Nana

Yeah, add me to the list of people who was screaming at Coulson to get on with it!!! As for Coulson and Rosalind. You know, I don't think the interpretation needs to be that Rosalind's death was the impetus for Coulson to hunt down Ward *because he loved her so much*. I think, rather, it was Coulson's realization that Ward wasn't going to stop playing this sick game of his. Coulson finally understood that Ward was taking great pleasure in making SHIELD suffer in the worst ways possible. And I don't think it was just about Coulson suffering in that moment, but more about what Ward was capable of doing next, and after that, and after that. And everyone else who would have to suffer. So it doesn't have to be read as Coulson's pain entirely, it can also be read as (in addition to) the pain he wanted to make sure wouldn't happen to anyone else anymore. It was about how sick and twisted Ward has finally become and that means there are no limits to what he is capable of. Especially as Ward *knows* the agents and knows what will hurt them the most. They actually highlighted that fact in the last episode. So really, that's how I choose to interpret it. It's not just the one thing (Rosalind's death), it's the culmination of things, and, most importantly, the prevention of things to come.

That ancient city, though! Whoa. And once there were nine! Where were they? What happened there? Who or what exactly is the Not!Ward? I admit these are the things I'm probably most interested in right now. Because if they are going to eventually battle the Not!Ward, they will need a lot more intel... which means they will likely go back to the planet! Overall a solid episode, I felt. I feel a bit cheated that Will had to die, but loved every other second of it. I'm off to do some armchair research into the Marvel Universe. I'll see you guys in the Speculation or Spoilers thread!

Based on all the spoiler intel we have so far and also some thinking a friend and I have done after watching the last episode... I have some theories! I, too, believe that the dust may be some sort of security system, meant to chain The Big Bad to the planet. The Big Bad cannot leave--even through a portal--as long as the security system is in place. This explains why one of our favorite bandied-about theories--Will being The Big Bad--is still possible even though we couldn't understand why he didn't just go through the portal with Jemma. Because the security system wouldn't let him. Maybe that's why he shot the gun? Assuming he actually did and something else didn't happen there that we didn't see. Also, the Big Bad may be like a parasite. It searches for a host until it finds one that is viable. All of the others from Will's team (and possibly before) that died may simply not have been viable hosts. And maybe they died/went crazy/whatever when the Big Bad tried to take them over. If Will is the Big Bad, it may be that at some point in the mid-season finale, he ceases to be the host for the Big Bad, and someone else takes his place. If Will dies, this could happen of course, but I would think that's a pretty cheap resolution to the Love Triangle. I do want to see Willl live and make it back to earth, in other words. If Will lives, but becomes his former self, it may be that when he next sees Jemma, he has no recollection of the time he spent with her because it wasn't really him all that time. So... if the Big Bad jumps hosts... who seems a likely target? Ward. Because all Ward wants is closure. All Coulson wants right now is Ward dead. If Ward becomes a powerful Big Bad, Coulson (probably) won't be able to kill him by conventional means. Or maybe Coulson may not *want* to for other reasons. If Ward becomes a Big Bad, he loses his identity. It may even be that this is a slow enough process that Ward recognizes what is happening to him as it happens... and maybe Fitz or Coulson (or both) witness this. "Please, help me, what's happening to me?" is something we might hear Ward saying. What if when this thing takes a person over in addition to losing their identity as long as they are host, they also do not remember who they are once the host leaves? This would be an amazing long-term storyline for a character like Ward. Can you forgive a person who does not even know all the evil he has done? Or, maybe Ward does remember, but maybe he is "broken" somehow from his time as host. I'm just thinking with this talk of "Coulson has to make a crucial choice," "Maveth is revealed... sort of," and "Ward makes a change" as well as a shift in allegiances... maybe it's that this Big Bad isn't actually BAD. Powerful, yes... but a little like Illyria in Angel (props to you guys for bringing that one up--my friend and I had the very same discussion). This thing just needs a host. It is a little misguided in its attempts to find one, but it's not actively *trying* to kill people. If Ward is the new host, Coulson may make the decision to NOT try to kill him. Because he's not Ward, he's something else now. And that something isn't necessarily bad. And maybe Coulson and team manage to sway this thing to their side. That would be a real wrench in Mallick's works.

My thoughts--purely based on the use of the word "bigger"--is that we might see a large scale "Inhumanization." I'm basing it on the fact that we saw that Mallick was clearly testing the fish oil on people secretly, and I don't believe Mark Dacascos' character is meant to be the only result of that. Perhaps Mallick has weaponized the fish oil in some way? Or maybe it happens by other means. But I feel like it might be a "one fell swoop" kind of situation, with many people turning Inhuman at once. The fact that they specifically mention Daisy's turning into an Inhuman and the fact that Tripp died because of it, makes me think there is a slight possibly we see some of our SHIELD agents in harm's way as people "turn." It also opens up the opportunity for Hunter and Mockingbird to spin-off, with part of their objective being tracking down these new Inhumans. The spec that Ward is, himself, Inhuman is certainly interesting. I'm leaning toward liking this idea, because it gives Ward more purpose in general. I actually *love* Ward as a villain. I was rooting for him to take out Mallick's goons in the last episode we saw. The addition of Mallick kind of diminishes Ward a bit, sadly, and his being Inhuman would certainly fix that. They could also be referring to the much-speculated idea that Will is actually the Big Bad on the Big Blue Planet that Mallick has told us about. That could certainly be one of the "shocking twists" Gregg is referring to here. Of course, it all really depends on if we are going back to the Big Blue Planet or at least opening a portal to it in 3x10. I'm definitely not too keen on the idea of losing one of our agents, though! I love them all so much right now--excepting maybe Lincoln, but that's only because he hasn't really been given an opportunity to do much, yet. The idea of one of them dying is pretty freaking upsetting. I'd like to think it's not going to happen, because story-wise, I just don't think it needs to.

I'm glad that others are speculating that the Big Bad on the Big Blue Planet could potentially be Will. I'd like to think this is possible as well because 1) It relieves the Will/Simmons/Fitz triangle (which is kind of a cheat but oh well) and also 2) It's just the kind of twist this show does well. Of course, they may *know* we have some understanding of the latter--Will's potential for being the Big Bad--and so it may NOT be true for that reason. Excuse me while I have a Vizzini and the Wine in Front of Me moment from The Princess Bride. Anyway, here's my issue with Will being the Big Bad. If he has been since Simmons met him, then why would he encourage Simmons to go through the portal when everything goes FUBAR and the dust cloud ghost shows up. "Go, go, Jemma, you can make it," Will says. If he were the Big Bad, wouldn't he just be all about taking that opportunity for himself? Others have speculated that something perhaps happens to Will at this exact point when Simmons goes back. We hear a gunshot but have no idea what precisely happened here. A few seconds later, we see Will back on the planet with the gun in hand. We see that he sees that, of course, there are no bullets left in the gun and so he throws it to the ground. There is potential for something to have happened to Will during the dust-up (pun intended) with the dust cloud ghost. Maybe it is at this point that Will has been killed and "taken over" by whatever this thing is. Perhaps. Anyway Will being the Big Bad given either scenario is certainly interesting. I think I prefer the theory that he was the Big Bad all along and that additionally he could have been manipulating Jemma to "see" things a certain way, and maybe not as they are. But then, maybe he isn't the Big Bad after all. Wine in Front of Me. I'm super interested in what/who this Big Bad is, I have to say. If HYDRA and whatever they were before was so interested in "it," then it stands to reason that it is likely unlike any Big Bad we have had before... I'm thinking to the degree that it has some kind of connection to the movies. Maybe not as big a bad as we'd see in the movies, but closer to it than anything we have seen so far on the show. But, of course, the Inhumans movie is a long way away. Theories?