Back in Portland, Audrey starts her rehearsal, and almost immediately Daniels shows up.  He apologizes for scaring her, says that he knows he’s a monster, but that she’s the one who can save him.  He walks to the stage, and eventually gets close enough for Trip to jump out and blast him with the modified light.  Fitz and Simmons fire from above and it appears to be working at first, but he blasts them all with his Dark Force.  Coulson pops up behind him with another light, just as Trip recovers, and the combined force of their beams causes him to overload with energy and explode, knocking Audrey to the ground.  Coulson rushes over to check on her, and a she regains consciousness he tells her, “You’re safe.  I’m still here.  I promise I’m still here with you.”  He disappears before she can be sure what she saw, and while she knows she saw him she’s not sure whether it was real or a vision.

While Ward cleans blood off himself, Skye stumbles upon Koenig’s tablet, which shows his location in a supply room.  She follows his dot, and opening the door a penny drops to the ground, which is strange.  She searches the room but doesn’t find anything, and is about to leave when a few drops of blood fall on her screen and she looks up to see Koenig’s dead body in the ceiling grating.  She gasps, covers her mouth, and whispers Ward’s name.

She escapes to a bathroom, in shock and hyperventilating, as Ward searches for her in the hallway outside.  She mutters to herself that he must be HYDRA, before searching the room for anything she can use.  She pauses and looks at the fake window/tv screen in the bathroom, though we never see what she does with it.  Ward makes his way to the supply closet as another penny falls, presumably from Koenig’s pocket, but Skye emerges from the bathroom to meet him.

Ward wants to know why she left the communications room, and she convincingly tells him that she was scared by opening up to each other and their “very nice” kiss.  She says that she doesn’t overanalyze things, but just acts impulsively and freaks out after the fact.  When he asks if she’s still freaking out, she shakes her head and goes in to kiss him, telling him that she “wants this.”  She asks what he wants and he says he wants to stay there with her, but that they got a call from Fitz, who needs their help, and they have to head to the Bus right now, giving her a BS story that Koenig is standing by to open the hangar doors.

On the way back from Portland, Fitz and Coulson share a moment, both dealing with their feelings for others.  Coulson is upset that he finally lied to Audrey, despite her belief that he never would.  But she’s alive and safe, which makes it worth it.  He says that he’ll tell her the truth eventually, one day, when there’s a chance that she’ll understand.  He also says that he needs to make things right with May once they get back, because “how can I expect Audrey to forgive me if I’m not willing to do the same?”  He leaves when Simmons shows up, who wants to talk to Fitz.  She’s worried because Trip is convinced that he did something to upset Fitz, and she’s worried that Fitz doesn’t trust Trip.  Fitz looks like he’s about to confess his feelings, and then plays it off as just his normal resistance to change.  The group arrives back at Providence to find the place empty.  “Where’s our Bus?” Simmons asks.  “And our team?” Fitz adds.  “I don’t know,” Coulson replies with a look of mild horror and confusion.

In the cockpit of the Bus, Skye stares out the window at the sunrise looking a little panicked.  Ward tells her that they’re not heading to Portland.  Instead, Fitz wants the schematics of the plasma ray they found in Peru, which SHIELD supposedly shot into the sun on a rocket but which was actually at the Fridge until Garrett stole it.  So they’re actually off to whatever location Skye needs in order to access the information on the hard drive.  “Where to next?” he asks, as Skye offers a weak smile.

After the credits we catch up with May in Ontario, walking down the side of the rode.  A car pulls up and she throws her bag in before climbing inside.  The older woman behind the wheel turns off the ignition, and when May tells her that they have to go she says, “500 miles… 500 miles and I don’t even get a thank you.”  When May starts to say that she was about to thank her, the woman says, “It’s too late.”

“Thank you,” May says anyway.

“I said too late,” replies the woman.  The woman wants to know why May called her when she could have called anyone at all, but May says she needed someone she could trust.  “That bad, huh?” the woman asks.

“Did you get it?” May asks, and the woman hands over an envelope.

“I may be retired, but I still have contacts,” the woman says.  “And my agency hasn’t fallen apart,” she adds, getting a half smiling, half exasperated look from May.  “You’re not the only one looking, you know.  She won’t be hard to find,” the woman says.  “You’re not gonna take her out, are you?” she asks.

“No, mom, I just want to talk,” May replies.

“Good, I’ve always liked Maria,” the woman responds, as the two drive away.

Another big episode from SHIELD, and with only a few episodes left before the end of the season things are starting to get intense.  I’m glad that they’re not drawing out Ward’s secret HYDRA connections for too long, and I’m glad that Skye is onto him.  I don’t know how she’s going to get out of her current jam, but she’s resourceful and I bet she’ll find a way.  The introduction of the famous cellist gave the episode a strong emotional arc for Coulson, as well as a tie-in to the FitzSimmons relationship.  As for Agent Koenig, I would have loved to see him stick around, but I’m not surprised he didn’t last.  And then there’s Melinda May’s mother, the sort of character who shows up in one scene and instantly becomes everyone’s favorite character in the entire show.  I know I can’t wait to see more of her, and I can’t wait til next week’s episode to see how everything continues to play out.  Agents of SHIELD has become so strong in 2014, I hope they can sustain this momentum through the finale and go out (until next season) on a high note.

 S.H.I.E.L.D. Thoughts

Skyeward shippers probably have a lot of feelings about this episode.  On the one hand, their relationship took a definite turn towards the more serious realm, but on the other hand now that Skye knows that Ward is with Hydra it seems like the relationship is pretty doomed.  I really liked their heart-to-heart before Skye learned the truth.  It seems to me throughout all of this that Ward really does have feelings for Skye, and we’ve been given a lot of evidence for that, from Lorelei’s statement to Garrett’s acknowledgement to the fact that his confession of feelings during “orientation” helped him make it past the lie detector.  What that means going forward is still a question, whether it will give him a path back to the good side or just make him a more tortured villain.  I felt during their confessional scene that Ward was using the opportunity to try to sort out his feelings with regards to where he stands on the HYDRA/SHIELD front, but perhaps he was just playing Skye.  It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out in the next few weeks.

How about some really spectacular acting from Chloe Bennet tonight?  The scene after she discovers Koenig and goes to hide in the bathroom was really intense and well acted, especially considering she was communicating a lot of emotions with very little dialogue.  I know that she gets on some fans’ nerves, but I like both the actress and the character, and I think both are a necessary part of the show.  Some people would probably just rather see the FitzSimmons show, or the MayWard show, or the Coulson show or whatever, but I love the balance among the six characters and Skye is obviously a big part of that.  Also, what do you think she did with that screen in the bathroom?  She had to have been leaving a message for the rest of the team, right?

I loved all of the little new details we learned about our characters, both in terms of facts and personality.  Melinda May has been married!  When will we see that backstory?  Trip’s grandfather was a Howling Commando!  Ward has a sister!  (Did we know that already?)  Simmons watches Dr. Who!  Fitz is totally in love with Simmons!  Skye doesn’t have a last name!  Revelations and tidbits all around, and an interrogation scene is the perfect setup for that kind of info dump.

Every time Amy Acker shows up in anything I’m watching, it’s a joy.  She was one of the best parts about both Angel and Dollhouse, and was definitely the best part about the spectacular Much Ado About Nothing.  Even though we didn’t get a lot from her this week, she really helped us feel the reality in Audrey’s relationship with Coulson.  I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of her, and I’m sure it’ll be an emotional moment when she finally finds out that Coulson is still alive.

Let’s have a moment of silence for our dear departed Eric Koenig and Patton Oswalt.  He filled a key role in his short time on the show, and brought his trademark style and humor to the role.  Of course, if he had to leave in order to make way for Melinda May’s sassy mom, then it’s totally worth it.  The actress (whose name I haven’t been able to find yet), totally stole the final scene, if not the entire episode, and the writing was spot on as well.  I can’t wait to learn more about May’s retired, agent mother, who works for some other organization and is clearly loving that SHIELD collapsed.  I’m already envisioning a backstory where May betrayed her mother in order to join SHIELD, which is why her mother is so smug now.  Anything that lets May feel more human is a good thing, and her mother may be the best thing to happen to the character yet.

Don’t forget to tune in next week, as we’ll get a continuation of the major drama of tonight’s episode with Skye and Ward.  It looks like Colonel Talbot will make his first in person appearance, attacking Providence with his troops (I guess Providence may not be a permanent base for our heroes after all).  Cobie Smulders will be returning as Maria Hill once again, seemingly in cahoots with Talbot.  I guess her job with Stark Industries didn’t work out.  (Also, if May was trying to find her, it turns out all she had to do was stay at Providence instead of running away.)  It also looks like Mike Peterson/Deathlok will be returning as well.  And then there was that awesome shot of someone spray painting over a SHIELD logo, which seems to sum up the post-HYDRA message of the show very nicely.  I can’t wait!

What do you think?  Did you enjoy “The Only Light in the Darkness”?  Are you glad that Ward’s secret is now at least a little in the open and we won’t be dancing around that for the rest of the season?  What’d you think of Koenig’s fate?  Did you enjoy finally meeting Audrey the cellist and Amy Acker’s performance?  How awesome is Melinda May’s mother?  Do you think there’s any hope for Skye and Ward’s relationship?  What was your favorite new piece of information we learned from the interrogation?  Let me know in the comments!