Deke Shaw

"I'm kind of trying to do the whole hero thing man! Is that your pep talk? You guys get killed, who saves the world then? I told my parents to not believe in this roach-crap fairy tale, and they went and they died for it anyway. And I'm probably next in line. But there is no way in hell that I'm gonna let some blue Kreeper destroy that machine before I get to see whether or not that damn thing was worth any of this."

- Deke Shaw

Deke Shaw is a scavenger who lived in the Lighthouse, where he hosted a clandestine Framework program. He reluctantly agreed to aid Phil Coulson and his entire team after they arrived onto the Lighthouse, while both seeking a profit and keeping their actions from harming the safety of the place, choosing to sell Quake over to Kasius for a profit. Having accepted that what Coulson and the rest of the team were saying was the truth, Shaw agreed to help them get back to their own time, learning that a rogue part of the True Believers, led by his former friend Samuel Voss had killed his father to keep this from happening.

During the final stand against the Kree, Shaw put his life on the line by overloading Enoch's battery to power the machine that would open the White Monolith portal, to secure safe passage back to the present timeline for his S.H.I.E.L.D. colleagues. However, Shaw was miraculously hit by a shard from the White Monolith, sending him back to the present time as well.

Losing his Family
Shaw was born and raised on the Lighthouse, one of the last humans to be born through regular gestation before Kasius sterilized the entire population and regulated childbirth. Shaw's mother would tell him about her parents and how her father was the best man she knew. Every year on his birthday, Shaw's mother would find a fresh orange for him. At age 9, Shaw witnessed the arrest and murder of his mother, who was eliminated by the Kree Watch because she was considered a potential threat to the community, due to her intelligence. He grew up with his father, Owen Shaw, whom he tried to stop from continuing his mother's work. Eventually, Owen was arrested too and sent to the surface of Earth, where Shaw assumed he was killed by the roaches.

Encounter with Melinda May
Shaw first encountered Melinda May upon entering the Lighthouse. May, who assumed Shaw to be a hostile and attacked him, was bested by him. As a result, May got herself pinned against a wall by Shaw's Gravity Puck. He tried to talk May out of the fight after he found her Metrics missing without a scar. He then used a pocket knife to cut through her wrist and insert her metrics.

Uniting with the Team
Some time after the Kree Soldiers captured Phil Coulson and team, Shaw and May came to their rescue. Shaw managed to talk the Kree guards into releasing them. He stated that they had lost their Metrics and had accidentally stalked into the forbidden area.

Once out of there, he realized that his friend, Virgil was killed. He suggested the team stay close but they disagreed. Melinda May cunningly pinned him against the wall and left with Jemma Simmons to the Trawler spacecraft while Daisy Johnson left him with Coulson in search of Alphonso Mackenzie and Yo-Yo Rodriguez. While trying to know and observe Coulson, Shaw recollects the prophecy of people from the past coming to save Humanity. Upon realizing this, he asked Coulson the year in which he was abducted. This makes him realize that Virgil's stories were indeed sane and the people from the past had arrived.

Reuniting with Tess
Tess, Shaw's friend and colleague, arrived to get him out of the forbidden area. Shaw introduced her to his allies and asked her to help them blend in. She agreed and convinced him to go rescue the others from the Kree guards. When Shaw arrived at the room where Alphonso Mackenzie and Yo-Yo Rodriguez were held captive, he saw them with the help of Johnson having killed the guards. An upset Shaw yelled at the trio and searched for a way to cover up the mess. He helped them drag the guards into the room where the Vrellnexians could dine on them.

The Framework
Melinda May and Daisy Johnson grew suspicious of Shaw as they tried to "blend in" to the community. Johnson tailed Shaw into a cabin where she found him asleep. When she approached him, a device on the ceiling put her to sleep and into a prototype Framework. In the Framework, he revealed to Johnson that all he wanted to see in that place was a news report which referred to Johnson as "Quake", the one that destroyed the Earth.

Betraying Daisy Johnson


"Sorry, sweetheart. I'm just playing the long game."

- Deke Shaw to Daisy Johnson

Daisy Johnson, determined to save Jemma Simmons, disregarded Shaw's warnings to enter the Elite area of The Lighthouse. She managed to fight some Kree guards off and enter the hallway only to become trapped. She was then exposed to power dampener gas. Moments later, Shaw appeared alongside Kasius, revealing her true identity to him. He also stated to her that he was just playing the "long game" before she fell unconscious.

Aiding Kasius
"So this is Quake, the destroyer of worlds. How is that she's here?" "The important thing is that... she's yours."

- Kasius and Deke Shaw about Daisy Johnson Once Shaw had helped Kasius in the capture of Quake, he waited for Basha to leave and was then rewarded with a valuable coin. But according to the prophecy, there have to be more than two people from the past arriving on The Lighthouse. Kasius asked Shaw to help him find the rest, promising to compinsate him if he succeeded. Shaw agreed to do what he could.

When Shaw returned to processing, he was approached by Phil Coulson and Melinda May who asked for his help in breaking into Level 35 of The Lighthouse. However, once they were on Level 35, May realized that Shaw had turned in Daisy Johnson and thus, punched him hard in his face. Moments later, they were intercepted by some of the Kree Watch. Shaw tried to talk them out of a fight, but Coulson attacked one of the guards with a chair. Though the trio managed to get the better of the guards, Shaw was stabbed in his abdomen. May asked Coulson to help Shaw out while she faced off against Sinara. Coulson punched Shaw for his betrayal and sealed him inside a cabin to prevent him from betraying others.

Making Amends
After secretly escaping the cabin in which he was imprisoned, Shaw met Daisy Johnson, Jemma Simmons and Leo Fitz who were trying to escape from Maston-Dar, Faulnak's warrior who was sent after them. Shaw accompanied the trio back to the Salvage yard where they reunited with the rest of the team. When Dar and Sinara made their way to the yard, Shaw figured out an escape plan by using his Gravity Puck as an elevator to the Trawler dock. He later accompanied them to the surface of the Earth with the hope of possibly finding his father.

Reuniting with Sam Voss
After crash landing the Trawler on the surface of the Earth, Shaw and the others were rescued and brought to the defunct Zephyr One aircraft, which served as the headquarters for the True Believers, a faction led by Owen Shaw's best friend, Sam Voss. Voss welcomed Shaw with warm greetings and also stated that his father, Owen, was at a transmission tower and would be back soon.

But sometime later, when Phil Coulson found a piece of the monolith that brought them to the future, Shaw recalled it belonging to his mother. Thus, it was one of his father's most prized possessions. When he questioned Sam Voss, Voss revealed that he had killed Shaw's father, as he posed a threat to him and the other humans. Before Shaw could react, he was knocked unconscious and locked in a cabin by Voss.

Shaw was later set free by Daisy Johnson who too encountered Voss and the other Believers who tried to kill her. She and Shaw agreed that it sucks to have your parents gone. Shaw and Johnson rejoined the team as they set forward to save Humanity.

Choosing a Side
As the team contemplates what they will make of the approaching gravity storm, Shaw has been chosen to deal with Sam Voss. Although intending to shoot Voss, Shaw was conflicted after Voss explained the scuffle between himself and Owen Shaw. Owen Shaw, after coming at Voss with a knife, was killed in the struggle. Voss told Shaw to see their current situation from his perspective. He said he needed to hand over Daisy Johnson to Kasius before she returned to the past and destroyed the world. Shaw was unable to shoot Voss and returned to the others.

Later, Shaw and Johnson discussed Shaw’s inability to shoot Voss. Shaw thought letting Voss live made him spineless, while Johnson believed that sparing a life was always the better option. Shaw argued that killing a dangerous person was best while Johnson explained that Voss was only a threat to her.

As the team struggled to get Zephyr One in the air and return to The Lighthouse, Johnson went to fix the anchors. Shaw followed after her, conflicted. Shaw managed to stay in the shadows when Sinara showed up and a fight broke out between her and Johnson. Shaw’s loyalties were up in the air before he made the decision to save Johnson, cementing himself alongside team S.H.I.E.L.D.. After Johnson killed Sinara, she nodded to Shaw in appreciation for his help. Which he returned. With the anchors fixed, Shaw and the team took off towards The Lighthouse.

On the way to the Lighthouse, Shaw reluctantly broke the White Monolith shard in half, as it was necessary for the plan.

S.H.I.E.L.D. vs. Kasius
Shaw and the rest arrived at the Lighthouse using the Containment Module and by using the Zephyr One as a decoy. While Enoch stayed back on the Zephyr, Shaw and others decided to rescues agents Mackenzie and Rodriguez who were trapped in the station with it's other residents. When the team split up following their tasks, Shaw accompanied Coulson, Johnson and May to the Rendezvous point in order to trigger the White Monolith open. But before they could reach there, Enoch called for help on the Zephyr as he was tracked down by the Kree. Shaw decided to leave despite the disapproval of Daisy Johnson. He left saying that he couldn't stand against their departure back to the past.

Destruction of the Lighthouse
Once back on the Zephyr, Shaw rescued Enoch from a Kree soldier but accidentally damaged the system which would be responsible for the opening of the Portal back to the past. Enoch, who decided to use himself as a power source to the cyclotron, warned that he would explode when his battery completely discharged and the explosion could destroy several levels of the Lighthouse and also vaporize Shaw into sub-atomic levels. Nevertheless, Shaw decided to stay besides Enoch, and manually overloaded Enoch's battery right as the White Monolith liquidized. Although Enoch himself was destroyed in the explosion, a shard of the Monolith struck Shaw, sending him into the past as well, instead of killing him.

Embracing Earth's Customs
"All right, I got some of it right. Barkeep! I'd like to try a beer, a real one, please."

- Deke Shaw to Mike

Shaw was transported onto a street in River's End, New York. Upon materialising, he was confused as to where he was, but he quickly noticed that he was in a past timeframe of Earth. In his first encounter with a tree, a woman passed him who believed he was under the influence of drugs. Shaw became mesmerized with the customs of Earth, and was about to eat an ice cream cone out of a trash can when he saw a nearby bar.

Entering the bar, he commented on how similar the bar was as to his replica in the Framework. Shaw pulled up to the main bar, and greeted Mike the bartender with joy. Although Shaw did not like the taste of beer, Mike then treated Shaw to a bottle of, to Shaw's delight. Shaw then began drinking heavy amounts of alcohol, and enjoyed a cheeseburger with onion rings, all the while playing darts and watching television.

Now heavily intoxicated, Shaw set to leave the bar, but Mike reminded him that he had to pay for all the drinks he had consumed. When Shaw attempted to pay off the drinks with his Metric, Mike reminded him that only credit cards and cash were allowed. Shaw, realizing he was in an awkward predicament attempted to run, but due to being drunk, he quickly tripped over a pool table. When Shaw told Mike that he was from the future, he called the local police, and had Shaw arrested, believing he was delusional.

Legal Trouble
"I thought you'd be, like, emotionally distraught or something." "Emotionally distraught? This is awesome!"

- Daisy Johnson and Deke Shaw

Shaw was locked in a cell at the River's End Police Station where he kept talking about his discoveries on Earth. He then saw Daisy Johnson, posing as Shaw's social worker Sinara Smith, who claimed that Shaw had escaped during one of his walks. Johnson had Shaw released from custody and scoffed him for his behavior, subtly mocking him by reminding of their first encounter. As they were about to exit the police station, Officer Kennedy told them they had some documents to sign.

While Kennedy looked for the papers, Shaw explained to Johnson that he had been transported to Earth after activating the White Monolith and assured her that he had not told the police anything about S.H.I.E.L.D.. After Johnson signed the last paper, she and Shaw went back to the Lighthouse, where Noah introduced himself and informed Shaw that he believed having released him was a mistake. The discussion as interrupted when the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D team returned after fighting against Ruby. Shaw joined the rest of the team in the Zephyr One where they grieved about Yo-Yo Rodriguez having lost her arms.

The Lighthouse of the Past
"I just got to a world that's got ice cream and the sun and orange-scented stuff. So, no. No, no, no. And in case any of you forgot, I already did the heroic sacrifice thing to get you all here. So I'm done." "I'm not asking you to sacrifice yourself. I just want to borrow your belt buckle."

- Deke Shaw and Leo Fitz

Shaw helped Daisy Johnson gather medical supplies for Yo-Yo Rodriguez. While going through the Lighthouse's supplies, Shaw recalled about his mother offering her an orange for his birthday. He asked Johnson if she used to have something similar, only to be told that Johnson had grown up in an orphanage. Shaw apologized and told that he thought they were sharing a moment, but Johnson bluntly answered that they were not.

Right after that, Shaw and Johnson were attacked by a Kree warrior who wounded Shaw in the arm and nearly killed them with his Kree Battle Axe. As the Kree was on the verge of taking down Shaw, Johnson shot him in the head, which caused the Kree to vanish in the air.

They reported the event to their S.H.I.E.L.D.'s colleagues and Leo Fitz explained that when the Kree Orb had exploded and destroyed the Monoliths, it created a tear through space-time which materially generated their greatest fears, the Kree warrior having been created from Johnson's mind. Shaw's fear manifested in the form of a luxurious forest in another subterranean level of the Lighthouse, as this was an extremely overwhelming experience to him.

Fitz explained that he had a plan for closing the rift, but it involved the sacrifice of one of them. When he mentioned Shaw's name, Shaw believed that Fitz wanted him to sacrifice, but Shaw refused, stating that he had already done so to ensure their return. Actually, Fitz only needed Shaw's Gravity Puck for his plan, which Shaw agreed to hand over. In the end, Phil Coulson decided to be the one to give his life.

Gathering a Team
"I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty freaked out when I punched the coordinates into the phone and it led me into the middle of a grassy field. And it's like, "Can the Quinjet get here a little bit quicker, please?", you know? But I managed to grave the critters."

- Deke Shaw

With Phil Coulson being forced to reveal the consequences of his deal with the Ghost Rider, which endangered his life, Shaw was tasked to gather former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who were on the run since the agency had been delegitimized. Shaw went outside and spotted military in the area. Nevertheless, Shaw carried on his mission and called the backup required by Coulson. Shaw also went to a pawn shop and collected several objects, including wedding rings and a wedding gown. He then waited for the backup to show up, who turned out to be Deathlok, Davis and other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Shaw took them to the Lighthouse, enabling Coulson to fight his visions and successfully block the space-time rift thanks to Deathlok.

The threat being momentarily averted, Shaw joined Leo Fitz and Coulson in the elevator, accompanying the former to his wedding with Jemma Simmons. Fitz told them that they had one man to thank for avoiding catastrophe, Shaw took the compliment for himself and bragged a little about it while Fitz actually referred to Deathlok. Shaw also informed them that he could not find and had replaced it with. Shaw attended Fitz's and Simmons' wedding in the Lighthouse's forest. During the celebration, he exchanged some comments with Deathlok and casually noticed that the ring he had reclaimed for Simmons looked exactly like the one his own mother had, which came from his grandmother. Shaw was unaware that Fitz and Simmons were his actual grandparents, hence the resemblance between the two rings.

Suspecting the Truth
"Deke, are you coming or is it just another play day?" "Yeah, after you, Grandpa."

- Leo Fitz and Deke Shaw

Shaw was called by Phil Coulson to the control room to discuss how to permanently seal the rift as he had knowledge about Gravitonium. He volunteered to go with Coulson and others on the mission but he was ordered to stay back with Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons which was looked down by the former. This upset Shaw also and he started to brag about how he survived in the future just with his skills much to everyone's chagrin.

After Shaw found a baseball and mitten, he tried to convince Fitz to play catch with him. After making a joke about Fitz having some alone time with Simmons, Fitz broke and told Shaw they would play fetch. Before they could start playing, the scanners started reporting that more Fear Dimension illusions were appearing.

Shaw was at the control room with Fitz and Simmons when they were tracking the ship Principia in the ocean on their computer. Shaw was so fascinated with all the water in the ocean that he started to ask all sorts of questions about oceans which greatly annoyed Fitz and he snapped at Shaw. In response, Shaw blamed the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for the Destruction of Earth and angrily left. In a storage room, he was approached by an illusion of his mother. Shaw tried to attack it but she remained caring towards him, expressing joy about him making friends and teasing him about his crush for Daisy Johnson, although Shaw denied it.

The illusion then repeated a quote that her mother used to always say to her. After the illusion tried to convince Shaw to leave S.H.I.E.L.D., he was horrified when she was murdered by an illusion of a Kree Warrior who attacked Shaw. Shaw managed to destroy it before being found by Simmons, who comforted him and apologized to him on behalf of Fitz. After Shaw ranted about about his time in the future, he realized that the Principia might have gone up in the sky due to the thunder storm charging Gravitonium. He explains his theory to Fitz and Simmons who agreed with him.

Shaw was present near the communications when Coulson, Johnson and Alphonso Mackenzie were on the ship which was correctly found in the sky. They told only a small chunk of Gravitonium was available which was holding the ship in the sky. Shaw advised them to place it in a plastic box without touching it and to get out before the original gravity came in to motion.

Later, Shaw came to the medical room to inform Simmons and Yo-Yo Rodriguez that the team had returned successful their mission. Upon hearing Simmons telling Rodriguez the very quote his mother used to tell him and a the shard of the White Monolith in her hand that belonged to his mother in the future, he realized that Fitz and Simmons were his grandparents but kept it to himself. After Fitz invited him to help him with the Gravitonium, Shaw agreed, but quietly referred to him as "Grandpa".

Revealing the Truth
"My mom used to tell me about her parents all the time. She always spoke about her dad with so much love and admiration on her face. Said that he was the best man she ever knew. So I know that you can help Fitz. And I know that you two are gonna be okay. Because, "the steps you take don't need to be big"..." ""They just need to take you in the right direction". You're our grandson?"

- Deke Shaw and Jemma Simmons

When Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons struggled to find answers about how to permanently close the Fear Dimension, Fitz asked Shaw for assistance in understanding his Gravity Puck, but Shaw would be in his own world staring at his grandparents. After Fitz slammed his fist on the table, Shaw came to and told them that he didn't understand what's inside the puck, while still staring at Simmons. When Fitz and Simmons were about to leave the control station to figure out the problem, Shaw begged them to be careful, while trying to cover up his concern for them by saying they need their brains. After the left, Shaw asked Daisy Johnson if they'll be alright, stating he's become invested in their relationship. Shaw was then interrupted be the alert that they had found Hale thanks to Intel provided by Piper.

Shaw later found Fitz working on a disabled Sleeper Mech and informed him that they got Hale. Shaw then offered to help Fitz, before being knocked unconscious by Fitz after the latter suffered a mental break and became his Framework persona "The Doctor".

Though he made it back to consciousness, Shaw was held at gunpoint by a Sleeper Mech which had been reprogrammed by Fitz. Shaw then watched in horror with Simmons, as Fitz pulled out Johnson's Inhuman Control Device. After successfully reviving Johnson's powers and closing the Fear Dimension rift, Fitz surrendered and Shaw decided to comfort a distraught Simmons. He told her that Fitz would eventually be fine because his mother always spoke highly of her parents, especially her father. This made Simmons realize that Shaw was none other than her grandson before throwing up.

Personality
"He told us he was saving the world." "Imagine that."

- Chief Wellins and Daisy Johnson Shaw is intelligent and useful, though he is a difficult man to trust. He really does care about the people of the espite his int, as the risk that also shown to be makes to save ncompetent (under could have resulted in mass murder by the iliar wi in retaliation. He is somewhat selfish, as the payment for Johnson was extremely difficult for him to give up. However, his desire to find his father on o the S.H drove him to help the team once again. His past could reflect his efforts to avoid ending up like his parents, though it is evident that he cared for them dearly.

At first Shaw saw the S.H.I.E.L.D. team as a burden and was willing to sell them out to survive. However, after spending enough time with them, and seeing what his parents believed in, Shaw had come to think of them as friends.

However, despite his intelligence, Shaw has also shown to be bumbling and incompetent (under the influence of alcohol), as he was unfamiliar with Earth's customs. This led to his arrest, as he mistook a Metric for currency. Nevertheless, he remained lucid enough and kept being loyal to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and, knowing that they were being chased, did not disclose any information about them to the police.

Shaw seems to have some form of attraction to Johnson.

After arriving in the past, Shaw immediately fell in love with life there, becoming addicted to Zima, and being fascinated by everything the past had to offer. Because of his fascination for the customs and cultures on Earth, Shaw sometimes came off as immature, and annoying. However, Shaw does have a dislike for any form of insects which could be because of the Vrellnexians in the future.

Abilities

 * Expert Engineer: Shaw displayed high enough technical skills to recreate the Framework in the future for people to use to get away from the horrors of the Kree, only using fragments of the equipment which had been abandoned years before. Thanks to his frequent use of his Gravity Puck, Shaw also acquired sufficient knowledge about Gravitonium, being able to assist S.H.I.E.L.D. in their quest for the element and advise them about how they ought to transport it.
 * Expert Combatant: Shaw was able to go toe-to-toe with an injured Melinda May. He was, however, no match for the well-trained Sinara. Shaw, however, held his own against a Fear Dimension illusion of a Kree and won.
 * Skilled Marksman: Shaw was able to successfully use a handgun and kill two Kree Watch members with it when rebelling against the Kree with his SHIELD allies despite no previous experience in handling a firearm.

Weapons

 * : When rebelling against the Kree with his S.H.I.E.L.D. allies, Shaw was given this handgun.

Other Equipment

 * Helmet: Shaw wore a helmet to protect himself from the vacuum of outer space. The helmet remained in the future when Shaw traveled to the past with his SHIELD colleagues.
 * Gravity Puck: Shaw wears a device on his belt that allows him to manipulate gravity. He uses it to hover in midair, but also for offensive purposes like restraining someone by placing the device onto them and making them cling to a surface. However, the device can be easily used against him.
 * Metric: Like any other human inhabitants of the Lighthouse, Shaw wears the Metric device which helps the Kree monitor his activities and movements.

Family

 * Maternal Paternal Great-Great Grandmother
 * Alistair Fitz - Maternal Paternal Great Grandfather
 * Maternal Paternal Great Grandmother
 * Maternal Maternal Great Grandfather
 * Maternal Maternal Great Grandmother
 * Jemma Simmons - Maternal Grandmother
 * Leo Fitz - Maternal Grandfather
 * Owen Shaw † - Father
 * Mother †

Allies

 * True Believers
 * Virgil † - Associate
 * Robin Hinton †
 * Tess - Friend
 * S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Daisy Johnson/Quake - Temporary Enemy turned Friend, Savior and Potential Crush
 * Phil Coulson
 * Melinda May
 * Alphonso Mackenzie
 * Yo-Yo Rodriguez
 * Mike Peterson/Deathlok
 * Davis
 * Flint
 * Enoch † - Victim (with consent)
 * Noah †

Enemies

 * Kree Empire
 * Kasius †
 * Kree Watch
 * Sinara †
 * Maston-Dar †
 * Faulnak †
 * Vrellnexians
 * True Believers
 * Sam Voss - Former Friend
 * Mike
 * River's End Police Department
 * Wellins
 * Kennedy
 * Kree Warrior (Illusion) † - Attempted Killer and Victim
 * HYDRA
 * United States Armed Forces
 * Hale
 * Mother (Illusion) †

Behind the Scenes

 * G. Grant Jewett was a stunt double for Jeff Ward in the role of Deke Shaw.

Trivia

 * Deke's surname wasn't revealed as Shaw until the episode The Last Day.