Previously on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra started ruining everything lead by Garrett and Ward, Garrett injected himself with alien juice, Mike was a sad robot because he wanted his son back, and FitzSimmons got ejected from the Bus and fell into the ocean.
We open in Cybertek headquarters, where a man is leading a newbie around, showing him the ropes. He asks what brings the newbie to Cybertek and he answers, “The incentive program.” Which, based on his expression, probably isn’t a room full of Pomsky puppies; and everyone here is either a volunteer or here for the incentive program. It seems like each employee of Cybertek is in control of one supersoldier. Before the head Cybertek supervisor can finish his tour, an employee says they’re ready to go.
And by ready to go they mean ready to attack the Agents we love so dearly. Our Agents start fighting the supersoldiers while Skye runs to the computer to attach her USB drive. May manages to overcome the soldiers and uses one of their magic sticks against them. She starts taking out load-bearing beams one by one while the rest of the Agents run for their lives.
The Cybertek supervisor calls Garrett to tell them that the SHIELD Agents got away but Garrett barely absorbs that information because he’s too busy feeling the alien juice in his veins. Quinn, on the other hand, is pissed that Garrett took all of the “miracle drug” because now they have nothing to show their investors.
Meanwhile, Ward is getting a little worried about Garrett because he’s twitching and rambling like there is way too much information in his head for one person to handle. Ward asks him what the end game is here, and Garrett tells him to start thinking about what he wants most in this world, because he’s about to get the chance to have it. He then starts carving the secrets of the universe into a glass door via weird symbols.
Since Team Coulson’s mission was successful, Skye now has access to Cybertek’s system and can keep an eye on their operation. Coulson tells his team that they tracked FitzSimmons to New Mexico, but that they’re not answering any calls. Skye pulls a “worried girlfriend” face. Coulson says that this isn’t a reason to lose hope or get distracted. In fact, if they’re still alive, it’s more important than ever that they find Garrett as soon as possible.
And, it turns out, they are still alive. Simmons wakes up to find Fitz cradling a broken arm. He tells her that he’s been doing math while she was asleep and he figures they’re about 90 feet deep. In the OCEAN. He made a makeshift distress signal using some of the emergency supplies he found, but it’s on a S.H.I.E.L.D. frequency so he doesn’t think anyone is listening. He spouts out a few more facts before Simmons cuts him off and asks Fitz to give it to her straight. The cold hard fact is, there’s no way out. They’re going to die. Team Coulson has a plan. Triplett and Coulson are going in first and opening a window for Skye and May to go in. Something about a dealer, something about an ace in the hole. It all went over my head, but the team seemed to think it sounded easy peasy. Coulson gives them a “time to be heroes” speech and asks if they’re ready to change the world. May says no, but she IS ready to kick some ass, and that works, too.
Garrett and all his newfound insanity finds Flowers and tells her that he can see her soul. She tells him that she has no allegiance; not to Hydra, not to S.H.I.E.L.D., not to him. He knows that she’s just interested in evolution and that she has one question for him: What will she become? It’s like the crazy leading the crazy over there.
Down in the deep blue sea, Simmons asks Fitz if he’s scared. He says he is. He’s also hungry. Simmons isn’t thinking about food though, she wants to know what happens after they die. Mamaa Fitz always said that death isn’t anything to be afraid of, it’s just goes back to what it was like before you were born. Which is kind of a nice thought. Simmons likes to think of the law of conservation of energy, which states that energy is neither created nor destroyed. So when they die, all the energy that makes up them, all that is FitzSimmons, will be dispersed to be part of something else. A dragonfish, a supernova. And all that they are now was once part of something, like a mammoth or a monkey. As she goes on making science sound like the most beautiful and poetic thing in the face of death, she gets an idea! Fitz latches on and they might just make it out of this box after all. Back at Cybertek, Quinn leads his military leader friends into a room with a lot of big, fancy equipment. Quinn points to one machine and tells them that it’s amputation software, designed to replace missing limbs in minutes. His plan is not only to improve soldiers, but to replace them entirely. Garrett interrupts this meeting to rattle on about the universe again. Quinn is nervous he’s going to ruin the meeting and starts to explain him away but Garrett doesn’t take the hint. Instead of backing down or going away he shoves his hand into the US General and takes out his rib. HIS RIB. WITH HIS HAND. He smiles maniacally and says it’s the beginning of the end.
Ward goes to Raina and asks why Garrett is suddenly off his rocker after being injected with the alien juice. She, not exactly being on her own rocker, tells him that he’s lucky, that he will get to be reunited with Skye soon, because she will be part of the evolution that is coming. He doesn’t understand-Skye hates Ward, he’s a monster. Raina smiles and asks if he IS a monster or if Garrett made him a monster. Ward isn’t sure there’s a difference. Raina tells him not to worry, because there’s a darkness in Skye, and maybe someday she and Ward can be monsters together.
Coulson and Tripp team up to grab a vehicle and open the window for Skye and May to get into Cybertek. Skye finds the dealer she was looking for, the Cybertek supervisor from earlier, and threatens him with a bomb. He tells her that she’s too late, that the supersoldiers are already reprogrammed to the default directive, but that’s exactly what they wanted. The default is to protect Garrett at all costs, so now all Coulson has to do to find him is to follow the trail of zombies.
Skye calls Garrett to let him know that the end is nigh but Garrett isn’t worried. In fact, he’s a little tickled. So much so that he taunts Skye by telling her that her “scientist friends” were brave until their last breath. Speaking of our brave little scientists, they have finally worked out their plan. They’re going to bust the window out and breathe in this one breath of oxygen and swim to the surface. Wait, one breath? There are two of them. Jemma doesn’t like this math and neither do I. She tells him that she’s not leaving him, he’s her best friend. Fitz looks at her with his sad Scottish terrier eyes and says that she’s more. He didn’t have the courage to tell her what she means to him, so please, he begs, “Let me show you.” Simmons is crying, Fitz is crying, I’m crying. But before he can lose his nerve, Fitz hits a button and the window blows out as planned. But of course, Simmons doesn’t just leave Fitz to rot at the bottom of the ocean, she drags him and all his dead weight all the way up to the surface. FitzSimmons or bust. And just when it seems like it might be all for naught, with no beach or boat in sight, a helicopter descends from the sky and Nick Fury himself plucks them from the ocean.
When Simmons wakes up, she’s in a glass coffin staring up at the face of a ghost. But in reality she’s in a decompression chamber and Nick Fury was only rumored to be dead. He’s glad, he needed to stay dead for a while, but now Coulson needs him. Simmons asks about Fitz and Fury says that his heart is still beating, which is never the answer you want to hear, because it almost always comes with a “but” immediately thereafter. This time it’s “but he was without oxygen for a really long time”. He tells her to rest in her chamber and not to worry; she saved him. She smiles sadly and says it was the other way around. She has one more question: How did he even find them? The answer: Fitz’s makeshift beacon. Someone was listening after all.
At Cybertek, Skye has the handler tied to a chair with a bomb strapped to his chest. She tells him that she has to hit snooze every minute on her phone or the bomb will go off. She asks why he’s willing to die for Hydra…or is he here for the “incentives program”? Skye also says it with a layer of complexity. It’s definitely not puppies.
Ward interrupts her interrogation and tells the handler not to worry, she had the opportunity to kill him recently and balked. And she HATES him! She wouldn’t kill an innocent stranger. Skye is practically giddy, she’s been waiting all day to tell Ward off. She says some people are born evil, but that Fitz was a hero for believing that there was still good in Ward when there clearly wasn’t. Ward tries to tease her by saying he learned things about her history, but she doesn’t bite. Instead, she clarifies; she doesn’t think Ward is evil. Garrett is evil. Ward is weak. He says she woke up a weakness inside her and then makes vague threats that make me very uncomfortable. Skye is unshaken, though, because she has a weapon that’s even better than a bomb and will absolutely destroy you. Which is May’s cue to swoop in and kick his lily ass.
Meanwhile, Coulson finds Garrett, who immediately throws him to the ground, taking Coulson by surprise with his superhuman strength. Luckily, backup has arrived in a fury. And by that I mean Fury shows up with a giant gun for Coulson, which he uses to take out Garrett’s men, and a regular gun for himself, which HE uses to shoot Garrett in the chest like ten times. To no avail.
May and Ward are fighting it out with table saws and sassy quips (personal favorite: “You were never on top.”) until finally May takes a nail gun and nails Ward’s foot to the floor. To add insult to injury, she punches him in the throat and whirlwind kicks him in the head. Skye drags the handler to a hallway where we find out what the “incentives program” really is: it’s loved ones being held hostage. She opens the door to the handler’s hostage, but keeps opening doors. He asks her what she’s looking for and she says she’s looking for their “Ace in the hole” aka Mike’s son. She pulls a Hulk toy out of the “bomb” strapped to the handler’s chest and tells him that she’s been communicating with Mike using Deathlok software on her phone. She asks Ace for a message that would prove he was safe with Skye and she types it. As soon as Mike reads the message from his son, he blasts Garrett to the ground. He tries to plead for his life, but Coulson says that Mike is free to do whatever he wants. And what he wants is to squish Garrett like a bug, and squish him he does.
While the chaos is settling and the mess is being cleaned up, Skye finds Mike watching his son from afar. He’s worried about reuniting with him, but tells her that she can use the Deathlok technology to check in on him whenever she wants. All he’s going to be doing from now on is making amends for everything he’s done, for Ace.
Inside Cybertek, Garrett groans back to life and pulls himself into the amputee machine. It whirs on and starts slapping metal all over him. He stands up in his new metal suit, and starts making an arrogant villain’s speech. He’s cut off right in the middle of the word “unstoppable” by Coulson, who blasts him to smithereens. A true Whedon ending for Garrett.
Finally back on his own Bus, Coulson yells at Fury for the whole Tahiti thing. Based on the video they found, Coulson didn’t even believe in the stuff, so why on earth did Fury use it on him?! Fury is not even a little bit sorry. S.H.I.E.L.D. means one thing: Protection. For one man, for mankind. Coulson was the heart of it, Fury couldn’t just let that go without a fight. In fact, Coulson still is the heart of S.H.I.E.L.D., but now he has to be the head as well. Fury hands him a little black box and says it’s his toolbox to rebuild S.H.I.E.L.D. from scratch. He’s the director now. Director Coulson, I like the sound of that.
When Simmons is reunited with the group, Skye runs up to her and hugs her tight. She asks about Fitz and Simmons gives them the same answer Fury gave her: He’s alive.
Coulson’s new toolbox gave them new coordinates and when they get off the Bus, a man greets them and welcomes them to The Playground. But not just any man; this man looks like Eric from Providence. They stare at him, confused, and he smiles and says he understands, but he’s not Eric, he’s Billy. There are apparently some Orphan Black shenanigans going on at S.H.I.E.L.D.’s top-secret bases. Billy gives them the same spiel about lanyards that Eric gave them and then asks the all-important question to their new director: “Where would you like to start?” Cut to the Girl in the Flower Dress, walking down a dark dark hallway in a dark dark building, granted entrance into a dark dark room. A dark dark figure sits in the middle of the dark dark room and Raina slowly approaches. She says she knows he thought he would never see her again, and she places a photo on the table beside the man. A hand, dripping with blood, picks up the picture of Skye and Raina says, “I found your daughter.”
And as if that didn’t give you enough anxiety to carry you through the hiatus and into Season 2, the final scene is of Coulson waking up in the middle of the night, taking a knife, and starting to carve symbols like the ones Garrett drew, the secrets of the universe that drove him insane.
What did you think of “Beginning of the End”?
It’s been fun taking over these recaps for Heather-thanks for playing along and letting me screenshot Skye’s face as many times as I wanted.
Here are some of our favorite #superqueeros tweets for this week:
Only FitzSimmons could make this sad scene seem oddly beautiful. #superqueeros #AgentsofSHIELD #StandWithSHIELD
– Emmy Rivera (@EmmyUnwritten) May 14, 2014
Yeah Ward that’s the bag of crazy wrapped in a turtle neck you hitched your wagon to… #superqueeros – nerdgirl (@nerdgirlwalking) May 14, 2014 SIMMONS IS A MUCH BETTER ROSE. THERE’S NO WAY SHE’LL “JACK” FITZ. #superqueeros #AgentsofSHIELD #Titanic – Tammy (@tylynn_sings) May 14, 2014 EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING AND I CAN’T GO OFF CAPS LOCK!! #AgentsofSHIELD #superqueeros
– Marie (@buknerd) May 14, 2014
Nobody tops Agent Melinda May. Especially not you, Ward. #SuperQueeros #AgentsofShield
– Teresa (@TeresaTastic) May 14, 2014
May really nailed him… #hadto #superqueeros – S Spears (@SAfricaphotog) May 14, 2014 Now, kiss #Skimmons #superqueeros #AgentsofSHIELD – Catherine (@CMeushaw) May 14, 2014 Wanna get rid of two peeps by throwing them to the bottom of the ocean? Make sure they aren’t the smartest peeps in the world #superqueeros
– Chen Drachman (@shokoshik) May 14, 2014
Skye, KISS HER!! #AgentsofSHIELD #superqueeros
– anh62950 (@anh62950) May 14, 2014
I want to say you won’t die down there but it’s Joss so you might get saved only to get blown up later. #superqueeros
– Emilky Way (@Emilky_way) May 14, 2014
I’m glad that shortly after making a super gross comment ward’s larynx got crushed. Love that karma #AgentsofSHIELD #superqueeros
– Ju It! Now (@tokaikko) May 14, 2014
