Ragtag

Ragtag is the twenty-first episode of the first season of the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..

Synopsis
In the last episode before the epic season finale, Ward's betrayal and HYDRA's shocking secrets are revealed as Coulson's team goes undercover on a mission that leaves no one unscathed.

Plot
Fifteen years ago, a teenage Grant Ward met John Garrett at a juvenile detention facility, where he was being held after trying to burn down his family's home.

After agreeing to join the secret organization Garrett said he worked for, Ward was left in the wilderness alone, forced to survive for months until Garrett returned. Garrett eventually told him about HYDRA's presence within S.H.I.E.L.D., and Ward agreed to join.

In the present, Coulson's Team connected Centipede Project, Garrett, and others to a common source: Cybertek. Phil Coulson and Melinda May infiltrated Cybertek to activate Skye's Trojan horse she had left on the hard drive, only to find file cabinets instead of mainframes.

However, they learned that Garrett was the first subject for "Project Deathlok", which began in 1990. As such, Garrett's implants were failing, with a few months to live, desperate to complete the Centipede Serum to save himself.

Coulson's team found the Barbershop Headquarters in Havana, Cuba, but Garrett's men had already left, except for several Centipede soldiers. Ward captured Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons, who split from the others to find the Bus, but Fitz was able to use an EMP Joy Buzzer to short out Garrett's body.

The dying Garrett ordered Ward to kill Fitz and Simmons, who were hiding from him in a locked room. Ward struggled with following through on the orders, deciding to eject the room into the ocean.

Raina injected Garrett with the synthesized GH.325 drug to work with his Centipede Serum. Initially, the drug seemed to cause an Extremis reaction, before Garrett stabilized and claimed to "feel the universe".

In Washington, D.C., Ian Quinn proposed the sale of Centipede Soldiers and Deathlok Soldiers to the US government, using Mike Peterson's assassination of a Colombian drug lord as evidence of the program's success.

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 John Garrett
 * J. August Richards as Deathlok
 * B.J. Britt as Agent Antoine Triplett
 * David Conrad as Ian Quinn
 * Ruth Negga as Raina
 * Austin Lyon as Grant Ward (teenager)
 * Glenn Morshower as General Jacobs
 * Paul Elia as Diaz
 * Joel Johnstone as Ott
 * Jeffrey Muller as Agent Kaminsky
 * Ramon Hilario as Ernesto
 * Jay Montalvo as Reporter
 * Mark Berry as Admiral Jolnes
 * Aaron Landon as Pizza Delivery Guy
 * Unknown actor as Alejandro Castillo

Locations

 * Plymouth, Massachusetts
 * Los Angeles, California
 * Palo Alto, California
 * Cybertek Corporate Headquarters
 * Havana, Cuba
 * Barbershop Headquarters
 * Abel Santamaría Airport
 * Washington, D.C.
 * Wyoming
 * Bogotá, Colombia (mentioned)
 * Brazil (mentioned)
 * Cambodia (mentioned)
 * Syria (mentioned)
 * Rome, Italy (mentioned)
 * Hunan, China (mentioned)
 * Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (mentioned)
 * Miami, Florida (mentioned)
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy (mentioned)

Items

 * Centipede Device/Centipede Serum
 * Backscatter X-Ray Eye Implant
 * Cybertek Prosthetic Leg
 * Forearm Rocket Launcher
 * John Garrett's Biomechanics
 * GH.325 (synthesized)
 * Berserker Staff
 * Medical Pod
 * Howling Commando Gear
 * Hand-held Hypno Beam
 * Transistorized Blast Gun
 * EMP Joy Buzzer
 * Cigarette Laser
 * UHF Pin
 * Zip-line Gun
 * Quarter Walkie-Talkie
 * Noisemaker
 * Portable X-Ray Scanner
 * Coulson's Team Hard Drive (mentioned)
 * Night-Night Gun (mentioned)
 * I.C.E.R. (mentioned)
 * Dendrotoxin Grenade (mentioned)
 * D.W.A.R.F.s (mentioned)

Creatures

 * Dogs

Vehicles

 * The Bus
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Jump Jet
 * Rush Cleaning Service Truck

Organizations

 * S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Cybertek
 * Brand Corporation
 * Metrobank
 * HYDRA
 * Centipede Soldiers
 * United States Armed Forces
 * Howling Commandos (mentioned)

Mentioned

 * Christian Ward
 * Grant Ward's Mother
 * Grant Ward's Father
 * Kyle Zeller
 * Ace Peterson
 * Skye's Father

Trivia

 * When Coulson uncovers the Cybertek files on the Deathlok program, he notes how the program goes back to the 1990's, a nod to the original Deathlok comic which was launched at the same time.