If you're going to do an episode that takes some risky jumps through time, it's probably a good idea to get a director who's had experience with shows that deal with that sort of thing, and Paul Edwards would fit the bill, having helmed episodes of both Fringe and Lost. "T.R.A.C.K.S." took a chance in retreading through certain brackets of time in an effort to show us what was happening while other things were happening. It could've been confusing, but it actually worked out ok in painting a complicated but non-confusing picture of how CyberTek gets the job done in dividing and conquering a team that might not otherwise be so easily derailed. Their use of some technology that tampered with time perception divided anyway. Conquering wasn't much of a success.
Skye got shot and put in a hyperbaric chamber where she was left cliff-hanger style like Snow White in need of a bath. I guess if you're going to get shot in the gut, you want it to happen near a charged up hyperbaric chamber and within range of someone brainy enough to know to put you there to save you from going from mostly dead to all dead. No one was digging through Skye's pockets looking for loose change tonight. By episodes' end her situation was looking grim but she could come back. Think it'll work? It would take a miracle.
Let's jump back through time to a point where an Italian woman's voice is pleasantly advising us to look out the window and enjoy the Italian countryside. I wish more TV shows did train episodes, mainly because I'm a big train fan and because it's such a rarely used mode of transportation in TV shows. The gang was trying to track down Ian Quinn, who was doing some dealings with Cybertek, the tech company that seems like they're the dark-side to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s light side, as they're clearly resourced to work with similar technology but willing and able to use it for financial gain, which in the private sector probably rarely leads to anything good when it comes to the stuff they're making. I mean, no one's having a death-ray built to save the world, right? Assuming Cybertek has plans for a death-ray or deathlok, as it were. We'll get to that.
Moving on, the train portion of the episode involved an awesome scene involving May parachuting herself to safety off the back of the train and later getting beaten up and then exacting some swift justice on the betrayer, she reunited with Coulson and Ward, who also ejected themselves from the train due to Cybertek making them and trying to kill them. That left Simmons, Fitz and Skye, the latter two of whom were separated and ended up following Quinn to a lovely home in the country where Mike was being kept in the hyperbaric chamber that would later save Skye's life.
Mike was fitted with an awesome robot leg care of Cyberdyne Cybertek, labeled "Project Deathlok." While he went off to carry out his orders to kill pretty much everyone except for Quinn and SHIELD people, Quinn carried out his own orders, presumably on behalf of the Clairvoyant, and shot Skye in the stomach and left her for dead.
So Skye could die but I can't imagine she will or she would have, right?
In other news, Stan Lee made his appearance, interjecting on a staged dispute between Simmons and Coulson. Because it was such a quick appearance, I kind of wish we never knew it was happening during tonight's episode. I can't fault ABC for hyping it up, but it would've been such a great surprise if he just showed up. Either way, Stan Lee!
May casually dropped a bomb on Ward in telling him she told Coulson about their relationship. Ward should've just left that alone but instead he awkwardly addressed it with Coulson, who responded by noting that it was against protocol and then went on to point out that Ward can't even bring himself to say the word sex. It's definitely getting more personal between Ward and May, and it's probably only a matter of time before things go bad. I'm that kind of pessimist when it comes to this relationship, mainly because I still don't totally get it.
Mike is very clearly being forced to comply with his orders. That wasn't a surprise as we knew from the last episode that he was fitted with one of those tech-eyes, in addition to his new Deathleg. But we saw him lurking near a park asking for permission to see his kid. So it seems his own personal motives haven't changed.
Funniest moment of the night was when Coulson and Ward were trying to use the hologram computer. FitzSimmons does make it look really easy. Apparently it isn't.
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