For this recap I am going to divide it up by character pairings as the storytelling device was all about telling different point of views of the action before all converged into one. But before I do that, let’s setup the story.

This episode is about SHIELD going after some device that Ian Quinn has purchased for $10 million from Cybertech, A private security company comprised of Italian mercenaries have been hired to bring this package to Quinn. Their mode of travel is via train from Verona to Zagreb. Coulson got the okay from the Italian government to take over this case. The Italian office is Russo and is played by Carlo Rota better known here in Canada as the star of CBC’s Little Mosque on the Prairie. Coulson gives everyone their assignment. Ward and May are in charge of tracking the package while Fitz and Skye will run comms. And what about Coulson and Simmons? Well let’s start with this pairing

Coulson and Simmons

The two board the train as father and daughter coming back from her mother’s funeral. They are carrying her ashes. Simmons has thought up a very elaborate backstory for them that results in her unloading her negative feelings towards her “father” in front everyone on the train that includes Marvel legend Stan Lee as himself. The whole point is for Simmons to get up in a huff and run into the Cybertech goons so the ashes get spilled and these ashes are meant to allow May to track the main Cybertech goon so they can find out where the package is.

As Coulson and Simmons ride the train, an announcement over the intercom indicates for passengers to take a look at a view outside the window. When Coulson tries to alert his team that everything is a go, the comms crackle which puts Coulson on high alert. He makes his way to the dining cart and notices something amiss when Ward runs to him in a conductor’s uniform to say they’ve been made and the jump off the train.

The Cybertech people throw some sort of grenade off the train and in Ward and Coulson’s eyes the train has disappeared.

Ward and May

As May and Ward prep for their part of the mission, Ward is surprised that May told Coulson about their relationship but can’t talk further as May leaves the train to its rooftop so she can track the package. Ward meanwhile has changed into his conductor costume and is just about to leave for the dining cart to get the package when he hears the announcement about the view to be had on the north side of the train. A woman stops Ward to get his help with some heavy piece of luggage. At first Ward doesn’t want to help her but eventually does. But this ends up being an ambush which Ward manages to escape with only a cut on his arm. Ward too notices that the coms are down and runs where Simmons and Coulson are sitting. Seeing Simmons only, she tells him where Coulson has gone. Ward tells Simmons to go where Skye and Fitz are and stay there because they’ve been made while he goes to Coulson. As Simmons leaves, we see some Cybertech goons on the scene and follows Simmons.

We then see Ward’s POV of warning Coulson and the two leaping off the train. They worry about FitzSimmons and Skye but take solace that May is with them but that is short lived when they noticed May’s fancy glasses on the floor. When gun men in Mercedes come across them and open fire, the two men make their way to the bus. As luck would have it, they come across a van that has been hotwired.

Back on the Bus, Russo, who looks beatup lets Ward and Coulson know that someone tipped Cybertech off of SHIELD presence on the train and that he is on his way to meet them. Meanwhile, Coulson tasks Ward to figure out what the grenade was that made the train disappear while Coulson contacts SHIELD to see if they know where the train went (but SHIELD was no help).

In what is the most hilarious scene in the episode and probably the entire show is Ward trying to figure out how to use the touch board that FitzSimmons and Sky can use with ease. When he manages to get a 3D images of the grenade up, Ward and Coulson can’t figure out how to zoom in closer so they just send the specs to SHIELD to figure out. Ward then wants to talk to Coulson about what May told him about their relationship and said that he didn’t want her to know. Before their conversation can go any further, Russo comes to the Bus and tells them that he has found the train but before he can say anymore, he is stabbed to death by May who looks worse for wear too.

From May’s perspective, we see her tracking the package but also can’t communicate with her team and she starts getting shot at. She parachutes off the train and notices Ward and Coulson frozen on the floor indicatin that the grenade had some neurotoxin in it that made Ward and Coulson believe that time didn’t pass. May drops her fancy goggles and comes across the same van that Ward and Coulson did. We learn that she is the one that hotwired it for them. But before she can get away, Russo comes upon her at gun point. We see Russo has tied up May in a barn and starts to torture her. Russo like any stereotypical villain reveals his true colours and allegiance. Russu stabs May but May uses the knife to start kicking some ass. When we return to the Bus point of view, Coulson is surprised at May seemingly killing an ally when she says that Russo is one them out and they need to get moving.

The trio learn that the train has stopped in the middle of the Italian country side and when they arrive, they find the luggage cart empty of Skye and Fitz and their computers shot up. All of a sudden Simmons pops out and starts shooting the night night gun at random but Ward, Coulson and May manage to subdue her. They all wonder what happened to Skye and Fitz.

Skye and Fitz

Both pretend to be a couple on their one month anniversary and they use that cover to get close to the train conductor so they can get his keys to gain access to the luggage cart. Once their they use it as their comms base. While they are setting things up, talk turns to what the package could be. Skye thinks it could be an 0-8-4 and she asks Fitz if one could be a human. He said it is possible but their conversation is cut short when they notice the comms system go down and then a gun man comes up and starts shooting up the place taking down their computers. Fitz has the night night gun and shoots it at the gun man but it doesn’t really do much impact so Skye and Fitz tries hand to hand combat. Simmons barges into the luggage cart to warn Skye and Fitz about them being made when the gunman releases the grenade that unfortunately knocks him and Simmons out. Fitz is the one to figure out that the grenade is made up of the same chemicals as the night night gun. The two see the package leaving the train and decide to follow it. They leave Simmons on the train but with the night night gun while the gun man is placed in a wooden crate.

All Perspectives Converge

Skye and Ftiz follow the car to a villa and they see Quinn arrive. Skye decides to go and find the package while Fitz will disable their cars so they can’t escape kind of like what the nuns did to the Nazi’s cars in The Sound of Music.

Once in the villa, Skye comes across the package in the basement. But before she opens it, she notices a hyperbaric chamber and inside is Mike Peterson. But Quinn has caught her and holds her at gun point using her night night gun. It seems that Quinn has given the specs of the night night gun to Cybertech who developed the grenade version.

Anyways, Quinn pulls out Mike and gives him what was in the package: it is a robotic leg. Quinn pulls out a real gun and wants Mike to kill her but he says that is not his orders. So he takes off but this doesn’t stop Quinn from completing his orders and he shoots Skye several times in the stomach and she crumples to the floor croaking out for help while bleeding profusely.

While Fitz is disabling the cars, we see a body fly out a window to the ground. Mike has taken out the Cybertech goons. When the rest of our SHIELD team arrive, they all seek out Skye. Coulson comes across her and when the rest of the team arrives, Simmons saves her by placing her in the hyberbaric chamber but Skye is not out of the woods yet.

Back on the Bus, Simmons tells the team that they need to get Skye to a hospital pronto or she will be brain dead. When Simmons walks away, she breaks down ad Fitz is there to comfort her. Meanwhile, Ward is mad at not being there for Skye but May tells him that he shouldn’t blame himself for what happened. He tells her that he doesn’t blame himself. We end the episode as we see Skye looking death-like.

In the post credit sequence, we see Mike lurking around a playground. Mike asks via a note the Clairvoyant if he can see his son but the Clairvoyant says not yet. Mike crumples the note up and we pan to see what is written on his new leg: Deathlock!

I have to say that this was probably the best episode of SHIELD. I really liked the action and the humour and the stakes in it. I am not well versed in the Marvel universe so I didn’t get quite excited at the Deathlock reveal but I looking forward to seeing where the show goes now.

We are on a month break because of the Olympics so until then Go Canada!