Agents of SHIELD - Episode 1.17 - Turn, Turn, Turn - Postmortem Interviews
9 Apr 2014
Agents of SHIELDJeffrey Bell and Jeph Loeb's Interview with TV Guide
Jeffrey Bell and Jeph Loeb's Interview with EW
Brett Dalton's Interview with Marvel.com
Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen's Interview with THR
Oh poor Brett thought he was getting killed off! I think its good he didn't know made his moments with the team much more genuine. Like what Benn and Loeb say about all his past actions though like saving Simmons was it just an act to get them to trust him? Ouch!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it certainly changes his motives when you look back at all of his actions.
ReplyDeleteIt makes him really creepy and calculating, I'm definitely going to rewatch some key episodes.
ReplyDeleteI don't think he was HYDRA the whole time. I think he decided to turn on the plane and follow his old mentor
ReplyDeleteSo Garrett IS the Clairvoyant! Hopefully this means Paxton will stay on full time as a villain of the show. I think Ward is a straight up HYDRA agent, no triple agent, but I think theres definitely a shadow of guilt over betraying the team... That's what I think the last look between Ward and Coulson was... Coulson thinking Ward's got the situation on lock, and Ward knowing he's going to turn his back on the team.
ReplyDelete"Ward had put Garrett on this plane for a reason, and so he had to come
ReplyDeletein and be accepted to this team. And so if you’d look at how he related
to everyone — Coulson loves projects. Here is a guy who didn’t have
people skills. So Garrett says, can you help this guy Ward round off
some of the rough edges? So he comes onto the team. Coulson is now
vested, because he’s got a project. Who is Ward’s greatest threat? May.
What does he do? He seduces her. Who is the one unknown on the team?
Skye. He becomes her S.O. How do you get everyone rally around and trust
you? You jump out of a plan trying to save someone else. Now, he had a
parachute. Let’s say he failed to save Simmons, he would’ve been fine.
Everything he’s done has solidified how people feel about him over the
course of the season."
Oh, that's sneaky... Such a great spin on it, especially the reminder that Ward had the best espionage skills since Romanoff. I admit I didn't care about him before, but I've gained a whole new respect for the character. It's certainly a change from the Skye/Ward/May drama and the Skye/Ward 'will they/won't they'.
Ward is a part of Coulson's team. That look was 'let's do this' -- Ward's going to infiltrate hydra. Tit for tat, turn for turn. Really surprised more people aren't pinging onto that. I'll hang up my TV watching creds if it comes out any different...
ReplyDeleteDid you read the interviews? The showrunners said that Ward did what he did tp get on the good side of the team as a cover and that he is like Garrett in thinking that his actions arent villainous. Also, most people didn't think Ward was the traitor in the first place, so.....
ReplyDeleteAside from the fact that it was MAY who seduced Ward, I thought this was an interesting way to go as well! He ingratiated himself with the team, made himself indispensable, but that has repercussions because the emotional bond between the team remains. To see it play out should be interesting.
ReplyDeleteGood, ok, now we know that Ward is 100% evil. I was really afraid they were going to make him the good guy. He is much more interesting as Hydra.
ReplyDeleteI think he must have been working with Garrett for a while. Lots of things point that way:
ReplyDelete-Garrett letting him know "Hand is the Clarivoint" *wink-wink*
-His attitude with May in the holding cell
-He used the icer after he left the Skye in the closet, but when he was pinned down he saw the knife. I assume that was meant to show us he had no problem taking lives.
I wonder if all the Hydra agents knew the other sleepers. It's possible Garrett did not know or was not sure if Ward was a sleeper. Maybe Ward was unsure if May was a sleeper as well, hence he asked her to elaborate.
Really cool episode. Fitz breaks my heart in the fight scene.
I didn't, but I just did after your comment and...if this plays out like those comments seem to suggest, I'm going to be tuning out. One thing I've always liked about Whedon's shows is that he doesn't make any character irredeemable...they always have reasons for going rogue and bad guys always get a chance to be better. This seems like a kick in the head. Get to know a character, get attached to them, then turn them into a bad guy. Count me out, not a fan. So, if Hand truly is dead and Ward truly is a Hydra agent the show just lost me completely. Ward was my favorite character next to Coulson and May.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but was it really May who seduced Ward? The interview makes it sound like it was the other way around. When you think about it, a lot happened off-screen. In 1x08 all we saw was the exchange of looks before May left the door open, and that's too subtle to be considered seduction, isn't it? Before that, there was nothing to imply that May was attracted to Ward, so it all comes down to the unspoken invitation - whether she intended to have sex with him the moment she walked into her room. Just like Skye said she had only offered to talk, not have sex with him, May could have had only a drink and keeping him company in mind, not necessarily followed by sex. It's a little vague who took the first step.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the point is - if Ward intended to seduce May to throw her off her game, that's definitely a Black Widow-style spy move, so I prefer to see it that way. Romanoff can make her marks think they're in control, while in reality she's the one using their emotions against them. So perhaps Grant tried to make Melinda believe he was emotionally invested, when she was the one being played.
I need to re-watch everything now, it will be even more fun!
Well, in the episode, May walked past Ward, gave him The Look, and purposefully left her hotel door open. Ward paused for a few seconds and followed. I don't see how he could have seduced her if SHE initiated contact. Maybe they mean he played it so that she started to develop feelings for him, feelings that might have blinded her. That's why I was confused by that interview, because they seemed to be rescinding their own canon, which is weird.
ReplyDeleteI had suspected for quite a few episodes that Ward was the spy, so I was used to the idea of him being the betrayer. Him being HYDRA changes the dynamics between the characters, and brings up a lot of really interesting plot points to explore. Frankly, I've never found Ward more interesting than I do after this reveal!
ReplyDeleteI really hope Hand isn't dead though, she deserves so much better treatment.
I think he was born into a family with deep HYDRA roots. Kind of like how families instill religious affiliations or practices, Ward might have been taught from an early age to drink the koolaid HYDRA poured for him. Maybe he grew up to be HYDRA because that's the only thing he's ever know? Its allretty interesting, I wish I could interview Brett, Jed, Maurissa and Jeph myself about it!
ReplyDeleteI still don't see it. I am hoping the interviews are more double blinds. It just doesn't wash. It was all set up too pat. Sending Ward off, the look between Ward and Coulson, Hand starting that conversation... I just don't buy that Ward is a true Hydra agent and not a plant to garner intel for Coulson and Hand. I'd almost believe it more if they hadn't had him kill Hand. I really don't see them killing off her character. Wouldn't be the first time interviews were misleading to hide yet more twists...hoping I'm not wrong because otherwise it'd take replacing Ward with someone I want to watch in his place. Just a lot of emotional things in the last episode with Ward that doesn't ring true to him being a traitor.
ReplyDeleteReally? Even after the heavy-handedness of Ward's "I killed him ~for you" speech? Basically all of last episode was a confirmation of Ward's sketchiness.
ReplyDeleteAgreed; and Garrett was the one who Agent Triplett about Ward coming from a big shot families. Garrett would know, huh?
ReplyDeleteI'm really lost here.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to think that Ward is still a good guy because it wouldn't be fair to let us know him et appreciate him over the season to finally make him the bad guy ! Plus there is the all thing with skye... it would be very weird !
But in the last scene he shot the men in the head (for Hand we didn't see so she might be alive is its all fake), he wouldn't have shot them in the head if he was part of the good guys ! Because there is no way he would have kill them for real or no way they would survive this.
Sooo i think he really is a HYDRA agent and I don't like this conclusion :(
I think he is under some kind of mind control. The producers have alluded to what Hydra did to the winter soldier and when they were talking about scenes that were clues looking back they said that the scene with Skye and Ward in front of the Shield memorial wall was relevant. They said to look at what she says and she touches the memorial and points out Bucky Barnes name. With the weird fuzzy effects when Ward was listening to Garrett drone on about his exploits at the end of episode 17 and then that look I really think its going to turn out that way. I really hope they aren't just feeding us stuff to mess with our heads because I want Ward back on the bus by the end of the season.
ReplyDeleteAwesome show though either way. Its a real testament to the quality of the writing that if you watch episode 17 more than once (and I have) you come out with different views about what's going on and are second guessing every word and look.
Make Ward be one of the big bad guys was a brilliant move. Congrats for AoS to have the balls for this!
ReplyDeleteAnd then i remember: This is a Joss Whedon show. Always expect the unexpected.
ReplyDeleteI'm okay with Ward as a bad guy (Brett playing evil is pretty exciting and scary). I'm okay with Ward as a good guy. I'm okay with Ward as a conflicted, morally grey, somewhere-in-between guy. But I swear to whatever god-like deity that exists in the Marvel Universe, if they have Ward be the villain only for him to see the light and be redeemed through the love of Skye's pure heart, I'm going to get on a plane and pay a not-at-all-friendly visit to Casa Whedon. You heard it here first.
ReplyDeleteWard is my favorite character too, but I like this turn.
ReplyDeleteSee, I don't find him irredeemable, I think he joined Hydra for a reason (family history, who knows how bad it was for him? I believe Garrett manipulated him into believing that Hydra's way of dealing with bad guys is the only way). Of course killing two guards and agent Hand is very extreme, but I thin we're looking and years and years of conditioning. That's hard to break out of.
Let's see how it really progresses from here on, but I'm sticking with Ward for now. :)
Before that, there was nothing to imply that May was attracted to Ward
ReplyDeleteHa! But there was! Maybe not attraction, but him goading her for sure. Right after all the fighting, he came up to her and asked her how she was able to "hold all three". He let her help him, and then acknowledged her superiority. Played right into her uber-fighter instinct, let her be the better one of the two of them. And she fell for that ruse.
And then, we all wondered how he could be so stoic, despite the Berserker rage, when the strongest of them all, May, was showing cracks. sheesh.