Not liking the actual twists, or that they're doing twists at all?

The actual twists.

I think the speculation about brainwashing is probable and...dare I say it...predictable and boring.

I'm not interested in Ward being a not!bad guy either through brainwashing or some ultra secret plan with Coulson...which will later come out as having been the conversation between the two of them that we did not hear so that Ward can infiltrate even farther into Hydra to figure out who the Level 9 & 10s are, which he can only do with Garrett's help and the reason we didn't see Hand's face is because Ward used a nightnight gun with ketchup pellets...blah, blah, blah.

Hmmmm.

So the role of "older leading-man type romantically interested in a female co-lead" is initially given to a generic white guy.....

- then he suddenly turns evil and his place is taken by a black character?

I could get behind this.

He can still die tragically even if he is brainwashed, right?

There's always hope.

I actually liked Ward a lot better in this episode as it was obvious there was something going on even before he started shooting up SHIELD agents.

I'm not interested in Ward being a not!bad guy either through brainwashing or some ultra secret plan with Coulson...which will later come out as having been the conversation between the two of them that we did not hear so that Ward can infiltrate even farther into Hydra to figure out who the Level 9 & 10s are, which he can only do with Garrett's help and the reason we didn't see Hand's face is because Ward used a nightnight gun with ketchup pellets...blah, blah, blah.

Ok, yes, if this turns out to be some secret plan from Coulson, then I agree it's lame.

I missed a lot of the ep. Did Phil find out about Fury?

Yes, May called her hotline to Fury and someone else answered and said Fury was dead, which she relayed to Coulson.

Though I will say in "Yes Men" it looked to me like Ward tried to shoot May after Lorelei was collared and only "came to his senses" once he realized the gun was empty. At the time I just chalked it up to the way the episode was edited, but in light of tonight I wonder.

I'm a bit pissed about Garret ending up being the Clairvoyant as a fan of Elektra!Assassin. He's supposed to end up being President Wind goddamit!!!!

The weird look he had at the end is what made me think brainwashing.

Oh, I thought that was just, like, his true self that is all into the Hydra scene and evil.

I always thought it was weird that an amazing spy would have terrible people skills. If he was secretly a master manipulator all along I'll be happy.

SO GLAD I WATCHED THE MOVIE FIRST. Jeesh.

I haven't seen the Captain America movie, but want to be spoiled. Is Nick Fury dead, and is it REALLY dead or possibly Coulson dead?

See, now, I had figured that at least ONE of the team on the bus had to be HYDRA, just on the probabilities. My quasi-hope was Simmons because it was so damned unlikely, thus leading to major HSQ.

But Ward turning at the very end was impressive, especially once they'd done the whole Skye kiss thing--OTOH, it's a very Joss thing, to throw the grenade once the romantic ground looks like clear sailing.

I far prefer Ward as a HYDRA plant, although he didn't say "Hail HYDRA", either.

I dunno. I hope he really is a die-hard HYDRA believer, because that's far more awful than tragic brainwashing subject.

I'm also totally on board with bringing Triplett onto the bus. I like him lots more than Ward, although his "make Simmons scared" bit was pretty mean and cheesy.