Agents Of SHIELD: Could Grant Ward Return In Season 5?

04/26/2017 04:14 pm EDT

Last night's episode of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD revealed AIDA's master plan for the Framework. It's a plan that could spell doom for Coulson's team of SHIELD agents, but it could also mean new life for Grant Ward.

Ward's return was made possible by the creation of the Framework, an alternate reality constructed through science and dark magic where an alternate timeline has taken place and Ward has survived as a mole for the SHIELD resistance within Hydra. The Framework was constructed by AIDA and the command of Doctor Holden Radcliffe, but in truth, she seeks to use the Framework as a workaround to free herself from Radcliffe's restrictive coding, the same coding that prevents her from killing any member of the SHIELD team outright.

AIDA programmed a new persona for herself within the Framework, just like she did for all of the humans she inserted into that reality. That person, Ophelia, is a human and lead Hydra as Madame Hydra. Using the knowledge she gained from the Darkhold, the resources of the Superior, and the brilliant of Fitz, her lover and Hydra second-in-command within the Framework, she has implemented something called Project Looking Glass. Last night's episode, "All the Madame's Men," revealed that Project Looking Glass would allow AIDA to build herself a new, fully human body in the real world and then upload Ophelia's human consciousness into it, freeing herself from the Framework and from Radcliffe's coding.

Obviously, this would be bad news for the agents of SHIELD since AIDA would then be free to dispose of her human oppressors however she feels like. However, this could provide a loophole to allow Grant Ward's return to become permanent. It seems clear that Project Looking Glass's capabilities are not built specifically for AIDA since she promised a new body to the Superior and seems intent on bringing Framework Fitz back to the real world with her. Should SHIELD defeat Ophelia and Hydra in the Framework, its seems possible that they could build a new body for the noble Grant Ward of the Framework in order to take him back to their reality with them.

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD shocked viewers this season when it revealed that Brett Dalton would return as Grant Ward for a guest starring arc in the show's final story pod. Ward had died in Agents of SHIELD's third season, been possessed by an Inhuman demigod, and then died again.

It seems like Agents of SHIELD has now written a way for Ward to return in the show's fifth season. Of course, that's only assuming that the show gets renewed for a fifth. That renewal has yet to come, though the word is its chances are looking good.

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.

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