Surprising they would get an actor of Brad Dourif's calibre to play a non-speaking character who almost immediately gets shot!
It was superbly done though...playing on Dourif's penchant for playing nutbars in sci-fi/fantasy genres the audience will have been waiting for the show down and whether he would actually be the Clairvoyant and then when we get him incapacitated and speaking through a computer the tension was ratchetted up and then: boom...everything starts to change. He obviously did speak in the show from an acting point of view though.
I hope this episode shows how important the setting up of the characters early on was and the slow build through the various missions they had...it is all coming together nicely...'Trust The Whedon' for he will deliver and he has.
I loved the bit where Coulson said he likes to 'keep an open mind' and the camera cut to Agent Blake and his reaction which indicates he knows what Coulson was hinting at and hence knows what happened to Coulson. The show is full of little reaction shots like this and some were before you actual knew the relevance of the reaction shot - something for rewatches which is where I picked up on them.
With Mike Peterson becoming 'more machine than man' I do hope when he meets his son he says the immortal line: "Ace, I am you father."
I'm thinking along the same lines. When the guy in the wheelchair mentioned betrayal that's who the camera focused on, and within seconds Ward pulled the trigger.
He also said Coulson's head was clouded by lies when the camera focused on Garrett. ;-)
Another excellent episode, I thought. It was great seeing Skye finally being made a Shield agent and it was a clever twist at the end with the clairvoyant pushing Ward's buttons to get him to shoot 'him' and then it turning out it wasn't the clarivoyant at all.
I don't think it was down to orders and it certainly wasn't "cold blood" as someone else mentioned. Let's not forget that he still has all that suppressed rage from the berserker coursing through him. That coupled with the way the clairvoyant arranged for Skye to get shot and the fact that he seems to have strong feelings for Skye made it pretty much inevitable that he wouldn't be able to help himself.
I loved that the clarivoyant isn't clairvoyant at all, as well. The whole game has changed now.
it was a clever twist at the end with the clairvoyant pushing Ward's buttons to get him to shoot 'him' and then it turning out it wasn't the clarivoyant at all.
One has to wonder whether it was planned to get Ward 'out of the way' and off the team by doing all that.
One has to wonder whether it was planned to get Ward 'out of the way' and off the team by doing all that.
I think, primarily, the idea was for the patsy to get shot so that they'd all think they'd killed the Clairvoyant and end the manhunt. Neutralizing Ward would have just been a bonus side-affect!
That coupled with the way the clairvoyant arranged for Skye to get shot and the fact that he seems to have strong feelings for Skye made it pretty much inevitable that he wouldn't be able to help himself.
My problem with this theory is that I don't think there are two characters on the show (May and Fitz, perhaps?) who seem to care about each other less than Ward and Skye do. She clearly admires him, but all I feel from him is some grudging respect because she's not totally awful. I don't know if that's a lack of chemistry from the actors or if it's deliberate, but I don't buy "Ward has strong feelings for Skye" at all. I mean, when Skye is on screen with Fitz and Simmons, I have a goofy grin on my face. When she's with Coulson I feel all warm and fuzzy inside because there's clearly so much affection there, in a sort of father-daughter way. Even May seems to have massive respect for Skye. In comparison, Ward is just... there. Hell, I feel like Garrett feels more for Skye than Ward does.
Another excellent episode, I thought. It was great seeing Skye finally being made a Shield agent and it was a clever twist at the end with the clairvoyant pushing Ward's buttons to get him to shoot 'him' and then it turning out it wasn't the clarivoyant at all.
I don't think it was down to orders and it certainly wasn't "cold blood" as someone else mentioned. Let's not forget that he still has all that suppressed rage from the berserker coursing through him. That coupled with the way the clairvoyant arranged for Skye to get shot and the fact that he seems to have strong feelings for Skye made it pretty much inevitable that he wouldn't be able to help himself.
I loved that the clarivoyant isn't clairvoyant at all, as well. The whole game has changed now.
Ward shot a defenceless invalid who was confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak. He can't even plead loss of control because neither the computer nor Nash was saying anything that would cause a reasonable person to lose control when he shot him. Worse, it now turns out that Nash wasn't even the clairvoyant after all.
Ward shot a defenceless invalid who was confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak. He can't even plead loss of control because neither the computer nor Nash was saying anything that would cause a reasonable person to lose control when he shot him. Worse, it now turns out that Nash wasn't even the clairvoyant after all.
Yup, definitely cold-blooded murder.
Cold-blooded means without emotion. It has nothing to do with the victim's age or ability to defend themselves. As for being unable to speak, that's also irrelevant but, in any case, he was speaking just fine as far as everyone assumed.
As far as Ward is concerned, he shot a criminal mastermind responsible for countless murders, the torture of Coulson and the attempted murder of Skye.
As for not saying anything that would cause a loss of control I think you may need to rewatch it. He was deliberately taunting them. Gloating over how Coulson was holding a bleeding Skye in his arms and then crowing over how they would kill Skye in order to get what they wanted and there was nothing anyone could do to stop them. It was clearly designed to push Ward's buttons. and it's ridiculous to suggest that it wouldn't have.
It was murder, it was mistaken identity, but it wasn't cold blooded in the slightest.
Ward is good at bottling up his emotions and not showing them outwardly. We all know that he is constantly battling with a magically induced rage from the Berserker staff but we see little outward sign of it because he's good at hiding it. I would say that goes for his affection for Skye too (to answer the previous poster). It seems clear to me that they are sign-posting his feelings for Skye regardless of any on screen charisma that may or may not be there. He took it hard when she was nearly killed, possibly because he blamed himself. Even if he has no feelings towards her (which I don't believe), as her mentor he would feel a responsibility towards her, and it is hardly a stretch to believe that he would have a hard time controlling the rage that he would have been feeling towards the man who had ordered her death.
My problem with this theory is that I don't think there are two characters on the show (May and Fitz, perhaps?) who seem to care about each other less than Ward and Skye do. She clearly admires him, but all I feel from him is some grudging respect because she's not totally awful. I don't know if that's a lack of chemistry from the actors or if it's deliberate, but I don't buy "Ward has strong feelings for Skye" at all. I mean, when Skye is on screen with Fitz and Simmons, I have a goofy grin on my face. When she's with Coulson I feel all warm and fuzzy inside because there's clearly so much affection there, in a sort of father-daughter way. Even May seems to have massive respect for Skye. In comparison, Ward is just... there. Hell, I feel like Garrett feels more for Skye than Ward does.
I think that generally it's been portrayed in a more subtle way. I thought that he had developed feelings for her so was surprised when he and May became an item!
My problem with this theory is that I don't think there are two characters on the show (May and Fitz, perhaps?) who seem to care about each other less than Ward and Skye do. She clearly admires him, but all I feel from him is some grudging respect because she's not totally awful. I don't know if that's a lack of chemistry from the actors or if it's deliberate, but I don't buy "Ward has strong feelings for Skye" at all.
One would assume they are hiding their feelings - earlier in the series they were seen to be close then Ward and May got it on just as it seemed Ward and Skye might. For Ward to show strong feelings for Skye at this point would be doubly bad since he is playing bouncy bouncy with May.
Everyone seems to want all the emotions and the way people feel about each other in this show to be of soap opera proportions with arrows pointing at the people who have connections with each other or fancy each other...it's not going to happen in this show - they are all first and fore most SHIELD agents knowing that may have to kill or lay-down their lives...that sort of thing isn't wall-to-wall giggles.
Cold-blooded means without emotion. It has nothing to do with the victim's age or ability to defend themselves. As for being unable to speak, that's also irrelevant but, in any case, he was speaking just fine as far as everyone assumed.
As far as Ward is concerned, he shot a criminal mastermind responsible for countless murders, the torture of Coulson and the attempted murder of Skye.
As for not saying anything that would cause a loss of control I think you may need to rewatch it. He was deliberately taunting them. Gloating over how Coulson was holding a bleeding Skye in his arms and then crowing over how they would kill Skye in order to get what they wanted and there was nothing anyone could do to stop them. It was clearly designed to push Ward's buttons. and it's ridiculous to suggest that it wouldn't have.
It was murder, it was mistaken identity, but it wasn't cold blooded in the slightest.
Ward is good at bottling up his emotions and not showing them outwardly. We all know that he is constantly battling with a magically induced rage from the Berserker staff but we see little outward sign of it because he's good at hiding it. I would say that goes for his affection for Skye too (to answer the previous poster). It seems clear to me that they are sign-posting his feelings for Skye regardless of any on screen charisma that may or may not be there. He took it hard when she was nearly killed, possibly because he blamed himself. Even if he has no feelings towards her (which I don't believe), as her mentor he would feel a responsibility towards her, and it is hardly a stretch to believe that he would have a hard time controlling the rage that he would have been feeling towards the man who had ordered her death.
You don't seem to have grasped the meaning of "cold-blooded", so I've googled it here for you:
cold-blooded adjective
2. without emotion or pity; deliberately cruel or callous.
"a cold-blooded murder" synonyms: cruel, savage, brutal, callous, barbaric, barbarous, sadistic, inhuman, pitiless, merciless, ruthless, unforgiving, unpitying, inhumane, unfeeling, uncaring, heartless;
Ward's shooting of a helpless invalid trapped in a wheelchair was unpitying, barbaric and therefore cold-blooded murder. Moreover, from your account of what Nash purportedly said, Coulson would've had more reason than Ward to shoot Nash.
If you had watched it properly, you would've seen that the Clairvoyant was in the middle of a rather innocuous sentence when Ward shot Nash. Hardly an excuse for loss of control. If Ward was charged in court for murdering Nash, he would certainly have been found guilty.
Ward's shooting of a helpless invalid trapped in a wheelchair was unpitying, barbaric and therefore cold-blooded murder.
Invalid - irrelevant to the definition of cold-blooded
Helpless - irrelevant to the definition of cold-blooded
wheelchair - irrelevant to the definition of cold-blooded
unpitying - not known (and certainly not enough in itself)
barbaric - irrelevant to the definition of cold-blooded
Does a soldier feel pity when he shoots the enemy? Does a cop feel pity when he shoots a man drawing a gun on him? Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't but it doesn't make it cold-blooded if he feels no pity in that situation.
The only thing that would make the death cold-blooded is if it was done without emotion. My argument is that was not the case. It was entirely motivated by emotion.
Now you may argue that it was emotionless, that's fine. That's your opinion but don't argue that I don't understand the meaning of cold-blooded. You're the one attributing invalid meanings to it.
Moreover, from your account of what Nash purportedly said, Coulson would've had more reason than Ward to shoot Nash.
If you had watched it properly, you would've seen that the Clairvoyant was in the middle of a rather innocuous sentence when Ward shot Nash. Hardly an excuse for loss of control. If Ward was charged in court for murdering Nash, he would certainly have been found guilty.
I can't tell if you're being deliberately disingenuous or really believe what you're saying
Coulson was never going to lose control however much he may have wanted to. Ward, on the other hand, has a magically induced rage coursing through him that he has to make a constant effort to suppress. If anyone is going to snap it's him.
Here's the transcript:
CLAIRVOYANT: I will join Raynar in your prison Agent Coulson but I will see you wherever you go. [first taunt - nothing they do to him will stop him from keeping tabs on them] Just as I saw you holding Skye in your arms bleeding, dying, knowing it was all your fault. [Second taunt. Ward blames himself for what happened to Skye as much as Coulson and here the Clairvoyant is crowing over the hurt he caused to Skye. This is clearly pushing Ward's buttons.]
COULSON: You're going away. We're going to stick you in a little box where no one will ever hear you again.
CLAIRVOYANT: I see you're angry. Head clouded with lies. You've been betrayed and now you fear what's about to happen.
COULSON: Nothing's about to happen. Just more empty threats from you.
CLAIRVOYANT: No, it is the inevitable. A force beyond your comprehension is coming for you. You and Skye. She has something we want and she will die giving it to us. I have seen it. [Third taunt - he is now threatening Skye's life]
COULSON: Go to hell!
CLAIRVOYANT: No matter where I go or what you do to me I will always...[BANG. He is crowing about how nothing they do to him will stop Skye's death. It's clearly calculated to increase Ward's frustration and rage to breaking point]
You want to consider that innocuous, go right ahead. You haven't convinced me.
Well the much anticipated ep airs this week on 4 I hope it's a worthy follow up to the winter solider as the cliffhanger of last weeks story was a shock if they could have taken control of the plain at any moment why did they wait until now to do so
Comments
Definitely building up to a good series end.
.
It was superbly done though...playing on Dourif's penchant for playing nutbars in sci-fi/fantasy genres the audience will have been waiting for the show down and whether he would actually be the Clairvoyant and then when we get him incapacitated and speaking through a computer the tension was ratchetted up and then: boom...everything starts to change. He obviously did speak in the show from an acting point of view though.
I hope this episode shows how important the setting up of the characters early on was and the slow build through the various missions they had...it is all coming together nicely...'Trust The Whedon' for he will deliver and he has.
I loved the bit where Coulson said he likes to 'keep an open mind' and the camera cut to Agent Blake and his reaction which indicates he knows what Coulson was hinting at and hence knows what happened to Coulson. The show is full of little reaction shots like this and some were before you actual knew the relevance of the reaction shot - something for rewatches which is where I picked up on them.
With Mike Peterson becoming 'more machine than man' I do hope when he meets his son he says the immortal line: "Ace, I am you father."
I liked the cliche china cup of tea and biscuits to really set the scene that it was in Jolly ol' England.
He also said Coulson's head was clouded by lies when the camera focused on Garrett. ;-)
Don't forget the union flag in the back!
I don't think it was down to orders and it certainly wasn't "cold blood" as someone else mentioned. Let's not forget that he still has all that suppressed rage from the berserker coursing through him. That coupled with the way the clairvoyant arranged for Skye to get shot and the fact that he seems to have strong feelings for Skye made it pretty much inevitable that he wouldn't be able to help himself.
I loved that the clarivoyant isn't clairvoyant at all, as well. The whole game has changed now.
One has to wonder whether it was planned to get Ward 'out of the way' and off the team by doing all that.
I think, primarily, the idea was for the patsy to get shot so that they'd all think they'd killed the Clairvoyant and end the manhunt. Neutralizing Ward would have just been a bonus side-affect!
haha oh yeah that too.
I'm surprised they said it was Milton Keynes and not "somewhere north of London"
They should have called it "Metropolis prison," as a dig at Superman 4!
My problem with this theory is that I don't think there are two characters on the show (May and Fitz, perhaps?) who seem to care about each other less than Ward and Skye do. She clearly admires him, but all I feel from him is some grudging respect because she's not totally awful. I don't know if that's a lack of chemistry from the actors or if it's deliberate, but I don't buy "Ward has strong feelings for Skye" at all. I mean, when Skye is on screen with Fitz and Simmons, I have a goofy grin on my face. When she's with Coulson I feel all warm and fuzzy inside because there's clearly so much affection there, in a sort of father-daughter way. Even May seems to have massive respect for Skye. In comparison, Ward is just... there. Hell, I feel like Garrett feels more for Skye than Ward does.
Ward shot a defenceless invalid who was confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak. He can't even plead loss of control because neither the computer nor Nash was saying anything that would cause a reasonable person to lose control when he shot him. Worse, it now turns out that Nash wasn't even the clairvoyant after all.
Yup, definitely cold-blooded murder.
Sat C4 1245
Sun More4 Time varies
Tues 2205 E4
Cold-blooded means without emotion. It has nothing to do with the victim's age or ability to defend themselves. As for being unable to speak, that's also irrelevant but, in any case, he was speaking just fine as far as everyone assumed.
As far as Ward is concerned, he shot a criminal mastermind responsible for countless murders, the torture of Coulson and the attempted murder of Skye.
As for not saying anything that would cause a loss of control I think you may need to rewatch it. He was deliberately taunting them. Gloating over how Coulson was holding a bleeding Skye in his arms and then crowing over how they would kill Skye in order to get what they wanted and there was nothing anyone could do to stop them. It was clearly designed to push Ward's buttons. and it's ridiculous to suggest that it wouldn't have.
It was murder, it was mistaken identity, but it wasn't cold blooded in the slightest.
Ward is good at bottling up his emotions and not showing them outwardly. We all know that he is constantly battling with a magically induced rage from the Berserker staff but we see little outward sign of it because he's good at hiding it. I would say that goes for his affection for Skye too (to answer the previous poster). It seems clear to me that they are sign-posting his feelings for Skye regardless of any on screen charisma that may or may not be there. He took it hard when she was nearly killed, possibly because he blamed himself. Even if he has no feelings towards her (which I don't believe), as her mentor he would feel a responsibility towards her, and it is hardly a stretch to believe that he would have a hard time controlling the rage that he would have been feeling towards the man who had ordered her death.
I think that generally it's been portrayed in a more subtle way. I thought that he had developed feelings for her so was surprised when he and May became an item!
You can also watch the catchup on 4oD:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/4od/catchup
One would assume they are hiding their feelings - earlier in the series they were seen to be close then Ward and May got it on just as it seemed Ward and Skye might. For Ward to show strong feelings for Skye at this point would be doubly bad since he is playing bouncy bouncy with May.
Everyone seems to want all the emotions and the way people feel about each other in this show to be of soap opera proportions with arrows pointing at the people who have connections with each other or fancy each other...it's not going to happen in this show - they are all first and fore most SHIELD agents knowing that may have to kill or lay-down their lives...that sort of thing isn't wall-to-wall giggles.
You don't seem to have grasped the meaning of "cold-blooded", so I've googled it here for you:
Ward's shooting of a helpless invalid trapped in a wheelchair was unpitying, barbaric and therefore cold-blooded murder. Moreover, from your account of what Nash purportedly said, Coulson would've had more reason than Ward to shoot Nash.
If you had watched it properly, you would've seen that the Clairvoyant was in the middle of a rather innocuous sentence when Ward shot Nash. Hardly an excuse for loss of control. If Ward was charged in court for murdering Nash, he would certainly have been found guilty.
You don't seem to have grasped your own quote. Here, I have highlighted it for you:
cold-blooded
adjective
2. without emotion or pity; deliberately cruel or callous.
Just to be clear:
cal·lous (kăl′əs)
adj.
2. Emotionally hardened; unfeeling:
Invalid - irrelevant to the definition of cold-blooded
Helpless - irrelevant to the definition of cold-blooded
wheelchair - irrelevant to the definition of cold-blooded
unpitying - not known (and certainly not enough in itself)
barbaric - irrelevant to the definition of cold-blooded
Does a soldier feel pity when he shoots the enemy? Does a cop feel pity when he shoots a man drawing a gun on him? Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't but it doesn't make it cold-blooded if he feels no pity in that situation.
The only thing that would make the death cold-blooded is if it was done without emotion. My argument is that was not the case. It was entirely motivated by emotion.
Now you may argue that it was emotionless, that's fine. That's your opinion but don't argue that I don't understand the meaning of cold-blooded. You're the one attributing invalid meanings to it.
I can't tell if you're being deliberately disingenuous or really believe what you're saying
Coulson was never going to lose control however much he may have wanted to. Ward, on the other hand, has a magically induced rage coursing through him that he has to make a constant effort to suppress. If anyone is going to snap it's him.
Here's the transcript:
CLAIRVOYANT: I will join Raynar in your prison Agent Coulson but I will see you wherever you go. [first taunt - nothing they do to him will stop him from keeping tabs on them] Just as I saw you holding Skye in your arms bleeding, dying, knowing it was all your fault. [Second taunt. Ward blames himself for what happened to Skye as much as Coulson and here the Clairvoyant is crowing over the hurt he caused to Skye. This is clearly pushing Ward's buttons.]
COULSON: You're going away. We're going to stick you in a little box where no one will ever hear you again.
CLAIRVOYANT: I see you're angry. Head clouded with lies. You've been betrayed and now you fear what's about to happen.
COULSON: Nothing's about to happen. Just more empty threats from you.
CLAIRVOYANT: No, it is the inevitable. A force beyond your comprehension is coming for you. You and Skye. She has something we want and she will die giving it to us. I have seen it. [Third taunt - he is now threatening Skye's life]
COULSON: Go to hell!
CLAIRVOYANT: No matter where I go or what you do to me I will always...[BANG. He is crowing about how nothing they do to him will stop Skye's death. It's clearly calculated to increase Ward's frustration and rage to breaking point]
You want to consider that innocuous, go right ahead. You haven't convinced me.