The Breakdown
The team is cleaning up the mess that Thor and Malekith made in Greenwich. Skye wishes a spaceship from Asgard would have landed so they could check it out. Simmons picks up a piece of metal from the fight and Ward puts it in a S.H.I.E.L.D. container. Two campers in the woods of Norway are searching for an artifact. They cut open a tree and find what they are looking for. The man has this “stick looking thing” and asks the female is she ready. She grabs the staff and feels a bit of rage. The man tells her not to fight it. Forest rangers approach them and the woman taps one of the men and the ranger goes barreling into the woods.
The team is now at the site in Norway. Coulson is talking to the other ranger who ran during the attack. Ward is trying to get Simmons to climb a tree but Simmons has a fear of height after the incident on the BUS. Simmons gets up the tree and gets a 3D image to Fitz. Fitz finds out they are looking for a well crafted Asgardian staff. While getting this information Skye and May see reports of mobbing and violence in Oslo, Norway. The man and woman from earlier are leading the chaos and have burned “We are gods” into the streets.
Jakob Nystrom and Petra Larsen are the man and woman who were in the woods. They are leaders of a Norse paganism group. They feel that this staff will turn them into gods of destruction. Fitz discovers that the staff was in 3 pieces and the other 2 are still out there. The team goes to see a professor Randolph who is an expert in Asgardian legend. Randolph has a book explaining the staff and it’s powers. It seems as thought the staff was held by a leader of the Berserk army from Asgard. The owner of it came to earth to fight a war but fell in love with the beauty of life and didn’t return to Asgard.
The owner; feeling that he did not want the staff to get into the wrong hands (because of the evil it pertained) broke it into 3 pieces and hid them. The book that Randolph has tells where the staff is but is vague and uses very old language. Randolph tells them to search a place, in Canada where a lot of relics have been discovered recently. Coulson sends S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to Bathurst Island to find the location where a lot of viking relics have been found recently, they don’t turn up with anything.
In the church Ward and Skye are searching different parts of the basement. Fitz gets a reading that Ward is close. Ward sees nothing on his electronic doohickey. Ward sees someone fleeing and chases him. It turns out professor Randle has found a section of the staff. Ward touches the staff trying to grab Randolph (Wards sees a vision of a little boy drowning). He feels the power and uncontrollable rage that the staff exhibits. Skye finds Ward on the ground and feels something is wrong with him. Randolph has escaped, while going to his car he is spotted by Nystrom and his crew. When Coulson gets to the professor Randle is on the ground and the staff is gone.
Simmons is trying to do tests on Ward and he is going off on everyone. Even telling Skye to shut up because she talks too much. He doesn’t want to do the test, he wants to hear the interrogation of the professor. Coulson is being told by Randolph that he doesn’t know anything and he has no idea how Nystrom found him. Simmons shuts the feed off because Ward is showing an extreme increase in adrenaline. She also wants to give him a sedative. Ward goes off on her because he feels something may happen and he may have to save Simmons again (and feels Fitz won’t be able to.) Nystrom is having a NWO meeting and has 2 of his cronies touch the staff to get empowered. They plan on taking back the world.
Ward is punching the heavy bag and is having visions of the little boy drowning again. May wants to help him because hitting things isn’t the best way for him to handle this. Ward goes to Coulson and explains that the staff has brought up a memory that he has been suppressing since being an agent (the little boy drowning). Coulson feels that he can trust Ward being he just told him this. Coulson wants to have Ward use his rage to interrogate Randolph. Ward goes into the room and tells the professor that he needs to talk. Randolph says he doesn’t know once again. Ward takes out a knife to stab the professor. The professor grabs the knife and bends it. Ward radios to Coulson that he was right the professor is from Asgard.
May locks down the interrogation room on Coulson’s orders. Professor Randolph tells Coulson and Ward that he was the member of the berserk army that stayed. Randolph didn’t want the myth to get out however he was tryna get some trim and told it to woman he was courting. She told her brother who was a preacher and this is how the myth was started. Randolph says that he hated the staff and many Asgardians admired it. Randolph doesn’t want to reveal where the last piece of the staff is because he wants to still blend in. Coulson threatens Randolph’s anonymity if he doesn’t help the team. Randolph tells the team that the last piece is in a monastery. Ward questions if the effects will wear off and Randolph tells him after a few decades.
The team heads to the monastery to get the final piece when Nystrom and his crew have taken it. Nystrom is still there then stabs Randolph with the staff. Ward touches a piece of the staff embedded in Randolph’s chest and attacks Nystrom, they both go barreling over a rail on the 2nd floor of the building.
The fight is on. Ward goes up against Nystrom and his crew. While fighting, Ward is getting the vision of the boy in the well again. In the vision, Ward’s brother is in the well and Ward is looking at him. Professor Randolph is on the floor bleeding and Simmons is trying to think of a way to revive him. Being Asgardians are “built” different from us she is lost. Coulson sticks his hand inside of Randolph’s chest. Simmons tells him to feel for his heart and see if it is torn. Coulson is trying to keep Randolph alive long enough so that his body will heal itself, as Asgardians can recover at a rate much faster than humans.
In Wards vision; a young Ward is looking down at his brother. When getting a rope an older boy tells him not to throw it down or he will throw him down as well. After Ward kicks everyone’s ass Petra comes in holding the 3rd half of the staff. May says to Ward “let me help you”. May goes and picks up the 2 pieces of the staff and proceeds to make light work out of Petra. Once Petra drops the part of her staff, May’s portion of the staff attaches itself to the piece Petra had. May attaches the other piece and proceeds to finish off Petra. Afterwards, Ward asks May how did she hold all of the parts of the staff (as it brings up a suppressed memory) May tells Ward that she deals with her vision everyday.
Randolph is alive and Coulson tells him that they both have something in common, being stabbed in the heart. Coulson says that he was killed, somewhat. Coulson doesn’t remember being revived or being at a hospital, he just remembers waking up. Randolph asks Coulson is he haunted by it Coulson replies no, not exactly. Randolph asks Coulson what is the problem? Coulson agrees with Randolph. Coulson wants to know if Randolph is going back to teach. Randolph feels he needs to start over. Coulson suggests moving to the upper northwest part of the United States. Skye goes to a bar in the hotel where Ward is. Ward tells Skye that the reoccurring vision was of his brother. Skye tells him that she can be a shoulder to talk to. Ward takes a rain-check. Skye watches Ward leave with a creepy stalker look on her face. Ward heads up to his room in the hotel. Before entering he sees May with a bottle of booze. May doesn’t say anything but keeps the door opened behind her and Ward goes in.
Coulson is in Tahiti being massaged by a masseuse. When the masseuse says “It’s a magical place”. Coulson wakes up in a cold sweat, he is actually still on the BUS. He had a nightmare.
The Analyst
OK so Skye is apparently falling in love with Ward. It’s actually nice to see them go a bit into Ward’s past. It makes him seem less robotic. If you haven’t seen Thor: The Dark World don’t worry you won’t be lost watching this episode. This episode mostly tied into Thor and Asgard as a whole, not the particular story-line of the movie. I do feel this episode was a good tie in. I also think this is what the masses expected from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. from the beginning. Nothing over the top, just little ties to the MCU and super-villains. I will be interested to see what the ratings are for this last episode considering the success of Thor. He we go with Coulson wondering about what really happened after the battle of New York. We all know what went on but it will be fun to see how the writers play this out and how will it be reveled to him.
See ya Thursday for Scandal!
