We are going into the back half of Season Three of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD and a lot has happened since the show started, so we thought we would take a quick look back for anyone who isn’t caught up on what Marvel has been doing on the small screen.
Phil Coulson was introduced in the first Iron Man film (which feels like a lifetime ago at this point) as is an agent of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Logistics Division or SHIELD as it is called now. After Iron Man he showed up in the sequel as well as Thor. In The Avengers, Loki stabbed him in the chest with his scepter which was the catalyst for all of the heroes to come together to defeat the Asgardian Mussolini.
And that’s the last we thought we were going to see of Agent Phil Coulson. Fortunately for the fans, Coulson saw his resurrection on the small screen with Agents of SHIELD. Season one reintroduced us to our favorite agent, who, according to him, died for just a little while but came back and spent time healing in Tahiti (which is a magical place).
Now he’s back and ready to put his own team together to go out and investigate the strange and unusual. He recruits Grant Ward, who is a weapon’s expert and all around all-star agent (or so we think), scientists Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons who work so closely together that everyone refers to them as Fitz-Simmons, and Melinda May, a former partner of his, who has intentionally kept herself out of active duty because of something in her past. They also find and recruit Skye, a hacker/activist with a mysterious past.
The first half of the season is the team getting used to each other as they seek out weird and unexplained phenomenon. Coulson also begins to realize that Tahiti isn’t so magical and there might be more to his resurrection than director Nick Fury let on.
Things take a 180 degree turn as the events of Captain America: Winter Solider leave SHIELD in ruins. Hydra has been infiltrating the organization for decades and make a play for total control. At the same time, Coulson discovers that Tahiti is actually T.A.H.I.T.I., a project that he and Fury had been working on to resurrect fallen Avengers until Coulson felt like they were crossing too many lines ethically. In the midst of the chaos, Ward reveals himself to be working with Hydra and betrays the whole team. Season one ends with Ward escaping, Fitz-Simmons almost drowning and Coulson being promoted to Director of SHIELD. He now has the responsibility to rebuild the organization as he sees fit. Oh, and the drug that was used in project T.A.H.I.T.I. has left Coulson with the compulsion to carve mysterious alien writings on the walls.
Season two focuses on the team rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D. They discover an obelisk that becomes the ever criticized Marvel MacGuffin as both Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. want the object. Hydra wants to weaponize it because it seems to disintegrate anyone who touches it and S.H.I.E.L.D. wants it as well, especially after they discover a connection between the obelisk and the alien language that Coulson has been writing. As they dig deeper into the mystery they discover that Skye has a connection to the obelisk as well and a hidden temple where the obelisk is activated, giving Skye superpowers.
The second half of the season has Skye exploring her new powers and Coulson discovering a new race of humans, all who have the same connection with the aliens that Skye has. The aliens are the Kree (a name familiar to fans of Guardians of the Galaxy) and years ago they tried to turn humans into weapons. This has left many people with the ability to have superpowers in their very DNA and the obelisks are the keys to unlocking them. The Kree left Earth after their experiments failed but the DNA was permanently affected and passed on through the generations. Over the years these Inhumans felt more and more isolated and thus isolated themselves to a place called Afterlife led by a woman named Jiaying, who turns out to be Skye’s mom. Jiaying has harbored bitterness towards the rest of humanity and intends to start a war against them. While all of this is going on, it is revealed that a second group of people rose up out of the ashes of Captain America: Winter Solider and also call themselves S.H.I.E.L.D. led by Robert Gonzales. The two S.H.I.E.L.D.’s fight amongst themselves until they realize what Jiaying has planned. Then it’s time to join forces and save the day, which they do. Season 2 ends with one S.H.I.E.L.D. again, a bunch of fish oil pills being infected by the Terrigen Mist from the obelisk, Ward becoming the new head of Hydra and Simmons being sucked into a large monolith that Gonzales’ team had been protecting.
Season 3 begins with Skye, who is now going by her birth name, Daisy, seeking out people who have been affected by the fish oil pills and gain superpowers. She wants to train them to control their powers and even offer them a job at S.H.I.E.L.D. building her own team of Inhuman agents, or Secret Warriors. Meanwhile, Fitz is working frantically, trying to figure out how to save Simmons from the monolith. He discovers that the monolith is actually a portal to another planet and the team is able to open it long enough to save their teammate. Hydra find out that S.H.I.E.L.D. has figured out how to open the portal which Hydra has been trying to do for years in order to bring the dangerous creature from the planet back to ours. Before the winter break, Coulson, Fitz and Ward end up on the planet. Coulson ends up killing Ward, but the creature, which a parasite that takes over bodies, makes Ward his new host and ends up going through the portal as well.
Here’s the promo that Marvel has put out for what we can expect this Spring:
As well as two clips from this week’s episode:
Whew…that was a lot and we still have half a season to go, plus Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. just got renewed for a fourth season so who knows where our team will end up next.
Are you looking forward to the second half of season three of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?