Providence (episode)

Providence is the eighteenth episode of the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..

Synopsis
With Colonel Glenn Talbot now on their trail, Coulson and his team seek refuge in the last place anyone would look, where they begin to uncover S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most dangerous secrets. Secrets that could destroy them all.

Plot
Grant Ward freed Raina from her confinement and introduced Garrett to her as the Clairvoyant. Despite her initial disappointment that Garrett was not an actual clairvoyant, Garrett tasked her with conducting research on the Guest House drugs for Project Centipede, which was secretly backed by HYDRA.

Meanwhile, Colonel Glenn Talbot contacted Coulson and informed him that a military team was en route to the Hub. Not trusting Talbot, Coulson left with the team and  Antoine Triplett. He ordered Skye to erase the identities of all the team members, including Ward. However, after Coulson collected the team's badges, he discovered a hidden message with coordinates to the Canadian wilderness. There they discovered the hidden S.H.I.E.L.D. base, Providence, run by Eric Koenig.

Coulson learned from Koenig that Director Fury was alive after all, but he was told to keep the information secret. Coulson also learned from May that Fury did not oversee the T.A.H.I.T.I. project.

Elsewhere, Ward and Garrett infiltrated the Fridge, freeing its prisoners and stealing weapons including the Berserker Staff and the 0-8-4 from Peru. At the HYDRA base, Raina informed Garrett that the hard drive containing all of Fitz and Simmons' research was locked with a password only Skye knew, prompting Garrett to send Ward to Providence to obtain it.

Later, Ian Quinn, who was angry at Garrett for his lies, was brought to the HYDRA base to reclaim his Gravitonium, which was retrieved from the Fridge.

Cast
Main Cast:
 * Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson
 * Ming-Na Wen as Agent Melinda May
 * Brett Dalton as Agent Grant Ward
 * Chloe Bennet as Agent Skye
 * Iain De Caestecker as Agent Leo Fitz
 * Elizabeth Henstridge as Agent Jemma Simmons

Guest Stars:
 * Bill Paxton as Agent John Garrett/The Clairvoyant
 * David Conrad as Ian Quinn
 * Ruth Negga as Raina
 * B.J. Britt as Agent Antoine Triplett
 * Adrian Pasdar as Glenn Talbot
 * Patton Oswalt as Agent Eric Koenig
 * Patrick Brennan as Marcus Daniels/Blackout
 * Rich Paul as Agent #1
 * Bayardo De Murguia as Agent #2
 * Jeffrey Muller as Agent Kaminsky
 * Alysha Del Valle as ABC Reporter
 * Ramon Hilario as Ernesto the barber
 * Kylie Furneaux as Agent Shade (uncredited)
 * Alex Goode as Hacker (deleted scene)
 * Pia Shah as Mehta (deleted scene)

Locations

 * The Hub
 * The Fridge
 * Havana, Cuba
 * Barbershop Headquarters
 * Ontario, Canada
 * Providence
 * Texas (mentioned)
 * Peru (mentioned)
 * New York City, New York (mentioned)
 * Washington, D.C. (mentioned)
 * The Triskelion (mentioned)
 * The Cube (mentioned)
 * The Guest House (mentioned)
 * The Slingshot (mentioned)

Events

 * Battle of New York (mentioned)
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Civil War
 * Battle at the Triskelion (mentioned)
 * Battle at the Hub (mentioned)
 * Raid of the Fridge

Items

 * Holocom
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Lanyard
 * Coulson's Team Hard Drive
 * Pick-Lock Device
 * Peruvian 0-8-4
 * Berserker Staff
 * Gravitonium
 * Atmospheric Moisture Freezing Device
 * GH.325 (mentioned)
 * Tesseract (mentioned)

Vehicles

 * The Bus
 * Lola
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. SUV
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Jump Jet
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Chopper
 * Helicarrier (archive footage)

Organizations

 * S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * HYDRA
 * Centipede Project
 * WHiH World News
 * United States Air Force
 * United Nations (mentioned)
 * United States Congress (mentioned)
 * United States Government (mentioned)
 * United States Navy (mentioned)
 * NATO (mentioned)
 * Chitauri (mentioned)

Mentioned

 * President Matthew Ellis
 * Agent Martin
 * Nick Fury
 * Victoria Hand
 * Alpha
 * Beta
 * Natasha Romanoff
 * The Cellist
 * John Horton
 * Maria Hill
 * Captain America
 * Eric Koenig's brother
 * Battle of New York
 * Project T.A.H.I.T.I.
 * Odyssey Protocol
 * Full Eclipse Protocol

Trivia

 * John Garrett mentions Johnny Horton, a criminal who gave himself lion paws for hands. In the comics, Johnny Horton is the supervillain Griffin.
 * The Barbershop Headquarters that HYDRA uses is a reference to S.H.I.E.L.D. secret headquarters in the comics.
 * The coordinates sent to Agent Coulson's badge point to a nameless road in eastern Ontario, Canada, less than 20 miles away from the border of Quebec.
 * The repeated phrase "Agents of Nothing" in dialogue is a reference to the "Secret Warriors Vol. 1: Nick Fury, Agent of Nothing" collector's edition that contains the story arc written by Jonathan Hickman, originally published in six parts in 2009. In this story arc also, HYDRA is revealed to have infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. after World War II.