TV Recap: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 1-14 - T.A.H.I.T.I.

So after so long saying they needed to focus on the other characters and give Skye a break, they finally did it last night.  She spent the episode in that medical tube trying not to die while the rest of the characters attempted to save her.

And that attempt was tied to Coulson’s story.  When the doctors said that there was nothing more they could do for Skye, Coulson decided to head to where he was treated and get them to fix Skye as well.  Only, as the plane was in route, he learned that the doctors who had supposedly worked on him weren’t real.  In fact, he wasn’t treated in the states at all.

Meanwhile, they had the billionaire who had shot Skye on the plane with them and didn’t turn him over to S.H.I.E.L.D. as ordered.  So another team came on board to take him back, but Coulson worked out an arrangement where they worked side by side to find a cure for Skye, only giving him up at the end of the episode.

When Fitz and Simmons realize that Coulson’s story was a lie (they were the first to find out and tell him), they start researching other locations and come across an isolated location that is the real place where Coulson was treated.  They also figure out the medicine that they will need to find at this facility.

Their welcome is far from warm, however.  They don’t know the counter sign to get in, so the two men left behind the guard it set up an ambush.  Our heroes take them down, of course, but they are left with a bomb set to go off in 10 minutes and no way to stop it.  Fitz and Coulson go on a mad scramble to find the drug they need for Skye, finally finding it with not much time to spare.

That’s when Coulson sees it – a door labeled T.A.H.I.T.I.  He steps through it.  For the rest of the episode, he is pale and distracted.  As one character says, it’s like he’s seen a ghost.

He also starts yelling that they can’t give that medicine to Skye.  However, by the time he is back on the plane (barely escaping the bomb, of course), it’s too late.  Simmons has given Skye the drug, and its working.

So why didn’t Coulson want Skye given that drug after all?  When he stepped through the T.A.H.I.T.I. door, he found a decomposed corpse floating in a bath of this liquid drug.  It horrified him, and with good reason.  So now the question becomes, just who or what was that?  Why was it down there?  Will there be any long term side effects for Coulson and Skye?

My favorite moments of the episode came at the beginning, where Melinda May told the team who exactly was to blame for Skye being shot.  It wasn’t any of them, it was the man who pulled the trigger.  Absolutely right.  Then, when they got the original word that Skye wouldn’t make it, Melinda May went into the cell where the billionaire was being held and started beating him up.  She may have been the last holdout, but she clearly cares for Skye now, and I like that dynamic.

Next week looks good with the tie in to Thor.  Don’t really remember the character they are bringing in.  Maybe I need to watch the second movie between now and then – if I have time.