Josh recaps Season 1 Episode 20 of Agents of SHIELD, titled Nothing Personal, where the remaining SHIELD team members try to figure out what happened to May, Skye, and Ward! Meanwhile, Skye and Ward have jetted off to Los Angeles so that Skye can decrypt the hard drive. Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts on the episode.
Don’t need the Agents of SHIELD episode recap for Nothing Personal? Click here to jump directly to Josh’s thoughts on the episode!
To see Violet’s thoughts on this week’s Agents of SHIELD episode Nothing Personal, click here to get directly there!
Agents of SHIELD, Season 1 Episode 20: Nothing Personal Recap Overview
- Coulson and the team discover that Ward is HYDRA, and that Skye was taken to decrypt the hard drive she was carrying.
- In LA, Skye tries to bluff Ward, pretending to decrypt the drive, but in actuality, contacts local police. Unfortunately, Deathlok spoils her plans for escape.
- Maria Hill leads Colonel Talbot to Providence, and plans to take Coulson in to keep him quiet about SHIELD’s secrets. After Coulson explains Ward’s defection, Hill decides to help Coulson out.
- Coulson is able to sneak aboard the plane, rescuing Skye, but isn’t able to recover the hard drive.
- The teams rests in a hotel, and May returns, telling Coulson who is responsible for project TAHITI.
- Skye left a “gift” for Ward and Deathlok on the hard drive–What could it be?
Agents of SHIELD begins this week with Maria Hill talking to Pepper Potts discussing her being tailed. Agent May confronts Hill about the TAHITI project, and helping Coulson.
Meanwhile, Coulson’s team returns to Providence, trying to determine what happened to Agent May, Ward and Skye. Coulson and the team review the security footage, and see May leave separately, but have no idea where they went.
Fitz and Simmons decide to make some food to help calm down, but this turns out to solve the mystery of the disappearance of Agent Koenig. Fitz also discovers Ward is HYDRA, via a message left by Skye.
Aboard Coulson’s plane, Skye and Ward heard towards Los Angeles, the location needed to decrypt the hard drive Ward is so anxious to get. Ward becomes overbearing on Skye, trying to keep his cover intact, while keeping Skye in check–hides the SAT phone to prevent her from calling Coulson, takes her gun. He provides semi-plausible reasons, and Skye hesitantly goes along with it to keep her cover. This scene on the plane is so creepy, knowing that at any moment, Ward could find out what Skye is up to. I actually really appreciate both Skye and Ward this episode. In the past I haven’t been a fan, but now, I am really starting to feel the show and characters coming together.
Fitz tells what he found to Coulson and the team, but he seems to refuse to believe what he found himself. Simmons performs an autopsy on Koenig, and through her report, it is clear Ward is the murderer. Fitz lashes out in anger, and Coulson and Simmons try to calm him down. Coulson orders Simmons to get the communications back online so they can find Skye and Ward.
Ward and Skye reach Los Angeles, and go to the same restaurant she met Mike Peterson in on the first episode. She warns Ward of the long time it will take to decrypt, and Ward doesn’t seem too happy about how long this will take. He grudgingly accepts it, and they decide they will probably be having dessert there.
Skye begins working, and Ward is becoming impatient. Then, we the viewers see that Skye is not really in the right place to decrypt the drive, and that she is trying to stall for time.
Meanwhile, back at Providence, they get the communications going, and find that Skye and Ward are in Los Angeles. Coulson also realizes what information what was on the hard drive, and that is what Ward was after. Coulson and Triplett then are notified by the bases’ defense system that they are under attack. Colonel Talbot makes his way into the based with his special forces group. Maria then joins the party. That traitor.
In the next scene, which takes place in a cemetery, Agent May climbs out of a grave–Phil Coulson’s grave. Back in her car, we see that she found some sort of drive system, which provides the details of the TAHITI project.
Talbot interrogates Triplett, Fitz and Simmons, offers them plea deals. The three stand strong, and refuse to give in. Meanwhile, in another room, Hill and Coulson talk. Hill advises that Coulson should turn over intel, but be discreet about what he reveals. Coulson isn’t happy with her motives, and tells her about Ward’s turning traitor. Hill isn’t happy about this, and decides to turncoat on Talbot. Coulson and Hill take down Talbot and his men, head for the plane, and take off.
Back with Skye and Ward, some cops seem to be eyeing Ward and Skye–or so Ward thinks. Skye then decides to get personal with Ward, asking about his life. She turns the conversation to talking about Agent Garrett’s betrayal. Then she turns to insulting Ward himself, and lets him know that she knows he is HYDRA. She also reveals that she notified the cops about him through her laptop. Too bad she didn’t just let the cops take him down rather than giving Ward a chance to prepare. Ward is able to take down the cops, but Skye makes a run for it, stealing a cop car.
She speeds away, but unfortunately doesn’t get very far. Mike Peterson/Deathlok shows up, and captures her. Back aboard the plane, Ward tries to talk Skye into decrypting the drive, but she refuses. Ward tells Skye about his feelings for her, but rather than impressing Skye, she begins to feel sick. Anyway, since Ward isn’t having any luck, Mike Peterson decides that he has an idea–and using a device in his armor, stops Ward’s heart. Skye, not wanting to be a murderer, finally caves and tells them that the decryption is altitude based. Again, I really liked Ward and Skye’s interaction here. I also really like Deathlok in this scene. He seems to be a good guy trapped within the body of a bad guy. Skye tries to appeal to this side of Deathlok, but unfortunately he sees the “reality” of the situation–that he has to do what the voice in his head says.
Ward, recovering from his heart shock, begins to take the plane to the air, but Maria Hill tells him to remain on the ground. It turns out this was a delay tactic, since Hill knew Ward wouldn’t give up. Ward takes off, and we see that Coulson has jumped aboard the plane, in the landing gear.
Coulson is able to find Skye, and plans to take the cockpit. Unfortunately, Coulson did not know that Deathlok was also aboard, and runs into him straight away. Coulson opts for plan B, which is to flee. Skye and Coulson both head for Lola, Coulson’s red car we always see in the cargo area. Coulson fires the car up, and through a perilous fall, they land relatively safely. Unfortunately, Skye was not able to recover the hard drive. Back on the plane, Ward wants to recover Skye. Deathlok refuses to allow it.
Back at the base, the hotel the team is staying in, Coulson seems to refuse to believe that SHIELD is over. Hill tries to snap him back to reality. Outside, Fitz and Simmons talk about Ward, and can’t believe they couldn’t see it in him. Coulson, in the meantime, talks with Skye, and tells her they will find Ward and Deathlok, and Garrett. Skye also tells Coulson she left a present on the hard drive for Ward and Deathlok, but doesn’t specifically tell us what it is.
Before the episode ends, we get one more surprise. May has come back, and has the person who was behind the TAHITI project. It turns out to be the person you would least–or maybe most-suspect. Coulson himself. May shows him a video of himself in which Coulson explains that TAHITI is too dangerous, and could cause mental instability. Coulson is speechless with the exception of a “huh”.
Josh’s Thoughts: Agents of SHIELD, Season 1 Episode 20: Nothing Personal
Another great episode of Agents of SHIELD. I am really liking all of the characters now. Even Skye and Ward, even though as seen in my previous episode recaps for Agents of SHIELD I was giving them a pretty hard time. Ward as a bad guy is really working a lot better than as a good guy. I also am really enjoying the newcomer Triplett.
I am hoping that somehow Coulson and the team are able to help Deathlok, as I still sympathize with his character despite him basically trying to kill the rest of SHIELD. Hopefully Fitz or Simmons will be able to come up with a solution to the exploding brain problem.
Maria Hill sure made me angry this episode, selling out Coulson just to keep SHIELD’s secrets safe. Are there really important things to keep safe now that SHIELD is disbanded? I can’t see a reason for it, unless it is technology or weapons that she is worried would end up in the wrong hands.
Hopefully we learn the “surprise” Skye left on the hard drive pretty soon. Is it a GPS locator of some sort? A virus to destroy the data? I guess we will see eventually.
Finally, Coulson’s revelation about his own project being used to save his life. I am wondering how much the mental issues will come into play with Coulson. Are we eventually going to see a fully-nuts Coulson potentially causing problems? That could make for an interesting plot. I am really hoping that Coulson and company make some headway in stopping Garrett and Ward though. Their time has come!
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 20 of Agents of SHIELD: Nothing Personal
Wow, I really liked this episode. It just proves that Agents of SHIELD has really turned a corner since the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier! It seems like almost everything leading up to that was just filler until the movie was released. What’s more is that Skye actually didn’t annoy me for once! If you’ve been following along with our recaps, you’ll know that’s a first.
This was such an emotional episode with the SHIELD team finding out that Ward is HYDRA. Fitz seemed to take it hardest of all, which I wasn’t expecting. I feel like Fitz has subtly been a bit of a show stealer lately, what with his explosive reaction to the news about Ward, and his cutesy tendencies toward Simmons. I like it.
But yeah, back to Skye, I guess there was one part of the episode where she annoyed me — why would she tell Ward that she tipped off the police?? Dumb. Anyway, the scenes with Skye and Ward were pretty intense. There were times when I wasn’t sure if Ward in fact knew that Skye knew about him, and was playing her back. Then in the diner, the things she was saying to Ward, almost made it too obvious that she knew — but then she related everything back to Garrett, which would make sense as well. Did she actually think the police would be able to detain him, or was she just looking for a distraction so that she could take the chance to get away? I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt and say the latter, because otherwise that would be pretty stupid to think Ward wouldn’t easily be able to take them. But as I mentioned before, she was dumb enough to warn him that she tipped off the cops, so who knows.
In case there was any doubt in anyone’s mind, it turns out that Ward really does have feelings for Skye, which, now that we know he’s HYDRA, makes him seem like a desperate creepy stalker dude, and I completely agree with Skye’s reaction of feeling sick upon finding out his true feelings for her. As for Deathlok, I feel so bad for Mike Peterson. You can tell there’s still a person in Deathlok, but he has no choice but to follow orders, as we’ve seen what happens to someone in his situation if he doesn’t.
It was fun having Maria Hill make a cameo, but I didn’t expect her to go against Coulson’s team! It’s okay though, she came around, and everything worked out in the end. Also, Agent May is back, yay! They’re all one big happy family again. Kind of. Minus Ward. Finally, May drops the bomb on Coulson of the video of him talking about TAHITI, which obviously Coulson doesn’t remember. But there’s still the question of who above Fury authorized TAHITI, because in Coulson’s video, he’s talking about it not being a good idea, so he wouldn’t have advocated the use of it.
Only 2 episodes left this season, and I have a feeling they’re going to be good!
Scenes from Agents of SHIELD, Season 1 Episode 21: Ragtag
Here are scenes from the next Agents of SHIELD episode, titled Ragtag:
Ward seems to have some serious mental issues. I’m getting the feeling the show will try to redeem him somewhere down the line, but I’m not seeing it happening quite yet. This is the most interesting he’s been during the whole show, so we’ll see if they can ever make him interesting if he really does go back to being good at any point.