his part by giving Simmons, through a compartment transfer in the wall, a delivery system for her cure -- should she find one -- that will both suspend the vaccine and conduct electricity. He pats himself on the back for it, and I give him the benefit of the doubt that he's trying to lighten the mood with their typical banter rather than actually being this needy; in any case, Simmons plays along as she smiles that she's really creating an antiserum rather than a vaccine, although I'd imagine if she's successful with the former the latter will follow in due course. She makes an attempt on a lab rat, and the ensuing flash of blue light gives us an idea of its efficacy; we then see three cages holding white rodents, the first two of which are suspended dead in midair. I'm assuming their faster metabolism accounts for how quickly they reached the critical point; also, having to wait for the virus to do its thing explains why Simmons was sitting around earlier rather than frantically working. Fitz tries for some gallows humor, but this time Simmons isn't having it, which I'll grant is understandable.
Ward is watching from a monitor upstairs when Skye finds him and wonders why he isn't down there. He replies that they don't need an audience, so she turns to go, but he finally opens the door by inviting her to stay with him if she wants. She accepts, whereupon he grits that he wanted their opponent to be a person, someone he could beat, "But what I can't do is protect you guys from stuff I can't even see, or understand." Was that an emotion, Ward? It's okay! S.H.I.E.L.D. won't dock your pay for that! Skye wonders what they do, then, and he recovers his steel and says they wait -- and get ready "for whatever it is we're called upon to do." In other words, practice with a parachute, Skye.
Coulson is on a video call with a superior, who tells him S.H.I.E.L.D. has no record of anything like the virus, so it's critical the plane reach the Sandbox to deliver it for study and research; also, if he has "infected cargo," orders from above are that he needs to dump it. Well, I think you could make a strong case that Simmons isn't cargo, exactly, but Coulson chooses not to rely on future discussions of semantics. Instead, after looking like he's sucking on one of the world's ten tartest lemons, he taps a control to him and does a whole "You're breaking up" routine, which is an undignified yet effective conversational exit I'm sure we've all employed at one point or another. He and May then have a somewhat inscrutable little exchange that, I think, boils down to the fact that Coulson is the boss and the responsibility for whatever decision is made here is his alone. Thanks for clarifying!
Simmons is still causing the odd metal tool to take flight (float?) as she chastises Fitz for checking his watch; he in turn berates her for having insisted they go into the field, and I know he's just acting out because he's concerned but still: Can it, Fitz. She's like, I didn't force you to do anything, but he mimics her telling him what a perfect opportunity to see the world the assignment offered, and I'd suggest he stop distracting her so she can GET ON WITH FINDING THE VACCINE ANTISERUM, but I do enjoy her snapping back that he's been afraid and he should just admit that the last few months have been "the highlight of your entire pasty life." Hee. He snits that she's not exactly "sun-kissed" herself given that she's been beside him the whole time, but they then go silent as the emotional weight of that statement hits, and it's another excellent moment as he quietly tells her she needs to fix the situation. She tells him, however, that she doesn't know how, as the antibodies from the firefighters aren't strong enough to fight the virus -- but they then have a simultaneous epiphany as they realize that the Chitauri who wore the helmet must have survived the disease. Fitz rushes to get the case and barrels back -- into the lab, risking his own life, and when Simmons protests, he tells her they're going to do what they always do. "We're going to fix this. Together." Could you also come up with a cure for the sudden leak in my eyes?
As the rest of the team watches in trepidation, Fitz uses gloved hands to take a sample of the Chitauri's residual cells from the helmet (although that's not going to help if the helmet decides to zap him) and Simmons then gets to work. After a quick montage, Fitz puts Simmons work into the delivery system and injects the last rat, and nothing happens, which they take to mean they were successful -- but then telltale blue light appears and the third rat floats up to join his brethren. After taking a moment, Simmons puts on a brave smile and walks over to Coulson to ask him to ignore protocol and tell her father first; her voice breaks as she goes on that her mother will take it better coming from him. Coulson starts to say it isn't over yet, but she won't be distracted, so he silently nods his assent, whereupon she asks the group if she could have a moment alone with Fitz. Skye can barely function, she's so distraught, but May kindly leads her away. Fitz, for his part, is saying that the pulse from the third rat seemed much less powerful, which would indicate progress with the "antiserum," and she's gratified that he finally used the correct term, but that doesn't stop her from saying she's sorry and bopping him on the back of the head with a fire extinguisher. He falls to the floor, but doesn't seem to lose consciousness, which is probably better for Simmons' chances but waaaay more painful.
May tells Coulson, who really looks about to lose it, that "Agent Blake" is on the line for him, and if Coulson won't answer, he's requesting Ward. Ward asks for orders, and Coulson blue-steels that they're unchanged, but an alarm goes off -- someone's lowering the cargo-hold ramp. With a panicked look, Ward rushes off, while in the lab, Fitz manages to get back to his feet -- and see that the third rat is alive; the pulse was apparently only strong enough to knock him unconscious. I do wonder if it would have floated into the air as the others did in that case, but Fitz is more concerned with yelling at "Jemma," who's standing at the edge of the now-open hold. He tries to manage the door and to scream at the top of his lungs that they were successful, but both efforts are in vain as she gives him one last fond look before she allows herself to fall and is swept away by a wind current. He screams in horror, and that's an act break!
Finally getting the door open, Fitz grabs the delivery system and rushes out, grabbing a parachute, but he clearly doesn't know what he's doing, so thankfully Ward appears and in the space of 1.2 seconds collects the parachute and antiserum and flings himself after Simmons. After he fully straps the parachute on, he gets a visual on Simmons, and contrary to her flailing, he adopts a streamlined posture that makes him look quite a bit like Superman, and I'm sure the people at DC Entertainment are laughing at Marvel for that one. After some tense moments, he manages to grab her and deliver the antiserum, and soon after, the parachute has been deployed and they're floating safely when a meager bit of electricity is discharged. But will it leave a mark?
Well, it may not, but the way Coulson's barking at them for disobeying orders might. Of course, this is his way of blowing off steam in lieu of gushing embarrassingly and Ward obviously knows it, but Simmons takes the dressing down meekly even when Coulson softens and says they'd hate to lose her. As they walk back downstairs, Ward tells Simmons that what she did was incredibly brave, but she's feeling the need to unburden herself, so she tells him she lied when she gave him back the night-night pistol -- it's still an ounce off. Ward smiles and says he knows and when she's surprised, he goes into an imitation of her imitation of him that sounds like a cross between Clint Eastwood and Groucho Marx and as such is easily my favorite of the three. Skye then appears and tearily hugs Simmons and once Simmons relaxes into it, she smiles big, which is nice.
May comes in to see Coulson, who tells her that Simmons is amazingly resilient for someone who almost died. May suggests an experience like that takes a while to kick in, and she's inviting him to talk so I can forgive the supertext. He tells her his blood work came back and he's normal, and then we get yet another robot reference as he adds that he's "a little heavy on the iron," but she doesn't have to start calling him Iron Man. May: "Wasn't planning on it." As much as I may think Coulson overuses the quips, I do enjoy May's bone-dry reactions to them. Coulson finally gets around to confessing what's on his mind -- he ordered the tests himself because, despite what the lab reports say, he feels different. I don't know if Amador's cryptic statement on the same subject is still somewhere in May's mind, but she asks him to remove his shirt, and knowing him I'm surprised he doesn't reply by asking her to buy him a drink first.
Instead, he silently unbuttons it and we see a huge scar over his heart, which May regards with all due reverence before telling him, for no matter how short a time it may have been, he died, and there's no way he could have come out of such an experience unchanged. Her words are so pointed that it would be clear she's also referring to an experience of her own even if she didn't go on with "You know how long it's taken me to…" and he replies by cutting her off with an "I know." Can we get the details, please, preferably in an ass-kicking episode devoted to May? Still keeping the scar exposed, she tells him the point of such experiences is to remind us that there's no going back: "You feel different because you are different. And because you're an alien ghost robot clone." Okay, some of that may have been implied.
Elsewhere, Fitz is telling Simmons how he was totally going after her before Ward intervened, and she smilingly tells him to shut up; what Ward did was great, but Fitz is the one who gave her hope when she had none. She calls him a hero and kisses him on the cheek and he smiles, but when she's gone, he looks pensive. If you're thinking about whether it's possible to get Skye and Simmons into a three-way, bro, I don't want to know about it.
The plane has touched down at the Sandbox, which fittingly is in a classified location in the desert, and after two flunkies offload the helmet, Agent Blake, not without amusement, is like bad connection, eh? He gets more serious, though, as he tells Coulson that his death experience doesn't give him the right to disobey a direct order, and continuing to do that might mean the end of his little "dream team." Coulson basically is like, bring it on, so Blake steps out, but not without running a speculative finger over Lola on the way. Good way to lose that!
week: Ward and Fitz go to Level Eight.
John Ramos is a writer and film producer living in Los Angeles. His new film, a documentary on online privacy and the exploitation of personal data called Terms And Conditions May Apply, a New York Times Critics' Pick, is now on iTunes here. You can get news on it from the film's Twitter accountor website, or check out trackoff.us to learn how to protect your privacy. Also, you can email John at couchbaron@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/couchbaron, or check out his blog, "Pull Up A Chair," which he'd just love for you to stop by.
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