Turn, Turn, Turn (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
"Turn, Turn, Turn" is the seventeenth episode of the first season of the American television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D., revolving around the character of Phil Coulson and his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they discover the infiltration of their organization by Hydra. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, sharing continuity with the films of the franchise. The episode was written by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, and directed by Vincent Misiano.
Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series, and is joined by series regulars Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, and Elizabeth Henstridge. The episode ties-into the film , taking place concurrently with it and being affected by its events, including the revelation that main character Grant Ward is a member of Hydra alongside recurring character John Garrett.
"Turn, Turn, Turn" originally aired on ABC on April 8, 2014, and according to Nielsen Media Research, was watched by 5.37 million viewers.
Plot
Following the events of "End of the Beginning", and concurrently with , after a coded message is sent out on every SHIELD wavelength, the Bus is remotely hijacked by Victoria Hand and summoned to the Hub. She also sends drones to take out Garrett's jet, but Coulson shoots the drones down and rescues Garrett. May reveals that she knew the truth about Coulson's resurrection and was monitoring him on Fury's orders, and he refuses to trust her any more.Skye deciphers the coded message, learning that it is intended to instigate an uprising within SHIELD, instructing Hydra sleeper agents to come out of hiding. Attempting to contact Fury, May learns of his death. Taking vital information with them on a drive encrypted by Skye, Coulson, May, Skye, Fitz, Ward and Garrett allow the Bus to be captured by Hand, escaping into the Hub. Meanwhile, Simmons and Triplett learn of the uprising from Anne Weaver upon trying to contact her for help after finding the GH325 in Skye's blood. Hand captures them and reveals that she is not a Hydra agent, but believes Coulson is due to his recent suspicious behavior.
Ward and Skye plan to take out the Hub's systems with explosives, and on their way to do so they admit their feelings for each other and share a kiss, after Skye reveals she knew about his relationship with May. The rest of the team seek Hand, but when Garrett insists they kill her and mentions the Clairvoyant's crimes, including using the mind probe on Raina, Coulson, who never shared that information, realizes Garrett is the true Clairvoyant. Assisted by other Hydra infiltrators, Garrett takes Coulson, May and Fitz captive, but the explosion caused by Ward and Skye enables them to escape, overpowering Garrett and killing his men.
Hand takes Garrett and the other Hydra infiltrators within the Hub into custody. With Hydra exposed to the rest of SHIELD and the world, Hand leaves Coulson in command of the Hub while she and Ward escort Garrett to the Fridge, hoping to secure the facility before Hydra captures it. Hand offers Ward the chance to execute Garrett, but he instead kills Hand and frees Garrett, revealing his own allegiance to Hydra.
Production
Development
In March 2014, Marvel revealed that the seventeenth episode would be titled "Turn, Turn, Turn", and would be written by executive producers Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, with Vincent Misiano directing.Writing
Executive producer Jeffrey Bell noted that from the previous episode "the team came to some realizations and conclusions where we think it's a high level S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and so the idea of S.H.I.E.L.D. being a maze and that there’s a rat in the maze and no one trusting anyone... a great job of capturing that." On the stakes of the overarching story at this point, Bell said, "if you look at a 22 episode season as a movie, we’re in the 3rd act of the movie. And from here on, its just full on action and urgency and momentum, and sometimes it takes awhile to set everything up, but we think we’re going to bring all those dominoes together really nicely for here through 22."Brett Dalton first learned of his character Grant Ward's allegiance to Hydra during the shooting of "Yes Men", when the executive producers and writers told him of the twist, on which he said, "I just sat there with my jaw open for the next 20 minutes, and they just did all of the talking because I couldn’t say anything. It was a huge turn. I didn’t see any of that coming, so I was just for about the next day. Then it sank in and I started to think wow, what a cool opportunity. Because the Ward I thought I was going to be playing for the next few seasons, the whole thing just changed....I think it fulfilled a promise of his past. We got from the very beginning, he’s talking to Coulson about how he has a troubled past and the whole revelation that he doesn’t play well with others. , we get bits and pieces of this troubled past. This delivers on it in an interesting way that nobody sees coming."
Casting
In March 2014, Marvel revealed that main cast members Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, and Elizabeth Henstridge would star as Phil Coulson, Melinda May, Grant Ward, Skye, Leo Fitz, and Jemma Simmons, respectively. It was also revealed that the guest cast for the episode would include Bill Paxton as Agent Garrett, Saffron Burrows as Victoria Hand, Christine Adams as Agent Weaver, B.J. Britt as Agent Triplett, Charles Halford as Agent Shaw, James Macdonald as Agent Jacobson, Dayo Ade as Agent Barbour, Kylie Furneaux as Agent Shade, Alex Daniels as Agent Chaimson, Braden Moran as Agent Jones, Cameron Diskin as Agent Baylin. Halford, Furneaux, Daniels, Moran, and Diskin did not receive guest star credit in the episode. Paxton, Burrows, Adams, Britt, and Halford reprise their roles from earlier in the series.Music
For the episode, composer Bear McCreary had to make sense of several character themes that he had created throughout the first season. The Centipede theme, also known as the Clairvoyant theme, was introduced in the pilot episode to represent the Centipede organisation and its mysterious leader. With the introduction of Paxton as John Garrett in "T.A.H.I.T.I.", McCreary wrote a Garrett theme representing his "cocky, confident and...militaristic energy". When "Turn, Turn, Turn" reveals that Garrett is actually the Clairvoyant, McCreary "had a bit of a thematic mess on my hands. The Clairvoyant Theme and the Garrett Theme are completely musically dissimilar, and are now representing the same person! Complicating matters, up to this point in the episode, every mention of Hydra was being accompanied by quotations of the Big S.H.I.E.L.D. Theme, because she was the target of Coulson’s suspicions. From the moment Garrett admits he is loyal to Hydra I had to make sense of these themes and redefine the musical rules moving forward." McCreary decided to essentially retire the Big S.H.I.E.L.D. theme, helped by the fact that Hand is killed in the episode. McCreary then made the Centipede/Clairvoyant theme serve as the theme for Hydra, given that organisation's introduction in this episode and its ties to Centipede and Garrett in the story. Garrett's theme continues to represent that character in scenes just about him, with McCreary finding "Paxton’s performance after being revealed as the Clairvoyant even more fun and energetic. So, his theme still fits him perfectly, it just shows us a different side of his personality."McCreary also introduced a new melody, "a simple piece for guitar and rhythm section", in the scene where Garrett and the other members of Hydra are taken away while the series' main and recurring characters react to the revelation of their betrayal. On the piece McCreary said, "I’m not sure we’re going to hear this melody again, so I haven’t even bothered to give it a name. It works so well in this singular moment." For the final scenes, in which Ward reveals his true allegiance by killing Hand, McCreary used only "deep, horrifying synth tones", as he and the producers did not want to "clutter these scenes with themes, melodies or emotions. We just wanted to emphasize the pure shock, and leave the audience feeling dazed at this final unexpected turn."