'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' Season 3 SPOILERS: Three Month Time Jump in Next Episode

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will return with its Season 3 midseason premiere on Tuesday, March 8, and things will be far different for the team when the show comes back, specifically for Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), following a three month time jump in the next episode. There are spoilers ahead, so be warned.

In the midseason finale, Coulson (Clark Gregg) killed Ward on the alien planet of Maveth, but the alien creature that Hydra so desperately wanted to bring to Earth is now living inside of him. So while Ward is gone, he's not exactly gone.

"It's not like Ward is dead," Dalton told TVLine in its Winter TV preview. "But that version of Ward that we hopefully fell in love with is no longer."

So how much of Ward, if any, is left in that body? It's unclear, but Dalton will get to play another side of the character when the show comes back. "It will be interesting to see Grant Ward 'alive' with that wriggly thing underneath his skin," said executive producer Maurissa Tancharoen.

Meanwhile, Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Fitz (Iain de Caestecker) will deal with the fallout of what happened on the alien planet. "Coulson acted on an impulse" in killing Ward, Gregg said, "and he's pretty messed up about it."

Gregg further expanded on this point in a separate interview with IGN.

"What I know so far, it looks like the biggest possible effect, because it works on two levels," Gregg said. "On the one hand, it means Coulson having crossed a line that I think he takes very seriously, which is, 'If you're trying to protect the world from evil and you then become evil, haven't you become part of the problem?' That's a little bit what's going on for him, even though I don't think that answer's cut-and-dry in this case."

This should be the most fascinating character aspect to explore when the show returns in March. Coulson has always been a character who acted with a true moral compass, who never wavered from his dedication to protecting the innocent and defeating the evil around him. But in killing Ward, he seems to have taken a step down a darker path.

Fitz, meanwhile, has to deal with the emotional repercussions of failing to bring Will back alive to Jemma (Elizabeth Henstridge).

However, the show will resume three months after the events of the midseason finale, so are Fitz and Simmons finally going to become an item? "Uhhhh, I cannot confirm!" Henstridge said before adding that "Jemma's feelings haven't changed; they've only gotten stronger."

Finally, Ming-Na Wen points out that life for the S.H.I.E.L.D. crew is "far from normal" because HYDRA, Lash and other Inhumans are still out there.

What do you think will happen when Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns? Let us know in the comments section below.