This is the lowest ranked episode on IMDB. But hey it’s ranked at 7.2 and that’s not so bad. It’ll be blue skies from here on out.
The theme here is teamwork. This episode has it all: dysfunctional team dynamics, discussions about teamwork, execution of teamwork, and a villain with dubious motivations
but what happens? I’ll tell you
[grammatical disclaimer: double quotation marks “ ” can be trusted. Single quotation marks ‘ ‘ are for fun or paraphrasing or whatever. I’m not a professional. I’m making my own rules.]
The Bus is flying. looks chill. Hold up! The side of the plane just blew out. A man flies into the sky to certain death. Coulson is hanging on for dear life while Simmons shouts “hang on!”
CUT TO
19 hours earlier.
Skye is moving out of the van she lived in and into the plane. She is joining the team as a consultant because she’s a cool hacker chick. Ward is all “she’s a risk” of course. May seems to agree. Coulson is all “I make the calls” so this ain’t no democracy
Simmons is being a ray of sunshine. Fitz is being awkward. They show Skye around the plane and get her settled in her lil bunk.
Skye tries to be friendly to Ward but he brushes her off and hands her a safety pamphlet of the plane for her to study. Throwaway joke? Or foreshadowing? Definitely foreshadowing
Coulson tells Skye that he died in the Avengers movie and recovered in Tahiti. Skye notes that he says “it’s a magical place” again. He explains that an 0-8-4 is an object of unknown origin. This one is in Peru
In Peru, Fitz is looking forward to spotting some wild monkeys. Simmons is excited by venomous snakes, which unnerves little Fitz. Skye is like “we should tell the world there is something dangerous here to protect them from it” and Coulson is like ‘girl, don’t you know we keep the truth from people to protect them? Catch up.’
They go in this ancient Incan temple and there is this gadget sticking out of the wall. Science kids are like ‘okay this is obviously super weird because it seems to have been here for fifteen hundred years even though it doesn’t look ancient’ cuz its like a big gadget right.
Outside, Ward calls May “the cavalry.” She says “don’t ever call me that” and looks like she means it. He notices that she didn’t bring guns so she tells him, “if I need a gun, I’ll take one.” Her and Ward take down some dudes hiding in the brush. Then Ward says “should’ve taken more guns” as like a cool stinger… but it’s a ridiculous thing to say while May is literally holding a gun in each hand which she just TOOK from the men in the brush. What does he want- her to be holding two guns in each hand??
A military lady with sunglasses on is the leader of this national police force. Coulson knows her. Kiss on the cheek wooo who is this? This is Comandante Camilla Reyes. Her and Coulson used to ‘work’ together. Everything’s okay. They stop fighting. These teams are gonna work together on this mysterious object.
Fitz is like “its alive. It has a functioning power source.” Wow still super weird. Skye cant keep up with the FitzSimmons science banter.
Camilla wants to keep the device. Coulson is like ‘that’s not for me or you to decide.’
Rebels attack. Ward rips the device out of the ancient temple and throws it in a backpack even though Fitz is like ‘ah that’s dangerous for science reasons’
Coulson and Camilla spin around shooting people while FitzSimmons and Skye are bumbling around behind Ward’s protection. Camilla looks at them as if she is thinking ‘wtf are they doing?’
Fitz tries to remind everyone that this thing in the backpack is dangerous because of science, but they’re like ‘we’re being shot at no time for science!’
Safe in the plane, Fitz finally gets to explain that this mystery object is fueled by tesseract technology. Worse than gamma radiation. Dangerous. They’re like ‘wow why didn’t you say that sooner?’
May seems peeved that she had to see combat when she was supposed to just be a pilot. Coulson says sorry not sorry
The team is bickering. Skye is saying ‘wow you guys are just as nooby as I am at this group fieldwork thing.’
Camilla wants to fly the dangerous thing to an airfield for reasons and Coulson is like ‘literally no.’
Coulson goes to father over the bickering youngsters. He compliments them all on their individual skills and encourages them to work together.
Fitz and Simmons move some holograms around while bickering. They figure out that the 0-8-4 could be triggered to release a ray that could potentially blast the side of an airplane out! …for example
Skye and Ward have a kind of flirty chat to get to know each other. She tries to sell him on the value of the Rising Tide. She likes that they are a group of people coming together to solve a puzzle. Ward apparently got a little bit shot outside the temple, but he is too tough and cool to care.
In his office, Coulson is showing off his collection of historical sci-fi objects from past missions. He is a sentimentalist. Camilla is being extra flirty. Reminiscing. They must have a hot and heavy past ooo. Actually, she is trying to distract him while her men attack the team on the plane! Aw man she’s a bad guy no way.
She ties up Coulson. Ward tries to fight the dudes but nah they all get captured. May, Fitz, Simmons, and Ward get tied up in the cargo hold so that Camilla can threaten to drop them out of the sky. Coulson asks “when did you decide to turn on me?” and she’s like ‘as soon as I saw your flop team’ which is pretty dang rude.
To the other captees, Skye says that May is a super cool ninja fighter because she witnessed it in episode 1. The science kids are like ‘what no way she’s just a pilot’ and Ward tells them she’s “the Cavalry” (even though May just told him not to call her that. Respect a woman’s wishes, agent Ward!). Fitzsimmons has heard of the legend of the Cavalry. We still don’t know what that means.
Ward boosts them up by saying ‘all we have to do now is work together to solve a puzzle.’ Hey that’s what Skye said earlier. They’re learning from each other!
Camilla is going over her master plan with Coulson. Her country commissioned the weapon decades ago and it was lost in a clash in the jungle. She wants to keep the weapon to “stabilize” her country…
May dislocates her own wrist to get out of the restraints. She takes down a guard. They start coming up with a plan off-camera while Coulson keeps getting bullied by Camilla. He believes that his team will figure something out. So do I. Let’s see it happen.
May drives a car into the lab to open it up. They strap themselves to each other and send a dwarf in to trigger the 084 to …… BLOW A HOLE IN THE SIDE OF PLANE WOAH. This releases the cabin pressure which unlocks the doors. May beats up some baddies to take back the cockpit. The rest of them beat up baddies and save Coulson who ties up Camilla.
Skye looks at the safety pamphlet that Ward handed her earlier in the episode! She releases an inflatable raft! The raft neatly seals up the big hole of doom. So now everything is okay.
Teamwork…. solves a hijacking – with explosives and well-placed flotation devices.
That raft does NOT look secure there. They do not seem to be concerned, though.
Ward is coming around on the idea of Skye joining the team. May says that he should be her Supervising Officer.
They slingshot the 084 into space to keep it safe or whatever.
Skye gets a text from the Rising Tide and tells them she is still with them! Ooohhh
Then we get a super cute lil stinger at the end of the episode. Nick Fury himself is yelling at Coulson about blowing a hole in the side of his plane. Great scene great jokes. It ends with Coulson discretely saying into his earpiece “yeah we’re gonna have to kill the fish tank.”