Truth is an interesting thing. As one of my favorite TV characters once said, “Truth is relative, pick on that works.” Agents of Shield took that notion to heart in “A Fractured House”, as the difference between truth and lies weren’t so clear cut. And that didn’t just go for Hydra, but for Shield as well.
After some victories by Shield it was only a matter of time until Hydra struck back, and boy did they ever. Launching an attack on the UN in Shield garb the world once again thought that Shield was the bad guys. Including a certain Senator Ward.
Before going into this I’d like to note that I liked how Talbot of all people didn’t think it was Shield. Call it intuition, or talking with Coulson, whatever you want, it was interesting. A far cry from where he was a few episodes prior.
Anyway, Coulson was forced to send his teams into hiding, else risk an all out witch hunt orchestrated by Senator Ward. Tim Dekay did a great job conveying the senator, both in his speeches about Shield and Hydra, and his desire to see his brother brought to “justice”. Yet with our Ward telling a familiar yet still chilling story you have to wonder which of them is telling the truth.
My guess. Ward’s telling the truth…ha, gotcha didn’t I? I mean our Ward, Grant Ward. Why? Two reasons, one, he promised never to lie to Skye, and he’s held that up. Second, in “The Well” last year we saw the flashbacks to the well in question brought on by the Asgardian staff. You can’t fake that. Or can you? Regardless, there’s much more than meets the eye with these two brothers.
The interactions between certain characters made “A Fractured House” all the more compelling. Hunter and Bobbi (who’s now my second favorite character), Fitz and Simmons, and of course, Ward and Skye. Each were varied, and different, and impactful in their own way. A standout though was Fitz-Simmons.
Reason being that unlike Fitz and his imaginary Simmons, real Simmons couldn’t complete his sentences like he wanted. And when they went all out and got their grievances out it was very revealing. A complaint though I have is with how cold Simmons seems to have become. Her conversation with Mac seemed oddly cold, especially when she stated, “Why do you think I left?” Also, her proclamation about how she’ll kill Ward the next time she seems him was totally out of character.
The climax was very well handled, as the tables got turned on our team once again, and they had to recover quickly to survive, but not without losses. It’ll be interesting to see how things go with Shield’s new “alliance” with Senator Ward, and his outing of Hydra as evil.
But let’s not forget our own Ward, who oh so epically escaped and is now on the loose. It’s that calmness he has just before doing something epic that makes him one of my favorite characters.
In the end, “A Fractured House” shined some light on some characters and their roles in the world. Not everything is what we think.
Todd Black
Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!
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