John Garrett

I just rewatched the beautiful piece of art that is Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1, Episode 17: Turn, Turn, Turn. As we know, Ward reveals his true colors at the end of the episode by executing Victoria Hand to save John Garrett.

I wanted to pose the thought experiment: what would Ward have done had Garrett perished during the Battle at the Hub?

Ward begins his betrayal of the team out of his loyalty to protecting Garrett. I am reminded of a quote he says in the next season: "I was never loyal to HYDRA. I was loyal to Garrett" (S2E03). We see him prove this in Season 2: he readily betrays Bakshi, only gets close to Whitehall to bring Skye to her father, and then allies himself with Coulson against HYDRA. He only becomes a HYDRA leader out of spite for Kara's death, not for any ideological reason.

Additionally, when the HYDRA Uprising began, Ward had not yet revealed his true allegiance, had developed feelings for Skye (enough so that he later questions and challenges Garrett), and felt a genuine camaraderie with Coulson's Team (which he claims to regret destroying, S2E19).

So in a scenario where Garrett, seemingly Ward's only anchor to HYDRA at the time of the Uprising, was removed from the picture, is there a chance Ward would have abandoned HYDRA altogether?

Since Carol received Kree blood to revive her after she was captured in 1989 and she didn’t turn psycho like Coulson or Garrett, does that mean she is an Inhuman? Daisy had no side effects when she received the Kree blood because she was Inhuman, so Carol being an Inhuman may be a possible explanation of why Carol didn’t start acting crazy.

If John Garrett wanted to know how Coulson came back from the dead, why didn't he just ask Alexander Pierce instead of going to all the trouble of having Ward spy for him?

I think I have a pretty good idea who the “missing person from Witness Protection” in Westview that Jimmy Woo was talking about is.

I believe it's Norm/Abilash Tandon. The reason I think it’s “Norm” is because the actor who portrays him, Asif Ali, previously appeared in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1 as a Cybertek employee who was forced to work for Hydra/John Garrett under extortion. I think it would be reasonable that after his traumatic experience as a Hydra captive, the FBI would place him into the WITSEC program for his own protection from Hydra in case they ever tried to find him again.

So yeah. I think Woo had him placed in Westview under the Witness Protection Program. This would be cool because that would mean Asif’s two characters are actually the same. Even though the Cybertek employee was named Jesse Fletcher, he would obviously have a new name under WITSEC, explaining why he is currently named Ablish Tandon (his new identity).

Thoughts?

What do you think happened to Grant in the timeline created by the chronicoms

I think that he might have a life similar to the one his framework counterpart had( Victoria Hand becomes his mentor , he becomes a hero and maybe gets in a happy relationship with agent 33 that doesn’t end like how it ended in the original timeline)

What makes me think it happened somehow like that is that Coulson mentioned that the reason Grant was a villain was because he had a villainous crazy father-figure and when he got helped by Victoria instead of Garret in the framework he became a good guy

Name: John Garrett

Status: Dead

First Appearance: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (season 1)

Latest Appearance: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (season 7)

Portrayed By: Bill and James Paxton

"You remember that speech you used to give us, Nick, about how one man can accomplish anything once he realizes he can be something bigger? Well, now I am."

How do you feel about them, do you like them, what about the actor, favourite moment with them etc. Make sure to comment below any characters you want to discuss in depth next time.