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To get a couple things out of the way: May and Ward are still knocking boots and keeping it a secret. Also, Fitz/Simmons get the idea to prank Skye, so when Skye asks where May's Cavalry name comes from, they shine her on about May having killed more than a hundred men single-handedly on a rescue mission. Ward tells her she's been pranked and that it was only twenty, but Coulson gives her the real deal -- he and May were part of a welcome wagon mission that went bad (like, David Koresh bad) and while May saved the hostages and killed the enemy, she lost her joie de vivre in the process. I mean, Coulson makes it sound worse, but that's essentially what we're dealing with.
In Batesville, UT, a young woman named Hannah Hutchins manifests telekinetic powers that seem to have a mind of their own, as -- under emotional duress -- she seems to blow up a gas station without intention or control. S.H.I.E.L.D. goes to check Hannah out, finding angry townspeople on her lawn who blame her for a lab disaster that killed four of their people. With the situation escalating, S.H.I.E.L.D. night-nights and takes Hannah into protective custody on the plane; knowing that she's going to be agitated when she awakens, Coulson and May make the initial onboard greeting, and Hannah tells them she's responsible for the deaths of those people, as she must have missed a fault in the reactor's coupling assembly. Coulson then tells her she may now be telekinetic, but Hannah tells them it's not her -- she's being haunted by demons. The S.H.I.E.L.D. team doesn't believe her, but we catch sight of a spectral figure that suggests she's not crazy, and soon, mysterious things are happening on the plane… things moving, knives disappearing, that sort of thing. Creepy!
Skye's investigation shows one of the dead techs apparently had it in for Hannah, as he'd reported her for safety violations several times. Soon, the man himself makes an appearance to Simmons, just as her analysis shows that the explosion ripped open some kind of invisible window to a different dimension or plane of existence or whatever you want to call it. He seems to be able to move between corporeal and ethereal form effortlessly, and he cuts power to the plane, forcing it to make an emergency landing in a deserted field; from here, it's a horror-movie setup with limited lights and no hope of rescue while being stalked by, essentially, a ghost. Fitz/Simmons theorize that their ghost is actually a man trapped between two universes, but that doesn't help them fight his shadowy self. Before he can get to Hannah, May's taken her off the plane to draw him away from her people. The rest of the team realizes that the guy has actually been enamored of Hannah, and he confesses that he regularly screwed with the reactor so she'd pay attention to him. May super-texts her way through a speech that convinces him to move on, and it's a pretty lame ending to an episode that while hardly groundbreaking at least delivered some decent suspense. Of course, May does rediscover her love for pranks, so I guess Ward should take his post-coital showers with one eye open from here on out?
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!As country music plays, we open on a close-up of a local paper that informs us of a lab accident that killed four people. The subhead tells us that the lone survivor was questioned after the particle accelerator exploded. The door of this convenience store then opens, and as a chyron lets us know we're in Batesville, Utah, the woman whose photo we were just regarding on the front page enters. She grabs a few sundries and puts them on the counter, but instead of ringing them up, the clerk prefers to give her a basilisk stare, so she asks if there's a problem. The guy rather aggressively tells her that "Jack Benson" was a friend of his, and from her stricken look before she apologizes, we can assume Benson to have been one of the explosion victims. The guy goes on that she was the one in charge and that the widow Benson says it was her fault, and the woman -- who looks a bit like Taissa Farmiga's older sister -- is like, you know what, my need for these paper towels actually isn't all that dire, so what say I just peace out?
The guy blocks her path, but after she trepidatiously tells him to stay away, a bunch of cans start flying off the shelves and hitting him. He asks if she did that -- it's probably worth noting that this guy from the sticks accepts the possibility of her being telekinetic in like .2 seconds, but certain S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who have known gods and monsters alike think that idea is just crazy -- and although she promises it wasn't, a stand of shelves then topples over on the dude, causing the woman to get one of those über-victimized faces that are an early warning sign I'm going to have no use for her. The guy runs out of the store, pulling his phone out as he goes, but once he's outside he sees the stations' gas nozzles lying on the ground spilling fuel liberally over the ground. And… don't you need to pay to get those going? While we think this is telekinesis, it makes sense, but is our dead-ish villain still up-to-date on his credit-card payments? The clerk heads for the hills as the gasoline flows toward a burning copy of the paper we saw earlier, while inside, the woman is a watery mess as she prays for this not to happen again -- whereupon the gas pumps explode. Well, now she's really not welcome at this establishment. Title card.
In a hotel room, May is getting dressed when her phone beeps and the noise of the shower stops. She calls that "we" have a mission and then Ward appears; even if TV standards force him to have a towel tied around his waist, it looks like now that they've gotten his shirt off, they're keeping it that way. It's the Evan Peters principle. He starts to talk about how they should follow the same plan as before (so maybe this is only their second hookup, which would jibe with the information we got last time that off-plane overnights are few and far between) -- take separate routes back, stagger their timing, talk about how they definitely haven't had any sex since the show started -- but when he turns around, she's already gone. Well, at least he's amused by her ability to walk out on boring conversations.
Cut to a close-up of a computer screen telling us who our possibly telekinetic, definitely emotionally fragile woman is -- "Hannah Hutchins" -- as Skye tells Coulson she thought telekinetics didn't exist. Coulson replies that they've never verified one (…), so they're going to Utah to check it out. Or, as he puts it, to "conduct an index asset value and intake." I'm not always a fan of Skye's attempts to informalize everything, but I do appreciate her dry inquiry of "Does that mean we talk to her and see if she has powers?" Coulson is like, yeah basically, so Skye suggests a better name for the process, like "the welcome wagon"? I mean, that might not be super-appropriate if the subject turns out to be hostile, but it's not bad from a PR standpoint. Coulson, however, ignores the suggestion in favor of telling Skye he wants her to pay close attention to how this kind of mission goes, and when she reminds him that she found Peterson before they did, he's like, "Remember how that went?" Um… fine? I mean yes, he almost exploded, but Skye had nothing to do with that; the show probably just wants us to remember who that is for time. No reason!
Coulson tells her he wants her to see this kind of first contact done right, which makes me wonder if some other agency is going to take the mission over. Who's the ODIN to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ISIS? (Seriously, I wonder what this show would be like as a straight comedy.) As they walk downstairs, Skye flips through some materials Coulson gave her and guesses the people S.H.I.E.L.D. approaches must freak when they arrive, and Coulson tells her every case is different -- some people are in denial about their powers. They then chat about details from the case, and the only thing we didn't already know is that Hannah was the plant's Home Simpson… I mean, "safety inspector," which explains why everyone in the "small church community" is blaming her. Skye then starts to get all Heart Of The Show about how Hannah must be having a terrible time, but luckily they reach Fitz/Simmons, who inform her the particle lab has been deemed still too dangerous to enter -- but they can still get the data they need from their drones, so they'll look for any correlation between this kind of explosion and spontaneous telekinesis. Coulson then shows off by spewing a lot of technobabble about how the lab was designed to create "miniature Big Bangs," and Fitz/Simmons go slackjawed at his demonstration of knowledge while Skye's like, well, I won't mention Big Bangs around Explosion Girl! Not that I don't appreciate bad wordplay, but as responses to Coulson's statement about miniature Big Bangs go, "so, Small Bangs, then" just seems so much pithier. Coulson then says it's a delicate situation, so he, May and Ward will be the ones to make initial contact. After May appears overhead to tell them they're going in five, Skye's like, it's delicate "so you're bringing along Warm and Fuzzy?" Again, she could cut back on the "Daaaad, you never let me do annnnnnything!"-type comments, but she's got a point here. May stares death down at her, and then Ward walks in and May's all, YOU'RE LATE. Like yeah, that's pro secret-keeping there.
In Batesville, S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicles pull up to Hannah's house -- aren't they supposed to at least try to be stealthy? -- to find a stock TV "Go home! We don't want your kind around here!" crowd outside being blocked by local law enforcement. Boring. Coulson asks the officer in charge if he can't get them to disperse, but he tells him it's a free country, and I'd point out that they might be more likely to go if HANNAH WEREN'T STANDING OUTSIDE ON HER PORCH. Like, what is with this woman? Go inside and watch some fucking TV! Coulson has barely gotten through his intro before some idiot starts egging Hannah's house with more sterling "Get out of here!" dialogue -- if I never see this kind of clichéd crowd behavior on TV again, it'll be too soon -- and then a nearby police car seems to spontaneously start and drive into the crowd, and Coulson has to take a literal flying leap to save one of the morons.
While I'm up, is there an explanation for why we can't see the guy driving the car? This is classic lazy plotting; the audience at this point thinks the woman is telekinetic, so the writers play into that rather than be sure what we see on screen makes sense once we know the twist. Same thing in the store earlier -- once the guy is revealed, he's always corporeal when he's physically manipulating something in this world, so how is he getting the car to move? How did he even start it, for that matter? Anyway, some lady bleats about how "that freak" just tried to kill them, and Skye shows her steel by grabbing her arm and telling her to -- you won't believe this -- calm down! That's agent material, right there. The officer nearest to Hannah, also thinking she made the car move, points his gun at her, which I don't think is in the training manual and also might not be the correct approach if she were actually telekinetic, and Hannah gets all whiny-panicky-cry-y about how it wasn't her, so I thank May for ending this ridiculous scene by shooting Hannah with the night-night gun and announcing it's time to go.
Hilariously, we return on a shot of a sign that reads "Particle Accelerator Complex," like I guess someone's saving money on testing at the generic complex rather than the name-brand one, and then -- as drones fly every which way -- Simmons babbles about there being no principle to support telekinesis, and I know there are production blockades everywhere you turn with this ill-conceived show, but if you're not allowed to acknowledge the existence of the X-Men maybe don't make it so freaking obvious by having S.H.I.E.L.D. agents babble about how telekinesis doesn't exist? Are you also going to deny the existence of metal manipulation? Talk then turns to this one time, at S.H.I.E.L.D. camp, when Simmons got pranked and after they sigh about graduating three years early and as such not getting to play tricks on any freshmen, they realize that Skye is ripe for the prankin'.
Coulson tells Ward that thanks to Simmons almost blowing them to kingdom come, "The Cage" now has magnetic shielding, which should allow it to prevent Hannah from using the power that totally doesn't exist. May enters and asks how Hannah is, and as we see her sleeping, Coulson says the dendrotoxin is wearing off and their interaction with her will be crucial, which is why he wants May there. I have lost my patience for any cryptic bullshit, so let's cut to the chase: The situation is obviously bringing up feelings for May, but if Hannah doesn't stay calm and flips out, Coulson's going to want May in there all the more. !
Hey, Hannah's awake and guess what? She's whimpering and whining. Coulson gives her some water and introduces himself and May, and soon Hannah's asking "Oh Lord" what she's done; terribly overwrought and sappy music plays as Hannah self-flagellates, which Skye of course eats up, saying how sad it all is. I agree, but not the way she thinks. Simmons, however, announces that Hannah's brain waves are entirely normal and she's merely upset. After Skye unnecessarily blames May for that, she asks how May got her "Cavalry" nickname. Fitz and Simmons practically lick their lips as they see a prankin' opening, and they tell her a cock-and-bull story (although they name the correct Bahrain location) about a compound in which multiple S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had been taken hostage and tortured for information; May went in and single-handedly took out over a hundred enemies in freeing her fellow S.H.I.E.L.D.-ers. Oh, and she rode in on a horse, which is where the name came from. Simmons can barely keep it together, but Skye still buys the story, after which Fitz and Simmons play around with a holo-image and Fitz swats Skye's hand like she's a bad dog when she tries to play as well. Skye says she's going to go do her own research, which probably includes working on the best puppy-dog empathy face she can manage, and the only remotely worthwhile thing in this entire scene is Fitz and Simmons' no-look side high five when she's gone.
In The Cage, Hannah is telling Coulson and May how for weeks, she was getting reports from "Tobias" about couplings coming apart, but although she seemingly went down there every few days, she never found anything wrong, which is why she blames herself for the explosion. Coulson says his team is looking into everything -- including the fact that it looks like she's telekinetic? Hannah, however, tells them it's not her -- she wishes it were, because then maybe she could control it. May asks what, then, is going on, and Hannah whines that they won't believe her, so May makes a big show of being all "Try me," and Hannah tells them God's abandoned her, like, with all your sniveling can you really blame him? Coulson asks what God is now failing to protect her from, and she tells him demons. "I'm being haunted by demons." May doesn't say "Check, please!" aloud, but her face sure suggests it.
Later, the team is all, delusions of persecution, classic case -- but behind Coulson, we see a man appear and then vanish in a cloud of smoke, sort of like Nightcrawler EXCEPT I'M NOT ALLOWED TO TALK ABOUT HIM AM I?
Skye has apparently checked out Hannah's history and concluded that she's super nice -- she never misses a birthday post for her friends, like that proves anything except that she's got Facebook's Birthdays app -- so she wants to be allowed to talk to her, as someone as empathetic as she is obviously is taking the loss of life on her watch even harder than most people would. This leads to some more manufactured snittery between May and Skye; May informs Skye that until they figure out what's going on, Hannah will stay locked up and Skye will remain out of contact -- whereupon some tchotchke of Coulson's falls to the floor and he's like, huh, thought that was glued down, like WHAT ABOUT THE TELEKINESIS? I mean, even if you don't believe in it and/or think The Cube's refinements are foolproof, in this particular episode would you not pay a little more attention to things seemingly moving of their own accord?
Skye still won't shut up about May -- like, after weeks of being on the same plane with May her suddenly being up in arms about May being UNFEELING and whatever rings so false, although not quite as much as her concluding May needs to get laid and Ward pulling an oh shit face that's pointed away from her. Of course, Ward might wonder if the fact that May's still being such a hardass means he's not doing the job right, but he tells an oblivious Skye that she might want to be less confrontational when it comes to May, so Skye babbles about how killing a hundred guys on horseback doesn't mean May knows how people work, like anyone would claim otherwise. Ward, however, is like you've been Fitz/Simmonsed before telling her it was actually twenty trained assassins, and she took care of them with only a pistol and no support. That still sounds like bullshit, but Skye asks why, if she was so successful, she's so weird about the "Cavalry" nickname, and Ward tells her May "isn't in it for the glory," like, I'm not sure why a simple moniker translates to an ostentatious display. They gave her a nickname; they didn't name the office-supply wing of S.H.I.E.L.D. after her. Ward then wonders what happened to the knife he was about to use to cut the sandwich he's been laboring over this entire scene, and then we cut to the doorknob to the cage rattling and Hannah going all damsel-in-demon-distress again, like, can we either save the girl or kill her so she shuts up already?
Simmons is checking out a holo of the explosion when Fitz appears to her wearing a gas mask. This scares her not one bit, and she sends him off to work on some tech stuff and also the prank, both of which I'll agree need work.
Skye shows Ward a photo of a "Tobias Ford," one of the explosion victims who looks -- to use an expression of my grandmother's -- like a bit of a plug-ugly. He also, according to Skye, filed three safety reports against Hannah in the month before the explosion, which seems to indicate that he was not Hannah's friend even though she seems to think otherwise. Please, no one tell her and make her cry even more?
Fitz heads into a supply closet in search of something or other; the numerous camera cuts let us know to expect our mysteriously appearing visitor, but the show holds him back until Fitz is talking (out loud, of course, as everyone does) about springing a prank on an "unsuspecting victim." Ugh. And then, by the time he turns around, the guy is gone, because this ghost/not ghost is nothing if not a drama queen. Seriously, all his other appearances have had intention behind them, but here he randomly appears for a cheap scare? And speaking of drama, Simmons says (also aloud, but she at least kind of thinks Fitz might be there) it's almost as if the explosion ripped open a window…"to hell!" Ford grits now that he's appeared to her. He swings a wrench and cracks the glass display generating the holographic image, and I think that's why Simmons lets out a cry rather than any fear of him, but he's vanished again by the time Coulson comes running in and she informs him Hannah's telling the truth. "There's someone else on this plane." Someone who could NEVER have manipulated that car in non-corporeal form earlier, I feel I must point out again, especially since we get a demonstration of the guy's outstretched hand waiting for the rest of him to materialize before it cuts a bunch of wires somewhere, causing the plane to lose power. Coulson: "We're going down." This poor plane didn't know what it was signing up for with this show.
When we return, Ward is joining May in the cockpit and as they strap in, May asks Ward if he's certified, like I'm pretty sure on a plane with a population of six the list of people qualified to fly the thing would be well documented, so I thank Ward for not bothering to answer. May diverts as much battery power as she can spare while keeping The Cage shielded, and then everyone buckles up as May announces they're heading for a rough landing in a field and maybe I'm being unfair to fields, but I'm guessing that's generally how such landings go. Rough or not, it happens, and then we cut to Coulson informing everyone that there's a man or whatever tormenting Hannah, apparently, so they've got to keep The Cage intact to protect her. Skye once again yammers about wanting to be the one to talk to Hannah, although at this point they might as well give it to her, since Hannah's proven to be so irritating I can't imagine else volunteering to do the job. Coulson is like fine, whatever, and then starts to give some marching orders -- only to have Simmons ask where Fitz is. Boning up on horror-movie tropes?
Close enough -- he's stuck in a supply closet wondering if someone's pulling a prank on him before realizing that the reason he can't get the door open is that someone jammed a knife below it. He manages to remove it and walk out into the hallway, whereupon he's surprised… by Simmons and Ward. Well, that was worth our time. Ward radios to May, who tells him the main issue seems to be in "Avionics Bay 2" and that he and the Geek Squad should check it out. Elsewhere, Coulson radios for help, but Ford smashes the radio's power -- you'll notice once again he took corporeal form to do so -- and the thing dies, so Coulson blames '90s technology, because God forbid you let the fact that someone who's already sabotaged the ship once is running loose stop you from delivering an unfunny line.
Skye is finally fulfilling her lifelong dream of talking to Hannah, and it's watery and boring and they actually show them sitting on opposite sides of the door like this is the sincere fifteen minutes of a rom-com, so here's what you need to know: Skye does not believe in God, but if she did, it wouldn't be the vengeful one the nuns she grew up around told her about. She goes on that the only words that stuck with her were from one kind nun who told her "God is love," and as May appears within earshot, Skye says that that's the version she believes, and if she's right, God wouldn't punish Hannah for making a mistake. "I think he'd forgive a mistake." May looks possibly a bit moved, but she's all business again once she steps out of the shadows and says she'll take over, as Coulson need's Skye's help with the emergency transceiver. Skye doesn't want to go, as riveting a conversationalist as Hannah is, but she heads out with a "try not to hurt her any more than you already have," like, all she did was shoot her with the freakin' night-night gun! That happens practically every act break on this show!
Simmons is babbling about the possibility of the guy's "hell" actually being an alien world, and Fitz attempts an epilogue to last week's "tie-in episode" by mentioning Thor's name like GIVE IT UP ALREADY, but the point is that they've concluded the lab was used to research such portals and the explosion obviously created one, so their "ghost" is a man trapped between their universe and another. That doesn't explain the part where Ford seems to be able to materialize at will to carry out whatever nefarious poltergeistisms that strike his fancy; speaking of which, they check out Ford's handiwork and note that he was "thorough," like, is that because he pulled out all the wires in the handful he grabbed? Do most villains leave a few intact out of laziness and lack of professional pride? Oh and speaking of mischief, after some horror-movie fakeouts that might have been workshopped in a junior-high-school drama program, For… appears and ups the stakes by pushing Fitz and Simmons both into a closet, and which one of them is going to bring up Seven Minutes In Heaven, right? (Spoiler: Neither of them.) He then engages Ward in a fistfight during which he smokes out every time Ward's about to land a punch -- totally trapped between worlds there, no control at all -- and the sequence eventually ends with Ward getting bopped on the head and put in the supply closet with Fitz and Simmons, while Ford -- for his part -- looks at his translucent hand and bellows with rage for… some reason. You said "hell" before, right guy? Use your words!
Skye STILL WON'T SHUT UP about Hannah and how she should be with her instead of "The Cavalry," and Coulson says not to call her that before telling her May's actual story (I'm assuming but who really knows): A welcome-wagon situation went south, resulting in a civilian girl and some of their agents being held in a building by "the followers of this gifted individual," and May took it upon herself to get them out; she "crossed off" the enemy force (like, what better way to emphasize the gravitas of your statement than with Smurfy jargon). Skye asks if she lost anyone in there, and Coulson replies, going back to the junior-high-school workshop: "Herself." Seriously: Barf! That's the best you can do after nine episodes of alluding to May's tragic past? A fact-light and detail-free story from someone who didn't even witness the actual events? If May's rescue mission had been a movie, this would almost be the equivalent of the Thor "tie-in."
As Skye gets that watery look on her face she's been wearing half the episode, Coulson says that May, while always quiet, used to be warm and was even a prankster! Skye speculates that Coulson wanted May on the plane to see if that person is still inside her somewhere, but thankfully, a loud noise signals the plane is collapsing under the weight of too much sap, so Coulson and Skye go to investigate and soon, Ford has a wrench around Skye's throat as he tells Coulson to let Hannah out or to let him in. Elsewhere, Fitz is telling May, who's walking through the plane, via walkie-talkie that Ford is trapped between worlds and seems to be bringing a bit less of himself back each time he appears. I'm not sure how he determined that, translucent hand or no, but they think that while Ford is trying to get them to concede access to Hannah, they might be able to wait him out until he disappears fully. At this point, however, May turns wary, as well she might with the lights blinking on and off, and after a couple flickers, we see Ford behind her with the wrench raised on high, promo-style. After another blink, he swings it down -- but May's disappeared. He looks around before realization dawns and he runs into The Cage -- only to discover Hannah and May are gone. Outside the plane, May is leading Hannah away, and Hannah trepidatiously -- how else? -- asks what she's going to do. May: "Fix the problem." Not that I doubt your abilities necessarily, but that statement's perhaps a little ambitious for this awful episode.
Trapped in Coulson's office, Skye asks if any of the electronic memorabilia therein still works, while elsewhere, Ward finally regains consciousness and immediately realizes that the fact the guy is still holding a wrench strongly suggests he's the one that loosened the couplings he then reported. It's nice that Ward and Skye are using their brains here even if Skye is driving me nuts generally. Using an old Dick Tracy-esque watch, Coulson gets through to Ward, and the two groups realize May isn't with them -- because she's actually marching Hannah into a barn somewhere and telling her not to worry because she just needs to use her as bait. Hannah manages to mix some sarcasm in through her tears with a "Well, that's comforting" that's a tremendous, if temporary, improvement. May goes on that she wanted to lure Ford away from "my people," which again is something I wouldn't expect Hannah to find particularly inspirational although she stays silent on the subject this time.
Coulson has rigged his watch to the door lock, and using technobabble, Fitz sends a signal that causes a tiny explosion that suffices to break the lock, although not before Coulson gripes that only twenty of the watches were made. Speaking of Coulson and props, by the way, if you're a Clark Gregg fan you might want to check out the episode of Comedy Bang! Bang! that ran this past Friday. When the groups is reunited, they walk through the plane as we FINALLY get an extremely lame prank from Fitz involving a mop head which would be low-budge even by traveling-carnival standards; that, however, wakes Skye up to the fact that Ford's behavior is "childish." Coulson asks what she's getting at, which would be a fair enough question even if we weren't in the last act here.
Hannah's standing in the barn when Ford materializes in front of her -- and the effect is excellent, I should say -- but she barely has time to ask dumbly if it's him before May brings him down with a flying tackle. Like, this is your crack plan? Since you're so big on the night-night gun, why not give that a try while he's in corporeal form? Maybe that way you could even study the phenomenon? But no, May engages him hand-to-hand and suffers the same issues Ward did, although it's only fair to say she's doing better than he did at staying conscious.
Skye is taking entirely too long to get to the point: Ford liked Hannah. He engaged in childish ploys to get her attention, and now that he's dead he's trying to protect her from her tormentors. The team finally manages to get off the plane, whereupon Fitz and Simmons deploy a series of glowing orbs that fly off in different directions to scout the area. Back in the barn, fighting continues, but when Ford sees a loose plank of wood falling toward Hannah -- who, it may surprise you to hear, cowers and whimpers in fear -- he smokes over to catch it and save her. Doing some quick math, May instructs Hannah to tell Ford she won't hurt Hannah; once she complies, Ford drops to his knees and says he's being dragged to hell for what he did. Well, I can see why he likes her -- think of the competitions they could have over who God hates more! Hannah asks what that was, so Ford, his voice giving off a weird modulation that's meant to signal he's literally not all there, confesses to loosening the bolts in an effort to get her to visit, which he says was the best part of his day. Hannah is aghast, which she conveys very subtly by whimpering and crying, and Ford begs for her forgiveness, but Hannah tells him only God can forgive him. Well, I don't think that's true, but what she probably means is that God's forgiveness is the only one that will matter, and May pipes up that God won't forgive him. "You can't undo what's been done. That will be with you forever. But trying to hold onto this life, clinging to the person you thought you could be -- that's hell. And you're dragging her down with you."
Okay, I mean, maybe this speech is what he needs to hear, and it certainly seems to be something May needs to say, but it has absolutely nothing to do with God's forgiveness, I feel obligated to point out. Not to mention the fact that if whatever other world he's experiencing is bad enough to resemble hell, shouldn't they be trying to help him? As May catches sight of one of the lighted drones nearby, she tells Ford he has to let go and you may think at this point I'm just looking for any excuse to bag on this episode, but I honestly don't get why they would assume he's in control of whether he moves on or not. His situation was caused by an explosion in a lab that forced him into this limbo, right? The vague bit about him disappearing more and more aside, isn't it logical to think it would take something of equal force to dislodge him from it? And if May's going to play Spirit Whisperer here, can't she at least do a Zelda Rubinstein impression? The rest of the team shows up in time to witness May urge Ford to "let the girl go," and after he takes her hand and closes his eyes, he dissolves into smoke, presumably never to return. Skye of course rushes over to Hannah like they're blood relatives, while Coulson asks May what she said to Ford and May, in a small voice, replies, "the same words you said to me in Bahrain." Sorry, but you had your chance; not caring anymore.
Later, on the plane, Skye literally tucks a sleeping Hannah in, like YOU CARE AND ARE EMPATHETIC AND WE GET IT, and then she goes over to Coulson for a clunky transition about lost causes and some talk about May, and Coulson tells Skye she'll be a good superhero recruiter or whatever someday, and that's only if the show ever decides if that's what it's actually doing here. Skye then joins May in the cockpit and asks if she can keep her company, and May doesn't say no, which she takes as assent. May might even be glad of it, but let's not push our luck.
Oh, and in the end, Coulson, Skye, Ward and Simmons are playing Scrabble when Fitz appears with shaving cream all over one side of his face. He indignantly tries to get an answer to who pranked him, but none of them claim responsibility -- because the culprit was May, who's listening in with a small but definitely amused smile on her face. Fantastic; she found herself, we can move on to whether Coulson's a robot, right? Maybe we'll find out in two weeks when J. August Richards returns.
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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