Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D./Season Two

## Marvel Cinematic Universe

*"Your whole life... our whole lives have been leading up to his moment."
"Sorry. I don't buy into the whole 'this is your destiny' thing. We're taking the Obelisk, and we're leaving. There's too many lives at stake."
"You got it all wrong. Whitehall, everyone has got it all wrong. This doesn't destroy. It gives life; new life. We finally get to find out what we become."*
―Raina and Skye[src]
The **Second Season** of *Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.* premiered on September 23, 2014 on ABC.

## Synopsis

#### Episodes 1-10

After helping to thwart HYDRA, Coulson was appointed as Director and tasked with rebuilding the agency. This won't be an easy job to accomplish with the majority of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents either killed, secretly working for HYDRA or free agents. Agent Melinda May, expert pilot, martial artist and longtime friend, will continue to look after Coulson in the wake of the mysterious etchings he's been carving into walls. What do these etchings mean, and can Coulson be trusted? Grant Ward, highly trained in combat and espionage, was found to be a HYDRA mole and a traitor to S.H.I.E.L.D. and locked up away from the world and his former teammates. But this isn't the last we've seen of him... After being left to die in the middle of the ocean by Ward, Agent Leo Fitz, brilliant engineer, and Agent Jemma Simmons, genius bio-chemist, found a way to escape their watery grave. But all did not go well for Fitz, who was left in a coma and may never regain his full cognitive functions; a devastating blow to Simmons. And computer hacker Skye, now a full-fledged S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, discovered her origins as an 0-8-4 -- an object of unknown origin - and that her parents were considered "monsters." Could Skye have darkness lying dormant inside of her? Also joining Coulson's core team is Lance Hunter, a dashing mercenary sharp shooter with a quick wit. Since he didn't rise up through the ranks, does he have an ulterior motive for helping out the team? Who can Coulson trust?

#### Episodes 11-22

After discovering an alien city with ties to his resurrection, Coulson and his team destroyed it before the forces of HYDRA could claim its secrets, eliminating the villainous Whitehall in the process. But new threats to the world have arisen, including Skye's father, Cal, who now seeks retribution against Coulson for stealing his revenge against Whitehall; a disturbing alliance between former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Ward and Agent 33; the enigmatic Raina, who struggles with her transformation into something inhuman by the alien Obelisk and seeks vengeance; and Skye, who developed mysterious new powers from the Obelisk but whose lack of experience with her new abilities may threaten the safety of those she loves. Meanwhile, Bobbi and Mack begin the next phase of a plan which seems to have grave repercussions for Coulson and his team, who are unaware that there's another mysterious force moving against them. And as Hunter is forced to make the biggest choice of his life, Coulson will find his mission threatened by this shocking endgame.

## Plot

### The Diviner

Phil Coulson, the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., gathers various new operatives in order to quell the still-kicking HYDRA. While combating a section of HYDRA led by Daniel Whitehall, the new agency finds themselves assailed by various hindrances. Leo Fitz, after his near-death experience by Grant Ward, suffers from brain damage which only worsens after Jemma Simmons is instructed by Coulson to infiltrate HYDRA as a mole, and the agency's efforts are continually forestalled by General Glenn Talbot. While working undercover, Simmons slowly gains HYDRA's trust, especially after partaking in a vital operation to subdue Donnie Gill, a teenager with cryokinetic powers.

The new S.H.I.E.L.D. sets out to recover the original 0-8-4, a mysterious alien Obelisk which is lethal to those who touch it. Daniel Whitehall, a veteran member of HYDRA who has somehow remained young from World War II, seems obsessed with it, and sends in superpowered assassin Carl Creel to steal it. In the ensuing struggle, Agents Isabelle Hartley and Idaho are killed, leaving their teammate, freelance mercenary Lance Hunter, to remain with S.H.I.E.L.D. in their honor. Creel is soon apprehended by S.H.I.E.L.D. and delivered into Talbot's custody, but the Obelisk is taken by Raina. She delivers it to Calvin Zabo, a mysterious, homicidal surgeon who is actually the biological father of Agent Skye and has been seeking her for years.

Study on the Obelisk unveils the possibility that it may be linked to the strange cartographic symbols Coulson has been writing since being resurrected by the GH.325 serum extracted from the blood of the Guest House alien. On a mission to recover a painting with the symbols engraved into the back, Coulson and Agent Melinda May get into a dangerous scuffle with HYDRA operative Sunil Bakshi and the brainwashed Agent 33, who also sought the painting. The bout ends with Agent 33 being horribly disfigured by May, and the painting falling into S.H.I.E.L.D. hands.

Meanwhile, Whitehall discovers that Raina stole the Obelisk and threatens her with torture unless she brings it back to him. With Zabo unwilling to make the agreement unless Skye is brought to him, Raina attempts to blackmail Coulson into turning Skye over to her or else she would expose Simmons to HYDRA. Her threat fails, and Simmons is extracted by fellow HYDRA mole Bobbi Morse, who happens to be Agent Hunter's ex-wife. In an attempt to rid themselves of S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA sends in a number of agents posing as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to perform terrorist movements against the United Nations, prompting Senator Christian Ward, the older brother of Grant Ward and Colonel Talbot's benefactor, to issue a manhunt of all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Coulson, realizing that Senator Ward merely wishes to locate his brother and incarcerate him in order to cover his position as a senator, makes a deal with the politician and hands Ward over in exchange for keeping the military off their backs. However, Ward ends up escaping during transfer and murders his brother and their parents.

While attempting to track down Ward, S.H.I.E.L.D. takes notice of a number of murders. The victims, who were all test subjects for Project T.A.H.I.T.I., all have the alien symbols carved into their corpses. The killer is revealed to be ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sebastian Derik, who was also a T.A.H.I.T.I. subject, and now suffers from a more extreme form of the schizophrenic compulsions that Coulson suffers. Coulson apprehends Derik and discovers that the alien symbols are actually blueprints to an alien cityscape. Zabo, who has extensive knowledge of the city and the Obelisk, which he calls the "Diviner", allies with Whitehall to assist in finding it. Unknown to Whitehall, Zabo actually has his own agenda; years prior, Whitehall vivisected Zabo's wife, who had an unnatural immunity to the Diviner's deadly effects and possessed a prolonged lifespan. Using her blood and bodily organs to secede his own age, Whitehall earned Zabo's enmity.

From Zabo, Whitehall learns that Raina can also wield the Diviner without dying, and sends Agent 33 to recover her. S.H.I.E.L.D. gets to her first, and learn from her that the aliens responsible for leaving the Diviner and the city, the Kree, built them so only those with specific genetic material could access them. Her information proves true, as Agent Alphonso Mackenzie enters a trance-like state upon entering the city and attacks his fellow agents. Ward, now once again working with HYDRA, abducts both Raina and Skye and brings them to San Juan, Puerto Rico, the city's hiding place, where Skye reunites with her father. As S.H.I.E.L.D. arrives, Whitehall discovers Zabo's true intentions and a three-way battle ensues between him, HYDRA, and S.H.I.E.L.D. While Whitehall is gunned down by Coulson, Zabo, Ward, and a freed Agent 33 escape. Raina takes the Diviner into the city, followed by Skye, and the two women uncover a temple-like structure that reacts to the Diviner's presence. Locked inside the temple with Agent Antoine Triplett, Skye and Raina are exposed to a mysterious mutagen exhaled from the Diviner. Agent Triplett dies as the women gain superpowers: Skye now has the power to generate seismic energy, while Raina's physical appearance has been drastically altered into a monstrous, animal-like form.

### The Inhumans

The women's transformation attracts the attention of two individuals: Gordon, a man without eyes and the ability to teleport who is in possession of a second Diviner; and Vin-Tak, a member of the Kree race. The former seeks out Raina, who had been abandoned by Calvin Zabo after her transformation and attempted to commit suicide, and rescues her from a S.H.I.E.L.D. team sent to incarcerate her. The latter's arrival on Earth prompts Lady Sif of Asgard to travel there as well and intercept Vin-Tak. Brought in by S.H.I.E.L.D., Vin-Tak reveals that the genetically engineered humans from which Raina and Skye descend, called the Inhumans, were created by a rogue Kree faction in an attempt to win the Kree a massive intergalactic war that was waged thousands of years ago. He also confirms the existence of more Diviners scattered across the Earth. Vin-Tak traveled to Earth with the intention of killing the Inhumans. In the chaos, Skye's new powers are revealed to S.H.I.E.L.D., resulting in an intense standoff that ends with Vin-Tak having his memory erased and escorted offworld by Sif.

Lance Hunter begins to suspect that Bobbi Morse and Alphonso Mackenzie are working for a third party, but when he confronts Mackenzie with this, he is knocked out and abducted. While Mackenzie deals with Hunter, Morse remains behind to cover their activities by assisting Phil Coulson in dealing with Skye's still-at large father, who makes another attempt at claiming his daughter and ruining S.H.I.E.L.D. by gathering a team of dangerous individuals from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Gifted Index. Skye, while undergoing a therapy session under Agent May's ex-husband, Dr. Andrew Garner, in an effort to control her abilities, intervenes during a brutal altercation between S.H.I.E.L.D. and Zabo's team, during which Zabo is suddenly extracted by Gordon and Skye unleashes her powers once again. She injures herself after trying to contain them, forcing Coulson to send her to the Retreat, an isolated cabin in the middle of the woods meant for containing dangerous gifteds, until they can figure out a way to deal with her powers.

Meanwhile, Morse and Mackenzie bring Hunter to their leader: Robert Gonzales, a former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. who, during the HYDRA Uprising, formed a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. loyalists with the intention of revitalizing S.H.I.E.L.D. Upon learning of Coulson's organization, Gonzales instructed Morse and Mackenzie to infiltrate Coulson's faction and determine whether or not they could be considered allies or enemies; given the amount of damage caused by the crisis with the Diviner, Gonzales deems Coulson insane and unworthy of being director. While Hunter manages to escape Gonzales' S.H.I.E.L.D., he is unable to warn Coulson in time, and Gonzales' S.H.I.E.L.D. leads an assault on Coulson's team, during which Melinda May, Leo Fitz, and Jemma Simmons are captured while Coulson escapes. Gonzales acquires Nick Fury's Toolbox, which Gonzales is especially interested in due to its supposed importance to Coulson. He sends Morse and Agent Tomas Calderon to bring Skye in, and while she is trying to flee from her pursuers, she unleashes her powers to defend herself, injuring Calderon. Gordon then comes to Skye's aid, whisking her away from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s reach.

Skye wakes up in Afterlife, a settlement for Inhumans, where Gordon introduces her to Lincoln Campbell and leaves. Campbell explains the basic principles of Terrigenesis and shows Skye around the settlement, teaching her more about the Inhuman way of life. Though instructed not to, Campbell accidentally reveals that Skye's enemy Raina is also in Afterlife. Enraged, Skye confronts Raina and tries to kill her; however, the fight is interrupted by the leader of Afterlife, Jiaying. When Skye is calmer, Jiaying offers to train her to control her powers. Skye accepts, and the subsequent training goes well. However, when Skye opens up to Jiaying about her previous, difficult life, Jiaying reveals that she is Skye's mother, and that she had searched for her daughter for years. Jiaying convinces Skye to accept her father, and the reunited family has dinner together.

Meanwhile, Coulson and Hunter meet up and form a plan to take back S.H.I.E.L.D. and take down HYDRA. They search for Skye at the Retreat, but do not find her; while resting, they are discovered by Gonzales' men, who try to break into the house. Built for housing strength, the building holds the agents out while Coulson and Hunter rig a diversion that allows them to incapacitate the agents. However, once they try to steal the agents' Quinjet, they are captured by more agents sent to bring them in. While the Quinjet tries to take off, it is stopped by Deathlok, whom Coulson had called for reinforcements. Deathlok rescues Hunter and Coulson and pilots the Quinjet to the next step in Coulson's plan: Grant Ward. During the journey, Coulson is contacted by Leo Fitz, who has escaped Gonzales' hold on the Playground, and has brought along the Toolbox. The team meets up with Fitz and continues towards Ward.

In Afterlife, Skye begins to feel sympathy for her father, but agrees with Jiaying that he must leave the secret sanctuary due to his unstable nature. Skye does not inform her father of this, and Jiaying tells Zabo he may leave Afterlife to pick up his belongings. Skye pretends she wants to travel with him to see his old medical practice. Zabo agrees, and Gordon transports them both to Milwaukee. Unbeknownst to Skye, Gordon also transports Campbell, to watch over Skye while she is with the volatile Zabo. The pair reach the building and Zabo reminisces about his old life before hearing Campbell in the next room. Enraged, Zabo fights Campbell before being interrupted by HYDRA agents.

Simultaneously, Coulson finds Ward and Agent 33 preparing to find a life together. However, Coulson captures 33 and baits Ward to a meeting, where he recruits him to help the fight against HYDRA. Ward uses his brainwashed thrall Sunil Bakshi to attend a meeting with Deathlok, where the pair finds HYDRA tracking the Inhuman Gordon's path. Once HYDRA had found Gordon's last appearance, Milwaukee, Ward, Coulson, and the others follow them in hopes of defeating them. However, they find themselves in the midst of a battle between Zabo and HYDRA agents. Ward and Coulson fight through several HYDRA agents, before catching a fleeting glimpse of Skye. Before they can reach her, however, Gordon transports her away and Zabo leaps through after them. Ward and Coulson meet up with 33 and an injured Hunter, and the team retreats. However, Deathlok and Campbell are captured by HYDRA, and to have a chance at a rescue, Coulson turns himself in to Gonzales, hoping they can work together to free the captured men.

At Afterlife, Skye is enraged with Gordon for leaving Campbell behind as Zabo confronts Jiaying over the plan to abandon him. Gordon tries to retrieve Campbell, but fails, revealing he has been captured by HYDRA. As Zabo and Jiaying move away, Raina emerges, and she helps Skye convince Gordon that he should transport Skye back to S.H.I.E.L.D. for a rescue mission.

Gonzales eventually agrees to help Coulson, in exchange for Coulson opening Nick Fury's Toolbox. Coulson gathers his team, including himself, Melinda May, Grant Ward, Leo Fitz, and Jemma Simmons. They determine the HYDRA base where Campbell and Deathlok are being held is in the Arctic, and plan to fly the Bus there with Gonzales' agents acting as back up, rescue the prisoners, and download the base's main servers. When the team enters the Bus, they see Skye, who Gordon had left to join her old team. Happy to be reunited, the agents fly to the Arctic. In the assault, the Bus is destroyed; however, the team escapes on a Quinjet and successfully enter the base. Splitting up, the agents rescue Deathlok and Campbell, downloading the servers and leaving, signaling for their backup to destroy the base. Back at the Playground, Coulson contacts Maria Hill and gives her the location of Loki's Scepter, having discovered the information in the base. Coulson and his supporters meet with Gonzales and his supporters, and the two factions work out a mutual agreement to work together with Coulson as the Director and Gonzales and a council advising him. The focus turns to the recent revelations surrounding the mysterious Inhumans.

While Skye is at the Playground with Campbell, Coulson and Melinda May ask her about the Monolith, which is a stone in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s possession that Gordon and Raina had tried to steal. Skye answers that she has no idea what it is and neither does Campbell. Though Coulson doubts Campbell, Skye tells Coulson and May that Campbell and Jiaying helped her control her powers, and that she trusts them. When May tells Skye that the Inhumans were dangerous, Skye retorts that May was as well, revealing that the woman and girl May had fought in Bahrain were also Inhumans.

S.H.I.E.L.D. determines the location of Afterlife, and Robert Gonzales calls for an attack on the settlement. Coulson convinces him that they should have a peaceful meeting with Jiaying instead of simply attacking and Gonzales reluctantly agrees. Coulson consults Skye, who asks him not to travel to Afterlife. Coulson insists that he must, to assess the number of Inhumans there are and to note them on the Index. Skye asks to allow her and Campbell to go before S.H.I.E.L.D. to prepare the community, before revealing that Jiaying is her mother. Coulson agrees, and Skye and Campbell leave the Playground.

While Coulson prepares for the trip, Gonzales tells him that he should not go, citing Coulson's personal ties to many of the people involved. Gonzales proposes he should go himself, and the council backs him. Coulson agrees to oversee the mission from the Playground and the team leaves.
However, Bobbi Morse believes she is flying with Melinda May to Afterlife, only to have her Quinjet rerouted by May, who reveals herself to be Agent 33 in disguise and captures Morse with Grant Ward. Once S.H.I.E.L.D. realizes what has happened, the real May and Lance Hunter form a team to rescue Morse. During the operation, May tricks Ward into shooting and killing Agent 33 and the team successfully retrieves Morse, though she is shot. The team returns to the Playground where Morse undergoes surgery.

In Afterlife, Skye convinces Jiaying to meet with S.H.I.E.L.D. However, Jiaying secretly plans to assassinate Gonzales and attack S.H.I.E.L.D., judging them a threat to the Inhumans' existence. To gain S.H.I.E.L.D.'s trust, Jiaying turns Calvin Zabo over to the agency as a sign of good faith. S.H.I.E.L.D. reaches the settlement and Gonzales and Jiaying sit down to talk while the others wait outside. In the meeting, Jiaying kills Gonzales with a Terrigen Crystal and shoots herself in the shoulder with Gonzales' gun, making it seem as if the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent had tried to kill her. As part of Jiaying's plan, while she is helped from the building by Skye and Campbell. Gordon steals one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjets and fires at the meeting building, completely destroying it and destroying the evidence of Jiaying's actions, while making it seem as if S.H.I.E.L.D. attacked first. In the chaos, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team leaves, denying their having instigating an attack. Skye stays in Afterlife with her mother. That night, Raina confronts Jiaying over her true plan, which she has foreseen with her powers. Jiaying kills Raina, but sees too late that Skye has witnessed her mother's actions. Skye realizes her mother's intentions and turns against her, but is captured by Jiaying's men and imprisoned as her mother plans an attack on S.H.I.E.L.D.

At the Playground, the second part of Jiaying's plan takes effect as Zabo drinks his formula, which causes a physical transformation resulting in amplified strength. Zabo begins to wreak havoc on the base as a distraction while Jiaying takes over the *Iliad*. However, Coulson pins him against the wall and successfully convinces him to help S.H.I.E.L.D. instead of Jiaying. Zabo joins Coulson in preparing a team to retake the *Iliad* from Jiaying's control.

On the *Iliad*, a small attack team of Inhumans captures the ship and readies it for Jiaying's arrival. When she does, she brings several cases of Terrigen Crystals, the final piece of her plan to drop them over the world, creating new Inhumans or killing those that are not. She sets an S.O.S. beacon to lure more S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to the ship. Meanwhile, Alphonso Mackenzie avoids capture by the Inhumans and begins taking back the ship. He finds Skye imprisoned on board and frees her, sending her to hack the ship's beacon and change it. In doing so, Skye alerts Coulson, who calls off most of his attack force before continuing on himself. Once on the *Iliad*, Coulson, Mackenzie, and Fitz work together to defeat and kill Gordon, though Gordon drops a Terrigen Crystal. Coulson catches it to prevent it killing Fitz and Mackenzie, but it begins to petrify his arm before Mackenzie chops off the arm with an axe. Meanwhile, Skye recruits Lincoln Campbell to help fight against Jiaying and with the help of Melinda May, they defeat Alisha Whitley and Skye leaves to confront her mother. The two women fight each other, with each using her powers in an attempt to defeat the other. However, Zabo appears and breaks the two apart, killing his beloved wife to spare his daughter the pain of killing her. The Inhuman attack ends with the death of Jiaying.

At the request of Skye, Coulson uses the Memory Overwriting Machine on Zabo so that he is free to begin a normal life again. Zabo opens a veterinary practice that Skye visits to check on him, though her father no longer recognizes her. Coulson begins to form plans for a team of Inhumans, which Skye agrees to join. Mackenzie agrees to stay with S.H.I.E.L.D., while May decides to take a vacation. Ward, broken with the death of Agent 33, gathers the remaining HYDRA agents and reforms the organization, with himself as the new leader. Jemma Simmons and Leo Fitz study the Monolith; however, when Fitz leaves and Simmons stays to check the containment chamber, the Monolith escapes the container and turns to a liquid form, swallowing Simmons before returning to its solid state.

## Cast

### Starring Cast

* Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson
* Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May / Agent 33
* Brett Dalton as Grant Ward
* Chloe Bennet as Skye / Agent 33
* Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz
* Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons
* Nick Blood as Lance Hunter
* Adrianne Palicki as Bobbi Morse

### Supporting Cast

* B.J. Britt as Agent Antoine Triplett
* Henry Simmons as Agent Alphonso Mackenzie
* Reed Diamond as Werner Reinhardt/Daniel Whitehall
* Simon Kassianides as Sunil Bakshi
* Adrian Pasdar as Brigadier General Glenn Talbot / Sunil Bakshi
* Patton Oswalt as Agent Billy Koenig / Agent Sam Koenig
* Kyle MacLachlan as Doctor Calvin Zabo
* Ruth Negga as Raina
* Maya Stojan as Kara Palamas/Agent 33
* Dichen Lachman as Jiaying
* Jamie Harris as Gordon
* Blair Underwood as Doctor Andrew Garner
* Edward James Olmos as Agent Robert Gonzales
* Christine Adams as Agent Anne Weaver
* Mark Allan Stewart as Agent Oliver
* Luke Mitchell as Lincoln Campbell
* J. August Richards as Mike Peterson/Deathlok
* Brendan Wayne as Jiaying's Assistant
* Alicia Vela-Bailey as Alisha Whitley

### Marvel Cinematic Universe Guest Stars

* Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter
* Neal McDonough as Dum Dum Dugan
* Kenneth Choi as Jim Morita
* Jaimie Alexander as Sif
* Henry Goodman as Doctor List
* Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill

## Trivia

* Brett Dalton is only credited for the episodes he appears in.

## External Links

* Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (season 2) on Wikipedia