Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S1E20 - "Nothing Personal" Recap

Maria Hill is on the phone talking about the woes of Congress regarding what happened at the Fridge. She knows she is being followed but all of a sudden, she sees they have all been knocked out. May shows up and wants to talk. Hill says they're privatising global security and May tells her Coulson needs help. She needs her to go tell him about Tahiti and Hill says that Fury took his orders from very high up and is now dead. May doesn't believe it and authorities show up to take Hill in.

Coulson and the team are reviewing footage of Ward and Skye leaving hand in hand. They're trying to make sense of why they left and where they're headed. FitzSimmons head off to make some food but then Simmons discovers Koening's body while Fitz finds a message left by Skye: "Ward is Hydra."

Skye is trying to find a way to contact Coulson but Ward is subtly keeping her from doing so. Skye tells Ward that the drive is geo-locked to a diner in Los Angeles and she says it was the place she first met Mike Petersen. Ward takes a gun off of Skye saying it's to avoid getting pinched on a concealed weapons charge.

Simmons determines that Ward killed Koening and Fitz throws a fit. Coulson gets everyone to focus and that Skye clearly has a play, which they need to figure out. He sends Fitz to fix the coms so they can track the Bus. Meanwhile Skye and Ward are headed to the diner and Skye tells Ward that it will take time to download the content of the drive.

Fitz and Trip realise that Garrett must still be alive while Agent Hand must be dead. They realise that Ward must have returned because he needed Skye to decrypt the drive. The coms are put back in and they are able to track the Bus to Los Angeles. An alarm sounds that lets them know that there troops headed for them outside Providence.

Ward is sitting with Skye who finds that the location for the geo-locking is incorrect. Ward asks her about her nerves and she plays it off by talking about what happened to Mike Petersen. Coulson and his team are preparing for an attack but they then find that it's special forces led by Col. Talbot. Coulson asks how he found Providence and then Maria Hill reveals herself, saying she told him.

May crawls out a grave in a cemetery with a tombstone that has Coulson's name on it. She has retrieved a drive with classified level 10 intel. Talbot interrogates Coulson's team but Simmons snaps at him that this is a waste of time when they should be going after Ward.

Hill tells Coulson that she made a deal to turn over Fury's base in return for leniency, leading Coulson to realise that Hill is still protecting S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets. He is offended by her making him feel like a liability because of T.A.H.I.T.I. He tells her that she was too worried about him instead of actual problems and now Garret and Ward, who are both Hydra, will have Skye and the drive. Talbot enters the room with soldiers planning to tear the room apart but Hill and Coulson take them down. Hill tells him to get his team and prepare to go.

Ward is getting shifty about the cops sitting in the diner. Skye asks him how long he's ever been deep cover and begins passive-aggressively taunting him about Garrett's betrayal. Ward wants to get Skye out because of the increasing number of officers but then she reveals that she tipped them off to Ward's being a fugitive. Officers attempt to arrest them but then Ward begins attacking them. Skye runs outside and tries to get officers to arrest her. Ward comes out and shoots them and she tries to get away in their car. Deathlok then shows up and jumps onto the hood of the car.

Back on the Bus, Deathlok scolds Ward and says he was ordered by Garrett to shadow Ward because he knew he had a soft spot for Skye. Deathlok steps out and Skye furiously attacks Ward, landing a few good punches and a head butt. Ward cuffs her and tells her it wasn't personal. She tells him he is a Nazi since Red Skull was a Nazi and founded Hydra. She asks how many people he has killed for Garrett and he tries to insist that his feelings for her are and always have been real. She replies that she is gonna throw up. Ward says none of this has been easy for him and he is a survivor. She tells him he is a serial killer and that he was right about her not liking the real him. He tells her someday she will understand but she tells him she will never give him what she wants.

Deathlok tries to decrypt the hard drive but fails. He is given orders to move on to plan B, after which he heads to the hangar with Ward to question Skye. She tries to talk him out of it, attempting to remind him of who he was. Deathlok replies that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been taken over, meaning that his son is now with Hydra. Skye doesn't believe Deathlok will hurt him and he agrees, but then fires a weapon at Ward. He says that it will stop Ward's heart and he will die unless she gives him the information. She then relents and says that the geo-locking is based on altitude and she has to perform the hack and have it unlock at 75,000 feet. Deathlok brings Ward back and uncuffs Skye, telling her to begin the hack.

Hill contacts the Bus and tells them to stand down. She threatens to shoot the Bus out of the sky but Ward says he knows Coulson won't do that. The Bus takes off and Hill doesn't fire on the plane. Coulson has snuck onto the Bus and Skye warns him that Deathlok is on board. Deathlok pursues them in the hanger and Coulson has Skye get into Lola. Coulson fires on Deathlok while Skye puts a parachute on. Lola's jets were hit so the flight is rough, as is the landing.

Ward tells Deathlok he wants to land and go after Coulson and Skye. Deathlok says those aren't their orders. Ward is also furious about Deathlok's attempt on his life but Deathlok says it wasn't personal and he was just following orders, echoing his earlier words to Skye.

Coulson and Hill speak in a motel room. She reminds him there is no backup, as S.H.I.E.L.D. is gone. She tells him that going after Garrett and Ward is a personal vendetta, which he's more than welcome to do but afterwards, he should disband his team. She tells him he could work for Stark but Coulson says that isn't his style.

FitzSimmons are at the pool talking about Ward. He asks her to say she's not Hydra, simply needing to hear it. She says he's not and he says the same. They share a nice moment together while Skye is nearby talking with Trip. Coulson comes out and tells them to live a little for tonight before they'll get back to work. He says they will get Ward and Garrett. Skye tells Coulson that she left a little present when she decrypted the drive that should help them.

Coulson returns to his motel room and finds May waiting for him. She shows him the information she found in his grave. Specifically, she plays a video of him resigning from T.A.H.I.T.I. He goes on to say that the project was designed to resurrect fallen Avengers but the side effects were too great. He tells them that the only way they were able to deal with the side effects was to use memory replacement and formally recommends that Project T.A.H.I.T.I. be shut down.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs on Tuesdays on ABC at 8PM.