Since I’ve done one defensive rant and no one complained, brace yourself for another one. Yes, this one is much more difficult to stand up for, mainly because some of the things that are said about him aren’t wrong. No, I will not give him an excuse for certain actions taken, but I will "shine a light in all the dark places.”
[Warning: I am a Skyeward shipper, to this day, and I do stand with Ward, no matter what he’s done. He’s good inside, even if he’s lost on how to be good and he doesn’t really know how to be. So brace yourself for some Skyeward points because believe it or not, Skye has changed Ward for the good and the bad.]
Grant Douglas Ward is one of the most interesting, unpredictable, heartbreaking, complex, and of all, darkest characters that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has to offer. His background story is very hidden but what we do know of it is just god awful.Â
Grant was a boy who was put into a loveless family, a brother who would beat him if he were to decline beating up his younger brother, Thomas. (Christian admits that he couldn’t beat up Thomas himself so he made Grant do it in episode 2x08. It was an amazingly placed episode since it was exactly the same number as 1x08, where Grant has flashbacks of the memory when holding the staff.) Not only did he live with this in his childhood but he lived through this for fifteen years. Why did he not go through it until he was eighteen? He was sent away to military camp, where he later when AWOL from and burned down his parents house. Now, I know that this shows early signs of “being a psychopath”. But then again, I want you to imagine this in your head for me. You wake up every morning, terrified that today is the day that your parents might severely hurt you again or you might have to hurt your little brother again. If we remember back to 1x08, Grant says that “[he] never panic[s].”Â
But no one, and I will fight you physically on this one, can deny that in 2x06, Grant’s face is exactly only one thing: panic. “You need to stay away from him. He’s not what he seems; he always has an angle. And if he thinks you could lead him to me?” His voice at this point was firm but it was wavering. It was almost as if he was shaking just thinking about his brother. He actually began to pace a little in his cell. “This isn’t about you.” (Skye in response) “Isn’t it? Don’t you remember what happened at the well? What he made me do? He gets joy from one thing: hurting people. So, tell me, please, does he know I am here?” Grant’s voice at this point is shaking and the audience knows it. For the first time in a long time, he’s afraid. “Not how it works, Ward. You answer my questions, remember?” (Skye) “And I always do. I always tell you the truth. But if Christian knows that I’m here..” I don’t know about you, but I don’t ever remember one time before this incident (other than in 1x08, in his memory) that Grant has not only begged for anything but said “please.” He begs Skye, someone who he not only loves and would do anything for, but would never ask for anything from her. Think about it. He asks to know if his brother, an abuser from his former life, knows if he is there but he never asked for forgiveness, something that could’ve lead to her loving him again. He only goes after Christian when he knows he has the upper hand and can protect himself; he has no doubt that Christian will kill him, just like Christian almost did to Thomas.
Everyone’s saying that Grant hated Thomas, that he meant to throw him in the well, that he was going to kill his little brother with a screwdriver. I’m sorry but honestly, do you believe Christian Ward? He lied about the well but we saw Grant’s memory without a filter. Thomas was pleading for Grant to save him, to pull him out. The last time I checked, no one calls out for a person they know will hurt them when they get out of a well. Grant was crying when he saw Thomas nearly drowning. He begged Christian to be able to save his brother, which he eventually did. If you don’t think that in itself is enough to make someone evil, you’re wrong. I’ve seen real people go absolutely mad with having to live with something half the trauma. Grant passed out from how much it effected him; he screamed as he punched a punching bag and let out the most pained sounds a person can make when trying to get something like that out. He was away from people and from attention, desperately trying to hide it away.
Next, he was raised from fifteen to the age of twenty five by John Garrett to be a killer. Not only a murderer but a cold driven Specialist who was loyal to Garrett and Garrett only. Garrett not only made him into Specialist material but gave Grant a father figure. Because he was molded this way, he could kill almost anyone. Where did the Hydra loyalty come in? Garrett told a story of how he almost died and that Hydra saved him when S.H.I.E.L.D. found his life worthless. Because Garrett had already shaped Grant to comply willingly because of loyalty, Grant thought that S.H.I.E.L.D. was not the organization that was right for himself. Instead, he joined Garrett and was loyal only to his father figure. (This is shown when Grant asks Garrett if he truly believes in all the Hydra thinking of world domination and when Grant becomes slightly tense when Garrett starts the drawings that Coulson does afterwards. This is also shown when Grant looks nearly terrified when Garrett shoves his hand into another man’s body, pulling out a bone and killing the man.)
Grant, however, has shown that when he cares for people, he will do anything in his ability to avoid killing them or letting them die. This is shown several times. For example:
Grant doesn’t kill his dog, Buddy, after spending ten years with his dog. His hand shakes and he looks as though he will burst into tears if he pulls the trigger. Instead, he aims his gun upward, firing it before the dog runs off. (The dog was later killed by Garrett, seeing the weakness that Grant had yet to overcome).
When Garrett has to recharge himself (for lack of better terms), Grant is at his side, assisting him with it and hooking his father figure up to the machine so that he can live. (However, when Fitz tells Grant to just let Garrett die, he pauses, looking up to his friend before insisting that they be taken somewhere else).
Instead of shooting Fitz and Simmons, he exits them from the plane, not only resulting in both of them surviving but avoiding the possibility that they might be found by anyone else. Although Fitz did obtain injuries from the fall to the ocean floor with the possibility of losing his life to save Simmons, he does say something that should not be ignored. “I’ve spent the last hour trying to figure out why we sank.” (Fitz, 1x22) Now, if a rocket scientist like Fitz can’t understand how they didn’t float, how do you think Grant knew that they were going to sink? Grant barely even tried to get them out of the containment anyway. He let them talk to him instead of simply busting open the window and killing them. Not only does Fitz see it but as an audience, we saw the pain in Grant’s eyes when Fitz called him good. We see the hope in Fitz’s eyes, the raw knowledge that Grant is at least thinking it over. “I know that you care about us, Ward!” (Fitz) “You’re right; I do. It’s a weakness.” When Garrett talks about Fitz and Simmons being dead, Grant looks away, knowing differently (or more or less hoping so).
In 2x19, Simmons attempted to kill Ward with a weapon used in 2x08. Instead, she succeeded in killing Bakshi, who has been brainwashed into working for Grant and Kara (by Kara, under Grant’s supervision as revenge for her brainwashing). After Bakshi is dead, Grant walks up to Simmons, his gun aimed at her heart. He could’ve easily killed her then and there, ending at least one person who wanted to kill him. It would’ve added to his chances of surviving. Instead, he told her: “We’re on the same team. What were you thinking?” Simmons replied with, “That I made you a promise.” Grant, walking towards her slowly with his gun still aimed says, “What? That you would kill me? I thought we moved past that.” Simmons, being an idiot for once, responds with, “Go on. Get it over with you monster.” But he isn’t a monster; that’s shown when he gets right up to her, gun still aimed but not a single bullet is lost from his gun. “You really have changed, Simmons. I’m disappointed in you.” After that, he turns and walks away, giving her yet another chance to kill him.
This has been from the beginning to the second season and most likely, there are questions on my loyalties to not only the team but to S.H.I.E.L.D.; there is also questions on if I am sane or not as well. But I shall continue.
Grant was changed by Skye, noticed by Garrett, who told Skye that his former student was different than the last time Garrett had seen him. Grant not only grew to care about those around him as a friend but in the end, loved Skye. This changed how he was to others around him and he opened up to her, unlike many people before. He killed for her several times, shown when he shot Thomas Nash, joined Hydra and started taking down others, and when he helped Coulson to look for Skye. He also loved her after she shot him. Others may say he fell in love with Kara but it’s obvious that he loved Skye, even though she hates him. (Proved when in 2x19, she uses her powers and he doesn’t look afraid of her. He looks almost stunned and looks at her with a renewed look that seems to say that he loves her. Instead of calling her Inhuman (sorry Fitz, you said it, I didn’t), he says, “So that’s what happened in Puerto Rico. The least you can do is thank me.”
When he was breaking down the mission plan in 2x19, he looked at Skye for almost his entire speech. I mean, he gazed at several moments, even when all he saw was a look of hatred on her face. When he sees her in 2x18, after she’s shot him and it’s the first time they’ve been face to face since then, it’s evident that he cares for her. (He kicked a dead man and shot him in the head once more after she disappeared with Gordon). Also, in 2x18, he hears a gunshot from behind him located where Hunter and Kara are but he doesn’t look back for a single moment. He’s still following Coulson so that they can find Skye. When he talks to Kara, his voice sounds exactly as it did when he was talking to Agent Koenig when he was being interrogated for a lanyard in season one. If you compare the two and the attempts to make Bobbi Morse stop talking to Kara during torturing, you can tell that Grant is using Kara. However, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care for her. He cares for Kara in the form of a friend and is upset that he lost her. This is because she loves him without him having to love her in return and also because she believes that there is still good in him.
We see that after Grant escapes, he begins taking down some of Hydra, evident when part of the team enters the bar that he had a drink with Bakshi at and finds four men dead. They also find Bakshi tied to a chair with duct tape on his mouth that says, “For Coulson.” However, after doing all of this, instead of calling the team, he calls Skye, telling her that he will keep his promise to take her to her father. Now, the Grant we knew at the end of season one, he didn’t always keep his promises. However, in the midst of being in love with Skye, going through a program to keep him from killing himself, and hoping for Skye, he vows to not only keep his promises but to be as good as he can. But as mentioned earlier, he isn’t all that wonderful at it. How could he be?
I would like to address the moment when May says, “We’ve all had tramua in our lives; none of us became a pyschopath because of it.” Not only is it hypocritical but almost every single person on the team has given up values over lesser things than he has (depending on the situation). May, who went through the Bahrain incident, became cold to not only her husband but everyone around her, using the shot first, ask questions later policy more than not. Simmons has killed Bakshi and was going to kill Grant back to back but stopped when she saw that Grant already had his gun out. Skye is just as trained of a killer as Grant, proving that when she is going to rescue Lincoln. (Though she was doing it to protect her friend and it was Hydra, it’s still murder, just for the right side.) Bobbi watched and helped Kara go through intense suffering from brainwashing so that others would be saved. While that was a smart move, Kara ended up becoming a murderer, joining forces with Grant, and torturing Bobbi herself, rigging up the blonde so that it would kill Hunter when he opened up the door. Coulson was willing to sacrifice people when it came to the drawings and going to Puerto Rico; granted, he saved plenty more by going down there and getting it destroyed but he took the risk of destroying almost his whole team down there for the city.Â
What were the traumatic experiences that lead up to these events that May claims to be traumatic for them all? (All the way up to 2x19, when the quote is said).
May: The Bahrain incident, Coulson dying, and the near death of Skye.
Coulson: Dying, nearly losing Skye, and his father’s death.
Simmons: The death of nearly Skye, the death of Trip, and the death of nearly Fitz.
Skye: Growing up without a family and searching for it for almost her entire life, the one she loved turning out to be Hydra, the near death of Fitz, and the death of Trip.Â
Fitz: Nearly dying, his friend turning out to be Hydra, and losing Simmons when he needed her most.
Hunter and Bobbi: Their marriage/ divorce arrangements and the death of Trip.
Grant: Being abused by his family (father, mother, brother) until the age of fifteen, being abandoned out in the woods after being given renewed hope, being trained as a Specialist for ten years (having to keep people at a far range and no attachments), the near death of Skye, killing (he does it often but he doesn’t enjoy it for most people, with the exception of May.  He believes that he has to in order to survive), nearly killing Fitz and Simmons in an attempt to give them a fighting chance, becoming suicidal for a point of his life, learning of his younger brother’s death, and being shot with the result of nearly dying.
Now, out of the list, who has the most, other than Skye? Who has gone through more pain and more suffering than nearly everyone around him? He doesn’t ask for forgiveness but for those around him to attempt to understand him. And I think he deserves it. He’s gone through so much and it’s incredible that he can even function. So before you see all bad, the horrible things that Grant Douglas Ward has done, I want you to see the good things he’s done too (or at the least the best that he can do as far as doing good). I want you to study him, analyze him, and at least give him understanding.
