Well, this was a game-changer, all right. And it did a pretty good job keeping us guessing, though I'm not particularly surprised about who the traitors turned out to be. (I am surprised they killed off Hand, though.) I guess the speculations I've heard about Triplett being set up as Ward's replacement may have been right.
Beware Winter Soldier spoilers ahead:
No, we heard a voice saying "Welcome to Hydra" over a shot of Garrett firing some kind of device with Ward standing behind him, but it's pretty clear the sound and the picture didn't go together. So we don't know who was being welcomed.
Ward is definitely deep in HYDRA and has been all along. Consider the evidence. He's Garrett's protege (although, granted, so is Triplett). He killed the fake Clairvoyant, an action that a lot of people found out of character or hard to explain, but that makes perfect sense if he was acting under orders from Garrett to make it look like the Clairvoyant had been found and killed. He's been established as someone with a dark, troubled past and heightened aggression -- which seemed at the time like it was just a "bad boy" characterization but in retrospect feels like a clue to his true nature.
And really, from a dramatic standpoint, it's hard to see how a series protagonist could come back from cold-bloodedly murdering an innocent man. It wasn't an accident, it was a calculated choice to kill. No matter how it's rationalized, that's a pretty extreme line to cross and one you can't come back from. So it would pretty much ruin him as a series-lead protagonist. But if it he was really a villain all along, then the act merely establishes his evil credentials.
Also, look at it metatextually. People have been saying all along that they found Ward a boring or unlikeable character, a weak link in the ensemble (though not the only one, granted). That makes more sense if the plan all along was to have him be a temporary member of the ensemble. Heck, I'd much rather have Triplett take his place. That actor is a lot more interesting.
I've been wondering about that.
Oh, I didn't notice the connection there.
Beware Winter Soldier spoilers ahead:
It sounds like the Hub may become the team's home base now, so it's not just the Bus anymore. Which would make sense; they went to the trouble to build all those sets, so it'd be good to have a reason to keep using them. I guess the story now will be about weeding out the remaining HYDRA factions that were said to retain control of various SHIELD facilities. So the shutdown of SHIELD isn't as simple as it looked in the movie. And presumably Garrett and Ward will be the main antagonists.
I'm puzzled by the timing in this episode. It looked like it all took place on the same day as the film's climax, as the launch of Operation Insight and the three Helicarriers. After all, in the film, HYDRA didn't reveal itself openly within SHIELD until Cap outed them on the PA. Fury's apparent death came at least a couple of days earlier in the story. But wasn't May talking to Fury at the end of last week's episode, just minutes in story time before this one started? I'd really like to see a detailed chronological breakdown of how the past couple of episodes and the movie fit together, like a smaller-scale version of the one I've seen for the Phase One films.
It would also be interesting to go back and watch all the episodes again, knowing what we know now. Although it may still be a few weeks before we learn the whole story behind everything.
I'm puzzled by the timing in this episode. It looked like it all took place on the same day as the film's climax, as the launch of Operation Insight and the three Helicarriers. After all, in the film, HYDRA didn't reveal itself openly within SHIELD until Cap outed them on the PA. Fury's apparent death came at least a couple of days earlier in the story. But wasn't May talking to Fury at the end of last week's episode, just minutes in story time before this one started? I'd really like to see a detailed chronological breakdown of how the past couple of episodes and the movie fit together, like a smaller-scale version of the one I've seen for the Phase One films.
It would also be interesting to go back and watch all the episodes again, knowing what we know now. Although it may still be a few weeks before we learn the whole story behind everything.
No, we heard a voice saying "Welcome to Hydra" over a shot of Garrett firing some kind of device with Ward standing behind him, but it's pretty clear the sound and the picture didn't go together. So we don't know who was being welcomed.
Ward is definitely deep in HYDRA and has been all along. Consider the evidence. He's Garrett's protege (although, granted, so is Triplett). He killed the fake Clairvoyant, an action that a lot of people found out of character or hard to explain, but that makes perfect sense if he was acting under orders from Garrett to make it look like the Clairvoyant had been found and killed. He's been established as someone with a dark, troubled past and heightened aggression -- which seemed at the time like it was just a "bad boy" characterization but in retrospect feels like a clue to his true nature.
And really, from a dramatic standpoint, it's hard to see how a series protagonist could come back from cold-bloodedly murdering an innocent man. It wasn't an accident, it was a calculated choice to kill. No matter how it's rationalized, that's a pretty extreme line to cross and one you can't come back from. So it would pretty much ruin him as a series-lead protagonist. But if it he was really a villain all along, then the act merely establishes his evil credentials.
Also, look at it metatextually. People have been saying all along that they found Ward a boring or unlikeable character, a weak link in the ensemble (though not the only one, granted). That makes more sense if the plan all along was to have him be a temporary member of the ensemble. Heck, I'd much rather have Triplett take his place. That actor is a lot more interesting.
I've been wondering about that.
Would that info include the truth behind Coulson's resurrection and Skye's origins?
Oh, I didn't notice the connection there.
Last edited:
