‘Agents of SHIELD’ season 3, episode 10 reaction: Brett Dalton on Coulson’s move on Grant Ward

The midseason finale of Marvel’s “Agents of SHIELD” promised a big shocker, and we feel like we had that courtesy of one specific scene between Phil Coulson and Grant Ward on Maveth. It was not that far out of the realm of possibility to see Ward die. After all, remember for a moment here that this is someone who has done terrible things, and sooner or later, that is going to catch up to someone.

The real surprise for Ward is how he died, with Coulson murdering him seemingly out of revenge for what happened to Rosalind. This is a moment that will stick with Phil, and this is something that Brett Dalton previewed in a postmortem for the episode to Variety:

“Coulson crossed a line. Some would say that Ward has crossed every line there is, but Coulson now has crossed a line, and I think this season has drawn a whole bunch of parallels between the two … In some ways, this is the conclusion of those parallels. Coulson, in a way, has become Ward … he’s learned to play my game and has crossed over to my side, so did I win that battle? Is that what that means? I left my mark on Coulson just as much as he’s left his mark on me.”

What does make this all the worse for Coulson is the fact that Ward is hardly gone. Instead, he will continue to inhabit Earth as a vessel for the Beast. In some ways, he is a completely new person, but the memories of the man are still there and that could prove (rather quickly) to be problematic.

We will find out what comes next with Ward as the Beast when “Agents of SHIELD” return on Tuesday, March 8 over on ABC.

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