Josh provides a recap of Season 1 Episode 18 of Agents of SHIELD, titled Providence, where Coulson and his team try to pick up the pieces after the shocking events of last episode, and Patton Oswalt guest stars! Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts on the episode.
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Episode Recap of Agents of SHIELD, Season 1 Episode 18: Providence
- Raina has returned to help Garrett research the mystery drug that brought back Coulson.
- Coulson goes on the run to avoid the US Government red-taping him as a member of SHIELD
- The team heads towards mysterious coordinates that illuminated on Coulson’s badge, believing it could be a sign from Nick Fury who still is thought to be dead.
- In the Canadian wilderness, Coulson and the team discover a secret base. Coulson learns Fury is still alive
- Ward and Garret raid the “Fridge” for its “toys”.
- Ward pays a visit to Skye in an effort to retrieve information on a hard drive that contains data about Coulson and Skye’s blood work.
- Garret frees Ian Quinn and gives him some Gravitonuium to play with.
The Flower girl, Raina, is broken out of where she is being kept by Agent Ward. Ward breaks the news that Agent Garrett is The Clairvoyant, but is not really telepathic. She is disappointed, but decides to join them whatever their mission is–which seems to be to “change the world”.
Meanwhile, Coulson tries to get the plane back to operational. They watch the news, and Skye has determined that many of SHIELD’s locations have fallen. Coulson plans to fight HYDRA. Fitz and Simmons argue, and they work on repairing the ship.
Colonel Talbot of the US Army has decided to send in a “peace keeping” force to visit Coulson, so Coulson plans to escape before they get there, using “Operation Odyssey Protocol”. Most SHIELD agents plan to stay behind, but Agent Triplett wants to come along. Coulson is against it, but Fitz decides that he should be given a shot. He decides to allow it, barring Fitz takes responsibility.
Short on supplies, fuel, and power, the plane will have to land shortly. Coulson has figured out where they are going yet. Coulson tells Skye to erase any evidence of his team’s existence. Skye protests, but then complies.
Skye gives a call to Ward, and tells him about their IDs being deleted. Ward comes up with an excuse as to why he hasn’t finished with Agent Hand. He tries to get information on where Coulson is heading, but Skye doesn’t even know yet.
Ward and Garrett have a bit of a spat over Skye being injured, and the bloodshed that happened. They seem to move past their spat–for now. Garret reveals that he has been testing serums with dead bodies, to attempt to bring back the dead. He asks Raina for help. Ward provides her with data that Fitz had been working on. Garret and Ward decide to head to the Fridge, one of SHIELD’s most fortified bases.
Agent Coulson decides it is time to retire their SHIELD badges, since they have become worthless. Coulson puts them into a safe, but Skye notices his badge has illuminated. Coulson believes this is Nick Fury contacting him, and that they are coordinates for a meeting. Coulson directs the plane to Canada, the location of the coordinates.
Raina and Ward have a conversation regarding Ward’s infiltration of Coulson’s team as Garret prepares his ambush for The Fridge.
Back on Coulson’s plane, May tries to take Coulson’s weapon. She explains she feels that HYDRA may have implanted false memories in Coulson’s head, and thereby compromising Coulson. Coulson isn’t buying it though, and tells May to leave his office. Fitz seems to be on Coulson’s side, however Triplett and Simmons seem to be leaning towards May’s.
Garrett and Ward are able to provide a convincing reason to trick the SHIELD agents at the Fridge to let him in. Ward and Garrett take them out, and go on a shopping spree in the Fridge, while freeing plenty of people who we can only assume are up to no good.
Meanwhile, Coulson and company arrive at the seemingly empty snow forests of Canada. Coulson has a breakdown, concerned his lifelong career in SHIELD has become meaningless when suddenly, it is revealed they have found a top secret SHIELD base, manned by one person, Agent Koenig. He is glad to see Coulson, but is distrustful of the rest of his team. Privately, Koenig informs Coulson that Fury is alive, but he lets the rest of the team believe that Fury died in Washington DC. Koenig also informs everyone of the Fridge falling. Skye calls Ward, concerned.
Meanwhile, after raiding The Fridge, Raina reveals the data that Ward retrieved from Skye is only accessible with Skye’s help, so Ward arranges a meeting with Skye. Garrett, in the meantime, meets up with an old buddy, Ian Quinn, and gives him a gift: Gravitonium.
Josh’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 18 of Agents of SHIELD: Providence
While not quite as awesome as the previous episode, Agents of SHIELD is certainly turning towards a much better direction than when Captain America: The Winter Soldier hit. I am really enjoying Ward as a bad guy, and I really hope that he continues to remain the bad guy, and doesn’t turn to being the double agent, as many people seem to be suspecting. I suspect that Ward will eventually come back to SHIELD/Coulson’s side genuinely in the end, but if I got my way, it would be in a fatal heroic move, which would give real meaning to Ward’s story arc.
I really like this sort of “rogue” SHIELD group now, it certainly allows tense situations to be that much more believable, as Coulson can’t simply make a call to fix everything. I should have said this before as well, Bill Paxton has really done well for Agents of SHIELD. His character is a lot of fun, even as a bad guy.
What I really want to know now is what is HYDRA’s next goal now that their “Plan A” has failed? What we have learned so far is that Agent Garrett wants to figure out what made Coulson come back, found some new “toys” in the Fridge, but beyond that we do not really know what his plan is.
Speaking of plans, I am curious to know what Coulson’s plans are now. He is at the new base, but beyond that, we do not really know what his next move is. We also see that loyalties to Coulson are in question by certain members, but now that Coulson seemingly has proved himself right in finding the base, maybe he will be able unite his team again.
When Ward reunites with the team, I am hoping that his cover is blown quickly. I think it would be a lot more fun for the show to see Ward working overtly against Coulson and the team, rather than covertly.
All in all though, I am back into this show. I can finally look forward to Tuesday nights! I have a feeling we will be seeming more Gravitonium in the very near future.
Violet’s Thoughts: Agents of SHIELD, Season 1 Episode 18: Providence
Not as good of an episode as last episode, which, let’s face it, was pretty darn awesome, but still a pretty good episode, and definitely much better than the first half of the season. But then, you can’t expect all episodes to be as earth shattering as the last one was. I will say that it looks like Agents of SHIELD has finally found its footing. I was worried that after all the excitement and intrigue of last episode, the show might fall back into its old ways, but that was far from the truth. When we got to the end of the episode, it made me want more, which is something that I can’t say about this show until very recently. I’m invested and I want to see what happens next for once, whereas before, I could have stopped watching at any time and not really cared if I ever saw the show again, other than out of obligation.
It was fun watching Ward play the bad guy this episode, although it’s kind of funny to think that being the bad guy means that he now has stubble instead of being clean shaven! It was interesting hearing him explain to Raina how he got close to each member of the SHIELD team. Each explanation made sense, though he seemed a little too full of himself when he explained to Raina that he’s “everyone’s type.” However, one thing we learned that I was not expecting was that apparently he really did have feelings for Skye. I had assumed that was all part of the act, but I guess not.
I didn’t realize that Ward would meet back up with the group so quickly! I thought once he went off with Garrett and revealed himself to be HYDRA, that he’d be gone for awhile, off doing bad guy things. But, Ward’s master plan of getting Skye to give him the backup drive didn’t work out since Skye put some precautions on there so that only she could access it, so it became necessary for him to try to get to it through her.
One thing we learned from this episode is the importance of following protocol. If those guys at the Fridge had followed protocol and not let Ward and Garrett in, then the Fridge would still be secure, and they would still be alive. Well, assuming that the HYDRA helicopter and other forces were unable to break through, that is. But at least it would have made it harder for HYDRA to take the Fridge. In contrast, Patton Oswalt’s character, Agent Eric Koenig, did follow protocol, and only revealed to Coulson that Director Fury is still alive. Because of that, Skye still believes that Fury is dead, and she reported that to Ward, who told Garrett, so HYDRA still believes he is dead.
The episode ended with a nice little cliffhanger, leaving us wondering how Ward will interact with the team now that we know he is with HYDRA. I suppose there’s still the theory of him being a double agent though. In any case, I am looking forward to the next episode because I genuinely want to know what happens next! Also, I’m excited that Amy Acker will be in the episode, playing Coulson’s love interest, the Cellist.
Scenes from Agents of SHIELD, Season 1 Episode 19: The Only Light in the Darkness
Here are scenes from the next Agents of SHIELD episode, titled The Only Light in the Darkness:
I think Patton Oswalt did a decent job as the lone agent in the secret base. It looks like a very cozy place, if not a bit lonely.