Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Rewatch: S1E18 “Providence”

Okay so if you’re like me, you watched episode 17 and thought: dayum Fitz, yas Trip, mom and dad nooo, okay garrett, DAYUM WARD.   So episode 18 comes along and is meant to grab some of us by the hand and say “okay no but really…. it’s not just that your good boys are bad boys… SHIELD is poof….  Shit is dire.”  Ohhh okay okay okay so like… Hydra kinda won? Oh.  We’re a terrorist organization now? Oh weird.  We’re on the run for real?  Wild.

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“Direct quotes look like this” 
‘silly paraphrasing looks like this’
 (tangents look like this)
footnotes ^[1]spoiler! are spoilers for future episodes.

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First we catch up with Raina! We haven’t seen her since episode 11 when she was taken in by Hand for manipulating Phil Coulson into a torture machine. Now she’s folding origami flowers in her prison cell.  She hears fighting outside and knows that means someone is about to break her out of there so she sit’s primly on her cot. She is taken off-guard when our guy Ward is the one who opens the door.  He presents her with a gift from the Clairvoyant – a new flower dress.
Ward takes her to a barbershop to meet Garrett.  Raina is super disappointed that the Clairvoyant is just a normal oldish dude without any powers. But hey, she still gets to take a ride on the barbershop chair into a secret lair!

Coulson is manning things at the Hub. Skye made a list of SHIELD bases they know are secure – only 3, including the Hub. Skye sounds defeated, but dad says “at least our team is still intact” woof dad, you don’t know one of your teammates isn’t yours any more… you’re sprinkling too much painful irony in my Shield logo’d teacup.

Fitz is doing a bad job repairing the ramp to the Bus cuz he’s too flustered to listen to repeated helpful tips from Simmons and her new bff Trip. He should have replaced those grounding wires…

Aw good news, The Cube was retaken… man I want to see what a secret base called The Cube looks like. I bet it’s super sci-fi.
Air Force Colonel Glen Talbot calls in to tell them he’s sending a “peacekeeping force” to the Hub. New character! Seems like a real hardass. Coulson expects Talbot to cause a lot of disruption in their operations.  Our team plans to escape before Talbot gets there.
Antoine Triplett is eager to join us on the Bus, but Coulson is against this because of Trip’s connection to Garett (just splish-splashing through irony).  Simmons speaks up for Trip – saying he was willing to die for SHIELD.  Because of Simmons’s testimony, Coulson allows Trip to join, but Fitz is mega pouting in the background. Oooh Fitz you better watch out; jealousy aint cute.

Coulson orders Skye to erase every trace of every member of the team from the internet.  She’s says “okay but then we’ll be Agents of Nothing.”  And Coulson looks sad.  Hush Skye! Stop making dad sad!  She calls Ward up to let him know he’s being scrubbed from existence.  He’s like ‘thanks, boo. Hey just so you know, I have NOT murdered Victoria Hand and everything here is fine fine fine. Smooch ya later!’

Garrett pokes fun at Ward for this persona he puts on when talking to Skye and the team.  Ward hunches over the back of a chair like a youth pastor to show that this Grant Ward is … not like the other girls. He’s a bad boy on the outside now… like he always has been on the inside.  Ward finally has his chance to confront Garrett about why Skye was SHOT five episodes ago.  Garrett says “your little Candy Crush  was on Centipede’s tail long before she was recruited by SHIELD” that’s an actual quote and it’s a good one. Ward will get over it. Garrett also says “your tip about the cellist came in handy.” This is referring to episode 10 when Coulson opened up to Ward about his last Lady Love whom he ghosted when he literally died. Raina used this info to nudge Coulson toward the memory machine.

Raina is still pouting about Garrett not having actual clairvoyance or whatever.  She perks up when Garrett shows her that he stole a bunch of vials of GH-### from the bunker where Coulson was operated on.  He has already tested several out on some victims to discover they don’t quite work.  Now Raina just needs to science the correct miracle drug out of them. She is also tasked with getting the intel out of Skye’s Very Important Hard-drive. While she does that, Garrett and Ward are gonna go raid the Fridge! Doesn’t sound too bad.  Hope they remember to get me a coke.

Skye solemnly collects everyone’s SHIELD badges on the Bus.  As Coulson goes to lock them away in his safe, his own badge gives a lil flash which Skye sees and me and Coulson absolutely miss.  Can you imagine if he never saw those numbers?  Skye almost missed it by a second.  Anyway there are new glowing numbers on his badge.  Coulson is like ‘dude. These numbers are coordinates and they were absolutely sent to me by dead Director Fury. We’re going into the Canadian wilderness. c’mon!’   Everyone else on the Bus thinks that sounds pretty whack.  Coulson goes ‘Listen. If you don’t wanna go, literally jump out of the plane.’

Garrett isn’t too upset that the Cube was taken back by SHIELD because the toys they’re about to get from the Fridge will give them maximum power.  ^[2]okay … who the heck are these other SHIELD agents that are fighting out there???  I know Coulson gets made Director at the end of this season. I’m gonna be watching closely for any time he … Continue reading  
Raina has stopped pouting and is back on her game. She’s talking to Ward and he says “so you think you know how to work me?” and She says “ If I was trying to work you, I would ask you how you tricked your team.” And then Ward just… tells her.   Damn she’s good.  So how did he trick SHIELD?  Easy, he pretended he didn’t want to join which made Coulson want him (ew sure whatever), he jumped out of a plane to save ‘the scientist’ (ew her name’s Jemma), and he ‘let things get intimate’ with May (EW).  Raina is like ‘okay I know I’m on the dark side, but Coulson is a good man.  Don’t you owe him something?’  So Ward lets us know that however much he owes Coulson, he owes John Garrett  … everything.  Ahhh.  So he’s Ward’s real daddy.   This tracks

May shows up in the principals office intent on confiscating Coulson’s weapon.  This friendship just gets more and more tumultuous.   She is worried that the person who was really in charge of the TAHITI project may have been Hydra.  First of all …. Who?! And second okay yeah… if that was the case, then Coulson’s whole brain and body could be super compromised.   Damn that would suck more than having one of your own turn on you….  Turning on yourself.   Rough. ( This whole scene is hard to watch – in a good way.  The tension here is done so well and its painful to see them butt heads about this tough topic. Contrasted with the similar scene from last episode when I was fully on Coulson’s side in the argument, I completely see both sides here.  May really is trying to protect Coulson.  She believes an evil force may have made him a danger to himself and others.) But yeah no… Coulson isn’t buying it.

In the lab, Simmons is once again supporting Antoine Triplett. Trip thinks Coulson could be leading them into a trap. Fitz is a bit of a twat toward Triplett. “have you even read Moby Dick?” … ugh. But when it comes to talk of Coulson, Fitz does not waver.

“It’s times like these you stick with the guy you believe in”

Ah… The Fridge. I hate this. but I appreciate it. I guess I should say… I hate watching this. This scene is here to make sure we know where Ward lies. Oh you think maybe Agent Hand is alive? Oh you think maybe Ward killed Hand’s guards as a sacrifice to stay on Garrett’s good side? Oh you think he’s lying to Raina about caring more about Garrett than Coulson? Okay okay sure sure you’re allowed to think what you want. But here is your boy Ward manipulating two loyal SHIELD agents into thinking they are saving his life… and then shooting them both in the face without flinching. Yeah. Any lingering hope I had that there was Good Ward behind those dead eyes…. flew away right here.

Garrett mentions he came here to the Fridge before to lock up Johnny Horton. This is a reference to a minor character from the comics for fun. It has nothing to do with the plot^[3]HOWEVER. I googled John Horton (AKA Griffin) and it turns out in the comics he is the father of Yo-Yo Rodriguez! WHAT?! I know her… you know… from seasons 3-7 of Agents of SHIELD! . Then Garrett brings up the Slingshot program ^[4]okay it really threw me when he mentioned ‘slingshot’ right after Yo-yo’s dad. funky coincidence. Remember when we shot the 0-8-4 into space in episode 3? Well… turns out that was an empty rocket. SHIELD doesn’t sling stuff into space, they keep all of it. This blew my mind. Now the baddies are just shopping through all the dangerous artifacts picking what they want. And Garrett… wants the 0-8-4 from the 0-8-4 episode. thats not good ^[5]hey isnt this… the thing that kills him? It’s pretty fun that he picks it out specifically

Bus has landed in big snowy Ontario forest. Coulson’s brand of dad today is ‘follow me because I said so, or do whatever you want and see if I care.’ I would have followed him immediately. Okay I would have whined about a seven-mile hike through the snow briefly. They all follow him. To their credit, no one hesitates much, though TripSimmons is the last out.

Ward has the ragey staff from episode 8 – he’s wearing gloves this time to avoid the berserking effects. Garrett plasma-beams a hole through the wall to let out dozens of dangerous prisoners. He singles out a tall sunken-eyed man to whom he says “don’t forget to follow your dreams^[6]he keeps Coulson’s team busy in the very next episode.” And Ward …. flaunts the fact that he knows something about the Fridge that Garrett doesn’t by plasma-beaming a hole in the “bottom floor” to reveal a special dangerous toy (okay I know Coulson told Ward that the gravitonium is hidden underneath the Fridge, but why does Ward know its in this exact spot? What is this special power he has that lets his feet sense small vaults under his feet? And it;s not like it would be the only area on the floor that had a room under it… we saw them lock the vault in episode 3 and there was like a whole hallway in front of it. whatev it doesn’t matter and despite lingering on it, I don’t actually care that much.). They don’t say that it is gravitonium, we are just meant to remember that it’s here…. and if you don’t remember, it comes up in the final stinger.

We’re hiking through the forest with our divorced parents and bffs old and new. No one looks happy. Simmons says “at least we still have each other” and Fitz brightens up at this, responding that he wouldn’t want anything to change. But Simmons is exasperated that Fitz ruined the nice moment with idiocy and says “it’s too late for that.”
May tells Skye what she already told Coulson; she’s reporting on him for his own good… she thinks he might be losing it… blah blah (For some reason, Skye is the only one who doesn’t have to look like a thumb by buttoning up all the way. Her poofy coat is unzipped a whole foot. she has hair gently flowing out of the hood. Her cute purple beanie is on display).
We get to the exact coordinates. Dad reveals that there is no going back because they used up all of the plane’s fuel getting here. Ooooh they mad. Then he goes on a bit of a passionate rampage about how there has to be something here. I do love the oft-quoted meaty part of the speech

“We are not Agents of Nothing, we are Agents of SHIELD. And that still carries weight. It has to carry weight. After everything we’ve been through, that carries weight!”

(Now I’m not saying this speech is fully motivational. I understand that it’s a bit unhinged. But, I don’t understand why no one is doing anything – especially Skye. If someone I cared about and respected was acting like this, I would say “okay well if you think there’s something here, lets look around a little.” i mean look around before grumping about. you literally just found out you have nowhere else to go… start looking for a place to go!) Then he apologizes for his outburst and throws his shield in the air in frustration. OOp! Shield got shot. the shield that carries weight got shot by a secret machine gun in the woods. Hot. I mean yay! that means something is here!

Everyone is spooked except Coulson so he steps out in front of the machine gun to introduce himself. The gun says “welcome Agent Coulson, we’ve been expecting you.” Yesss! I am ecstatic! Phew. (oh my goodness. I wonted this win so bad for Phil. Yeah yeah yeah your heroes have to have flaws to make them like dynamic and relatable and whatnot. But his gut has not always been right throughout the season so far … in fact it has been wrong quite often – May, Garrett, Ward, Big SHIELD in general, even Skye briefly. So to see our fearless leader fearlessly lead, with no one completely on his side, and actually be right about his big risk – Ooh it was a balm in the chappy wilderness.) No one pats him on the back. no one says “hell yeah.” no one jumps for joy. A bunch of ungrateful –

What is this place?

“It’s one of Fury’s secret bases. I call it ‘Providence’ although technically it doesn’t have a name because technically it doesn’t exist – it being a secret base and all”

We meet Eric Koenig! Agent of SHIELD – level 6. He has a lanyard. Lanyards for others will be distributed on a case-by-case basis. Oh yeah and he is played by freaking Patton Oswalt! He confirms that Fury is dead. He pulls Coulson aside and says “Fury isn’t dead” oh okay good. He also tells them that The Fridge has fallen. ruh roh… Oof it stings how concerned May, Coulson, and Skye all look about Ward.

Skye calls Ward… oh goodie he’s alive

Meanwhile, Raina has been unable to access the Verry Important Hard-drive. This means Ward has to go back in and get Skye to unlock it. Ward’s mission: He has 24 hours to get the hard-drive unlocked. If he hasn’t succeeded by that time he must “cross off” the team and bring Skye to Garrett. ahhhh!
Then Garrett beats up Ward a whole bunch to make it look like he fought his way out of the Fridge.

Ward makes it to Providence. No go away. SkyWard does a little flirting. No gross no. They go off to ‘get that drink’ they’ve been talking about. Noooo Skye you in danger, girl!

Final stinger
Oh goodie Ian Quinn is back. Okay actually I am glad to see him. He’s a good baddie. Like Raina, he’s also peeved that The Clairvoyant… isn’t. Garrett says “just because i’m not gifted – doesn’t mean I don’t have a special gift just for you.” which is fun. And the gift is… the gravitonium. there it is. Now it’s back with Quinn…. ^[7]and holy moly we don’t see it again until season 5?? is that right?? i think that’s right… right?? in any case this gravitonium has a looong wait ahead of it Isn’t there a whole man in that goo?

Spoiler-filled footnotes below

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