Coulson let his pain and anger take over as he crushed Ward's chest with his robotic hand, killing the man who betrayed S.H.I.E.L.D. multiple times. Of course, Ward didn't die, resurrecting as the Marvel villain Hive, who will wreak further havoc on S.H.I.E.L.D.
Back on Earth, Coulson (Clark Gregg) will continue to struggle with his deadly actions on the alien planet and whether they have made him more of a villain than a hero. It will also change the dynamics between him and Fitz (Iain De Caestecker), who is the only other person who knows what Coulson did.
"I don't think he comes back with any easy answer. I think in the moment, it felt like the only course of action possible to him," Gregg told TVGuide.com. "I don't think he's going to know for some time if this was a terrible mistake that changes him and maybe turns him into a super-villain - it becomes, really, a show about a team run by a super-villain - or not."
Keeping such a dark secret will slowly eat away at Coulson and Fitz, leading to a confrontation later this season. But the look they shared in the midseason finale was not one of contempt, but rather a knowing glance between two men who had witnessed terrible acts in battle.
"I didn't feel there was any malice towards Fitz," Gregg said. "He just didn't care too much about anything in that moment. And that's a dark place that Fitz saw him in, and that's a dark place that he goes back to his team in."
Finding out Ward (Brett Dalton) didn't exactly die back on that alien planet will also mess with Coulson's psyche, especially when he resurrects as the creature that inspired S.H.I.E.L.D. enemy No. 1, Hydra.
"Coulson's very much, 'Of course, of course. This is what I did; this is what I deserve.'" Gregg told Yahoo TV. "'Oh really, it's a world-eating creature who may be the source of Hydra and its logo? Of course, that's exactly what I deserve to have created.'"
The new version of Ward will retain some of his former memories as well as the memories from previous hosts of the monstrous Inhuman. In the Marvel comics, the character of Hive was the result of a Hydra experiment to create a creature that is the physical embodiment of the Hydra ideal, composed of multiple parasitic entities.
Showrunners Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen teased Nerdist that the Marvel TV's version of Hive "is going to have its own unique twist and be very different from what fans have seen so far. We will see similarities that pay homage to the original character, but fans will see that Hive is taking an exciting new direction in the world of 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'"
"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." season three resumes on Tuesday, March 8 at 9 p.m. on ABC.
