I could probably yap about wards' character development and as much as I love his character he would not have been as memorable or great if they gave him a redemption arc in season 2 and I'm so glad they didn't.
It would be a different story if they prolonged the Hydra arc over, say, the first 3 seasons and had him be a reoccurring character similar to Zuko from Atla then a redemption arc would have made sense.
BUT IM SO GLAD THEY DIDNT BECAUSE HIS CHARACTER IS SO INTERESTING
He's probably one of my favourite antagonist characters. Purely because that boy was for himself and himself ALONE.
I am convinced that if Shield had the upper hand over Hydra after the events at the end of season 1 HE WOULD HAVE 100% surrendered and been like "you guys have shown me the light and meaning in teamwork and family 🥹"
His motive was I had to do what I had to do to ensure my survival and no one can convince me to do otherwise.
I also don't believe he truly loved Skye. I think he saw that they had commonality. ALSO, she saw him as a "good guy" and "saviour" she was one of the last to find out he was a traitor so I bet he thought he could manipulate her into believing him and continuing to worship him as a good guy. BUT Skye is smarter than he credited her for, and also, she's more loyal than he gave her credit for. He's the type to be loyal to a person. She's the type to be loyal to a family. Because that's all she ever wanted. And that was his mistake in believing that she would remain loyal to him alone.
Also him repeatedly trying to redeem himself in season 2 was just because he realised that him being with family was better than him being alone and except he realised that way too late.