Don’t let the title of this week’s episode fool you, everything that has happened in the past few weeks of this show is totally personal! During last night’s episode Ward tried to convince Skye that every action he has taken thus far has been his “orders”, and at some points she even feels sorry for him. I really don’t understand how when Deathlok uses Ward’s life as leverage to get the computer codes, Skye gives them up to save his life. Though at the end of the episode we do learn that she sabotaged their mission. But never mind all that, I’m getting a little ahead of myself here.
With another solid episode last night, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. heads towards the season finale and continues the awesome “Hail Hydra” arc. The episode starts off with Maria Hill, who was recently employed by Stark Industries at the end of Cap 2, on the phone with Pepper Potts throwing out references to Man-Thing, seriously she said Man-Thing, awesome. Hill knows that she has a number of tails following her, but then suddenly they are all taken out and May is waiting for her in an alley way. May asks her to help Coulson.
Back in the North… Last week Skye realized that Ward is really Hydra and decided to play him and go along with his plan, even going as far as getting on the Bus with him. When the rest of our team came back to Providence, they were very surprised to find the base empty. This week they had to find the answer to what had happened. Of course the security footage had been erased so figuring everything out wasn’t going to be that easy. Skye had left a secret message for the team and Fitz figures it out when he looks at the wall decorations and they don’t match. Still he doesn’t believe it. He actually doesn’t truly believe it until Simmon’s finds Agent Koenig’s body and analyzes his body. Fitz then flips out, and now the team knows that they have had a wolf among them the whole time. What a kick in the face to know that someone you trusted with your life and as a friend has been working against you the entire time! This is why the show is finally getting so good, the relationships and morals are being tested and I love it. Well it’s time to stop feeling sorry for yourselves and time to go rescue your friend. But first the team has to deal with General Talbot. Thanks to Maria Hill he was able to located the team and the hidden base. Of course Coulson is able to convince Hill to help him and they turn on Talbot and his team but assaulting them. I really think Talbot should have brought more men, the least he could do it shave that mustache.
In LA, Skye is stalling with Ward and he is getting suspicious. They go to the same diner where Skye met with Mike Richardson at the beginning of the season. She “slowly” works on helping Ward and this is a really great scene as Ward gets more and more nervous as he starts to notice a police presence at the restaurant. Skye starts saying things to him about Garrett and how it must have been really rough to know that his S.O. was a bad guy and how it must have felt to betrayed by someone so close to him, all the while starting to reveal that she knows the truth. Ward finally wants to leave but Skye says no and tells him that she tipped them off as she shows him her computer screen with his FBI “most wanted” picture on it. All hell breaks loose as Ward takes out the cops and Skye tries to make an escape. She manages to get into a police car and take off but who is waiting for her right down the road? Deathlok!
Who is he working with? Ward of course! He has been tailing Ward as per Garrett’s orders and they take Skye hostage back to the Bus. Now we can talk about what I started to discuss at the beginning. I like the fact that Skye gives up the codes to save Ward, it shows the level of conflict she has with all of the recent events. BUT I am still convinced that they are going to try to make good on all of this, in fact I am convinced that after this week’s post credit scene we now have a way to “redeem” Ward. Let’s talk about that in a second. As the bad guys are about to take off they are confronted by another jet with May and Hill in it, they try to get Ward to stand down but fail. Of course this was all a distraction for Coulson as he made is way onto the Bus. Coulson rescues Skye and they are about to go take the plane back from Ward but she tells him that Deathlok is on board, which changes everything. Deathlok chases them to the cargo hold where Coulson and Skye jump in Lola and launch out the back! In a rather entertaining free-fall scene, though a little too green screened, Skye is safe and the team goes into hiding, at a dingy motel (at least it has a pool). This scene is great as you realize that they are really on their own with no support and no back up. They are truly agents of nothing. But being with the people you trust most can be all you need most sometimes. Agent Tripp is really becoming a part of the team, and I really hope that they don’t throw some twist in there that he is a bad guy too.
In the end credits scene, Coulson walks into his room and May is there, time for the big reveal. Earlier in the episode, May had dug up Coulson’s “grave” and removed a hard drive from it, on it? The answer to who was in charge of the T.A.H.I.T.I. project! That person was none other than Coulson himself! May shows him a recording of himself where he talks about the dangers and repercussions of the project, including memory replacement/loss. Coulson’s reaction to all of this is classic as all he spurts out is “huh”. But as I was writing this and thinking about how they could keep Ward around after all this Hydra stuff calms down. When we look at how the whole Coulson story has panned out this season, it has dealt with a lot of memory replacement. Which I can see them doing the same thing with Ward, especially with next week’s episode looking into his past. Ward seems so convinced that he “owes” Garrett everything, so there’s only a few options for this character. Either they kill off Ward, they “fix” him because his memories were replaced previously, or they turn him into a whole new person a la the T.A.H.I.T.I. project. I hope none of these options of course because I like bad guy Ward. Two more episodes left this season!
Next week: “Ragtag”
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Tuesdays at 8pmEST on ABC!
~CynicNerd
