Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S1E14 - "Tahiti" Recap

Coulson and the others escort Skye into a S.H.I.E.L.D. hospital, where doctors do all they can to save her. Coulson tries to get a hold of Nick Fury, while Fitz blames himself for her present condition. Simmons reassures him that he's not to blame and then Ward places blame upon himself. May states that the only person to blame is the man who shot her, Quinn. After some time, a doctor comes and tells them that too much damage was done. Soon, they will have to make a decision on whether to take her off of life support. She tells they should call her family and Coulson declares that they are her family.

Agent May heads to the Bus, into the interrogation room and begins beating Ian Quinn. Coulson arrives and stops her, saying that she needs to pilot the bus so they can get to the doctors that brought Coulson back from the dead. He is determined to have them do the same for Skye. The team puts Skye back on the Bus and Coulson orders FitzSimmons to read his classified file. They begin trying to duplicate the science so it may be used for Skye. Ward visits May in the cockpits and expresses his doubts about their ability to save Skye. She tells him that Coulson would do the same for any of them. They are then contacted by S.H.I.E.L.D., who have sent planes after the Bus to take Quinn, who was supposed to be turned over for interrogation.

The plane is boarded mid-flight by an Agent Garrett (Bill Paxton) and agent Antoine Triplett. Garrett tells Coulson that his team has been after Quinn for some time and that Coulson's team has ruined weeks of their work. Coulson tells him that they cannot hand Quinn over until after they try to save Skye. Garrett is more understanding when he learns that Quinn actually pulled the trigger, since he has lost three men of his own.

Trip and Ward greet each other, appearing to be old friends. Trip asks Ward how Coulson swung such a sweet ride, to which Ward replies, "He died." Garrett was Coulson, Ward, and Trip's SO. Ward tells Trip that Quinn will stay put until Coulson says otherwise. The two begin to fight but Coulson tells them to stand down. He informs the pair that they've come to an agreement, where Garrett will interrogate Quinn on the Bus.

FitzSimmons continue to work in the lab and they're rather overwhelmed. Simmons receives a call and appears surprised by what she is told. Coulson and Garrett head into the interrogation room where they begin a rough interrogation on the still bloodied Quinn. They ask about Cybertek and Deathlok. When he mentions Skye, Coulson attempts to move on him, but Garrett stops him and lands a punch instead. Quinn reveals that he shot Skye under orders of the Clairvoyant. May visits FitzSimmons, and Simmons tells her that apparently none of the doctors listed in Coulson's file even exist, let alone operated on him. The information in his file does not check out.

Quinn tells Garrett and Coulson that the Clairvoyant sees everything and that the only thing it doesn't know is what happened to Coulson. Coulson tells Garrett what happened to him and they realise that shooting Skye was done for precisely this reason - to reveal how Coulson survived. After this, May and Simmons fill Coulson in on the inconsistencies with the information in his file. They then point out that even if the information can be used to save Skye, the question remains as to whether or not they should. He tells them they have to try and Simmons gets back to work. May warns him that they're risking putting dangerous information right into the Clairvoyant's hands and Coulson says that they have to take the risk.

FitzSimmons monitor a deteriorating Skye and Simmons notes a miracle drug in the file, called GH325. If it truly does exist, Simmons says they don't know how to find it. Fitz has a theory and looks in on some SHIELD files, where they find information about a collapsed WWII bunker called the Guest House - the "GH" in GH325. They determine that Agent Fury has accessed the file but the rest of the information appears to be encrypted. But then they realise that the encryption is actually a map.

May, Garrett, and Coulson prepare to enter the guest house. They are asked for a password which they don't know and Coulson tries to explain that they have someone in dire need of medical assistant. It's to no avail so Garrett shoots the camera and the rest of the team helps them hack their way in. Fitz uses a camera to scout the path ahead for Coulson and the rest of the crew on the ground. He also discovers that they can no longer communicate with those on the Bus. They move towards a bulletproof room and Fitz hacks the electronic lock. The team gets inside and the two guards begin shooting at them. Using a flash grenade, the guards are taken down. They move forward and find blood, meaning that one guard has gotten away injured. They carry on and find the wounded guard. Coulson questions him about GH325 and the guard appears to recognise Coulson, though he's not entirely certain. The guard asks him about the timer, and they realise that the whole place is rigged to blow. They now have less than 10 minutes and are trapped inside there. Fitz says that Skye would be able to get them out but he doesn't have the skills to do so. Garrett and Ward agree to stay put and try to disarm the explosives while Coulson and Fitz continue on to try to find a way out.

Simmons and Trip look after Skye and they discuss the feeling of bonding quickly with teammates. May comes to them and says that the coms are down and she intends to go after them soon if she doesn't hear otherwise. Skye begins to spasm and they go into her room to tend to her.

Coulson and Fitz find the room where his surgery was performed on him and Coulson has a flashback of his plead for death. Garrett and Ward change their strategy into using some of the explosives to blow the door open. Coulson and Fitz find a storage room where they begin searching for GH325. They eventually find it and Ward shows up to let them know about the new plan, since they were unable to stop the timer. Fitz heads back with him and they manage to blow the door. They make a space through which Fitz goes through and he hurries back to bring the GH325 to Simmons. Garrett orders Ward to go along with Fitz while he will go back to find Coulson. Coulson had stayed behind and found a door marked T.A.H.I.T.I. which he intended to search.

Simmons, May, and Trip watch Skye and they then hear Fitz over the coms. Garrett finds Coulson and lets him know that Fitz and Ward are headed back to the Bus with the GH325. Coulson panics and says that they cannot give the drug to Skye. Fitz has just gotten to Skye with the GH325 and Ward tells May to take off so they don't get crushed by the mountain when the explosives detonate. Garrett and Coulson manage to run onto the Bus just in time as the explosion happens behind them and May begins the takeoff. Coulson runs in telling Simmons not to give Skye the drug but she has already injected her. Simmons replies that she was already losing Skye. "What harm could it do?" The entire team, inclusing May gathers around Skye. It appears to be working but then Skye seizes. No one knows what is happening but after a moment, Skye stabilises. The team is relieved at her recovery, but Coulson looks immensely worried. He leaves the scene and May asks Garrett is something happened down in the base. He says that one minute he was fine and the next, it was as if he had seen a ghost.

Garrett and Trip visit Quinn and tell him that Skye has survived and will be able to testify against him, the Guest House exploded, and the Clairvoyant is a no-show. Trip brings Quinn aboard their plane. Coulson stops Garrett to thank him for letting Quinn stay on the plane. They say their goodbyes but Garrett hints that they'll be seeing each other again soon. 

May visits Coulson in his office and asks him why he isn't happy about saving Skye's life when they did the impossible. He wants to know what made him change his mind about the drug. We flashback to Coulson enterin the T.A.H.I.T.I. room where he finds multiple sets of tubing hooked up to a machine. Coulson opens the machine and pulls out a large tube in which there's the upper half of a blue body. If we had to guess, we'd say the body was grown. He tells May that being down there, seeing where he came from, made him scared that Skye would suffer the way he did. 

The final scene takes place in Death Valley, California. A woman walks through a desert with what may or may not be Asgardian attire. She encounters a man and takes some of his water. She asks him if all of Midgard is this desolate. He points out his wife Nicole inside and she questions whether he prefers Nicole to her. She appears to work some sort of magic on him and then we see him driving her down the highway, having abandoned his wife, swearing to protect her. She identifies herself as Lorelei.

Be sure to tune in next week when we'll see Lady Sif drop in to help the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.!

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