'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.': Skye Gets Busted

Thought the doubts of Skye becoming a double agent were erased when she double-double crossed Ian Quinn in episode three? You were wrong. Skye double crossed again (does that make her a quadruple crosser? I'm really losing count here) in this week's episode. And she didn't just do it for the Rising Tide — she did it for love. Or something like that.

That's right, Skye has a Rising Tide flame, Miles, and they go way back. When S.H.I.E.L.D. finds out that he hacked into their systems for information, they give him the chase, but Skye has already given him a head's up to protect him. But of course, Agent Coulson is one step ahead of Skye being one step ahead of S.H.I.E.L.D. and has Melinda May follow her — she's right outside the door after Skye and Miles' hookup, actually, which only multiplies the awkwardness.

We not only get to see more of the Rising Tide, we also get to see the return of the ominous Project Centipede, not seen since the first episode. Miles sells the information he got from hacking S.H.I.E.L.D., which goes against everything he taught Skye. Project Centipede uses the information to conduct more experiments, this time on someone who's already "gifted." The formula works as planned on the new juiced-up superhero, "Scorch" (he shoots flames out of his hands, duh), but Scorch isn't as lucky as Mike Peterson. Meaning he dies in a giant firey explosion, but not before taking the sinister doctor from the pilot with him.

So, we learn there's more to Skye and more to Project Centipede. We learn that Skye joined S.H.I.E.L.D. to track down her parents, whose identities are being hidden by the organization. And we learn that there's a lot more people behind Project Centipede — Raina, the methodical girl in the flower dress to whom the episode's title refers, and a mysterious, angry looking dude in jail who Raina tells to contact "The Clairvoyant." As far as season-long arcs go, this show seems to have quite a few, none of which that look like will be solved anytime soon. While the show has clearly identified Project Centipede as this season's Big Bad, we're five episodes in and we still know almost nothing about the project. And Skye isn't the only main character who's having an identity crisis — the show continues to hint that something weird happened with Agent Coulson in Tahiti, but will only talk about it in vague, one-off sentences.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is still a fun, exciting show to watch, and this episode will only deepen the complex relationships between its ensemble cast for the rest of the season. Skye will definitely have to do some major damage control within S.H.I.E.L.D. to regain their trust after her double-double-double crossing. But the show keeps setting up mysteries and refusing to solve them. If Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. continues with this pattern, it will start to develop Lost syndrome and frustrate and lose its viewers. It's early in the season, so it's nowhere near that level of complexity yet, but c'mon already, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D....quit being such a tease.