| “ | You remember that speech you used to give us, Nick, about how one man can accomplish anything once he realizes he can be something bigger? Well, now I am. | „ |
| ~ Garrett displaying his narcissism to Coulson and Nick Fury by unknowingly revealing he misheard Fury's speech. |
| “ | There's a reason why they say "Cut off a head". Now, I'll be unstop-- | „ |
| ~ Garrett's last words as he becomes a Deathlok, moments before he is vaporized by Coulson. |
Jonathan "John" Garrett, also known as the Clairvoyant, is one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside Hive) of the TV series Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
He is a turncoat S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who joined HYDRA and intended on creating an army of super-soldiers through the Centipede Project, and mainly to find a drug that saved Phil Coulson's life so he could save his own. He is also the mentor of series nemesis Grant Ward. In an alternate timeline in 1983, he joined Nathaniel Malick as his right-hand to help him create a new world order through mass chaos.
He was portrayed by the late Bill Paxton and whilst in his young form, he was portrayed by his son James Paxton.
Roles[]
He serves as the main antagonist of Season 1, the posthumous overarching antagonist of Season 2, one of the two posthumous overarching antagonists (alongside Jiaying) of Season 3, a mentioned antagonist in Season 5, and a supporting antagonist in Season 7.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- If his villainous breakdown at the end of season 1 is any indication, Garrett would've gone to plan the destruction of the world after succeeding in his goals in order to create a new better one for himself.
- Garrett proved to be nothing but a narcissist when he misheard Fury's one-man speech: it said that one man could accomplish anything once he could be a part of something bigger; though Garrett thought that the speech said that the man could accomplish anything once he realized he could be something bigger.
- Even when an annoyed Fury and Coulson pointed out this petty mistake while berating Garrett for not paying full attention to it in the first place, Garrett selfishly refused to care and instead attempted to have both Fury and Coulson killed for this, proving that he actually chose to twist Fury's speech to satisfy his HYDRA beliefs.
- While Garrett claimed he was betrayed by S.H.I.E.L.D., at the end of the day, this very claim made him a hypocrite as he betrayed S.H.I.E.L.D., and even if his excuse was a genuine tragedy, it justifies nothing Garrett did as his crimes make his excuse extremely petty.
- Abused Grant Ward for years after releasing him from prison with his methods of training being extremely brutal, such as remorselessly beating him up for no reason, and leaving him vulnerable in the woods for 6 months. He even made Ward kill his dog Buddy to prove his loyalty to HYDRA and ability to cut off all attachments, which emotionally scarred him.
- Also, while many characters in-universe point out that his abusive mentoring of Ward doesn't excuse the latter's actions, it definitely contributed to them. The Framework in Season 4 even goes out of his way to show that Ward would have turned out fine if he wasn't raised by a sociopath like Garrett.
- Created the Clairvoyant persona, murdering several people including 3 of his own team, Trip's ex-partner Dan Monroe and certainly many more, to hide his agenda against S.H.I.E.L.D., only to pin this on an innocent Thomas Nash.
- Kidnapped various people to use them as leverage against his subordinates to enforce their cooperation, notably using Mike Peterson/Deathlok's son Ace to control him.
- Was in charge of planting prosthetic eyes into many people including Akela Amador, Mike Peterson, and the centipede soldiers, and planted a kill switch in case any of them failed the mission.
- Ordered Edison Po to torture Phil Coulson (one of his oldest friends) for information on the procedure that brought him back to life. After Po was unable to extract any information, Garrett killed him for his failure and handed the job to Raina. While Garrett claimed that he had nothing to do with Coulson's torture, it doesn't go unnoticed that he also did nothing to prevent it.
- Ordered Ian Quinn to shoot Daisy "Skye" Johnson and leave her for dead so it would force Coulson and his team to uncover how he came back so they can save her.
- Kidnapped a paralyzed Thomas Nash and framing him for being the Clairvoyant, while also secretly ordering Ward to execute him to end S.H.I.E.L.D.'s investigation.
- Led a jailbreak on the prison the Fridge, releasing all of the inmates (which include psychopaths and ones with powers) and looting all of the stored weapons that were confiscated by S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Remorselessly beats up Ward just to make him remember who he is.
- Ordered Deathlok to give Ward a heart attack to force Skye to unlock the hard drive containing Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons' research on the GH.325 formula that saved Coulson's life.
- Ordered Ward to kill FitzSimmons after the former used an EMP to short-circuit his cybernetics.
- Brutally killed General Jacobs for questioning his sanity by tearing out one of his ribs and then stabbing him with it.
- Stole Gordon's blood to gain his teleporting powers.
- Kidnapped Simmons on Malick's behalf to extract information for Fitz's location.
- Tortured Deke Shaw (FitzSimmons' grandson from the future) to enforce Simmons' cooperation.
- Assisted Malick and the Chronicoms in destroying every S.H.I.E.L.D. base and all its agents, who at the time were still his trusted colleagues.
- Tried to use bombs to blow up the Lighthouse base and kill all of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents inside.
- After Coulson met this version of Garrett, he openly said that Garrett was no different at that point in his life than he was in his future. This means that even before he joined HYDRA and betrayed S.H.I.E.L.D., he was already a self-serving narcissist to begin with. His personality and sadistic nature just further add to his heinous character.
Trivia[]
- In Season 7, after Malick betrayed him and left him to die by his own bombs, Garrett opted to join Coulson and his team by claiming that a new timeline means a "new John Garrett". While some would argue that it was a sign of redemption, it is most likely that he did that to save his own life and to get a chance of revenge on Malick, therefore making him no less evil than he was in the future.
External Links[]
- John Garrett on the Villains Wiki
- John Garrett on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
- John Garrett on the Disney Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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John Garrett | Daniel Whitehall | Sibyl | ||