Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – “Ragtag” Retrospective. Joy Buzzer.

Season 1, Episode 21

Air Date: Tuesday, May 6, 2014, 8/7c on ABC.

Rating: ★★★★★

“Watch out HYDRA; here we come.” – May

Coulson (Clark Gregg) and May (Ming-Na Wen)

Tired of running, Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his team go old school as they infiltrate Cybertek. Coulson believes Project Centipede, Garrett (Bill Paxton), HYDRA, and Deathlok (J. August Richards) are all connected through a technology company called Cybertek. But when Coulson and May (Ming-Na Wen) make it inside Cybertek, they discover the connections go deeper than they thought.

I doubt I’m the only one who’s disappointed in Ward’s (Brett Dalton) backstory, which fails to live up to the hype. Ever since Garrett’s first appearance, Ward has been singing his praises, talking about what a great mentor Garrett is to him and how he owes him everything. Dumping a young Ward (Austin Lyon) in the woods for six months while interesting, isn’t mentoring. I never felt the connection Ward implies is there. The other problem is Ward is a jerk as a teenager. When Garrett first meets him in a juvenile detention center, Garrett tells Ward about the high praise Ward’s former military school quartermaster had given him.

Garrett: “He told me about a pissed off young cadet with off-the-chart hand/eye coordination, went AWOL, stole a car, drove over a thousand miles home, only to try to burn the place down.”

Through the flashbacks going back 15 years, I was hoping to find sympathy for Ward, to understand how he could betray Coulson and the team. I wanted to see a misguided teen, a boy lacking a father figure until Garrett enteres the picture. Instead, we see a thug doing what he enjoys doing—being bad. In the end, the writers did nothing to drive the story or create any sense of emotion as to why I should care about Ward. If anything, I dislike Ward even more now. The real question is whether the writers will be able to stick to the current storyline of making Ward the bad guy. It would cheapen the betrayal if the writers have Ward suddenly help Coulson and the others, saying he’s sorry, in an effort to make things all better. Let’s not forget he killed several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, including Agent Victoria Hand (Saffron Burrows).

One of the things I have come to enjoy in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are moments when Coulson geeks out over something. We get to see that geeky side of Coulson when Agent Triplett (B.J Britt) shows the team a suitcase full of spy equipment from when his grandfather was in the Howling Commandos, an elite combat unit led by Captain America. I enjoyed seeing Coulson act like a kid in a candy store, especially given all he’s been through in the last few episodes.

Triplett (B.J Britt)

I’ve avoided writing this in my last two reviews out of fear that the moment I wrote it, Triplett would be revealed as a bad guy, but I enjoy his addition to the team. Despite having said the group feels overcrowded at times, Triplett meshes with everyone, even better than Ward did. This could be because Ward was simply using the team. A lot of the credit goes to Britt, who brings an element of sincerity to his character that I enjoy watching, especially during his scenes with Coulson.

Learning Garrett is the original Deathlok is another disappointment that fails to live up to the hype. In “Nothing Personal,” when Skye (Chloe Bennett) mentions to Coulson that Deathlok is on the plane, you could tell Coulson was suddenly worried. After all, Deathlok is a half man/half cyborg killing machine, whereas Garrett’s version is nothing more than spare parts keeping him alive. It makes for an interesting twist but I wanted to see more come from it.

“Ragtag” has many entertaining moments, especially in scenes with Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) who struggles to accept that Ward has really gone bad. I laughed as Fitz and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) argue while providing Coulson and May information through an earpiece, creating an awkward conversation on the other end.

Overall, “Ragtag” isn’t a bad episode but so much time is wasted with an irrelevant backstory about Ward, other parts of the episode feel glossed over. For instance, Raina’s (Ruth Negga) discovery about Skye’s blood and connecting her as a baby to a story Raina once heard about an incident in China where everyone in the village is killed by some kind of “monsters” that happen to be the baby’s parents. Maybe the writers are saving the reveal for the season finale but I find myself wanting to know more now. Is Skye the same baby from that story and when will we find out who, or what, Skye really is?

Tweet me @staffaroadtrip or leave a comment below to let me know what you think about “Ragtag.”

For more on the show, go to http://www.agentsofshield.com/.

Follow Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on Twitter, as well as some of the cast: <Ward> Brett Dalton, <Coulson> Clark Gregg, <Simmons> Elizabeth Henstridge, and <May> Ming-Na Wen.

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Greg Staffa

I provide testosterone to the site. You won’t be reading about how nice a actress looks in a dress or how much of a hunk Matt Bomer is in my reviews. I describe colors using words like brown, not taupe. My twitter name is @staffaroadtrip because I love road trips and have done two different 48-state road trips since 2008. My favorite show is White Collar.