Agents of Shield

[Arcana]

:rant mode engaged:

Okay, the folks at Marvel need a lesson in terminology, since Hand, in tonight's episode, made the same mistake that Captain America did in "The Avengers".

Before a mission, when you give the mission team the information that you have, and tell them what you think they can expect, that is a BRIEFING. A DEBRIEFING only happens AFTER the mission, when the mission team tell you how the mission actually went, what they saw, etc. It's so that you can figure out how good your intel is.

I'm thoroughly tired of hearing supposedly-professional characters call the PRE-mission meeting a "debriefing" or "debrief". Come on, Hollywood - LEARN SOMETHING about what you're portraying. Learning's really not that scary.

Carry on.

:rant mode disengaged:

It was de briefing in de briefing room with de Shield agents.

[Eoraptor]

bu bum bummmmmmmmmmmmm

Spoiler for Hidden:

(though I wonder if he wasn't replaced in the fight scene by one of the conveniently masked underlings)

[Kaos Arcanna]

I was thinking

Spoiler for Hidden:

that Ward was given Winter Soldier-like programming and didn't know he was a double agent ... though it would be an impressive move if he turned out to a true Hydra agent all along.

[eabrace]

That episode did not disappoint.

[Super Firebug]

I was thinking

Spoiler for Hidden:

that Ward was given Winter Soldier-like programming and didn't know he was a double agent ... though it would be an impressive move if he turned out to a true Hydra agent all along.

That would be a gutsy move on the show's part. For my money,...

Spoiler for Hidden:

I'm betting that Ward was assigned to play double agent in order to find out who Garrett's superiors are within SHIELD.

[Arnabas]

I'm with Super Firebug. There was a conversation between Ward and Coulson with no audible dialogue.

I think Ward has been sent on a mission by Coulson. The only thing is... How to explain Agent Hand?

[Mental Maden]

Spoiler for Hidden:

This article seems to imply he's been one all along.

Spoiler for Hidden:

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/04/09/agents-of-shield-postmortem-ward/

[Nos482]

I'm with Super Firebug. There was a conversation between Ward and Coulson with no audible dialogue.

I think Ward has been sent on a mission by Coulson. The only thing is... How to explain Agent Hand?

Blanks and fake blood? But then again, Coulson didn't seem to be overly fond of Hand anyway.

[Arcana]

I'm with Super Firebug. There was a conversation between Ward and Coulson with no audible dialogue.

I think Ward has been sent on a mission by Coulson. The only thing is... How to explain Agent Hand?

I'm not sure what to believe, but it does occur to me:

Spoiler for Hidden:

Turn Turn Turn has callbacks to Winter Soldier: the device Fitz uses to escape the plane is similar to the one Agent Hill uses in Winter Soldier.  So if you want to play that game, how to explain Agent Hand? With Nick Fury.

[Mental Maden]

Blanks and fake blood? But then again, Coulson didn't seem to be overly fond of Hand anyway.

He may not like her because of her terrible acting.  Or is that just me?

[Kaos Arcanna]

Hm. Tonight's new episode was pretty good.

Spoiler for Hidden:

It's looking likely that Ward is actually a real traitor so perhaps we'll see him dying off in the season finale. I mean, come on, with Whedon involved, SOMEONE has to die .... ;-)

[Heroette]

Complaint and spoiler

Spoiler for Hidden:

I have a complaint about the rerun of "Turn, Turn, Turn" last night.  I was re-watching it with a friend last night and in the first commercial break they showed a commercial for the next episode directly after it.  And they showed that Ward was a traitor right on the commercial and the episode hadn't even ended yet.  So she knew that he was before it happened.  That was a very bad move on ABC's part.  I emailed them and told them I thought so.  They could have ran a "spoiler free" commercial.    End of rant.

And thank you for the help Super Firebug.

[Super Firebug]

Scalebeast: put [ spoiler ] in front of what you want hidden (with the square brackets, but remove the spaces from inside the brackets), and [ /spoiler ] at the end.

I had to include the spaces so that the system wouldn't treat the middle of the sentence as a spoiler, and hide it. :)

[Alpha Series]

I was really hoping somehow it was all an act and Ward was somehow NOT Hydra... But there's not much chance of that being the case. So they gonna have to waste that turkey now. The big question? Who gonna do it, and How? Irony would demand Skye...But with this tangled web, all bets are off and it's anybody's game. Maybe they'll keep him around forever as the permanent protagonist. Kinda like that little jerk Dr. Zoller.

[CG]

Spoiler for Hidden:

I think Ward's future depends on his past and why he's with Hydra in the first place.  What is his history with Garrett?

I found it interesting that Garrett wasn't so gung ho as some of his followers.  He seems to be a member of Hydra for reasons other than Nazi-ism, or as a fanatic so perhaps it's just power for it's own sake?  I wonder what he's up to and why he has a partially metal torso.

[Eoraptor]

Spoiler for Hidden:

Garret seems to be the "out to be on the winning side" "saw which way the wind was blowing" sort of thing.

[GamingGlen]

Spoiler for Hidden:

Doesn't Coulson often say the phrase "Whatever it takes."?  Perhaps he told Ward that in that unheard conversation to find out who is the top person in Hydra.  It sure isn't Garrett.  Garrett's motivation could be several things: money, being the top operative agent again, glory, being in charge, or any combination thereof.

[Super Firebug]

I'm wondering if they (the suits behind the show) might be setting Ward up to be replaced by Triplett, in order to further diversify the cast. If all of this is for PC, I'll be greatly disappointed.

[Arcana]

Spoiler for Hidden:

I think Ward's future depends on his past and why he's with Hydra in the first place.  What is his history with Garrett?

I found it interesting that Garrett wasn't so gung ho as some of his followers.  He seems to be a member of Hydra for reasons other than Nazi-ism, or as a fanatic so perhaps it's just power for it's own sake?  I wonder what he's up to and why he has a partially metal torso.

Spoiler for Hidden:

I think Garrett is more of a pragmatic, not a fanatic like Pierce was, say.  He believes in Hydra's goals of using force to create an ordered society where the trains run on time and threats can be eliminated with a minimum of unnecessary damage, to the point of being a willing party to totalitarianism.  My guess is that most of the "higher ups" of Hydra tend to be more pragmatic, but the lower level minions tend to be more dogmatic because they were picked specifically for their unquestioning loyalty.  And my guess is that SHIELD itself was probably not too dissimilar, which is what made Hydra so easy to coexist within it.  At the beginning of Agents of SHIELD it was reinforced often that asking questions was discouraged, things were compartmentalized, and following orders blindly was part of the job.  Its only when you get to the higher echelons of SHIELD - or Hydra - that you begin to see all the backstory and secret plotting and machinations and that unquestioning loyalty has to eventually shift to a more pragmatic acceptance.  You could say Garrett's loyalty to Hydra mirrors Coulson's loyalty to SHIELD in the middle episodes of the series.

[Eoraptor]

an excellent dissection, Arcana. It's often true that sociopaths make the best middle managers. you don't have to be a sociopath to sit at the top, because you're isolated by money and power. but when you're int he middle, you're still within touching distance of the effects of the decisions you make, meaning emotions more often get in the way. best to put someone there who is less likely to let pesky things like sympathy or conscience get in the way of getting the job done.