Coulson met up with many familiar faces in “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” Season 2, episode 18, but there weren't any happy get-togethers. The S.H.I.E.L.D. director (Clark Gregg) tracked down Ward (Brett Dalton), bumped into Hydra and found Skye (Chloe Bennet) this week. Of course, none of these reunions were simple or permanent.

The show picked up right where it left off in episode 17 with Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) evading S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who were following him. He got to the plane and found that Coulson wanted to make a deal with Ward to help find Skye. Coulson believed that the new Hydra leaders, Strucker and List (Henry Goodman), would have some leads since they were looking into people with powers.

At Hydra’s labs, Dr. List was shown with the body of Ethan (Kris Lemche), an inhuman who left to go backpacking last week. List was studying Ethan's body as well as several others. Though he didn’t have Skye, he clearly had plenty of interest in inhumans.

While searching for Ward and Hydra, Coulson also had to avoid the agents tracking him down. Bobbi (Adrianne Palicki) and Mack (Henry Simmons) admitted that they weren’t sure Coulson was the bad guy. However, they needed the toolbox open to do find out what he was up to.

There was a fancy laser on the way that could physically break into Fury’s toolbox. That forced Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) to tell May (Min-Na Wen) that she gave Fitz the original box. May told Bobbi that Fitz swiped the box. Bobbi was understanding and asked Jemma to hack into Deathlok’s eyes to track down Coulson.

Simmons easily handled her assignment, but she thought that May was on the wrong side. May threw Fitz under the bus to protect Simmons, but May claimed that it wasn’t about sides. She wasn't sure who to trust anymore.

Meanwhile, Skye was still at the facility with her parents. Jiaying (Dichen Lachman) was having trouble explaining Cal’s (Kyle MacLachlan) continued presence. Instead of telling him that he had to go, she told him that he’d be taken back to his place to gather his belongings. However, Skye was worried that he would get angry and hurt people. Jiaying claimed the safety of those people wasn’t Skye’s responsibility, but her daughter disagreed.

Skye asked her mother to let her father stay. “I can’t make exceptions. He isn’t one of us,” Jiaying said. “Sometimes, as a leader, I have to do things I’d rather not do.”

The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent went to see her father. She found out that he was in China volunteering for Doctors Without Borders when he met her mother. He was headed to his home in Milwaukee. Skye said that she wanted to go with him.

She went to Jiaying and said that she empathized with her father. She knew he couldn’t stay, but she thought she might be able to soften the blow if she went with him.

Back in the world of agents on the run, Coulson offered Ward a deal. Ward would be free of all charges if he could get Coulson in with Dr. List. However, he would have to go through a memory wipe after everything was over. Ward turned it down, but Coulson made it sound appealing. He could erase all the bad things in his life. Ward agreed.

Ward knew something was off when May wasn’t around. Kara (Maya Stojan) was worried about Ward’s safety, but he promised Kara that they would have a future together. “Whatever Coulson’s end game is, it doesn’t matter because he is going to help us get ours,” Ward said.

As a former Hydra agent, Ward was extremely useful. It turned out that when he said, “I might know a guy,” he actually meant that he had Bakshi (Simon Kassianides) in the trunk of his car.

Bakshi went into Hydra with Mike Peterson a.k.a. Deathlok as a partner, but he decided to offer Mike to List. He said they could do upgrades on him, and Coulson realized that Bakshi wasn’t on their side. Within seconds, everyone on the jet was pointing weapons at each other. Realizing they’d all lose someone important, they put their weapons down.

Deathlok was getting ready to kill everyone, but Fitz told him to play along. List’s people found some activity on their radar that distracted them. They were tracking quantum entanglement: someone almost, but not quite, being in two places at once. List explained that someone was creating a bridge from two separate places. Hydra was tracking Gordon’s teleportation right to Cal’s office.

In Milwaukee, Cal showed Skye around town and reminisced about memories they never got to have. While he went to get ice cream, Skye stole a cell phone and called May. She said Cal was in Milwaukee and would soon be angry. His anger always caused problems, so she wanted someone there to stop him. She tossed the phone in the trash and left it connected so the team could trace it.

The father and daughter went to Cal’s office, and he showed her the WWII field kit that he used to put Jiaying back together after Whitehall pulled her apart. Before Skye could tell Cal that he wasn’t coming home, Lincoln (Luke Mitchell) revealed himself. Jiaying sent him to protect Skye.

Cal suddenly realized he was going to be left behind and started to fight Lincoln just as Hydra arrived. Lincoln tried to get Skye away once they realized it was Hydra. He even got into a fight with Deathlok, using his electricity controlling powers to slow Mike down.

As Coulson and the team went into the building after Hydra, Hunter (Nick Blood) got shot. Coulson was unfortunately standing next to Ward when Jemma hacked into Mike’s eyes to see what Coulson was up to. They were all in serious trouble, but it looked like it might have been worth it when Skye saw the men.

Skye saw both Coulson and Ward and was about to run into Coulson’s arms when Gordon (Jamie Harris) grabbed her. Cal managed to jump onto them and hitched a ride back to the facility.

Without Skye, Coulson had to decide if he wanted to fight Hydra with just Ward, Kara and an injured Deathlok. “We’re outmanned, outgunned and our only back up is Fitz. Your call, boss,” Ward said.

Coulson decided to have the team abandon the building. Bobbi and Mack got there after everyone left, but they found Coulson sitting at Cal’s desk. He said he doubled back after Hydra cleared out, and he claimed he was going to finally explain himself. “I’ll tell you all about it back at the base,” Coulson said. “Take me to your leader.”

“Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” Season 2 airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EDT on ABC. Do you think Bobbi and Mack will finally trust Coulson again? Sound off in the comments section below!

RELATED STORIES