Agents of SHIELD. Season 1 Discussion Thread

First time I've ever really looked at the term "ramify".

 

Blame/praise Christopher. He made me actually look at the verb's definition for the first time tonight with his description of HYDRA.

And now we have them stealing the old "barber shop" gag from Strange Tales.

 

I love the idea of Talbot chasing Coulson around like he used to chase the Hulk.

 

Betting that back in Peggy Carter's day, they actually had a base with a barber shop for a "front door"...

 

So it looks like Agent Triplett is going to hang around for a while.

Gotta say, Ward and Garrett make a good team!

 

Best dinner money Garrett will have ever spent.

 

Put your arms down Kaminski!

 

And the next battleground...

 

Looking at "Turn, Turn, Turn" again, knowing what I know now, I can see the clues that Ward was working with Garrett. When Ward arrived after the others had decided Hand was the Clairvoyant, the first thing Garrett did was make a point of drawing Ward aside to tell him "Hand is the Clairvoyant," as if to make sure they had their cover story straight. And then it was Garrett who suggested to Ward that he suggest preserving their most secure data on the hard drive. He was directing Ward the whole time.

And he was completely unsurprised when Ward shot the guards. Hand was startled, but Garrett just casually turned his head to look.


As for "Providence": Well, it seems to take place before the closing scenes of TWS, because the Congressional hearings haven't begun yet. I wonder how long it'll take to catch up.

Anyway, I like it that Glenn Talbot's reputation precedes him -- Coulson knows about his aggressive tactics. I can imagine that he has an unseen history of hunting the Hulk alongside Thunderbolt Ross.

And I love it that the entry into the secret HYDRA base was through a descending barbershop chair, homaging the entry into SHIELD's New York HQ in the original Nick Fury comics.

I'm pleased that I misjudged Raina. I said earlier today that there was no reason to think she wasn't aware of the nature and goals of her employers. But she really was a true believer in the Clairvoyant's "powers" and it meant something to her. She's working with the bad guys, but she's an idealist in her own way. She's becoming a much more interesting and sympathetic character here, and I'm intrigued.

And we're starting to see how all the "standalone" episodes before do have a payoff. Now HYDRA has all the gadgets and artifacts accumulated over the season, and the gravitonium as well.

It's a clever bit of story structuring to put the mysterious coordinates in Coulson's SHIELD badge, so when he brandishes the badge and says "This has to mean something," it has a double meaning. Nice moment.

And ooh boy, lanyards!

 

Yeah, those lanyards. ;-)

Looks like Jonathan Hickman's getting his material seriously riffed here. "Agents of Nothing", Providence...

 

In real life people do what they do. In stories, things have a point.

There is no point in Ward being loyal to Garrett no matter what. Ward is then an extension of Garrett, just a duplicate, in terms of story.

Ward is working for Garrett now, and certainly has been all along. But he will betray Garrett, or else story-wise, he is really just nothing but Garrett's extension probing into Coulson's holes.

Ward is set up with a conflicting loyalty to Skye and to Garrett. He will attempt to exploit Skye. The trouble is, if Skye is completely fooled, then Skye is ultimately weak and flawed and not the hero she is being built up to be.

So Skye and Ward have to come to terms for both characterizations to have integrity. This confrontation will have to be Ward's downfall and sacrifice, and it will lift Skye up to her potential.

Or I could be full of shit.

 

Yeah, that was pretty blatant on the rewatch tonight.


As for the people suggesting that Ward might still be a good guy who's just really deep undercover, can I assume that tonight's episode removed any last glimmer of hope from your minds? Guards in the elevator are dead, he looted pretty much everything from the Fridge.



Interesting that both Raina and Quinn were upset that Garrett wasn't really clairvoyant. Could those two possibly betray Garrett later on, or were their reactions meant to mirror the audience's reaction to finding out that he wasn't really clairvoyant.

And speaking of which, Shield kept insisting all season long that there's no such thing as psychic powers. That's still gotta come into play at some point, doesn't it? Some real clairvoyant is still going to show up.


Also, it doesn't look like they're going to save all the supervillain hints and stuff they've been dropping each episode until a future season, it feels like Garrett wants to unleash it all now.

How many episodes are left this season, 4?

 

He was in the preview for next week.