- "Public places, lots of people, multiple exits."
"Yep. Figured if I ever got in trouble, I'd be safe there." - ―Grant Ward and Skye[src]
Ruthie's Skillet is a diner located in Los Angeles.
History
Meeting Mike Peterson
- "It's where I met Mike Peterson. It's where this whole S.H.I.E.L.D. roller coaster started."
- ―Skye to Grant Ward[src]
Skye was able to locate Michael Peterson, the Hooded Hero she filmed rescuing a woman, and followed him to Ruthie's Skillet. Peterson watched the KEJH news report about the woman he rescued trying to contact him.
While Peterson was looking for employment in a edition of the Los Angeles Daily Edge, Skye sat with him, excited to finally meet a "superhero". Peterson tried to dismiss her, telling her she was mistaken, as he was just a factory worker, but Skye warned him about S.H.I.E.L.D., a government agency that would come after him, and that the solution for that was to come out as a hero, using an entirely new identity she could create for him.
Skye invited him to her office, which was actually her van to further discuss the need to confront this instead of hiding, but Peterson left the diner. However, Skye was able to pickpocket his driver license, learning his identity and address.[1]
Kidnapping of Skye
- "Pretty specific coordinates, though. You could have picked anywhere in the world. Why a random diner in L.A.?"
- ―Grant Ward to Skye[src]
Grant Ward took Skye to Los Angeles in order to make him decrypt the hard drive containing the research made by their team, without knowing that Skye had discovered his true allegiance as a HYDRA operative.
Skye told Ward that the encryption of the hard drive was attached to a specific location, Ruthie's Skillet, the diner where she had her van stationed before joining S.H.I.E.L.D., that she never changed from her encryption. Besides, she felt it was a fitting place, as it was the place where she met Michael Peterson and her interaction with S.H.I.E.L.D. started. It even was a tactically logical place, as it was a public place with lots of people and multiple exits.
Skye seemed hesitant to enter the diner, as it had been a long time since she last went to a restaurant, wondering if she could get pie for dessert. Ward, that acknowledged that it seemed they only visited tubes and tunnels, and ate plane food, thought the decryption could have been done by the time he finished a coffee.
Skye started to speak with technical language to confuse Ward and make it appear the decryption would be slower than he thought, saying that if she managed to do it in an hour, it would be a miracle. Though Ward tried to pressure saying that Phil Coulson needed it to be done as soon as possible, she said that she couldn't do it any faster, so Ward guessed they would end up having dessert.
Skye spent quite some time using her laptop and making Ward believe that she was decrypting the hard drive, and often Skye told him he was uncomfortably staring at her. Skye showed Ward a screen frame that looked like a decryption information from the hard drive, and Ward calmed himself a little, saying that she was mistaking his admiration for impatience, though Skye said it was impatience.
Ward apologized for stressing Skye, and she suggested him to get outside of the diner, calling their team with the sat-phone, but Ward refused, saying they would stay together and proceed according to the plan, as the sooner she decrypted the hard drive, the sooner they would rendezvous with the team, something Skye had already heard him many times.
The computer showed a message saying that the location of decryption was invalid, and Skye looked nervous for a moment, something that Ward realized, analyzing her behavior, as, for example she was staying unnaturally still to keep from fidgeting, and maintaining eye contact to give the impression of confidence. Skye excused herself saying that the last time she was there, she was with Michael Peterson, who was a good man then but now he was a murderer, and they were ones of the FBI's most wanted. Skye felt that at any moment something could go wrong.
Ward told her to relax, as she was doing great, but she said that hiding what she though and felt wasn't as easy for her as it was for him. Ward simply said that it all came with experience, while he noticed two cops entering the diner.
Skye continued with the rush, with Ward starting to become more and more impatient, with Skye even mocking him that he was the one who told her to relax, but Ward was worried that the cops were watching them. Skye dismissed his theory, saying they were just looking at the waitress, because they did not know he was not the one he was pretending to be, her impatient boyfriend.
Skye began a conversation about Ward's previous missions, and he revealed his longest undercover mission was a 16 month assignment to pose as a Russian attaché at the embassy in Warsaw, five years after leaving the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy. Skye commented the difficulty of living a double life, and how someone must get close to people, only to turn on them, and wondered how John Garrett was able to deceive anyone, specially Ward, spending years as his Supervising Officer, knowing him just to betray him.
Ward, still trying to maintain his cover, said it was difficult to accept, but now it was over as he managed to kill him, but was uncomfortable with having that conversation in a public place, realizing more and more policemen kept passing near the place. Skye insisted, wanting to know what would have he said to Garrett if he had a moment before killing, and wondered if he would say he was a "disgusting, backstabbing traitor", or he would have sent him to rot in hell.
Ward asked what the true intention of that was, and Skye said she was trying to have an honest conversation for once. The LAPD cops inside the diner started to ask the customers to get out of the establishment, and Ward, realizing without doubt they had discovered them, told Skye they should go too, though she insisted to stay, because the cops hadn't discovered them, it was she who alerted them, finally revealing she knew Ward's true allegiance.
The cops approached Ward and Skye trying to arrest them, and Skye warned them that Ward was armed. However, Ward easily fought and knocked out the policemen, while Skye seized the opportunity to escape, approaching a group of cops in the outside to make them arrest her. They first hesitated, but then she attacked the cops to force her arrest.
Ward exited the diner and shot the two policemen arresting her, so she ran to steal the police car and escape from Ward, who started to run behind the vehicle saying she did not understand what was happening. However, she could not escape, as Deathlok was waiting for her down the street, jumping to her vehicle and capturing Skye to take her back to the Bus.[2]
Behind the Scenes
- The scenes set in Ruthie's Skillet were filmed in "Spring Street Smoke House Barbecue" restaurant in downtown Los Angeles.