The Things We Bury

The Things We Bury is the eighth episode of the second season of the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the thirtieth episode overall.

Synopsis
Coulson and team find themselves in an epic face-off against HYDRA to uncover an ancient secret, while Ward kidnaps his brother, Senator Christian Ward, for a violent trip down memory lane.

Plot
In 1945, in his HYDRA Fortress, General Werner Reinhardt and a team of scientists documented the effects of the Obelisk on the Chinese people who found it. One particular young woman caused the artifact to glow with strange writing when she touched it. Before Reinhardt could discover what made this woman unique, an officer told him of the demise of the Red Skull and the coming of the Allied forces.

Reinhardt was captured and sent to the Rat for interrogation by Peggy Carter. He asked if he could make a deal, but she adamantly refused. To entice her, he told her what he knew of "blue angels" coming to Earth and that he could save humanity. Carter sentenced Reinhardt to a life sentence in the Strategic Scientific Reserve facility.

In 1989, S.H.I.E.L.D. director Alexander Pierce freed Reinhardt, officially saying that budget cuts were necessary. He had Agent Hauer take him to his old headquarters. HYDRA gathered the elders of the Chinese village for Reinhardt to inspect; he saw the young woman, looking unaged after so many years. Reinhardt performed experiments on the woman. Taking her bodily fluids and DNA, Reinhardt used them to get a transfusion that restored his youth. Agent Hauer was told to dispose of her remains.

Those remains were found by Skye's Father, who swore vengeance.

In the present, Melinda May was in charge of the Playground as Phil Coulson took Leo Fitz, Antoine Triplett and Skye to Hawaii. He gave each a particular mission, then had the Bus take them to Australia. At Laura Creek, there was a satellite relaying station that was easier to infiltrate than the Kaena Point Air Force Base in Oahu. The weird assignments Coulson gave earlier was to cause an EMP blackout at that base which would cause the one at Laura Creek to be used as back-up. Coulson wanted their satellites hacked so he could find the city that matched the City Blueprints. However, while there, the team was ambushed by HYDRA and Triplett was fatally shot.

HYDRA was there because Skye's Father explained to Daniel Whitehall that the Diviner selected worthy people to go within a temple in a hidden city. Skye's Father sought that city, but Triplett's injury gave him an opportunity to meet Coulson personally. He was surprised that Coulson knew about the city, since Whitehall had to be told by him. The Diviner had something inside it explained The Doctor. Coulson allowed The Doctor to escape in order to save Triplett. Grant Ward captured his brother and had him confess that he was the torturer of Thomas. Grant then killed his mother and father and had the news believe that it was a murder-suicide by Christian Ward.

When Skye's father returned to Whitehall, he met Ward.

In the Playground, May opened Vault B so that the others could research the past of Daniel Whitehall. They discovered his past identity as Werner Reinhardt but not the secret of his youth. When this information was told to Sunil Bakshi during his interrogation by Bobbi Morse, he took a cyanide pill to commit suicide, but he was saved.

Before Skye could be told that Coulson and Fitz met her father, the satellites found a match.

Cast
Main Cast:
 * Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson
 * Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May
 * Brett Dalton as Grant Ward
 * Chloe Bennet as Skye
 * Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz
 * Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons
 * Nick Blood as Lance Hunter

Guest Stars:
 * B.J. Britt as Antoine Triplett
 * Adrianne Palicki as Bobbi Morse
 * Henry Simmons as Alphonso Mackenzie
 * Reed Diamond as Daniel Whitehall/Werner Reinhardt
 * Tim DeKay as Senator Christian Ward
 * Kyle MacLachlan as The Doctor
 * Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter
 * Simon Kassianides as Sunil Bakshi
 * Lou Ferrigno Jr. as Agent Hauer
 * Al Coronel as Agent Rivera
 * Dichen Lachman as Skye's Mother
 * Eijiro Ozaki as HYDRA Prisoner
 * Ian Gregory as General Cole
 * Shannon Mosley as Darren
 * Alexander Leeb as HYDRA Scientist
 * Willem Van Der Vegt as HYDRA Officer

Locations

 * Playground
 * Oahu, Hawaii
 * Kaena Point Air Force Base
 * Austria
 * HYDRA Fortress
 * Laura Creek, Australia
 * Laura Creek Station
 * HYDRA Warehouse
 * Massachusetts
 * The Rat
 * Afterlife (mentioned)
 * London, England (mentioned)
 * Arnsberg, Germany (written mention)

Events

 * Search for the Kree City

Items

 * Diviner
 * City Blueprints
 * Holocom
 * Inertial Confinement Laser Barrier
 * Bobbi Morse's Battle Staves
 * Cyanide Pills
 * Tesseract (mentioned)

Vehicles

 * Bus
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. SUV

Sentient Species

 * Humans
 * Inhumans
 * Asgardians (mentioned)
 * Blue Angels (mentioned)

Organizations

 * S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * HYDRA
 * Strategic Scientific Reserve
 * WHiH World News
 * Howling Commandos (mentioned)

Mentioned

 * 0-8-4
 * Faustus
 * Red Skull
 * Nick Fury
 * Thomas Ward
 * Grant Ward's Mother
 * Grant Ward's Father
 * Anna Ward
 * Audrey Nathan
 * Alexander Pierce

Trivia

 * When Antoine Triplett says, "O captain, my captain" to Phil Coulson, he is alluding to the poem "O Captain! O Captain!" written by Walt Whitman in 1865. It was written as an elegy to Abraham Lincoln after his assassination.
 * Bobbi Morse compares Sunil Bakshi to a "classic Bond villain". Simon Kassianides, the actor portraying Sunil Bakshi, portrayed the villain Yusef Kabira in the James Bond film .