I was just so sorry for Cal ... he's crazy and he's bad, but he wants to be Skye's (Daisy's) daddy

Pretty much all his crazy has been focused on reuniting his family. I think even Skye is realizing that there are a few extenuating circumstances going on, and Cal might have reasons for going off.

He reminds me of the Hulk, in ways.

edit: Though the glee in insane murder is hard to excuse.

KM is really good at playing scarily unstable and pathetic and powerless all at the same time.

So my inability to keep track of who knows what is working to my advantage this time. Nice!

To be fair, I can see how being vivisected might polarize one's "us vs. them" distinctions.

But it seems to hold true even among her "us".

She came back wrong?

What I didn't remember is when did Lincoln find out that Jiaying is Skye's mother?

I had the same issue. I remember thinking last week that Lincoln seeing them together at dinner was going to get Jiaying in trouble because it seemed obvious that she was Skye's mom. Guess we were supposed to figure out he was in the know?

I was just so sorry for Cal ... he's crazy and he's bad, but he wants to be Skye's (Daisy's) daddy.

I thought this episode did a great job of conveying that with both Cal and Skye. When Skye tells Jiaying that she started to empathize with Cal, it actually rang true to the point that it was annoying to see her call Shield, although in hindsight that made sense too.

I don't like the cheap tv trick of characters catching glimpses of Coulson with Ward with no explanation. It happened at least twice, once where May and Gemma hack Mike's feed and once where Skye runs out and sees them. Though to Skye's credit, it didn't seem like she automatically jumped to the wrong conclusion before Gordon Teleport-blocked her.

I don't like the cheap tv trick of characters catching glimpses of Coulson with Ward with no explanation

Exactly, it's all "Oh, I can never trust this person I've know for years again, they've done something I don't understand and it must be the worst possible thing! And I can never, ever ask them to explain, because they're bad!"

I was watching The Blacklist last night and started thinking that Red and Cal have similarities - both trying to connect with a long-lost daughter (my viewing has been sporadic, my attention distracted, so I'm assuming she's his daughter), both men having done terrible things. Seemed to be some parallels there .... (and, both daughters being pretty much meh for me)

When Skye tells Jiaying that she started to empathize with Cal, it actually rang true to the point that it was annoying to see her call Shield, although in hindsight that made sense too.

Well, since she doesn't really know what's been going on with Shield, I think she did it to protect Cal. She trusts May and Coulson to make sure he doesn't hurt anyone, in a humane fashion. So her calling them really worked for me.

I don't like the cheap tv trick of characters catching glimpses of Coulson with Ward with no explanation.

Agreed - it's SO cheap, that Tom called it as soon as the suggestion to do so left May's mouth. I'm glad Coulson decided to get in the mix so we can stop with all these Three's Company misunderstandings.

I am also glad that Bakshi is back in the game, because he's awesomely evil. I reallllllly hope Mike doesn't get too fucked up with this kidnapping, because goddamn, he has been through enough.

Also, I see some rehab writing on the wall for Ward and I am not liking the look of it.