And so the game changes…

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR BOTH CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER AND MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. IF YOU ARE NOT CAUGHT UP WITH BOTH OF THESE, I WOULD SUGGEST READING SOMETHING ELSE, PERHAPS ‘THE LITTLEST ELF’.

What happens now??? That is the question fans were left wondering this weekend after seeing the new Captain America movie. What does this mean?? I’m referring of course to the big twist of the movie that S.H.I.E.L.D. had secretly been infiltrated by HYDRA from its inception. Of course this is certain to affect the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole, but my biggest question was, what does this do to the television show that has “S.H.I.E.L.D.” right in the title?

Well that was certainly answered in a big way in the most recent episode. Up until now the show has mainly been about introducing us to the team and letting us get to know them, with the recurring arc of “The Clairvoyant” repeatedly messing things up for them. The episodes were good, but they were mostly just wacky adventures with some fun characters. Until now.

The episode began innocently enough, with Agent Garrett’s plane being attacked by S.H.I.E.L.D. drones (which given the events of The Winter Soldier, was only to be expected). And because Agent Hand at S.H.I.E.L.D. spoke last week of wanting to kill our heroes, we are to assume she’s either “The Clairvoyant” herself or is working for him/her. (It’s a natural conclusion to come to, as evidenced by Coulson, but personally, I didn’t buy it. Later when it was revealed that she was one of the good guys, I wasn’t too surprised. But I digress.)

One of the things that this episode did really well was that it made us question whom we could really trust, if anyone. All of the moments with Agent Triplett and Simmons were great and really made me think he was going to kill her. Hand certainly played up the possibility that she had turned to HYDRA. However, of all the people I didn’t trust, there was no reason for me to fear Agent Garrett. I really liked Garrett. He was fun and amusing. But of course that is an effective bit of misdirection because as we learned, he is “The Clairvoyant.” I should have seen it coming, and yet I didn’t. Still bigger surprises were to come.

Following the team splitting up to rescue Simmons and figure out just what the hell was going on, Ward and Skye had a “talk”. I’m sure this will be one of those moments that is loved by Ward/Skye shippers and bashed by everyone else, but given the way they had been dancing around one another the whole season, I can’t really say it’s a shock. Personally I’m gonna hold off judgment on that until we see where the rest of this season is going.

Which brings me to the biggest twist of the episode. Garrett was in custody of Hand, Ward, and a few other agents being transported to the Fridge on a plane. Mid-flight however, Agent Hand offers Ward a chance to kill the real “Clairvoyant” to make up for his mistake last week. So Ward stands up, raises his gun, and kills the other agents followed by Hand.

Now many people argue that the shows first batch of episodes weren’t exciting enough or that they were too standalone. But I say those episodes were necessary. Without that introduction to who these characters are, there is no way this twist would have had the same effect. What does this mean for the rest of the team? Is Ward part of HYDRA? There is some speculation that he’s taking matters into his own hands and being a “Fixer”. On the one hand, that would be a good way to take Garrett down by gaining his trust. Plus upon second viewing I noticed that before Ward got on the plane, he and Coulson exchanged a look. Perhaps this was silent communication between the two. On the other hand I’m not sure it’s entirely plausible. Would he really kill Hand in order to do that? Then again, maybe she isn’t really dead. Marvel certainly plays up the dead characters not really being dead thing, so that’s a possibility. But I don’t know, she certainly looked pretty dead to me. Even if this was Ward following an order from Coulson, there is no way that Coulson would be ok with him killing Hand. Whatever the case may be, this is sure to have very big fallout for the rest of the team.

Fans of Marvel, will certainly be glad for the coming episodes inclusion of Director Fury and Agent Maria Hill. It will be the first time we’ve seen them since the fallout of “The Winter Soldier”, so that should be interesting, and I know I will look forward to watching the rest of this season play out. As for what will happen, I can only guess, but it is certain to be exciting.