And now we are getting to the penultimate episode of
this season of “Agents” – sorry about the last week’s confusion. In this
thrilling new episode, we learn about the back history of Garret and Ward:
Garret rescued Ward from the juvenile hall, where Ward was incarcerated for the
attempted arson of his family home, complete with his elder brother still
inside (first time that we hear about him). Ward was going to go to jail
(juvenile or adult), but Garret escaped with him to the swamps of Louisiana or
the wild woods of Texas, abandoned him with Buddy the dog, and there young Ward
met skunk ape...or not, we never see that happen.
What we do see, however, is Ward growing up into the emotionally
challenged robot that we have seen from the beginning, as well as a crack shot.
And ‘robot’ here is a clever allegory towards agent Garret’s own trip towards
cybernetics: he is a cyborg, built in part by Cybertek, and the whole plot line
of Project Centipede and beyond had occurred because he was dying, he was
searching for ways to cheat death (lord Voldemort says hi back in England and
sends over some fish and chips) and he has maybe figured out a way to do it
through S.H.I.E.L.D., Skye and Coulson.
We also learn that Garret has turned onto S.H.I.E.L.D.
because he assumed that the latter had abandoned him first – and for now we
have to work with that, because Whedon and co. haven’t revealed anything more
yet.
Back to the present. Hydra (well, at least the cell that
Garret is running) is leaving Havana and going back to the States to have Quinn
sell the US government (or at least its’ military and navy) super-soldiers,
build on the Centipede’s design. This cannot be good, but at least the military
forces will have an alternative to the Sentinels that will go after the mutants
on X-Men: Days of Future Past on May 23, 2014.
What is worse is that Ward had cornered Fitz and Simmons
into a box on the Helicarier and then dropped the whole ensemble into the ocean
to drown. That is terrible, and one seriously hopes that the duo will be
rescued by some passing-by mermaids, or Atlanteans, or alien dolphins, who will
be absolutely thrilled by the duo’s Scott and British accents, but-
Here is the thing. When Fitz and Simmons got inside the
Helicarier, Fitz activated a Howling commando EMP, causing Garret to short-circuit
(again, for he has already done this in the same episode). Garret is evil and
Fitz is good, but in history, in the 19th century, there had been
idealistic young people, who killed older people, people in charge, for greater
good or some idealistic and unrealistic goals – for example, to bring Ward back
to the white hat side. Such people were called anarchists, and they were the
direct forerunners of the terrorists of the modern day and age, including
people who gave America the 7/11 catastrophe. Consequently, one can hope that
Fitz & Simmons will survive until the season’s finale at least (though it
is just one episode away), but one has to admit that Fitz & Simmons started
the walk on the path (well, Fitz did, Simmons just went along) that brought
them to a metal box in the Atlantic Ocean willingly and by themselves.
On the other hand, we got the rest of the team. Their
infiltration of Cybertek was part-Cold War and part over the top. Coulson
(Clark Gregg) in glasses was just wrong, it did not work, just did not. May
(Ming-Na Wen), on the other hand, does, and what’s more, she has begun to bond
with Skye over the whole “angry with Ward” situation. This is good for both of
them. Considering, on the other hand, that this episode left them (alongside Coulson
and Tripplet) trapped in a basement in a Havana barbershop (and the barber is
probably in on it) with a force of Hydra’s/Centipede’s super-soldiers set
against them, this offer may not amount to anything in the future – they have
to survive first.
One more thing. Just like last week’s episode, “Ragtag”
began on a relatively light note – the whole infiltration of Cybertek, Coulson and
May pretending to be lab scientists and not quite succeeding at it even with
Fitz & Simmons’ guidance – but ended with heavy drama: Fitz & Simmons
dumped into the Atlantic, Quinn making his sales pitch, Garret evolving into
what may be his ultimate, final form-
Oh yes, that. Raina is clearly becoming less and less
enchanted about working with Garret now that he is no longer the Clairvoyant.
(Of course, whether he was him from the start is another question.)
Consequently she has begun to subtly manipulate Ward into causing a rift
between him and Garret, and maybe create some chaos in general – who knows? Her
driving force is to witness change in people, especially on the inside: one can
just picture her with a scalpel in style of Dr. Mengele, skinning and slicing
her latest subject...and thanks to Fitz’s improvisation plan with the EMP that
was agent Garret, who became rather worried and suspicious of Raina himself.
So: the bad guys seem to be winning on all fronts, Fitz
& Simmons may be gone for good, the rest of the titular team is little
better off, and we’re down to season’s last episode next week. One can hardly
wait for the thrilling conclusion!
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