ABC Studios/Marvel Studios
The first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was certainly one that built to a big finish. After a year of smaller stories about the mysterious resurrection of Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and the origins of well-meaning-hacker-turned-government-stooge Skye (Chloe Bennett), the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier pushed the season’s final episodes into an all-new direction. The organization fell apart, Agent Ward (Brett Dalton) was revealed to be a traitor, and Bill Paxton’s John Garrett chewed up so much scenery as the newly-revealed Hydra Big Bad that it was amazing the rest of the cast had anything to lean against.
With the show’s second season about to begin, you might need a refresher about where—and, indeed, what—S.H.I.E.L.D. is after the dramatic events that happened from Episode 16, “End of the Beginning,” all the way through Episode 22, “Beginning of the End.” We’re happy to assist. Read on for a primer of everything you’ll need to know before tomorrow’s Season 2 premiere.
Last Season’s Cliffhanger
This depends on how you define “cliffhanger,” really. The big one was the shift in focus for the show, and Coulson himself, when Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) showed up and told his former right-hand-man that the world needs a S.H.I.E.L.D. (preferably not one filled with covert operatives of a paramilitary terrorist organization, but perhaps beggars can’t be choosers), and that Phil Coulson was the man to fix things.
Of course, there were two other events in the last episode of the season that require more than a little follow-up, as well. Firstly, Coulson started drawing the same freaky schematic diagram that Garrett had been obsessed with when he was going insane after exposure to the Centipede serum, and secondly, Skye’s father was informed that she had been found. But what wasn’t revealed was who, and what, Skye’s father actually is. Foreshadowing? We think so.
Where Is…?
If nothing else, you have to give Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. credit for dramatically changing where each of its leads stood throughout the season. Only one—Melinda May (Ming Na)—escaped unchanged, and even then, her entire modus operandi is that she’s an unstoppable force. Or maybe an unmovable object? Perhaps even both.
For Agent Phil Coulson, he ended the season as S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Phil Coulson, even if it’s not clear what S.H.I.E.L.D. actually is anymore (besides “not very popular with the international community after that whole being infiltrated by Hydra” thing, of course). For Skye, she’s gone from being a rebel to being part of the military industrial complex, and when we last saw her, had definitely shifted her perspective towards wanting to support the status quo.
Agent Grant Ward was, of course, revealed to be Mole and Traitor Grant Ward, although there were also hints that perhaps there’s a good man under there after all … even if he did try and kill both Jemma Simmons and Leo Fitz (Elizabeth Henstridge and Iain De Caestecker, respectively), a move that left Fitz in a coma and Simmons unsure about what she’s been working for all this time.
Questions Season 2 Better Answer
Oh, there are so many. The first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was particularly adept at setting up questions that it didn’t even attempt to resolve. For example:
- No, really: What brought Coulson back to life? Sure, we know that it was experiments based on the blood of a mysterious blue guy S.H.I.E.L.D. had in a tube, but we know nothing about that blue guy.
- What is Skye? Is she even human? Why are her parents such a big deal?
- What is Rising Tide? Remember Rising Tide? It was the Anonymous-esque organization that Skye belonged to in the pilot that was, it seemed, a force to be reckoned with before quietly disappearing into the background soon after. Was there any real point to them?
- What about Deathlok? Seriously, the bad guys straight-up invented a cyborg killing machine in the first season. That seems like a big deal, even in the souped-up technological world of the Marvel universe. Even if we don’t see J. August Richards’ Mike Peterson/Deathlok again, it’d be nice to think that we’ll get to know whether people are, you know, making sure no one else is out there building another killer cyborg.
Essential Catch-Up Episodes:
To properly get yourself in the right frame of mind for the return of the show, you need to marathon the final seven episodes of the season—”End of the Beginning,” “Turn, Turn, Turn,” “Providence,” “The Only Light in the Darkness,” “Nothing Personal,” “Ragtag” and “Beginning of the End”—and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which is an essential part of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s collapse.
Ta-da! Now you’re all ready for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2. Happy viewing.
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