I re-watched the ep last night looking for clues as to whether Ward is really Hydra or a triple agent.
First, it’s clear that Garrett thinks Ward is with Hydra - with hindsight you can see Garrett manipulating Coulson to get Ward out of the brig, and you can see it when he tells Ward that Hand is the Clairvoyant - he practically says “Right?” with his eyes. So Ward has pretended to be Hydra for some time - probably since he reported to Garrett.
But, the good guys didn’t even know Hydra still existed until the “Out of the Shadows” message. So how could Ward have already been planted?
Also, after the first ep I was thinking that Ward may have only wounded Hand for show. But I realized on second watching that after shooting her in the chest, he walks over and puts two more bullets in her. Clearly she is most sincerely dead. I don’t think that Ward, Coulson or Hand would have agreed to going that far to establish fake credibility with Hydra.
So I’m convinced Ward really is a traitor - except, wow, what a ballsy thing for Whedon/the show to do. I can’t quite get my head around it.
My money is on Ward being a full-on Hydra agent, but his story for the next season (or two) is him gradually turning against Hydra because of his feelings for Skye.
The only thing Joss Whedon loves as much as heartbreak is a redemption arc.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. And, I think it would make for an especially interesting story. (Well, one of the many things I was thinking, but I’m leaning that way after I watched the episode again.)
I rewatched the episode yesterday with the assumption that Ward is bad, and they aren’t doing a triple switch. That final scene turns from a tortured soul who regrets killing, to a total bad ass who is going to be a Big Bad worth rooting against as the season comes to a close. Man. The quality of this show ramped up quickly. And, I’m someone who genuinely liked it from the beginning!
I also wonder about the significance of Coulson’s watching Ward go off. The first time I watched the episode I was sure he was going to run after him and shoot him. (Ward just argued too vociferously to go along.) Is that why he was watching?
As to Hand’s weird decision to shoot. My only explanation was that she was extra angry about all of the agents killed. I don’t mind that so much. My bigger complaint is her reaction to the shooting. She’s a trained SHIELD operative. Shouldn’t she have been able to do SOMETHING in the face of this? And, yeah, watching it the first time I said “Oh. Chest wound. She’s going to live. No problem.” And, then Ward went over and shot a couple of more times.
As the scene unfolded, I was thinking that Hand egging Ward on was another loyalty test, except for the obvious point that she and the uniformed guards should have been just a tad quicker on the trigger.
As for the triple tap, that seemed like the showrunners telegraphing to the audience: " Whichever direction you think this is going, this ain’t some pre-arranged deal to fake out Garrett."
The wife and I saw the movie today and enjoyed it. I just wanted to point out that at the end, when Nick Fury is grabbing some documents out of that attache case or whatever it was, presumably for use on his travels, the one on top was clearly a Thai work permit for foreigners. That got a chuckle out of the audience here in Bangkok. I’m guessing he’ll be an English teacher cum bar bum in Pattaya. That’s the place for him to be anyway if he wants to keep tabs on half the world’s bad guys.
