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“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” recap (1.21): A Weakness

Previously on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Ward revealed that he is Hydra scum, Skye had the chance to let Ward die but showed mercy, and Team Coulson was forced to go rogue now that they’re Agents of Nothing.

We open in a flashback, where we see Ward, 15 years and a few battle wounds younger. Garrett shows up at the juvenile detention center Ward is in (for setting his house on fire with his brother still in it like some kind of Alison DiLaurentis) and says that he can get him out. He’s part of a secret organization that’s looking for young, angry, corruptible boys. Ward agrees to join him and Garrett starts singing “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” as a bunch of agents swoop in to break him out.

Present-day, Mike is making a scene in a foreign country, killing a well-known drug lord on command. FitzSimmons and Skye are watching this on the news, taking notes and trying to figure out what Hydra is up to. Coulson and May call the kids into the other room to talk out what they know so far. And what they know is that Cybertek is at the center of it all. Luckily, Skye left a Trojan Horse on the hard drive Ward has, so she’ll be able to access anything they access. FitzSimmons are super impressed. Unluckily, Skye didn’t have a chance to make it wireless, so they have to plug in a USB drive to one of their computers. Coulson reminds them all that they’re still Agents of Nothing, that they aren’t acting under orders anymore. Fitz excitedly calls them vigilantes and they make a plan to get to a Hydra computer.

On the stolen Bus, Garrett is thrilled that Mike’s mission was successful. So thrilled, he orders an unseen force to give Mike a livestream of his son later today as a reward. Garrett skips into the room where the Girl in the Flower Dress is working, and she tells him she’s close to replicating the Jesus Juice, which just makes his day even better.

Back at the motel, Fitz wonders aloud if Ward is really evil. Fitz doesn’t think he was born that way, though. He can’t believe it. Tripp interrupts the argument by arriving with an old-fashioned suitcase laden with his grandfather’s hold Howling Commando spy gear. Within a one-minute span, Coulson geeks out, Skye blows out all the lights, and Fitz accidentally lights the curtains on fire. May takes a look at this ragtag bunch of misfits and says, “Watch out, Hydra.” Flash back to a newly-freed baby Ward being taken deep into the woods by Garrett. Garrett gives Ward a healthy dose of tough love in the name of teaching independence, then leaves him alone with a dog in the woods. He says he’ll be back in “a few” months and Ward is not pleased.

The Agents of Nothing assemble to try to get into one of Cybertek’s facilities by dressing Coulson and May up like FitzSimmons. Fitz and Simmons are feeding Coulson and May info through little pins, and Fitz is having second thought about sending the grown ups in their stead. Simmons says May doesn’t look a day over thirty and shouts, “You’re gorgeous!” into the walkie talkie.

Coulson and May go into a meeting with some Cybertek reps and start spouting out the info FitzSimmons gives them about the ice bullet, complete with a dash of Fitz’s accent and a pinch of Simmons’ digs. The Cybertek reps are not impressed and send the two agents on their way. Skye asks them to try to get to the 4th floor before they get escorted out, so they knock out their handler in the elevator and get off at four.

When they step into the hallway, they see a man eyeing a red emergency phone, so May acrobats her way down the hall to stop him and kick his ass, all without losing her glasses. When Coulson and May enter the record room, they figure out why Skye couldn’t find the mainframe on her scanner. The files are all hard copies. Proof Cybertek is evil, albeit evil genius.

At the Hydra lair, Mike approaches Raina and asks why she’s helping Hydra. He has no choice, she does. She says really cryptic things like that she’s “waiting for what’s inside to be revealed” and that she thinks her and Skye have “something in common” so I’m really hoping Skye’s inner superpowers are going to be revealed. And/or her lesbianism.

Coulson and May dig through old files and find out that Deathlok is older than they thought, and that Garrett was the first. Coulson radios down to Skye that she should get ready for a large file transfer, and then in a moment of Whedon-y goodness, a filing cabinet comes rocketing out of the window. Triplett shoots a grappler up to the window and Coulson and May zipline down like the badasses they are.

At Hydra HQ, Ward is still pouting that Garrett let Mike let Skye almost maybe kill him. Before Garrett can finish telling him to get over it, he doubles over in pain. His Deathlok is acting up, so the shuffle Raina Flowers out of the room and plug him in to recharge.

Team Coulson figures out, from the stolen files, that Garrett was Deathlok patient zero, and that he must want the zombie juice for himself. Suddenly Fitz’s ears perk up like a puppy who heard the word “treat”. Maybe Ward has some Deathlok in him! Maybe he’s being controlled like Mike! Maybe he’s not betraying his friends of his own free will!

Skye pinky-promises that he is a cold-hearted snake and that she should have killed him when she had the chance.

She scolds herself for her weakness, but Coulson says it wasn’t weakness, but compassion, which is a harder thing to show. It’s easy to let a man die by staying silent, out of spite or revenge. It’s harder to speak up and let your enemy live because every human life has value.

Skye takes this notion into her motel room and is moping when May brings her in a soda. Skye asks her if she thinks Fitz is right, that Ward is being controlled. May doesn’t, which comes as a relief to Skye, because she doesn’t either. Skye tells May that she wishes she could shut off her feelings like she does, that her face didn’t show every single fleeting thought that flickered through her mind like a Times Square billboard. May tells her that just because she isn’t pouting or stomping or shouting doesn’t mean she’s not mad as hell. She takes her anger and she uses it, she channels it into fighting the good fight. Skye asks if she can teach her “hate fu” and May says she’s up every morning at the asscrack of dawn. I’m going to need to see all of those lessons, thanks.

Coulson interrupts their little bonding session to tell them to grab their things: they’re off to Cuba!

Quinn is getting his hair done at the Hydra Barber Shoppe when Garrett and Ward get there. He compliments them on causing a ruckus and takes his new ‘do off to cause trouble. After Garrett takes a seat in the chair, Ward gets a text from Raina, so he steps out to meet her. Raina has something to tell him, because she knows Garrett is only doing all this because he is afraid to die (he did, after all, tell Ward he only has two months to live because his organs are failing). Raina found something out about Skye while she was researching the alien juice. She thinks she knows where Skye came from. You see, there was once a city in China that was destroyed because some monsters were looking for a baby. Those monsters were the baby’s parents. And Raina thinks that baby was Skye.

Fourteen years and six months ago, Garrett finally comes back for Ward and his pup, Buddy. They’ve been doing just fine at their own, with pilfered tools and weapons. In fact, he’s even building a cabin. All on his own. Garrett pulls a gun out of a bag he said tacos were in (evil) and says he’s going to teach him how to shoot, and that soon he’ll be able to shoot people square in the head like it’s nothing at all.

Present-day, Raina Flowers hands over a vial to Garrett that she says is a combination of everything they’ve learned so far, and should regenerate and heal cells. He pockets it to keep safe on their mission.

The Agents of Nothing are about to split up, but first Tripp gives Fitz a quarter that is actually a sensor/locator thingy and the buzzer that Skye used to blow the lights out earlier. FitzSimmons sets off to find the Bus while the rest of them try to find Hydra Headquarters. While that team sits, confused, outside a barber shop, FitzSimmons actually successfully locates their stolen Bus. Coulson had told them not to engage, but they decide they’ll send in “Sleepy,” some sort of robot dwarf so they won’t lose track of them altogether.

But before Fitz can fetch their technology, Ward appears.

Ten years ago, Garrett meets up with Ward in the woods and tells him about how he Helena’d his way out of S.H.I.E.L.D. by duct-taping his organs into his body and stumbling for his life. He tells Ward that he works for Hydra, and that Hydra wants to recruit him.

Present-day Ward takes FitzSimmons onto the Bus and Ward catches Fitz moving for something in his pocket. When he holds out his hand, however, all that’s there is a quarter and a buzzer. Before anyone can ask what’s going on, Fitz presses the button and the EMP sends Garrett a-twitching and the lights go out.

Ward rushes to Garrett’s side and tells Raina to call Cybertek ASAP. Fitz tries to tell Ward that this is his chance to stop taking orders. With hatred in his eyes he tells Ward he deserves to die. Fitz is sweet, but he’s emotional. He doesn’t have the compassion Skye had. It’s a weakness. Ward tells everyone to get the hell out.

Flash back to Ward MURDERING A DEER. Garrett tells him that it’s time to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. and to be sure not to get too attached to anyone while he’s in there. To prove his point, he tells Ward to “take care of” Buddy. BUDDY. THE PUPPY.

Present-day Garrett is telling Ward to do the exact same thing. He tells him to “put down” Fitz and Simmons. FITZSIMMONS. THE PUPPIES. He goads him by reminding him feelings are a weakness.

After Ward goes scientist hunting, Raina opens Garrett up and finds the centipede serum inside him. He says it’s what was keeping him alive, but it’s not enough anymore. He needs the alien goo to jump start his heart.

Somewhere else on the bus, FitzSimmons tries to make a run for it, but Ward cuts them off. They run into a room and lock the door, and Ward tries to get in. Fitz tries to reason with him, tries to remind them that they were friends. But Ward starts to punch a code into the wall, and I don’t know what it’s going to do, but Fitz is sounding increasingly frantic. Ward remembers how he let Buddy go, but eventually caught him in his crosshairs. Fitz tries one last time to remind Ward that he cared about them once, and Ward quietly admits that he did, but he knows it’s a weakness.

He presses a button and the room Fitz and Simmons are in ejects from the Bus and falls into the ocean. I really hope that quarter Triplett gave Fitz has a remarkable range. I’m talking 20,000 leagues under the sea.

Ward gets back to Garrett just in time to see Raina injects the new serum into his… I don’t even know. It’s some kind of weird mini robot heart. It’s gross. He starts to convulse and glow, and when he stops again, Ward asks if he feels anything. Garrett responds that he feels the universe, which really can’t be a good thing for anyone involved.

At the Hydra Barber Shoppe, Coulson, May, Skye, and Triplett go down to a basement to find a computer with a USB port. They find a secret door, which Coulson easily opens (it’s kind of his thing) but before they can do much else, they realize that they’re not alone. They recognize the figure as a centipede soldier…and then see dozens more spring to life.

Meanwhile, Quinn is off trying to sell those very supersoldiers to the US government. Which, again, can’t be good for anyone involved.

What did you think of “Ragtag”? What are you hoping to see in next week’s season finale?

Here are some of our favorite #superqueero tweets from this week:

                 

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