At the Hub, Skye can’t take not knowing anymore, so she tries to recruit Simmons to help her dig up some information.  Simmons is torn because she is a rule follower by nature and doesn’t want any part of Skye’s “bad girl shenanigans”, but she is dying for information about Fitz.  She eventually agrees, and Skye gives her a magic flash drive that will somehow give Skye a brief window to hack into the system without her bracelet alerting SHIELD of her actions.  The two put on the most adorable covert operation, with Skye trying to instruct Simmons via earpiece while Simmons tries to finish each of Skye’s sentences.  Simmons opens a security panel and is about to install the flash drive when Agent Sitwell arrives, seemingly happy to bump into her.  Skye tries to coach Simmons to lie to him, and Simmons tries to flirt with him, but it all goes wrong and she eventually shoots him with the night-night pistol.

Back on the Bus, Coulson stops by to have a chat with May, who is in the middle of doing some Tai Chi.  He questions whether he believes it’s right to keep things from the crew just in the name of clearance levels, but reminds himself that he’s supposed to “trust the system”.  He argues both sides of the point, as May does nothing but give him looks without ever breaking her movements, until he finally decides to keep things secret.  He thanks her for her advice and leaves, as May rolls her eyes.

Back in the field, the truck carrying Ward and Fitz is attacked by border patrol, and the two barely manage to escape after some heroics by Ward.  The two take refuge in a storm drain for the night, with Fitz sulking about Ward’s “Mr. Save-the-day” attitude.  He pulls out the sandwich that Simmons made for him, which causes Ward to stare in disbelief.  Fitz offers half of it to Ward, who takes the entire thing and throws it into the water below him.  Fitz is furious, but Ward angrily points out the idiocy of eating a potent sandwich while dogs are chasing them.  Fitz scoffs at this until they’re interrupted by the sounds of barking, causing Fitz to go back to sulking.

At the Hub, Simmons has activated the flash drive, and Skye is hard at work, trying to get information on the team while a clock ticks beside her, counting down the time remaining before she is discovered.  She pulls up the active mission list, but then notices a section labeled “Redacted Documents”.  She pulls it up and enters a date, and immediately finds the mysterious paper about her parents, still completely blacked out.  She looks at the clock and realizes there’s only enough time left for one, she can either find the original document or can find out about Ward and Fitz.  She debates for a second and then chooses her team, discovering that Ward and Fitz were sent in without a plan to extract them.  Just as she makes this realization, Coulson arrives looking furious.

Fitz and Ward manage to sneak their way into the base where the “Overkill” is, using some neat gadgets.  Fitz has a “magic window” device which allows him to see into a nearby room, while Ward blinks his flashlight out away from camp, looking puzzled when he gets no response.  Ward subdues the guards, and the two find themselves at “Overkill”, which Fitz starts to dismantle.  Ward tells him he only has ten minutes, but Fitz smiles and says, “I thought you’d say five.”

At the Hub, Coulson and Skye argue about SHIELD’s habit of keeping secrets.  Skye argues that their friends and comrades are out there risking their lives, and not only is it wrong to keep the rest of the team in the dark but did he even know that there was never any plan to get them back out.  Coulson makes the case that some things are secret for a reason, that some missions have to be covert in order to succeed, and that every bit of information that is hidden is done for a reason.  He also refuses to answer when Skye asks him whether he knew that Fitz and Ward were sent in there to die.

At the “Overkill” Fitz hurries to dismantle the device, but Ward wants Fitz to just explain what to do to him so that Fitz can run for it.  Fitz refuses to run, even when Ward confesses that their extraction isn’t going to happen.  Ward says that Fitz has nothing to prove to anyone, that no one doubts that he would have jumped out of the plane to save Simmons if Ward hadn’t gotten there first.  Fitz tells Ward that Coulson talked to him before the mission as well, and told him to take care of Ward, and that’s what he intends to do.  He pulls the key piece of the “Overkill” out, and Ward turns on the beacon telling SHIELD that the device is disabled, and alarms begin to sound throughout the building.

Coulson confronts Hand about the information uncovered by Skye, and it’s clear that he didn’t know everything about the plan.  Hand reminds him to “trust the system”.  That’s not good enough for Skye and Simmons, who have managed to convince May that they need to go rescue Ward and Fitz.  She says that an extraction only requires three people, but Coulson chimes in that four would be better.  Skye is confused, based on his reaction earlier, but it’s clear that he’s seen the light and the team set out for a rescue mission.

At the separatist base, Ward and Fitz struggle to come up with a new plan as the guards approach.  Fitz takes the piece of the “Overkill” that he removed and turns it into a miniature version of the weapon.  He aims it at the guards and it causes the ammunition in their guns to detonate on the spot, disarming them.  This allows Ward to do what he does best, while Fitz fires the device from a distance.  When Ward is pinned down, however, Fitz comes to the rescue, kicking a guy in the face and freeing Ward.  The two head up to the surface, but are surrounded.  At the last possible moment, the Bus appears, which is apparently able to use its engines to hover (and to blast away the guards) and Ward tells Fitz that “The Cavalry” has arrived.

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