In a situation where your resources exist beyond the bounds of standard modern medicine, it's necessary to question how far you're willing to go to save a person's life. Because in the Marvelverse, as it relates to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the sky's not even really the limit when we consider their access to otherworldly resources. Going to far can be really far. That's the situation Coulson was staring in the face tonight when he got one very big, very creepy piece of the puzzle that is his resurrection. Spoilers if you haven't seen tonight's episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s "T.A.H.I.T.I."!
The series took a step away from the case-of-the-week while the team focused on one of their own. From the start, it was looking like there wasn't much anyone could do to help Skye, and when the doctor gave her official "I'm sorry," indicating that there was nothing more they could do for Skye, Couslon stepped up to find a way to save Skye, who was being kept alive on life support. While May saw it as a good thing that Coulson would go to the ends of the Earth to save one of them, Ward rightfully questioned whether or not they should be taking whatever measures necessary to save Skye. Not only do we not know if this is what Skye would have wanted, who knows the cost, right? I like that this show questions that. It's an important line to acknowledge, at the very least, especially in the reality these characters are dealing with.
As Coulson's team prepared to save Skye, Bill Paxton's Agent Garrett arrived with his people to reprimand Coulson and his people for failing to hand over Quinn, and obviously to collect Quinn. Coulson refused to turn him over until they dealt with the Skye situation. Melinda did manage to find time to lay into Quinn and take out her rage over what's happened to Skye. Emotional Melinda May is a violent Melinda May.
Things got trickier when Coulson finally disclosed what details he had about his own resurrection to Fitz and Simmons, knowing that he would need their help sorting through the procedure if they were going to use whatever information they could to save Skye. The answers seemed to only lead to more questions, as it seems like the situation surrounding Coulson's resurrection is still cloaked in mystery, even frown the Clairvoyant, who -- according to Quinn -- knows everything about everything except how Coulson was brought back from the dead. That explains why the Clairvoyant wanted Quinn to shoot Skye, as he or she hoped it would leave them to take the same measures used to save Coulson.
And how was Coulson brought back from the dead? At least part of it involved some mystery miracle drug called GH325, which Coulson and his people attempted to retrieve tonight, with success. They got the vial, and the facility they broke into seemed like it was completely destroyed, presumably destroying all traces of the source of the GH325, but who knows? As for the source, that was revealed to us later, as Coulson lingered earlier when he spotted something labeled T.A.H.I.T.I., which was connected by a series of tubes to a chamber labeled G.H. Inside was some kind of bluish body that didn't look human, nor conscious. It was encased in liquid and appeared to be torn in half. I'm going to guess that whatever it is was being kept alive to produce whatever substance is being used for the GH325.
So we don't know what is producing this miracle drug, but whatever the substance was is presumably in Coulson, and now it's in Skye, as Simmons injected her with it just as her vitals were falling. For a moment, Skye seemed to seize up, but then her vitals stabilized and though she was still unconscious, the last time we saw her she seemed much more alive. So the drug saved her, but again, at what cost? Skye's already a mystery, given her past. This GH325 could complicate things further. And I'm not convinced that the Clairvoyant is entirely out of the loop on what was done to save her. Since we don't know how they get their info -- are they really clairvoyant, or just well resourced? -- it's hard to say if they know what Coulson saw before he evacuated that facility, but that seemed like a pretty major piece of the puzzle and we'll have to see what kind of effect it has on Coulson, Skye and the team if and when Skye wakes up.
The episode ended with the arrival of Lorelei, the Asgardian seductress who's already seducing, and whose arrival will result in Thor's Jaimie Alexander, who will guest star as Sif and hopefully take care of this Lorelei...
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