This episode basically serves to create the team cohesion that Joss Whedon does so well (akin to what we saw in the Avengers, in fact, there’s even a similar scene on the flight deck). So, after we get a nice little tease of action when an explosion tears a whole in the side of of the team’s plane, called “The Bus” and Coulson is hanging on by his life not to get sucked out, we’re transported back 19 hours to find the team struggling to get along. Skye has been brought on as a consultant, and thus clears out her van and instantly finds a critic in Agent Ward.
Ward has a problem with more than just Skye, and May is worried over how little combat training Fitz and Simmons have as well. More to the point, Ward is worried that Skye simply holds a different philosophy that makes her dangerous, and Coulson shuts them down. Meanwhile, Fitz and Simmons move Skye in. After she’s settled, Coulson meets with her and shares his near-death story. By the end of the scene, as the plane is gearing for lift off, we find out that the 084 referred to earlier is an unidentified object, which they’re headed to investigate in Peru.
The Mayan Temple in Peru
They arrive at a Mayan temple and Ward kicks into stealth mode, surveying the area for dangers, while Fitz, Simmons and Skye go into the temple to investigate. They find a small, complicated piece of machinery. They detect that there’s a pulse coming from it, but have to research it further. Skye asks Coulson what she’s even doing there, and he informs her she might have to create an online diversion if word of this gets out, so basically, as she notes, the opposite of what she wants to do. While Ward and May discuss her past briefly, bringing up how she’s “The Cavalry,” until they discover troops hiding in the bushes and attack, but they’re soon surrounded.
Agent May Being a Badass
When Coulson goes to investigate, we learn that the leader of the troops, a middle aged Peruvian woman, Comandante Camilla Reus and Coulson know each other, and in fact might have a romantic history. She’s now an officer in the country’s military. Ward and Skye argue over whether the rebels attacking the government over mining operations is positive or negative, with Ward arguing that their violence clearly makes them bad. Skye says she wasn’t talking about that part.
Comandante Camilla Reus
Shortly after some flirting has occurred between Camilla and Coulson, the whole team, including the troops, are ambushed by rebel soldiers. During the fight it becomes clear that Coulson and Camilla’s chemistry is strong in both personality and combat. Ward is forced to take the device from the wall so they can flee, despite Fitz’s science-babble (C-3PO-esque) misgivings about that idea.
The Team and the Weapon
They all get away in a car chase and they take off in The Bus. When they’re finally in the clear, Fitz finally explains the machine is a weapon powered by the tesseract technology that Hydra weapons were made from and is worse than nuclear material in it’s level of gamma radiation. They all take a step back. Coulson apologizes to May in the cockpit about her having to see action, and initiates a course around restricted airspace with a control woman, who we heard earlier in the flash-foward.
Coulson Apologizing to May
As the team readies to examine the machine, they bicker over how they sort of botched the mission, with Ward furious over how little field action most of the team has seen. Skye observes the tensions and when Coulson, giving Camilla a tour, interrupts a shouting fight, Skye expresses how disparate they all are. Coulson agrees. This is that flight deck scene I mentioned earlier, and it has a similar tone of raising the stakes since they now realize they need to work together.
Fitz and Simmons Investigating the Weapon
The characters get settled in, and Coulson and Camilla go upstairs to his office. The troops are noticeably present on the plane. Fitz and Simmons investigate the machine with Iron Man-like holograms, talking about the stress of the field. Skye finds Ward reading a book and makes a Hunger Games reference before having a genuine emotional moment with him. They discuss the positive aspects of the revolution, as a common motivator for people to make their lives better, and Skye compares it to the belief of the Rising Tide, that the more people you have working on a solution, the likelier it is you’ll be able to solve it, which Skye finds beautiful.
Agent Ward Listening to Skye
This not only develops a bond with them that the audience roots for, but the cultural reference makes the whole show feel more authentic. The scene ends after Ward expresses his wariness over the troops they’ve taken aboard. We then find Coulson and Camilla in his office. She’s flirting with him hard core, and he calls her out on it. She says they could do things like they’d done in the past. Finally, Coulson arrives at the conclusion that Ward will have already realized what’s about to happen.
Camilla Reus Trying To Get in Coulson’s Pants
Sure enough, a troop appears at the lab, and Ward springs into action to attack and subdue troops trying to get him and Skye. Another troop drills a hole in the cockpit draining the oxygen (I think) until May passes out, and they get her out. They’re all surrounded, and Coulson cries foul. Camilla tells him it’s because he has such a crappy team. Coulson looks at the monitor where we see a troop with a knife to Fitz’s throat. Commercial break right after a great raising of stakes. The whole problem addressed in the beginning, group cohesion, is again stressed. Almost, maybe, a bit too strong, but it has the sort of melodrama or romanticism of comic books and old spy movies so it fits.
Coulson Watching the Monitor
When we get back, the team is tied up, but Coulson is in the galley while the rest of the team is by the cars. Everyone claims the whole mess is their fault, and then they try and figure out a plan. May wakes up as the rest of the team learns she’s the mythical “Cavalry” but she admits that even if they could get to the doors, the doors’ locks are attached to the pressure reader. Meanwhile Camilla mocks Coulson’s team when he tries to convince her to see the bigger picture of the conflict they’re facing as humans, and how stupid infighting is. Finally, another show of badassery is delivered by May when she wriggles out of her rope and attacks a guard, knocking him out.
The Team Tied Up
We’ve learned that Camilla only kept Coulson alive because they need confirmation to continue on course around the no fly zone from control. They call back and we’re back to the scene we saw in the opening. Meanwhile the rest of the team reaffirms that they have to carry out their plot fast, and May revs a military jeep, before crashing it through the door of the lab. They all get equipped for something, getting chains and ropes, while Fitz uses his drones to search through the vents.
Coulson sees one of the drones and even though he was nearly free of his rope, he ties it back up, and tells the controller that he’s there and they have blue skies ahead of them. Just then, the drone excites the Hydra weapon with some beam and the weapon fires, producing a burst through the hull of the plane, which we saw in the beginning. Coulson hangs on my the rope, and the team makes there way to get the machine and Coulson, now that the doors are unlocked.
Ward fights off combatants while Skye gets an idea to plug the hole. She unclips from the rest of the gang and goes to get an inflatable raft. Right before she is able to inflate it, one of the troops who’s attacking Ward trips and is about to fall through the hole, but Ward catches him. Unfortunately the guy grabs Ward’s shirt, which rips, and he’s sucked out the hole. Meanwhile Coulson ties up Camilla in the chaos. Skye opens the raft and it plugs the hole (a bit too perfectly if you ask me, not sure if the science makes any sense on this, but whatever). The day is officially saved.
Agent Ward and the Inflatable Raft
While everyone is recouping at a S.H.I.E.L.D airfield, Ward acknowledges to May that Skye could be an asset, if she learned. May suggests he should be her supervising officer. Ward agrees to do so. Coulson and Skye have a debate over whether S.H.I.E.L.D. had the right to take the machine. Coulson argues that people like Reus would always be after it to silence their rebels. The team relaxes, enjoying some beers as they watch a S.H.I.E.L.D. rocket being blasted off from the other end of the airfield. Coulson asks who’s idea it was to blow a hole in the plane, they eventually say it was all their idea (the team is a whole!) and Coulson commends the ingenuity. Then Skye gets a text from Rising Tide about a new project. She hesitates before replying, but says “I’m in.”
Skye Contemplating Helping Rising Tide
Finally, we get a scene with Coulson and Nick Fury, with Fury complaining about the hole in the plane he just refurbished for Coulson. There’s some classic Coulson and Fury banter before the episode wraps up. This was a great little throw back to the first cameos Fury made in the Marvel universe’s first blockbuster stingers, just to remind us of the larger universe out there.
“Talkin to Me ‘Bout Authority!”
I thought the episode was pretty great. The whole theme was for the team to understand that they needed to work together to get things done, rather than all trying to come up with the solution on their own. They each have to overcome communication difficulties that are still emerging and being worked out between the characters, and this has added great tension and development—I feel like I’m truly watching these characters reveal their past, as I see them change before my eyes, it’s Whedon gorgeousness.
And importantly, I’m also excited for the next episode. Skye’s role in this episode was admittedly scarce, and she points out several times that she’s not sure why she’s even around. Now that Ward has finally accepted her, she’s just accepted to help Rising Tide, confirming what many characters have already pointed out, she could be a huge risk given her position on the inside now. We’ll have to wait and see what happens next!
Episode Rating- 9.1
