Ward is back and this time with a vengeance, as he gets to know who exactly Malick truly is as he seeks down one of Baron Strucker’s hidden vaults. At the same time, Coulson is giving Rosalind a look into their base of operations, but is also forcing her hand to reveal what exactly her true motives are, as the rest of our team infiltrate the ATCU base and uncover their biggest secret.

Agent, here is a quick spoiler warning of the upcoming events. If you have not seen the episode and achieved Level 9 then be wary of the spoilers that will follow.

I will be honest, this episode truly made Ward an unforgettable villain of the franchise, as the way he handled jumping out of a plane in the middle of nowhere while charmingly telling the stewardess that she might not survive was heavy. The way he escapes Malick first attempt of killing him and then actually torturing the attackers, as well as recruiting them was quite a fascinating thing to see. He almost feels like the Marvel incarnation of The Dark Knight’s Joker, but less focus on anarchy as he has a pretty set goal of destroying SHIELD and Coulson.

This episode certainly gave us a deeper look into how exactly Coulson became a part of SHIELD and him being a history major is quite fascinating, which also explains why exactly he has such a fascination with the 1940s. We are three seasons in and Coulson is still a rather odd character, whose history is still kept a secret to us besides small flashes here and there so I really think it is about time that we get an episode that actually allows us to see what brought Coulson into SHIELD, what he uncovered and how his relationship with Nick Fury has become what it is. I find it ironic that the head of SHIELD is just as mysterious as he always is.

Still, the main focus was his fast evolving relationship with Rosalind and it was quite heartbreaking to see how far Coulson will go to protect his team/family. I actually really like their relationship and hope that it isn’t destroyed at the end of this episode, but it will be interesting to explore how this history will evolve after everything that has happened. I personally actually get the feeling after the revelation that Malick, who is the head behind the ATCU, might actually join SHIELD in the next half of the third season and I still believe that Rosalind isn’t her actual name.

So, let us talk about the massive twist that completely reinvents what we knew about HYDRA. Instead of truly just being an organization that was founded by Red Skull, but in reality has existed for a long time with the main goal to service a powerful Inhuman, who might have ties to the original Royal Family from the comics, and we might see appear in the upcoming Inhuman film. This is actually not completely made up, as some might remember that HYDRA has a deep history in the Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver comic S.H.I.E.L.D. and I absolutely love the fact that this also opens the windows to what history behind SHIELD that Coulson teased and foreshadowed in the episode.

What did you think of the episode? Leave your comments below!