Sleuth-work went seriously south on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 1, episode 21! Check out our full recap, and tell us your thoughts on “Ragtag.”
Here is what went down on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 1, episode 21:
Pulling strings
As a juvenile delinquent, young Grant Ward is visited by John Garrett. Garrett is interested in the skills exhibited by Grant’s crime – arson of his family home – and offers to free him and teach him how to be a man.
“No one will ever screw with you again,” Garrett promises, and Grant agrees to the man’s proposition.
Giddyup
In the motel, Coulson starts a powwow after Skye and FitzSimmons watch a news report of Deathlok killing a Colombian druglord. Coulson identifies the link between all of their season one troubles is Cybertek, which is controlled by Garrett.
The good news is that Skye put a “Trojan horse” on the unlocked hard drive that will track every move that Garrett and company make! The bad news is that Skye needs to plug in a maguffin USB drive into a Cybertek computer to make it work, because all Cybertek computers will be connected to Garrett’s mainframe.
Or something.
Trespassers
On the Bus, Garrett tells Ward that Deathlok’s killing of the druglord was an intentional spectacle. Ward is moody, but Garrett is on cloud nine – he is close to “something I’ve been chasing for 25 years,” he says.
His excitement mushrooms when Raina (in FitzSimmons’ lab!) reports that they are close to replicating the GH325 serum.
Old is new again
As the team has no spy tech, Trip brings over his grandfather’s Howling Commando stuff from the 1940’s. He and Coulson geek out over the goodies, which included an EMP disguised as a hand buzzer, and laser cigarettes.
Coulson and May interview at Cybertek so Skye can search for their mainframe. She finds no electronic response, and sends Coulson and May to the super-reinforced fourth floor which, she assumes, must house the mainframe. But when they arrive, there is no mainframe.
Everything is – gasp! – on paper.
Paper trail
May finds Peterson’s file in a larger section on Deathlok. The paperwork goes back years, and leads to Garrett – it turns out that Garrett, previously seen as a cyborg, was the original Deathlok.
Coulson dumps files out the window, and then he and May zipline out like total bosses.
Victims
Deathlok confronts Raina, who insists she is “following orders,” though not implanted with an Eye-Spy device. She says that she stays with HYDRA because she is waiting for “what’s inside” Deathlok and others like him to “be revealed.”
On the same note, Raina says that she and Skye have something in common.
Meanwhile, Ward argues with Garrett over letting Deathlok heart-attack him. Garrett is annoyed with Ward, and yells that after all these years, he is still playing the victim.
Then Garrett nearly collapses; Ward, instantly concerned, reboots his mechanics. But Garrett reveals that his human organs are failing – he has about a month to live.
Yeah, that’s like, terrible.
The fire inside
At the motel, the team realizes that Garrett started Cybertek for himself. Obviously, this is also the primary reason he wants the GH325.
Fitz irritates everyone by insisting that Ward is the victim. Skye says she wishes she had let Ward die, and storms off.
May brings Skye food in her room, saying that Fitz needs to believe Ward is okay for now. Skye thinks May is a “statue” who feels no anger at Ward, but May admits she is furious. However, she refuses to waste her anger on “a tantrum.”
When they find Ward, May promises, she will use her rage to take him down.
Coulson comes in and says that they found the Cybertek base in Havana. ¡Vamonos!
Monsters
After chatting with Ian Quinn, “the new face of Cybertek,” Ward goes below to the barbershop/lair to answer a message from Raina.
Raina is disappointed that Garrett is not interested in “transformation,” just immortality. Because of this, she tells only Ward that she has connected Skye’s DNA to “someone she heard about years ago.”
Raina has also the heard stories of a village in China, slaughtered by “monsters.” Only one baby girl survived. The girl’s parents were not killed, she says. “They were the monsters.”
Ward keeps this to himself as Raina gives Garrett the only vial of almost-GH325 to keep with him on the Bus.
History lesson, I
After rescuing him from prison, Garrett leaves young Grant to survive on his own (or not, whatever) in the wilderness. He leaves him nothing but his dog, Buddy.
Grant and Buddy survive, which pleases Garrett when he returns six month later. He teaches Grant how to shoot. As time goes by, Garrett initiates his protege into HYDRA, which he himself joined as revenge against S.H.I.E.L.D.
“HYDRA,” he says, “Understands the importance of survival.”
Splitting up is a good idea
In Havana, Team Coulson splits up – FitzSimmons track the Bus as Coulson, May, Skye, and Trip stake out the barbershop/lair. Trip gives Fitz a homing beacon-walky talky and a fistbump.
“Do not engage under any circumstances,” Coulson warns FitzSimmons.
Upon realizing that the base is cleared out, Coulson, May, Skye, and Trip sneak in, hoping to plug in the macguffin-USB and activate the Trojan Horse.
Priorities
Of course, Fitz and Simmons DO find the Bus – on an airstrip three hours away from the barbershop-lair. They plan to send one of the D.W.A.R.V.E.S. onto the Bus before leaving, but Ward interrupts their plans.
“Long time no see,” he says.
Once on the Bus, Fitz is spitting fire and sets off his buzzer-EMP, which completely mucks up Garrett’s functions. Ward freaks out as Fitz tries to find his friend inside the HYDRA agent, but he and Simmons are dragged away.
As he gasps for breath, Garrett prioritizes the situation, and orders Ward to “Take care of Fitz and Simmons.”
Because killing flimsy scientists is definitely what’s important now.
History lesson, II
Back in the woods, Garrett prepares Grant to enter S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy undercover. The only thing left for him to do is kill Buddy, because again, another very sensible request.
Ward cannot shoot his canine companion point-blank, but someone snipes Buddy as he lopes away.
Weakness
FitzSimmons evade their guards and race through the Bus. Just as Ward finds them, they lock themselves inside Skye’s portable medical-pod. Fitz continues to try and reason with Ward, insisting that he still cares about them.
Ultimately, Ward agrees. “It’s a weakness,” he says, and as FitzSimmons beg for a sliver of mercy from the man they called a friend, he ejects the pod into the ocean.
Seen it all
After warning Garrett that this is the only GH325 she will be able to make, Raina injects it into Garrett. Ward arrives and nods that the job of murdering his two defenseless friends is done.
Suddenly Garrett seizes, a turning fiery, Extremis-style red. When the fit passes, his eyes are glassy and filled with saw. “I see the Universe,” he says.
Gotcha
Down in the abandoned HYDRA lair, Team Coulson is blissfully unaware of the multitude of catastrophes which have befallen their team.
But just as they hone in on what they need, the lights go out. HYDRA soldiers appear – one of whom is armed with the Berkserker Staff.
Also…
In Washington DC, Ian Quinn pitches the Army on super soldiers, and invites them to tour the new, totally awesome Cybertek facility.