Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D.: "Turn, Turn, Turn"

 Spoilers!

I've been enjoying Agents of Shield.  At fist I read much second hand whinging at AVClub,  no amateurs at the sport.   At the same time I knew a friend who was following it  with little complaints.  Then I discovered (some how I missed this) that Joss Whedon was involved and I said to myself, "Just wait one bloody second."

I am a Joss fan, and I was perplexed at what could be the problem.  But looking back it wasn't surprising.  His flagship series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, had one major hurdle before I become a faithful fan for life:  the title. 

"Buffy the What?" I said when I first became aware of it in the late '90's.  I continued in fan philistinism until I was finally assimilated sometime in late 2001.  And that seems to be a pattern for Joss projects:   a slow immersion, then a sudden awareness of awesomeness.  From that perspective the dismissive 'tude re AOS made sense.  Give it time and it'll build momentum...it's the Joss way.

So I gave it a shot and was reasonably entertained and not prone to nerd rage until "Turn, Turn, Turn."

There's this baddie called the Clairvoyant, who is not a guy stuck in a wheelchair,

nor the ruthlessly competent, but personally cold, Agent Hand(my personal choice),

But Coulson's old war buddy Garrett.

To which I said, "Um, okay".  But I liked him....

It worked well enough for me because we didn't know much about him besides what Garrett and Coulson said, and people can change for the worse.  But when we discover HYDRA is behind all the rubbish, and then Ward of all people turns out to be a HYDRA agent, that was just too much.

HYDRA was a fictitious terrorist organization introduced in the comics in the 60's with projected red scare written all over it:

HYDRA is a criminal organization dedicated to the achievement of world domination through terrorist and subversive activities on various fronts, resulting in a fascist New World Order. Its extent of operations is worldwide; always attempting to elude the ongoing counter-espionage operations by S.H.I.E.L.D. HYDRA is funded by Baron Strucker's personal fortune, based on his recovered hoard of Nazi plunder from World War II, and funds established by the original leaders of the Japanese secret society that became HYDRA.
The organization is run with behind-the-scenes direction by Baron Strucker, alias Supreme Hydra. Under him is a central ruling committee; under them are individual division chiefs, and under them are the rank and file members and special agents.
In order to become a member of HYDRA, an individual must be a legal adult willing to submit to a thorough investigation of the applicant's personal background and to swear a death-oath of loyalty to HYDRA and its principles.

 Death oath? 

This is where I have a problem.   What worked in pulp comics in the sixties, is hokey as hell today.   It doesn't appear as if HYDRA or it's raison d'tre has been revamped to make it a plausible choice for a well intentioned extremist or naive dupe to swear a "death oath".  I'm really having trouble keeping a straight face on that one.  What's this New World Order(are you serious?) going to do for everyone that makes a "death oath" worth it?  I can think of several scenarios, usually of the bait and switch cult variety, but I'm not getting that's the direction they're going.  They seem to be playing this straight and it's too hokey for words.

 This is the seal of HYDRA:

Isn't it cool?  I mean, on a cool scale of 1 to 10, it's at least a 12.   Yay for coolness.  But...

Is a it believable that a normal, sane person, with no fanatical tendencies, would swear a "death oath" to any organization that had this logo? 

"Oh yes, I really believe the nice people with the skull and tentacle seal just want to make the world a better place.  This will end well."

Seriously?  Ward in no way fits the profile of someone deranged enough to believe this. 

I'm not alone in feeling this direction is not true to the character; fandom is desperately holding out that it's a clever ruse, and Ward's really a double, double agent and Hand isn't dead, having been simply stunned.  Alas, I believe people will be disappointed.  I fear they're playing it straight on this one.

There were other missteps leading to this moment: Hand suspects Coulson, so she's going to kill everyone on the plane?  Coulson's idiot decision to keep May, a combat expert, in cuffs while they are under attack and it has been determined, whatever May did, it had nothing to do with the Clairvoyant.  And, my personal annoyance, the idea that the Clairvoyant had psychic powers at all.  Yes, it's possible since this is a universe with super powers, but it really shouldn't have been a stretch for anyone to wonder if SHIELD had a good old fashioned mole and that's how the Clairvoyant was "clairvoyant".  So on top of this we have HYDRA now. 

Meh.

My personal suspicion is this is MARVEL's call; Whedon and crew can only operate creatively within Marvel's parameters and Marvel, for whatever reason,  is invested in the hokey retro HYDRA meme.

Ah well.  I'll continue watching and hope for the best.