While Skye and May are at the van, Mike attacks May and knocks her out and demands that Skye help him and his son disappear.  They drive to a train station and Skye works on deleting him from the internet while secretly sending the SHIELD crew a message to let them know where she is.  The team considers their options, which Fitzsimmons say are either Mike exploding or Ward putting a bullet in his brain.  Coulson asks for a third option but they say there’s no other way.  Coulson won’t accept this, asserting himself as a leader and saying “Don’t ever tell me there’s no way.  It’s on you.  Get it done.”  Fitzsimmons get to work on a third option while Ward and Coulson head off to try to contain the situation.

Ward thinks they should just kill Mike, wondering why they’d risk an explosion that would kill lots of people over “nobody”.  Coulson’s reply is that, “Nobody’s nobody, Ward,” cementing his place as the everyman of this show.  Things lead to a confrontation in the train station, as Skye escapes by picking a fight between Mike and some thugs.

Things happen pretty fast here, as SHIELD tries to contain things and a random police officer starts shooting at Mike.  Coulson calls him a “third party”, clearly indicating that there’s more going on here than we’re aware of.  The “police officer” corners Skye and Mike, shooting the man with the superpowers and knocking him over a balcony before turning the gun on Skye.  Suddenly May shows up to kick some ass and takes out the shooter, clearly willing to use the gifts that she seems somewhat afraid of.  Skye seems impressed, giving a cool little smile in response.

Coulson confronts Mike in the station, unafraid of what Mike might be capable of. Coulson is cool and collected, being honest and understanding with Mike.  He listens to Mike’s frustrations which speak to many of the larger issues we all seem to be facing these days.  He’s angry at the government for not fulfilling its promises to look out for the common man.  He’s angry even at the American Dream, which he feels is a lie when it tells us that all we have to do is work hard to be successful.  And he’s angry at the superheroes for bring chaos to the world and for setting an example that regular people can’t live up to.

It’s a terrific speech/rant, and in many ways the highlight of the episode, especially the way that Coulson calmly listens.  It’s what we wish anyone with power would do, and it’s clear that Coulson genuinely understands what Mike is going through.  Mike says that he could be a hero, to which Coulson responds, “I’m counting on it.”

And then in the biggest “Holy shit!” moment of the episode, a shot rings out and Mike’s head snaps back and he crumples to the floor.  It’s genuinely shocking, and our first instinct is to assume that Ward took him out with his sniper rifle, not patient enough to follow Coulson’s orders not to fire.  And we’re half right, but Ward instead only shot Mike with Fitzsimmons’ “night-night gun”, which they arrived with at the last moment.  Mike is alive and the situation is finally contained, without any additional loss of life.  We get a quick montage of relieved looks from the entire crew, with a new appreciation passing between Ward and Coulson.  It’s the first moment when they finally take a step towards becoming a team, and I’ll admit that I got choked up by it.  It’s hard to make people care about characters after one episode, but Joss and company really pulled off something special.  I can’t wait to see where they go from here.

NEXT PAGE ->