A busy downtown area. The runner at the bottom of the screen says: Sergel's Square; Stockholm, Sweden. In the center of the Square is a band of drummers playing music. There is a group of people circled around watching the band as others go about their business. There are people milling about, dancing, talking or walking quickly. The camera pans up to the top of some stairs. A person wearing a suit, hat – and oh yeah – a bright red mask covering their face enters frame. They are quickly followed by more dressed the exact same way, each of them is carrying a briefcase. People start to take notice of this large group of red masked people enter the center of the Square. There are probably around 20 red masked people in the area. A young black woman is standing in the center of the Square and the red masked people all go around her, she has earphones in and closes her eyes as they pa**. When one goes by she opens her eyes and stares at him then turns her body to watch him go past. The masked men enter the area where people are dancing and listening to the music. A few are stopped when people get in front of them dancing.
Cut to an underground subway system. The men in the red masks are all riding the escalator down, with regular people mixed in between them. (Um, no. If I were one of those people I think I'd walk the opposite way. That many people in red masks can't be a good thing!) One of the people on the escalator, right behind the last man in the mask, is the woman from the Square. As the men in masks get off the escalator some of them go to the right while others go to the left, the woman follows the group going to the left. Once she enters the area of the platform we finally see people taking notice of the strange men wearing bright red masks. There are people with their phones up high taking photos and video. The men in masks stand in a straight line shoulder to shoulder at the edge of the plat form when the train arrives. The doors open, they wait for the pa**engers to get off then enter the train, it seems to be two men with masks for each section of train. The woman from the Square also gets on the train looking around. She stands close to one of the men in the mask, hand in her pocket. The doors close and the train starts off. There is a beeping noise of an intercom and the conductor of the train says something to the pa**engers. The woman glances down at the men in the mask, now we can see that there are actually five of them in the car with her. The one closest to her turns his head and stares at her, then the second, the third, fourth and fifth all turn their heads to look at her. She glances down at their hands and sees the metal briefcases handcuffed to their wrists. She looks back up at their faces, all of them still staring at her, then she closes her eyes. With her eyes closed she smashes her elbow into a fire box breaking the gla**. The lights in the train go out and we hear shouting and the sound of a fight. There are flashes of red masks and people being jumbled about, but we can't really see what's happening. The train pulls into the next station and every car is blacked out, there is no light coming from inside the train. The people rush off the train leaving behind the men in the masks who are either unconscious or dead, slumped in seats. A police officer enters the train and looks around. He sees one of the masked men on the floor, dead with his eyes open, the camera pans down the man's body to his hand. The case that was handcuffed to his wrist is gone, the reason for that is because his hand was chopped off and the case removed.
Cut to a dark room. The sliver case sits on a table, blood on it, and the woman is entering the combination into it. She opens the case and lifts a piece of cloth, underneath the cloth is a small, but expensive, box of diamonds, about the size of a cigar box. The woman takes the box out and shakes it. She puts the box into a bag around her shoulder. There is a loud noise of a train, she has been sitting on a little half wall in the tunnel of the train's path. The train pa**es in front of her and when it's completely past, she's gone.
Title Screen.
We open on The Bus breaking through some clouds in the sky. It flies directly at the camera and we see May at the controls in the co*kpit. The door behind her opens and closes admitting Coulson. He leans against one of the walls and looks out.
Coulson: Maybe I should learn to fly. It's not too late, right? I could learn.
May takes a deep breath but says nothing.
Coulson: What do you like best, the freedom? The view?
May: The solitude.
Coulson nods his head.
Coulson: Got it. See you in Sweden.
He turns and leaves and May gives a hint of a smile.
Cut to Ward, it looks like he's inside the lab. He's holding a tiny blue vial in between his thumb and index finger.
Ward: I only get one shot. And it has to knock a person back, as well as out.
Fitz shows up behind him holding something.
Fitz: Which is why we're perfecting this little beauty.
He walks up behind Ward, who turns, to see Fitz holding some sort of gun.
Fitz: .45 caliber cartridges, semi-automatic.
He holds a magazine in the air.
Fitz: Each mag…
He loads the mag in and we hear an electronic whirring sound.
Fitz: Contains eight therapeutic rounds of Dendrotoxin.
Simmons is at a microscope behind Ward, she pipes in.
Simmons: In case you miss.
Ward shoots her a look over her shoulder that makes her drop her smile.
Simmons: Or have multiple a**ailants.
Ward looks back at the gun and reaches out to take the gun. Fitz protectively brings the gun in close to his body and away from Ward's reach.
Fitz: Yeah, w-we're gonna have this new night-night pistol working in no time. Okay?
He turns away from Ward still holding the gun.
Ward: Great. One thing, we're not calling it that.
He goes to leave the lab, Simmons' face lights up when she pulls away from the microscope.
Simmons: Ah, told you.
Fitz: Yes we – Yes, we are.
Ward walks out of the lab and meets Coulson who is coming down the spiral staircase.
Coulson: Have you seen Skye?
Ward: Not since weapons training.
Ward walks past Coulson and starts up the stairs.
Coulson: Has she stopped saying “bang” when she pulls the trigger?
Ward: Mostly. Now, if she could just learn the difference between the safety release and the magazine release, we'll be making real progress.
Coulson looks over to the black SUV parked in the cargo hold then walks over to it. He reached the SUV and knocks on the window, it rolls down. We hear Skye's voice come from inside.
Skye: What's up, Phil?
The camera cuts to show us Skye sitting in the dark SUV.
Coulson: I'd prefer you not call me “Phil”.
Skye: Okay, you're the boss…A.C.
He can't help but smirk at this.
Skye: Just missing my van a little bit, taking a little me time.
She has her laptop with her and is clicking on keys while she talks to Coulson.
Coulson: I want your help with something.
She looks up, takes a deep breath, and sits up closer to him.
Skye: Hit me with it.
Coulson: You ever rob a bank?
Skye: No.
Coulson: An armored car?
Skye: Nope.
Coulson: How about a casino?
Skye: Should I be offended?
Coulson: Somebody's stealing millions of dollars in diamonds. They've found a way to crack the security systems. I want you to figure out their exploit.
Skye perks up interested.
Cut back to Sweden. We see the train pa**ing by some buildings. We cut to see Coulson, May and Skye walking in a hallway with military personnel guarding the hall.
Coulson: Yesterday, 55 men, all military, were hired by one of the largest gem brokers in the world. They dressed the men in identical outfits, gave each one a randomly a**igned briefcase, and sent them along 25 different routes here in Stockholm.
We can now see that the hallway is actually the train terminal where it was stopped after the men in masks were murdered.
Coulson: No one knew which briefcase contained the diamonds, but they were still stolen.
Coulson stops to sign a clipboard as Skye looks down at her phone.
May: Why the Kabuki theater?
The three of them enter the train.
Coulson: They were afraid because somebody's targeting diamonds, an armored car in Milan, a safe in Monte Carlo, and now this. Over $30 million total.
The bodies have been removed from the train but Skye is taking in all the blood and damage.
Coulson: Each theft occurred despite heavy security.
Coulson bends down over where the man who had his hand cut off had laid.
May: They sound like inside jobs.
Coulson: A lot of people share that opinion.
Skye: You don't.
Coulson looks up at her.
Skye: CCTV cameras catch any of the action?
Coulson: Fitz-Simmons is checking. The system went dark for an hour. They think it was hacked.
May: It was the same thieves each time?
Coulson: Yes, but it was just one thief, a woman. And she did it all with her eyes closed.
May: Eyewitnesses I.D. her?
Coulson: Black, athletic build, late 20s early 30s.
Skye: So you asked how she could have cracked the system. I have a pitch but, it's way outside the box.
Coulson: I live outside the box.
Skye raises her eyebrows in shock.
Skye: There are people in the world with superpowers, right? What if this woman has ESP or something?
May: There are no credible studies that support precognition, telepathy or extrasensory perception.
Skye: Okay, so science says no. But, this woman knew impossible things. And why'd she close her eyes? That's either random or totally important. Was she listening…or was she reading minds?
Coulson and May just stare at her until she becomes uncomfortable.
Skye: I'm gonna go play with my phone now.
She sits down on one of the seats in the train as May get s closer to Coulson.
May: Why does H.Q. want us to investigate these heists?
Coulson: They don't, I picked this op.
He speaks to Skye as May gives him a look.
Coulson: Any luck?
Skye: Yep, I'm getting full bars, which means if I was down here and 55 guys were in scary red masks, you know what I would do?
She takes a breath and stands up then turns her phone toward Coulson.
Skye: Instagram.
Coulson and May walk closer to Skye as Coulson takes the phone out of her hand. There is a picture of one of the men in the mask.
Cut to The Bus, Coulson, May and Skye are all in Coulson's office.
Coulson: It's amazing. Every year this part of our job gets easier. Between Facebook, Instagram and Flickr, people are surveilling themselves.
He is hitting things on the table that he's holding showing various photos of the men in the red masks.
Skye: With many filters to choose from. I could do this pretty well when I was hacking for The Rising Tide, but you guys tag and search in ways the rest of us never dreamed of.
May: I can run facial recognition software on the photos, cross-reference them with our criminal databases.
Coulson: You don't have to.
Coulson uses his tablet to pull up a photo and zoom in, we see the woman from the train on the monitor.
Coulson: That's the thief. Her name's Akela Amador.
May: You're certain?
Coulson: I should be, I trained her.
Commercial break.
Open back in The Bus, Coulson is walking in a hallway speaking to May and Skye following after him.
Coulson: Akela Amador was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Seven years ago she led a raid on one of Vanchat's Gulags.
He leads the women down the spiral staircase as he talks to them.
Coulson: Everyone believed that she and the other two agents on the mission were k**ed. I had my doubts. So I sent in a second team, just in case.
They are now in the living room area of The Bus.
Coulson: They found a lot of carnage but couldn't confirm that any of it was Amador, left the possibility open.
May: That's why you chose this op, when you heard about the heists.
They all stop to turn and look at May.
Coulson: There are only a few women in the world who could pull off something so impossible. Since you were on The Bus, I thought it had to be her.
Coulson heads into the Planning Room with Skye and May following, Ward is already in there waiting.
Ward: Swedish customs confirmed that Amador left the country using an alias on a Swedish pa**port.
We see the big monitor has all the information they have on Amador up on the screen.
Ward: She flew to Belarus, brought a train ticket to a town called Zloda. I've also put together a list of individuals who may fence that many diamonds.
He sweeps his fingers across the tabletop screen feeding information to the big monitor.
Ward: There's been no contact or activity.
Her lists of contacts are appearing on the screen as Ward talks.
Coulson: Maybe she's saving them for a rainy day, buying something special. Let's focus on finding Amador.
May: I'll let H.Q. know she's alive so they can a**ist with the manhunt.
Coulson: I'd like to hold off on that.
Both May and Skye give him a questioning look.
Coulson: Until we know more. Contact Belarus authorities. Find us a place to park The Bus.
He looks over to Ward.
Coulson: Put together a list of inns, hotels and pensions near Zloda. There can't be that many of them. We'll find her.
May and Ward share a look then exit to do as their told, Skye stays behind.
Skye: I'm not so special after all.
Coulson turns to look at Skye.
Skye: I'm not your first protégée. Relax, I'm teasing. I know I'm not a protégée. Hell, I'm not even a real live S.H.I.E.L.D. agent yet.
Coulson: You two couldn't be more different.
He turns and looks at the S.H.I.E.L.D. ID of Amador on the screen.
Coulson: Amador was smart, talented, fearless.
Skye's face shows a slight sting at Coulson's words.
Skye: Wow, there's nothing in common.
He turns to her giving her a small smile.
Coulson: Let me finish. She didn't play well with others, found little value in teamwork.
He turns back to the monitor.
Coulson: I thought I could instill those qualities in her, so I pushed her…maybe too hard.
He looks at Skye.
Skye: Don't blame yourself because this chick went to the dark side. Whatever path she went down, whatever weird stuff she got into, it's on her.
With that Skye exits the Planning Room.
Cut to Amador. She appears to be sitting in some sort of hotel room. She sits with a blank face staring straight ahead. She closes her eyes then turns her body to the right. She turns so that she is facing the door and quickly moves. She picks up a golf club from a bag nearby and opens the door. One the other side is a man, he gasps when she opens the door and grabs his shirt pulling him into the room. She throws him on the bed and uses the golf club to pin him to the mattress.
Amador: The agreement was to come alone.
Man: I did!
Amador: What about the man in the next room?
He guiltily glances at the wall separating the rooms.
Amador: Or the one by the stairs?
Man: They're here to protect me, for when I leave, with the merchandise. Please.
She lifts the golf club off of him and gets up off the bed. The man wipes his face with relief and gets up as well. Amador remains on guard holding the golf club.
Man: I'm sorry, I've never done this before.
He puts as much room between himself and Amador giving her nervous looks.
Man: May I see them?
Amador turns and puts the golf club away. She reached into a pocket on the golf bag and pulls out a tube of golf balls. She takes the top off the canister and dumps one of the golf balls into the man's hand. In her other hand she has a pitcher of water which she uses to pour on the golf ball. The ball fizzes in the man's hand disintegrating. The man squeezes his hand close into a fist, when he opens it he has a palm full of diamonds. He gasps and looks up at Amador with a little smile.
Man: The rest, they are?
Amador: In the bag. You can carry them through customs. No one will know. Now, it's your turn.
He reaches into an inside coat pocket, he takes some sort of credit card out of his pocket handing it to her.
Man: When I said 30 million dollars I never though anybody would –
Amador takes the card.
Amador: If it fails, I will find you.
Man: It will access all the levels, as promised.
He takes the canister of golf balls, exhales and steps around her.
Man: But, once you're inside, do you have a plan?
Amador: It'll come to me.
Cut to outside, we seem to be looking through a cast iron fence. We see a white van driving down a country road. We next see that van pa**ing over a bridge. The runner on the bottom of the screen says: Zloda, Belarus. We next see the van driving down another road, this one appears to be in a neighborhood. We then cut into the van. Ward is driving, wearing a suit, with Coulson in the pa**enger seat. Fitz-Simmons and Skye are all sitting in the back of the van. Fitz has a metal case and Skye appears to be on her phone.
Simmons: How exciting. I've dreamed of visiting Zloda since I was a schoolgirl.
She has a giant smile on her face and Fitz shoots her a look.
Fitz: Zloda, Belarus? A dream come true? Really?
Simmons' smile falters.
Simmons: It's the birthplace of Nobel physicist Zhores Alferov. I mean, technically he's from Vitebsk, but that's less than an hour from here and I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't know that.
Fitz: Well, no, of course I know who that is. Father of heterostructure transistors, thank you very much.
Ward gets a confused look and shoots a look over his shoulders at the two of them.
Fitz: We're all well aware of that. I'm just a little bit preoccupied. Our first and only other time in the field wasn't exactly a picnic, was it?
Coulson leans forward to look back at them.
Coulson: You guys are only here to search for Amador electronically. You won't even need to leave the van.
Coulson turns back around, we see Fitz give a fist pump at this and Simmons smile in agreement. We hear May's voice over the radio.
May: Bus to short bus.
Ward: Go for short bus.
Coulson: Next time, I'll decide what we call ourselves, okay?
Ward lifts one of his hands in a “what's wrong with the name” gesture as May continues to talk,
May: H.Q. has requested a status update.
Cut to May on The Bus.
Coulson: What'd you tell them?
May: That we're tracking a potential suspect, nothing more.
Cut back to inside the van.
Coulson: I owe you one.
Cut back to inside The Bus.
May: More like three.
Cut back to the van, still driving down the road, it finally slows and stops. Coulson is taking off his seatbelt and addressing the others.
Coulson: If Amador is here, she'll have to contact her buyer. Scan for cellphone transmissions, encrypted emails, anomalous broadcast signatures. Call us if you find anything that indicates her presence.
He opens the door to get out.
Ward: Maintain radio silence unless you really need help.
He opens the door but Fitz asks a question before he can get out.
Fitz: Well, what exactly defines needing help?!
The door slams without an answer.
Cut to Coulson and Ward, they appear to be walking through the downtown streets of Zloda.
Ward: I can only imagine how painful this must be for you, sir. Betrayed by someone you trained and believed in.
Coulson: We don't have all the facts yet.
Ward: True, but I have to a**ume the worst, that Amador sold out the two other agents on her mission.
Coulson stops walking and Ward turns to look back at him.
Ward: Wonder what she got in exchange.
Coulson: I don't know, but until we do, I'm not going to a**ume anything.
Coulson starts forward again as Ward watches him go.
Cut to inside the van.
Simmons: There's barely electricity in this town. Can't be too hard to find our mystery woman.
Skye: Unless she already knows we're here.
Simmons: No, you're not suggesting some sort of precognition or telepathy because –
Skye: I know, it doesn't exist. And not long ago I would have dumped ESP in the “alien and portals are for crazy people” pile. But now…
We hear a beep sound out.
Skye: Found a server.
We see her laptop, it says: Connected to Server.
Cut to back in town, Coulson is speaking to one of the locals as Ward watches. Coulson is holding his phone up to the local, obviously showing a picture of Amador, the local points a direction and Coulson thanks him. Ward's phone rings and he answers it.
Ward: Did you locate Amador?
Skye: What?
Cut to inside the van.
Skye: No, not yet.
Cut back to Coulson and Ward.
Skye: But we've found a broadcast.
Cut back to the van.
Skye: With some weird signal encrypted into it.
Ward: You think Amador might be communicating on that signal?
Cut back to Coulson and Ward.
Skye: Maybe, but I called with an equally pressing question
Cut back to the van.
Skye: For you, my S.O. What are we supposed to do if we have to pee?
Cut back to Coulson and Ward, Ward loses a step when he hears her question, he stops and rolls his eyes.
Ward: You broke protocol because you need a bathroom break?
Cut back to the van.
Skye: It was a really, really long drive, and everyone's nervous.
Simmons gives her a smile of encouragement.
Cut back to Coulson and Ward.
Ward: There's a container in the bottom of the blue chest.
Cut back to the van, Skye whispers to Simmons.
Skye: Bottom of the blue chest.
Simmons opens the chest and takes something out then goes back into the chest. She pulls out an empty water bottle and gives Skye a “you've got to be kidding me look”.
Skye: Not the water bottle?
Ward: That's the one.
Skye: Did you never learn the thing where boy parts and girl parts are different, and our parts aren't penises?
Cut back to Coulson and Ward.
Ward: Agent Coulson and I are trying to find a dangerous criminal. If there's nothing else pressing…
Cut back to the van.
Skye: Well one sec, listen, Fitz wants to know if you packed any snacks.
Fitz raises the tone of his voice to be heard by Ward on the phone.
Fitz: Cause I'm feeling a bit peckish.
We hear a click and Skye takes the phone away from her ear.
Skye: Uh, hello?...He hung up.
Cut back to Coulson and Ward. They walk into what looks like a hotel and up to the front desk where a woman works behind it and is setting down a vase of flowers.
Coulson: Dobryy Den.
Woman: Good afternoon.
Coulson: I'm Agent Coulson, this is Agent Ward.
The woman looks from Coulson's warm smile to Ward's hard mask.
Coulson: We're looking for this young woman.
Coulson turns his phone toward the woman showing her a picture of Amador. The woman looks at the picture and smiles.
Woman: Oh, she's my angel.
Coulson and Ward share a confused look.
Ward: Why do you say that?
Woman: She has gift, knows things. She told me to go to doctor. He found a tumor. I'm having surgery next week. This girl, saved me.
Once again Coulson and Ward share a look.
Cut to inside of the van, we can see the broadcast signal that Skye told Ward about. It's showing different flashes of things, the one I see the most clearly is a road with trees above it.
Fitz: I can't stabilize it. There's an encrypted local signal competing.
Skye: Mirror it over. I have a couple of Rising Tide exploits that might work.
Fitz hits a couple of keys and the feed appears on Skye's laptop. There is beeping from her laptop as she types on the keys.
Skye: One last thing.
She enters a few words into some sort of box and when she hits enter the feed clears up.
Skye: Ta-da, and you're welcome.
We see that the feed is indeed of a street.
Cut back to Coulson and Ward still talking to the Woman behind the desk.
Coulson: It's very important that we talk with her.
Woman: With her gift I'm sure she knows you're coming.
Cut back to inside the van, Fitz-Simmons and Skye are all watching the feed on her laptop. The feed goes past some bushes then we see a parked white van.
Skye: Russian TV's kind of boring.
Fitz: That looks a bit like our van.
Suddenly the feed goes from a normal looking camera feed to one of an x-ray vision kind of feed. We can see three skeletons inside the van. Skye looks down at a very worried looking Fitz-Simmons.
Skye: What are we looking at?
Simmons looks at Skye while Fitz stands up, while still watching the screen. He raises his hands and waves them around, we see the center skeleton raise his hand as well.
Fitz: Us.
Suddenly the view of the van is getting larger, whatever is filming them is moving closer to them. A very hard hit rocks the van slamming them all to the ground and knocking things around inside the van. When we get a view from outside the van we see that another white van or truck has just crashed into them.
Skye: Let's get out of here!
The camera outside pans back to show us it was another white van that slammed into them. That white van backs up preparing to hit our van another time. Skye scrambles into the driver's seat and turns the key only to have the engine stutter the starts. Skye goes to reach the petal but it's too far away.
Skye: Oh, stupid tall person!
She turns to look at Fitz-Simmons.
Skye: Call Coulson, get the gun!
Simmons picks the gun off the floor and hands it to Skye. Skye looks out the driver's window looking at the other van that has pulled back quite a distance.
Skye: It's her.
The camera zooms into the cab of the other van and it is indeed Amador driving. Skye takes a moment to look at the gun.
Skye: Safety off.
She hits one of the switches but the magazine drops out of the gun. She nervously looks out the window at the van coming for them quickly.
Skye: Bang?
Amador's van hits our van hear the driver's side door, this pushes the van off the road where it was parked and onto its roof.
Commercial Break.
We open with May on The Bus, she seems to be at the railing of the area above the cargo hold. She watches as Ward leads the rest of the team back onto The Bus. Coulson looks up at May as he pa**es under her. We hear Ward talking even though we don't see him doing so yet.
Ward: Sir, Amador attacked you and your people. Whatever regard you hold for her isn't reciprocated.
Now we cut to the Planning Room, Ward is leaned over the table talking to Coulson.
Ward: She just kicked us in the teeth.
Coulson: How's the team?
Ward: Rattled, no broken bones. We're lucky she just knocked the van over so she could get away. Probably take a while for our folks to refocus.
He turns his head when he hears Skye speak from the doorway.
Skye: I think I can recover the data signature of that encrypted broadcast. I don't understand it yet, but that's how she was watching us. Give me an hour. Maybe we can start watching back.
Skye walks away and Ward turns and looks at Coulson then walks out of the Planning Room.
Cut to Fitz-Simmons lab, Fitz and Simmons are standing behind Skye while she works on a computer.
Skye: Something's wrong. It's the same feed that was watching us in the van. Uh, put it on the big monitor.
Ward, Coulson and May all enter. Fitz and Simmons walk over to the monitor as the others turn to it as well.
Simmons: Maybe the lens broke when the van rammed us.
Skye: I hope she broke more than that.
They all stand around a table in front of the monitor and watch the screen as Skye pulls up the feed. At first all we can see is white mist, then a black hand comes into view and wipes moisture off the mirror, although we still can't see the face.
Coulson: It's a mirror. Are we recording this?
He walks around the table to get closer, Skye does the same.
Skye: Uh…
She hits a bu*ton on her tablet.
Skye: We are now.
More of the moisture is wiped away and we can see Amador appears in the reflection.
Fitz: Whoa.
Coulson: How are we seeing this? Where's the camera?
The camera feed pans down to show a box filled with what look like little screwdrivers, like the kind you would fix eyegla**es with. Amador picks up one of the screwdrivers. The feed shows us that she is looking in the mirror pulling down the skin under one of her eyes. She lifts the screwdriver and proceeds to put it in her eye. Fitz squeezes his eyes shut and looks away, the others look bothered as well.
May: It's her eye, she's the camera.
We see Amador still looking in the mirror, when she blinks the feed looks like x-ray vision. We can see that the eye she just put the screwdriver into is actually some sort of robotic implant.
Fitz: It switches to backscatter when she closes her eyes.
Skye: You're a robot, can you do that?
She's looking up at Ward, all he does is close his eyes for a second then looks at Fitz.
Ward: Who has tech like this?
Fitz: We don't.
Coulson turns around to look at him.
Fitz: Not like this, that's small and internal. That's at least a decade ahead of anything I've seen.
The camera once again shows the x-ray feed and the screwdriver going into the eye.
Fitz: Though now that I've seen it I could maybe approximate it.
When he starts to do his science ramble thing the only one appearing to pay close attention is Simmons.
Fitz: The backscatter x-ray, a microtransceiver that somehow doesn't fry her brain, and internal power source –
Simmons: All miniaturized honestly, it's…
Fitz: That's genius.
Simmons: Genius.
Amador opens her eyes and her vision returns to normal.
Coulson: We have to bring her in.
May: We have to take her out, she's a weapon.
Skye and Ward look at May with the latter nodding.
May: I'll call H.Q., see if we can bring a task force in to help us.
She beings to turn but Coulson stops her.
Coulson: Our team can handle this.
Skye rolls her eyes at the tension just created as May walks closer to Coulson.
May: I get it. You feel responsible, maybe you pushed her too hard.
Coulson looks at May quickly.
May: But she tried to k** three members of our team.
Coulson: If she wanted us dead, we'd be dead.
May: We got lucky. You want to risk our lives again?
Coulson: You told me you were ready for combat, that you had my back.
May: Don't ever doubt it. But you are defending this girl at the expense of the team.
Coulson: Because we're protecting our own.
Ward: With all due respect, sir, she's not one of our own.
Coulson looks away from May at his words.
Skye: Guys.
They all turn their attention back to the screen. Amador is writing something on a piece of paper. It says: Can I sleep?
Simmons: Why does she have to ask for permission?
Words are feed into the feed, like someone typing on a computer screen. They say: STAND BY
Coulson: She's not being watched, she's being controlled. We have to find her. We'll take shifts watching the feed.
We see May while he speaks, she drops her head a bit in disappointment.
Coulson: Sooner or later she'll look at something that will clue us into her location.
May: I'll take the first watch.
Coulson looks over to her and gives her a small nod then walks away.
Cut to outside the hanger where The Bus is parked. We hear knock on the door and then we cut to inside The Bus. The door opens and we see Coulson sitting behind his desk, he looks up when Skye speaks.
Skye: I just wanted to give you a quick update. She's still at the hotel, so…and that's the update. It's a pretty weird day, huh?
She walks deeper into Coulson's office.
Skye: It's like we were trapped in a van shaped piñata.
Coulson: That should never have happened.
Skye: It's okay. It wasn't nearly as terrible as watching mom and dad fight downstairs.
Coulson: That shouldn't have happened either. You regret coming along?
Skye: It was pretty impulsive, even for me. I still don't know much about you…
She looks over at one of Coulson's collections on display.
Skye: Except for you value really old stuff.
Coulson looks around too.
Skye: And you value me.
He looks back at her with this.
Skye: First person to do that in a long time. So I happen to believe you're an excellent judge of character.
He just stares at her.
Skye: If you think this woman deserves a second chance, we should give it to her, even though she tried to k** me and I kind of hate her guts.
While she says this to him she is slowly backing out of the room. When she finishes she closes the door as she leaves. She doesn't see it, but Coulson has a smile.
Cut to inside the lab. There are wires and gadgets strewn about. Fitz is asleep next to a pile of them. Coulson enters the lab and looks at the monitor, there's no feed. He walks over and wakes up Fitz.
Coulson: Fitz.
He hurries awake.
Fitz: What?
Coulson: What happened? Where's May?
Fitz: Uh, I don't know. She was watching the transmission.
He picks up a table and works on it.
Fitz: Amador must be sleeping.
Coulson: Play it back.
He walks over closer to the screen while Fitz messes with the tablet. We see another one of the computer messages scroll on the feed. It says: Todorov Bldg; Prox card to Delta 5 9:00
Coulson: There. She got another message, Todorov building.
The feed shows a table with food and a bill from room service.
Coulson: Wait, stop.
Fitz does as requested and Coulson moves closer to the monitor.
Coulson: Can you get closer on that receipt?
Fitz does so and the receipt is in Russian.
Coulson: Damn it, May.
He studies the receipt for another moment.
Coulson: Wake the others.
Cut to Amador, her eyes pop open and she quickly gets out of bed. She stops when she hears May's voice, she does not look at May.
May: Whoever's monitoring you, do they have audio?
Amador: No. But they'll use facial recognition to determine you're a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.
May: So, I don't have to introduce myself.
Amador: Did Coulson send you.
May: No. He feels sorry for you. I don't.
She starts walking closer to Amador.
May: I'll bring you in to S.H.I.E.L.D., you'll get a fair trial, and no one else gets hurt.
Amador: You have no idea, do you?
May: We know that you receive orders.
Amador: Then you know that once they see you, only one of us gets to walk out of here. They built in a fail-safe.
Amador looks up at May.
Amador: Either I k** you, or they k** me.
Commercial Break.
We open right back where we left, Amador staring at May while still sitting on her bed.
May: You should have stayed in bed.
Amador stands up pointing a gun at May, she easily kicks it out of her hand. And with that the fight is on. There are many hits and kicks going on between the women and they look pretty evenly matched. May throws Amador onto a table with dishes. When she hits the floor Amador sees a knife and picks it up. She throws it at May, who just turns her head and lets the knife fly by and embed in the wall behind her. Amador stands, closes her eyes and smashes the floor light leaving them in darkness. Our view switches to that of the x-ray view that Amador has. We see that May is standing on guard trying to figure out where Amador is. Amador scans the ground and finds the gun May kicked away. She picks it up and points it at May. Suddenly the door to her room is kicked open and there stands Coulson. Amador turns toward the door and fires just at the same time Coulson does, it looks like he's got the “night-night” gun.
For a moment the screen goes black, then we see various dark cloudy images. Everything is still fuzzy when we hear Coulson's voice.
Coulson: Hello, Akela.
Amador opens her eyes and blinks them a few times trying to get her vision to clear. We can see Coulson sitting in front of her as she lies on a bed.
Coulson: You're safe now.
She gasps and sits up.
Coulson: Give it a minute.
She is breathing hard and trying to regain herself.
Coulson: I hit you with a powerful Dendrotoxin.
She is still breathing heavily and begins to shake her head.
Amador: There's a k** switch in my eye. Why hasn't my handler blown it yet?
Coulson: As far as your handler knows, you fought Agent May, you both went down, then you got up and left the building to complete your mission.
Amador: How?
Coulson: We highjacked your feed.
Cut to Ward, he is wearing a pair of gla**es and driving an SUV.
Coulson: One of my agents is wearing a set of gla**es mimicking your implant.
The camera pans from Ward to the back seat where Skye sits. We can see a wire running from the back of Ward's gla**es. It appears that the wire is plugged into Skye's computer.
Coulson: Right now it's transmitting his point of view as if it was yours.
Skye plugs something in and a board begins to blink green.
Coulson: It even has backscatter imaging.
Amador: I get messages from my handler.
Cut back to Coulson and Amador.
Coulson: We're receiving those as well. My agent's on his way to the Todorov building.
The camera cuts to show May. She is standing in the Planning Room watching the video feed from the room where Amador and Coulson are.
Coulson: Completing your mission while we disable the fail-safe in your eye.
Cut back to inside the room.
Coulson: I promise. They can't see you. You're okay, Akela. Look at me.
Very slowly she turns to face Coulson, her eyes remain downcast but finally she brings them up.
Coulson: How long have they been monitoring you?
Amador: Years.
He gives her a sympathetic smile.
Amador: Why are you doing this, Coulson?
Coulson: I need to know why a Prox Card is worth $30 million –
Amador: No. Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me? Where's the “I told you so”?
He looks at her a moment and sighs.
Coulson: That's not me anymore. I'm just glad you're alive.
She looks away from him again.
Amador: Vanchat would never have caught us if I'd just done my job. I should have listened to you…
Cut back to May watching from the Planning Room.
Amador: Trusted my team the way you insisted.
Cut back to inside the room, tears are forming in Amador's eyes.
Amador: If I had…they might still be alive.
Coulson looks at her with sympathy.
Cut to outside the Todorov building. It looks like it's some sort of factory, a work is walking toward it with his lunchbox as Ward pulls into a parking spot. The camera pans up and we see a lot of people walking in to go to work. Skye looks around from the backseat.
Skye: Where are we?
Ward: Todorov building. I think it's research, not military.
Skye: Looks like a prison.
Ward: We wireless yet?
Skye hits a few keys.
Skye: Yep, ready to detach.
She reaches up and grabs the wire attached to the gla**es behind Ward's ear. He immediately tenses up and turns his head in her direction. Skye pushes his head back forward.
Skye: Don't look at me. They need to think you're her.
She continues to fidget to get the wire undone and Ward continues to tense his neck and grimace.
Skye: And oh my God, super spy is ticklish.
Ward lets out a little grunt from being uncomfortable and Skye detaches him. She gives a little grin and sits back.
Cut back to Coulson and Amador.
Coulson: How did you manage to escape?
Amador: I didn't.
He hands her a bottle of water (and may I just say, I love how the water is labeled specifically for S.H.I.E.L.D.)
Amador: Got caught in a crossfire, went down. Woke up in some half-a**ed triage bay, blind in this eye.
She points to her right eye.
Amador: Spent the next four years alone in a cage at the bottom of a copper mine.
Coulson: We looked for you. Heard rumors you'd been taken to Shanxi Providence.
Amador: When a team finally came, I thought it was S.H.I.E.L.D. at first, but…
Coulson: Who were they?
Amador: Don't know, even to this day. But they were organized. They took me to a clinic. I had multiple surgeries. Until one day, I could see out of both eyes again. I was so grateful, until I realized what they had done.
Coulson: Somebody was watching.
Amador: My every move. I had no idea until they sent the first message. Then the a**ignments started. Mostly it was “steal this”, “follow him”, “break into there”. I just tried to ignore them. But when I did I'd get this pain, like an electric migraine.
Coulson: The fail-safe.
Amador: Polite way of putting it. Now when I think about my years in the cage…I miss it. I wish I could go back, be alone, sleep in peace.
She takes a drink out of her water as Coulson leans closer.
Coulson: I know you're tired, but I need your help.
Amador: If you want information on the Prox Card, you're out of luck.
Coulson: You can't go on missions without intel.
Amador: It comes in pieces, a name, an address.
While she speaks we cut back to Ward and Skye. The camera is pointing out the window showing us people still going to work. The camera then pans into the back seat and shows us the monitors and what Skye sees through Ward's gla**es. A message scrolls on the screen: LOACTION CONFIRMED PROCEED TO DELTA 5.
Skye: It would s** to live like this, wondering if someone's watching.
Ward: Testing backscatter.
He touches one of the arms of his gla**es, we hear a beep then he looks off to the side. The camera shows us an x-ray view of inside someone's car. He looks forward again and touches the gla**es turning the feature off. Skye clicks something with a pen on her laptop.
Skye: Good to go.
She closes the case and hands a little remote control to Ward.
Ward: Remember I can't look at you, much less help you.
She's nodding her head.
Skye: Got it. Don't count on you for help.
He nods, pockets the remote and gets out of the vehicle. Skye watches as he makes his way inside the factory.
Skye: I'll be watching.
Cut back to Coulson and Amador. It's obvious that Coulson is getting upset with the lack of information Amador is providing, he's now pacing the room. Also, gone is his soft sympathetic voice, now it's harder with frustration.
Coulson: Come on, Akela. You've never spoken to or met anyone in person?
Amador: No. Only contacts are messages I receive from The Englishman.
Coulson whips his head up to look at Amador.
Coulson: The Englishman – your handler? How do you know he's English?
Amador: The way he refers to certain things.
While she speaks we can see some fingers typing on a keyboard.
Amador: He uses “lift” instead of “elevator”, “boot” instead of “trunk”.
Coulson: Think about the messages.
Now we're back with Coulson and Amador.
Coulson: What else do you know about him?
Amador: He's late 30s, early 40s.
Now it seems like Amador is getting more into it, she sits up toward the end of the bed trying to remember all she can.
Amador: Uses dated references.
Again we see a scene of messages being typed out while she speaks.
Amador: “Disc drive” instead of “flash drive”, “Burma” instead of “Myanmar”.
Coulson: How's his typing?
Cut back to Coulson and Amador.
Amador: Clumsy.
Again we see keys being hit by fingers.
Amador: Makes a lot of mistakes.
Cut back to Coulson and Amador.
Coulson: Thick fingers, maybe heavyset.
Amador: I forgot how good you are.
Simmons' voice comes over a speaker in the room.
Simmons: Sir, we're ready down here.
Cut to Ward inside the factory, while he enters we can hear Skye's voice.
Skye: Fitz and Simmons are prepped for surgery. It should be any minute now.
Ward doesn't acknowledge what she tells him, he continues to walk through the security checkpoint.
Skye: Hey, remember you have man hands, so don't look when you scan the card.
Ward (very quietly): I know.
Ward gets to the card reader and a guard there is eyeballing him pretty heavily. He waves his card over the reader and the light goes from red to green.
Coulson: Ward's on-site so we don't have much time.
Cut to inside Fitz-Simmons' lab, Coulson is speaking to our scientists.
Fitz: To remove her eyeball.
Simmons makes a squeamish face at Coulson.
Simmons: Yeah, ocular surgery is not really my field of expertise.
Coulson: We've got no other choice. There's a k** switch inside Akela. Could be a poison, could be an explosive. Either way, if Ward's caught, they'll k** her instantly.
Coulson starts to walk away.
Fitz: Where are you going, sir?
Coulson: To find out who's finger's is on the trigger.
Cut back to the factory. Ward appears to be deeper inside the factory itself, again here is another card scanner checkpoint. Ward is among the ma** of people making his way to this checkpoint.
Ward (quietly): Approaching Delta 3.
As he gets to the card reader he casually pulls out his card and holds it over the reader, he doesn't look at the guard but the guard is taking a hard look at him. We next see him walking down another hallway. We cut to Skye getting the feed back in the SUV. Ward pa**es by a guard standing in a recessed doorway.
Cut to Skye.
Skye: Careful! Mirror.
Cut back to Ward.
He runs his hand through his hair looking down and away from the mirror next to the guard.
Ward (quietly): Don't need your help.
Cut to Skye, she rolls her eyes.
Cut to Coulson and May in the Planning Room.
May: Handler's definitely local.
Coulson: Any idea where he's transmitting from?
May waves her hands at the map on the table.
May: Somewhere here. Every time he sends a message, we get closer.
Coulson: Keep me updated on Comm 3. I'm headed out now.
He starts out of the room but May stops him.
May: I'll track him down if you want to stay here and want to oversee the op.
Coulson: Thank you, this one's mine. And about earlier –
May: Go, find the guy.
Coulson nods then walks out of the Planning Room.
Cut to seeing a black glove being snapped on someone's hand. Simmons' smiling face comes into view.
Simmons: I may need your feedback during the operation…
The camera flips to show us Amador lying on a table with Simmons above her.
Simmons: Which means I have to inject a local anesthetic into your eye rather than putting you under.
During this the camera continues to pan from Amador's point of view to Simmons.
Amador: Whatever's necessary.
Amador straightens her head and eyes to the ceiling and appears to relax.
Simmons: Right.
She turns on the light attached to a harness around her head. She looks over at Fitz, who's standing at the opposite side of the table, and nods to him. He also turns on some lights on either side of the frame of his gla**es.
Simmons: Let's begin, then.
Simmons grabs a syringe off the table, gives a little nervous chuckle, and lowers the syringe. Her arm stops about a foot away from Amador's eyes. It's extremely obvious that Fitz and Simmons are still squeamish and not wanting to do this. Amador grabs Simmons' wrist of the hand holding the syringe.
Amador: Let me.
We see Simmons arm lowering as Fitz makes a humming sound and turns away. And, lucky us, we get to see the needle go into the corner of Amador's eye and Simmons gives a little relieved chuckle.
Cut back to Ward, he's heading toward some sort of room.
Cut to Skye, she gives a look of concentration to the feed from Ward's gla**es. Ward appears to be looking inside some sort of small, empty office space. All we see is one desk being manned by a guard. A message comes over: TARGET CONFIRMED STAND BY
We now are with Ward, he quickly ducks behind a small section of wall between two windows so the guard won't see him.
Skye: What do they mean, “target”?
Cut to Skye.
Ward: It's never good, especially for the target.
Cut back to Ward.
Ward: Let's hope it's a knockout and not a k**.
Cut to Skye.
Skye: You should get out of there.
Cut to Ward.
Ward: I've come this far. I'll finish, whatever it takes.
Ward quickly glances inside the room at the guard again. A new message appears on the screen: SEDUCE HIM. (B'wahahaha!) Ward's face shows genuine concern.
Ward: Help.
Commercial break.
We open where we left, Ward still giving a very worried look inside the room at the guard.
Cut to Skye.
Skye: I'm sorry, did you say “help”? Because a minute ago, you said you didn't want or need my help.
Cut back to Ward.
Ward: That was before they asked me to go all Mata Hari on this guy.
He sighs and looks in the window again, then he backs up hidden by the little partition of wall.
Ward: I'm just gonna knock him out.
Skye: Ward, wait.
He starts to go to the door but Skye's words stop him.
Skye: We may need him to get through the next door.
Cut to Skye.
Skye: Remember it said seduce, not k**.
Cut back to Ward. He lets out an exasperated sigh and looks in the room again.
Ward (very quietly whispering): I don't think I'm his type.
Cut to Skye.
Skye: Let me see.
She clicks on the guy through Ward's camera feed zooming in on him.
Skye: Cheap haircut, 5:00 shadow…Nope. Odds are you guys plays for the same team.
She makes a face.
Skye: You're gonna have to bromance him.
Cut to Ward who looks exasperated.
Skye: Talk sports, vodka, the Victorianov Secret catalog. Be friendly Agent Ward. Can you be friendly?
Ward has put his head back and sighs.
Cut to Skye.
Skye: Please don't die.
Cut back to Ward. He gives another deep sigh, closes his eyes and then goes on the move. He puts his card to the door and it opens. The guard gets up and starts walking toward Ward speaking in Russian. The scene cuts between Skye and Ward. Ward is speaking to the man in Russian as well.
Guard: Show me your identification.
Ward pats his pants pockets as if looking for it.
Ward: How about that game last night?
Guard: Your I.D.?
Ward is continuing to pretend to look for it. He touches his breast coat pocket then his head falls back in disappointment.
Ward: I think I left it at home.
He takes a step closer to the guard, who appears to be a block of stone.
Ward: Had a wild night. Met these two Ukrainian girls….
He gives the guard a smile and a little laugh, the guard has no reaction.
Ward: Didn't sleep much.
He makes a motion to the guard trying to find common ground.
Ward: You know how it is, right? Da?
This guy is made out of straight up marble, there hasn't been so much as a blink out of him.
Ward: Da?
Ward's fake smile drops, this isn't working.
Ward: Guess not.
The guard reaches out to grab him but Ward deflects his grab. He slams the guard into his desk a couple of times knocking him out. He throws the guard to the floor then walks to the opposite door and uses his card on the lock there, it works. The door opens and Ward enters a room. It looks like it's wall to wall chalkboard. When the door closes the two men sitting in there, they appear to be at typewriters, look up in shock and stare at him.
Skye: What now? Are you supposed to grab one of these guys?
They look at him a second more then go back to their typing. Ward walks deeper into the room looking at the calculations on the walls. He slowly rotates around taking it all in. He sees something that grabs his interest on one of the chalkboards behind a man typing. He walks over to it and takes a closer look. The other chalkboard are covered with equations, this one almost looks like some sort of electronic circuit board (that's the best way for me to describe it). It's a bunch of circles and lines that make no sense. There is a beeping noise and it looks like a picture is taken from the camera feed. A message appears: MISSION COMPLETE GOOD LUCK.
Ward tenses.
May: They just sent another message.
Cut to inside the Planning Room on The Bus. May is bending over the screen reading what it says to Coulson via earpiece.
May: Coulson, he's close, only a few blocks from you.
Cut to Coulson, he listens as he walks down the street.
May: He's somewhere in Victory Square.
Coulson picks up his pace.
May: One more message should lock in his precise location.
Cut back to Ward, he exits the blackboard room. He stops when he sees something, the camera pans over to show the computer on the desk has a timer, it's set at 10 and begins to countdown. Ward hurries to the computer and looks at it.
Ward: Figured out what I needed the guard for, his pa**word.
Skye speaks and we see the counter is already at 2.
We cut to Skye.
Skye: Maybe I can talk you through a hack. Just give me a minute.
We cut back to Ward, the timer reaches zero and the monitor begins to flash red as an alarm sounds.
Ward: No more minutes.
He goes to the guard and takes his gun off him.
Ward: Meet me on the south side of the building A.S.A.P.
Cut to Skye, she's gets out of the door.
Skye: Gotcha. Which way is south?
Cut to Ward, he's walking down a hallway keeping his head pointed down and looking at the floor. As he pa**es by the earlier doorway with a guard posted outside it, that guard walks into the hallway and spots Ward. Ward glances over his shoulder, sees the guard looking at him and starts to run.
Guard: Stoy!
Ward rounds a corner and continues to run with the guard following.
Cut to Fitz-Simmons' lab. Fitz is either studying the readout on the monitors around them, or he's facing away from the surgery so he doesn't have to watch. There is a sick squishing sound and Fitz grimaces and squeezes his eyes shut. Definitely the later in my earlier “or” situation. There's a weird suction noise and Simmons gets a interested look on her face.
Fitz: Please tell me it's out already.
Simmons: It's, mostly out.
Amador: What's wrong?
Simmons: Nothing.
Simmons reaches in with what look like big tweezers, she pulls them up and the one sight I did not want to see in this whole scene shows itself, Amador's eye. (eww!)
Simmons: But Dr. Fitzy needs to step in now. This is his area of expertise, not mine.
Fitz is staring at the eyeball with horror apparent on his face.
Simmons: Fitz!
He snaps out of it and moves to stand beside Simmons. He takes the tweezers and steadies himself.
Fitz: All right, then. Most likely, both the power source and k** switch are located within the eye itself. So, how to disconnect without triggering the k** switch?
We now see an even clearer view of the eye. (thanks for that!) we can see that the tendons and veins connecting the eye to the head are thicker than I think they should be, because of all the extra hardwire contained in it.
Fitz: Oh, I know what to do. Um…
He clears his throat then directs his question to Amador.
Fitz: I just need to clarify one thing.
Cut to Ward in the factory. He steps into a hallway with the gun drawn looking for anybody. He lowers the gun a bit and starts running. We hear a phone ring and he ducks beside a door. He can hear a man speaking Russian inside the room. He hits his x-ray vision and looks in. We see two guys, who appear to be dressed like guards. One of them sets down the phone and they both begin to move after a few brief words. Ward fires through the wall taking out one of the guards. He fires again at the guard he can see, but we can see more getting up as well. He hits another one but it looks like two more stood up. Fitz talks to Ward over his earpiece and Ward k**s his x-ray vision.
Fitz: Ward.
Ward: What?
Fitz: You sound winded.
Cut to the lab.
Fitz: Is this a bad time?
Cut back to Ward.
Ward: Little bit.
Fitz: Well, not so good for me, either –
Cut back to the lab after Ward ducks into a room.
Fitz: Considering I'm holding a still-attached prosthetic eye that could explode at any second.
Cut to Ward.
Ward: Are the wires exposed or shielded?
He rounds a corner and stops when he sees someone standing there, that someone is him, he's looking into a mirror. As he looks in the mirror we can also see the reflection of someone, obviously it's the man who's been pulling the strings.
Ward: Cut it now. Cut the wires now!
Ward hurries off.
We cut to see fingers typing on a keyboard.
Amador: What's happening?
Cut to the lab.
Fitz: Uh, no problem.
We cut to see fingers typing on keys.
Cut back to the lab.
Fitz: Ward, explain the sitch.
Cut to the fingers on the keyboard, one of the fingers hit the delete key.
Cut to the lab, at the same time the delete key is hit Fitz cuts the wires running from Amador's eye. We hear a zap of electricity and Fitz drops it into a metal container, Simmons gets the lid on just in time to contain the explosion. Fitz-Simmons flinch then Simmons takes the lid off the metal container. There is a lot of smoke rising out of it, Fitz waves it away and they both look in.
Cut to Ward, he once again rounds a corner with gun drawn. He looks down the hall then up a set of stairs.
Ward: Coming your way.
He starts up the stairs.
Cut to Skye driving the SUV.
Skye: I don't know what that means.
Cut back to Ward, he rounds another corner looking for threats. He continues to run and we can hear yelling in Russian behind him. He manages to turn a corner right as a guard fires on him. He jumps on top of some crates and shoots at the window then jumps out as the guard shoots at him. He lands on a metal roof above a door, under that metal roof the trailer of a semi is parked to unload. Ward jumps on the trailer then down onto a delivery truck that was parked next to the trailer. When he hits the ground a SUV stops right in front of him. Skye takes a deep breath as Ward hurries into the pa**enger seat. He opens the door and gets in.
Ward: Let's go.
Cut to Coulson still looking for the handler. He enters a courtyard and looks around.
Coulson: He probably left as soon as he threw the k** switch.
Cut to The Bus, a pinpoint shows up on the map in front of May.
May: He's there, 20 meters from you.
Coulson looks around but he sees no one with a computer. Finally his eyes land on a man exiting a building. He's a heavyset guy carrying a briefcase.
Coulson: I think I've got him.
Coulson slowly walks across the street toward the man.
Coulson: Excuse me, sir.
When the man speaks we hear he does have a British accent.
Man: I'm sorry, but I'm very late.
Coulson pulls out his S.H.I.E.L.D. badge and shows it to him.
Coulson: I'm with S.H.I.E.L.D.
The man loses all color in his face as he looks at Coulson.
Man: Oh, God.
We hear the same whining noise as we heard when Amador's eye was disconnected. The man's right eye goes to the right and fills with blood as he falls to the ground dead. Coulson just stares at him as a stranger rushes over to offer a**istance to the man.
He was a former MI6 officer who fell off the grid a few years ago.
Cut to The Bus, Coulson is speaking to Amador. We can see that she has a metal bandage over her right eye.
Amador: My handler was as trapped as I was.
They are walking out of the lab and into the cargo bay.
Coulson: Which means the real threat's still out there. Big S.H.I.E.L.D.'s still trying to decipher what was written on that chalkboard. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. Couple of people think it might be alien, possibly an equation. Must be important if it's worth 30 million dollars. We'll figure it out.
Coulson looks at the end of the ramp for the cargo bay. At the opening of the plan waits a car and two armed soldiers.
Coulson: You'll get a fair trial. I plan on testifying.
She looks from the soldiers to Coulson with surprise.
Coulson: I know people. You deserve a second chance.
Amador: You already gave me one. Doesn't matter how it plays out from here. I'm free.
We see May has entered the cargo hold and stands behind Coulson and Amador.
Amador: Thank you.
Coulson: Good luck.
He steps away and May steps up to Amador and leads her down the ramp.
Amador: What happened to Agent Coulson? He's different.
May: Well, he's loosened up a bit. He nearly died before the Battle of New York.
Amador leans in closer.
Amador: But what did they do to him?
May looks at her wit confusion.
May: I'm sorry?
Amador backs away from May and shakes her head.
Amador: Never mind.
A confused May watches as she walks off The Bus.
Cut to later, The Bus is now in the air. Coulson opens the door to the SUV and, once again, finds Skye inside, she gives him a smile.
Coulson: Are you still needing your you time?
Skye: There's always room for A.C.
Her smile widens.
Skye: Slide on in.
She moves her legs and he gets in the back of the SUV with her.
Coulson: What's wrong with “Agent Coulson”? Or just “Coulson”?
Skye: Nothing, I guess. A.C.'s just way cooler.
They both chuckle.
Skye: Cause you are, cool.
He shoots her a look.
Skye: How many people would have made that call to give Amador a second chance?
Coulson: I got one. Seems only fair I extend the same opportunity to others.
He sighs and lowers himself in the seat, with a smile on his face.
Coulson: I see why you like it in here.
She laughs and smiles and makes herself comfortable in the seat.
Skye: Yeah, It's kind of like my van.
She laughs, then the smile drops a bit.
Skye: Without all the bums trying to break in.
Coulson laughs.
Skye: I don't miss that. It's more peaceful here.
Cut to what looks like the inside of a cell. Amador sits on a small cot like bed. While we see Amador we still continue to hear Skye talk.
Skye: It's also cool knowing that someone has my back.
Amador lays her head on the pillow.
Skye: No matter what.
Her eye slowly closes.
Coulson: Peaceful's good.
Title Screen.
We next open on Fitz putting his hand into a bowl full of pretzels. He, extremely slowly, lifts one out and puts it in his mouth. He holds it open longer than necessary and crunches into it painfully slowly. We pan over to see Ward with a stoic face. The camera pans down and we see Ward is holding some cards. Ward is flicking on of his fingers against the backs of the cards. He looks down at his cards, up at Fitz then down at his cards again. He holds them up a bit higher and we see he has the Queen and Jack of clubs.
Ward: I call.
Fitz just continues to chew, almost cow-like, on his pretzel.
Ward: And raise 100.
He drops the chips on the pile in the center of the table, Fitz gives him a grin.
Fitz: Hmm.
He nods his head a few times and sets the pretzel bowl down. He picks up his cards and takes a deep breath.
Fitz: You know how I know I'm gonna beat you?
Ward: By losing?
He throws his cards down on the table.
Fitz: You have a tell. A psychological tic that lets me know you're bluffing.
Ward seems to be channeling the guard he tried to bromance, he's got a face of stone.
Fitz: If I watch you carefully…
The camera is panned in close to both Fitz and Ward's eyes. Then we pan back out and just see Fitz and Ward staring at each other.
Fitz: If I watch you carefully…
He says it a bit louder now. We cut to see an earpiece in someone's ear.
Skye: Oh, sorry. Hang on.
We see that Skye is in her bunk with her laptop on her lap. She reaches over and picks up the gla**es that Ward wore on the mission.
Skye: You know, if I do this, not only will I see Ward's cards, but I'll see you without any clothes on?
We cut back to Fitz, he is staring at Ward with confidence. After Skye's reminder he drops his gaze.
Fitz: I fold, you win.
Fitz quickly gets out of the booth and walks away from a confused looking Ward. He turns in his chair, making him face Skye's bunk, and watches Fitz walk away. Inside her room Skye puts on the gla**es. She hits the bu*ton on the side and looks at Ward. She makes an impressed face.
Skye: Hmm.