“Nostalgia’s fine. But then life happens. It’s time to deal with reality.”
- Coulson
This week’s mission found our fearless leader diving into the up-scale world of diplomat and religious figures. A 500-year-old painting of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus survived a fire in a Miami church but it’s got alien writing on the back. The rest of the team thinks they are tracking the painting down because of the connection to the obelisk and Garrett. Only May knows that it’s more personal. After Skye and Hunter do some almost Leverage-worthy lifts and hacking, May and Coulson are all dolled up and head to the gala where the painting will be unveiled. After gaining entry thanks to Skye’s hacking, May and Coulson get to share a dance and some chit-chat about their youth off coms. We learn that May took a dance elective at the Academy for two weeks and she’s very uncomfortable talking about what needs to happen if Coulson loses it like Garrett. I can get why she’s not into talking about having to kill her friend and boss. But it says a lot of about their relationship that Coulson trusts May to back him up.
They are surveying security measures while on the dance floor when May spots Colonel Talbot, our least favorite military asshole. I must admit I was very confused for a portion of the episode when he showed up and was you know….kind of civil to Coulson. The op is a little tenuous now that Talbot is in play so Coulson and May step up the mission and after using Coulson’s phone to nab the host’s retinal scans, they head down to the sub-basement to retrieve the painting. They’re running up against the clock a bit and May just casually walks through the laser grid, quipping that the security people already know they are on premises. Unfortunately, Talbot got his mitts on the painting earlier in the day. Coulson is still baffled by why Talbot is even involved and it becomes even murkier when we see Talbot playing a call to Whitehall to let him know SHIELD is involved.
May and Coulson are trying to slip out of the party unnoticed but Talbot stops them and offers up a deal. He will let Coulson help decipher the writing on the painting in a secure military facility. Coulson says sure but he needs an hour to give his team an update and their orders. However, it’s clear they don’t trust Talbot. May goes to do some recon and gets more than she bargained for. She finds a Hydra agent in Talbot’s room. But it turns out it isn’t actually Talbot. It’s Whitehall’s right hand man wearing a weird disguise. May almost takes the two agents out but the lady agent nails her in the back with a Taser. Ouch! To find out what exactly SHIELD knows and to dupe Coulson, the female agent uses May’s DNA and voice pattern to create a new disguise. I don’t quite understand how it allows you to take on the whole body when you only put the mask thing on your face. Bit of a plot hole there I think.
Back on the plane, the children are bonding over crazy ex relationship stories. We get to hear about Hunter’s hell beast of an ex-wife and of course Skye gets a jab in about Ward. Mac and Tripp are even in on the conversation. All while Skye is doing more digging into the writing even though Coulson didn’t tell her to. Fitz is off by himself and faux Simmons urges him to join in but he just sulks off. He’s still not coping well with his language issues around other people. Faux Simmons tries to convince him to stop hiding behind his inability to speak and his fear that he doesn’t have anything to say but he’s digging in his heels. He’s pissed that they changed the old lab into a garage and didn’t even ask him. He thinks they don’t value his opinion or what he wants. Boy is he about to get a rude (albeit needed) awakening.
Fake May calls Coulson and heads back to the Bus to get him and plant a virus to keep the rest of the team busy. On the ride back to meet Talbot Coulson tries to have the talk with May about the plan in case he goes nuts. It not only involves taking him out but also taking over SHIELD. I can’t see May as leader of SHIELD honestly. Though I do want more May and Coulson field ops in the future. They are quite fun together. Anyway, Coulson figures out that the May he is with isn’t the real one when she agrees to have coffee with him after the op is done. So he starts being her up. Meanwhile, May is being tortured by Whitehall’s second in command. But she breaks free of her restraints and heads off to face her fake double. I have to say this was kind of a fun fight and reminded me a bit of Orphan Black. Although not nearly as awesome to be honest. But hey, Coulson is having quite the fun time watching the fight play out. He even gets to shoot Whitehall’s buddy with an Icer bullet and nabs the painting.
Back on the Bus, it’s Fitz ultimately to the rescue. He figures out that the plane is shutting down key systems and he’s got a plan to stop it. It involves actually putting Hunter to use. Fitz manages to save the plane and even is comfortable enough to join the guys for a beer. I think Faux Simmons is gone now that he’s feeling a bit more accepted by the team. Skye is still digging for info on the writing and she’s not giving up. After Coulson and May fill in the real Talbot about what went down, they have that much needed talk about the plan. May has a plan to drop him in the Australian outback far from people but he knows that won’t help. Still, she’s hesitant to shoot him in the head, even if it will keep everyone safe.
We end this week with Raina getting scooped up by Whitehall. He plants some kind of device on her and demands she give him the obelisk within 48 hours or bad things will happen to her. I guess next week will be a race against the clock to keep it out of Hydra’s hands.
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