There are also a lot of question marks surrounding Ward, especially after the final two episodes. What was important to accomplish with him toward the end of the season?
MT: We wanted to represent, in our characters, the different voices factions of our audience would have. Fitz still believes that Ward has been conditioned to be this way, and that’s definitely an opinion some of our audience has. We want to play the question of, Is he redeemable? There’s still glimpses of Ward where you feel there’s more going on with him being a bad guy. And, of course, we show in Episode 21 the conditioning. But we have yet to see what Garrett pulled him out of. We saw glimpses of his family life in Episode 7, but we still don’t know how dire or how toxic that was.
JW: We saw in the finale it was a little bit of one step at a time with helping Garrett and now that they reached the finish line, he was looking to Garrett for answers and Garrett’s not giving them to him, which emotionally affected Ward. For the first time he’s lost, and how that will play out in Season 2 is one of the things we’re excited to explore.
MT: In a way, there’s a nice parallel between Agent Ward and Agent Coulson, two men who’ve sort of been stripped of everything they’ve believed in and are left with nothing — all of them, collectively, are searching for their purpose. What is the purpose of S.H.I.E.L.D.? How will they define themselves now? Now that Garrett is gone, what does that mean for Ward? Will he come to something on his own? That is something we hope to explore in Season 2.
JW: With success.
MT: We wanted to represent, in our characters, the different voices factions of our audience would have. Fitz still believes that Ward has been conditioned to be this way, and that’s definitely an opinion some of our audience has. We want to play the question of, Is he redeemable? There’s still glimpses of Ward where you feel there’s more going on with him being a bad guy. And, of course, we show in Episode 21 the conditioning. But we have yet to see what Garrett pulled him out of. We saw glimpses of his family life in Episode 7, but we still don’t know how dire or how toxic that was.
JW: We saw in the finale it was a little bit of one step at a time with helping Garrett and now that they reached the finish line, he was looking to Garrett for answers and Garrett’s not giving them to him, which emotionally affected Ward. For the first time he’s lost, and how that will play out in Season 2 is one of the things we’re excited to explore.
MT: In a way, there’s a nice parallel between Agent Ward and Agent Coulson, two men who’ve sort of been stripped of everything they’ve believed in and are left with nothing — all of them, collectively, are searching for their purpose. What is the purpose of S.H.I.E.L.D.? How will they define themselves now? Now that Garrett is gone, what does that mean for Ward? Will he come to something on his own? That is something we hope to explore in Season 2.
JW: With success.
Source:
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After what he said to Skye and May last night (which was so gross, please apologize for that when trying to redeem yourself next season), I'm 100% convinced now that Ward was sexually abused too at some point in his life. Not sure by who, but it happened.
ReplyDeleteYay at Trip being around next season, I really like his character esp as he has a Howling Commando connection.
ReplyDeleteHey guys just started watching this show and I love it, that finale was one of the most entertaining one hour eps of telly I've seen in a long time.
ReplyDeleteSo as someone who's just started watching, at the end when we meet Sky's father are they hinting at a Marvel villain we haven't seen yet or is that a previous villain from earlier on in the season that I missed or is it someone just completely new? I read the interview above and I know they couldn't say anything but I just thought someone might have a theory.
Thanks.
Re Skye's father, its someone we haven't meet yet, they may be from the comics but we don't know yet. Lots of people are wondering if Skye/her parents are Inhumans, some are wondering if they are Kree. Hopefully the mystery will be solved in S2.
ReplyDeleteOk cool, thanks. I have to catch up on the eps.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I stuck to the show. I almost bailed it in the first couple of episodes, but it was all worth it. The second half of the seasons was amazing and it left me on the edge of my seat many times. Can't wait for season 2.
ReplyDeleteOh you should, especially after seeing the finale even the 'slow' earlier episodes have greater importance now.
ReplyDeleteI suspected this is how it would play out, when I started with it. I couldn't believe how quick some people forgot how Whedon likes to start things slow.
ReplyDeletePeople certainly can get the way Ward is acting in them much, much more.
ReplyDeleteyeah its really unnerving when you realise the nice team bonding moments he has with FitzSimmons are just him getting deeper into the team. We trusted you Ward!
ReplyDeleteYou can't expect to have all the action in the first episode. I hope people get caught up during the summer because this show is fantastic and it deserves more viewers.
ReplyDeleteSounds good, have to say I love the whole Fitz Simmons dynamic. Do they have any particular eps focused on them or where we learn about their past that I could watch first?
ReplyDeleteWell where I live they show it real late at night unfortunately but now that I'm into it I'm going to get caught up via Internet.
ReplyDeleteNo one "started slow". The show was quite poor at the beginning, and its gradual development into something good doesn't change the early rust.
ReplyDeletei'm glad they're keeping him too. i liked him. he fit well with the team. and he is pretty goodlooking.
ReplyDeleteso Ward will be the villain in season 2 ??? i hate that
ReplyDeleteSome classic Whedon-esque amusing touches in the finale like the robo-cop regenerating Bill Paxton character at the end when he claims they should have cut his head off, just before Coulson casually blows him to smithereens,
ReplyDeleteEpisode 01x06 ' F.Z.Z.T.' is a must, another heartbreaking moment between FitzSimmons. 01X07 'The Hub' has Fitz out in the field with Ward, whilst Simmons does everything she can to make sure Fitz is ok. 01x12 'Seeds' has them going back to SHIELD Academy where they met and you find out a bit about their time there.
ReplyDeleteThe early rust as you call it might have been an intentional early strategy, mixing more traditional cop procedural and less science fiction fantasy to grab a wider spectrum of viewers who aren't normally drawn to comic book driven fantasy, Airing against one of televisions top procedural dramas, NCIS, is a tough challenge, Science fiction/fantasy is an especially ratings challenged genre for the big 4 networks after these shows typically premier huge and then drop hard.
ReplyDeleteI hate trip...I knew he would replace Ward.
ReplyDeleteI am addicted to this show, I am excited for season 2!
ReplyDeletei sooo can't stand ward... please kill his character off
ReplyDeleteso SHIELD will be pretty much black ops and attack HYDRA without knowing they are coming.....at some point SHIELD would need to official again
ReplyDeleteI hope we get a Trip-centric episode early next season. I feel like we got to know everybody else early in the season, but by the time he came along, there was so much going on that his character development fell by the wayside. That's why, even though he has his moments, I don't really feel a connection with the character yet. I'd like his personality and motivations to be fleshed out more.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly how I feel, so glad I didn't bail on the show. The first few episodes were too Scoob-Do ish procedural, but as the season progressed the characters and team dynamic became better and better and the serialized elements were fleshed out more. Then episodes 16/17 happened and AoS simply hit the ground running and never looked back.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah I hope we do as well. They have mentioned that AoS and Agent Carter may link together story wise so I wonder if Trip's Howling Commando grandfather will turn up in Agent Carter and then we get to find out more about Trip in AoS. I will admit right now a lot of my love for the character is purely shallow (boy he has a great smile!) but I want to know how he feels about Garrett's betrayal and how he fits in with people like May, Coulson and Skye.
ReplyDeleteI really disliked the show in the beginning 4 episodes. But I am so glad I stick with the show. It improved tremendously post Cap 2 and the characters improved a lot. By the end of this season they really felt like a solid team.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we'll get an origin story for Grandpa Trip's awesome bag of old-school gadgets. :) I saw a Facebook comment that claimed that we actually saw the grandfather in Cap 1 as one of the soldiers who went to battle with Cap, if so that's another awesome link between AoS and the MCU.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah the Howling Commandos were in Cap 1, most people tend to think Trip's grandfather is Gabe Jones, would be great to see him again. Make it so Marvel/ABC!
ReplyDelete