TV Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ep. 21 – Ragtag
Warning Spoilers Ahead
Ward’s betrayal and HYDRA’s shocking secrets are revealed as Coulson’s team goes undercover on a mission that leaves no one unscathed.
Dipping back and forth from the present to the past, this episode’s focus is really Grant Ward’s origin story and especially his relationship with Garrett. While we see those flashbacks, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team is on the move, trying to figure out everything’s connection to one another, Cybertek, Deathlok, Garrett, Hydra, etc. It all is connected and leading to some bigger plan. With one more episode to go, it’s all attempting to wrap up and come together.
To pull that all off, Coulson and his team have to go a bit retro, using Agent Triplett’s grandfather’s Howling Commandos equipment to make it all happen. That leads to some decent moments of humor, breaking up the show from moving into too serious territory.
With all of that, we learn some interesting things about both Garrett and Skye, one answering some questions, and the other opening up a whole bunch more.
Really, the episode is about Ward and how he got to where he is, as well as where his loyalties are. The “origin” of Ward is interesting, if not predictable, and his choices at the end of the episode, seem like the easy way out, continuing his spectrum on the badness scale in the gray area.
Overall, the episode was a pretty solid one, leading us into the final episode of the season. It answered some questions, and gave us some new interesting ones to ponder as well. Much better than last week, and one of the better episodes of the season.
Writer: Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Brent Fletcher
Overall Score: 7.5
