- "The secret is out. For decades, your organization stayed in the shadows, hiding the truth, but now we know they're among us. Heroes... and monsters. The world is full of wonders... We can't explain everything we see. But our eyes are open. So what now? There are no more shadows for you to hide in. Something impossible just happened. What are you going to do about it?"
- ―Skye[src]
The First Season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. premiered on September 24, 2013 on ABC. It was previously aired to a small group of fans at San Diego Comic-Con on July 18, 2013.
Synopsis
Fresh from his role in the summer’s box office smash The Avengers, Agent Phil Coulson returns to the worldwide law enforcement organization S.H.I.E.L.D.. He puts together a small, highly trained, team of Agents to tackle the cases that haven’t been classified yet, the new, the strange and the unknown. That team consists of straight arrow Agent Grant Ward, an expert in combat and espionage; pilot and martial artist Agent Melinda May; and brilliant if socially awkward scientists Agent Leo Fitz and Agent Jemma Simmons. They’ll be joined by civilian new recruit and computer hacker Skye.
Prepare for an epic adventure that showcases the hope and wonder of the human spirit. This is a world of Super Heroes, aliens and the unusual – of action, spectacle and world spanning stories. The show will speak to the human condition through the lens of our very human, non-powered S.H.I.E.L.D agents – that together we are greater than we are apart, and that we can make a difference in the world.
Plot
Several months after the end of the Attack on the Helicarrier, Phil Coulson, now alive and well after his apparent murder at the hands of the Asgardian Loki, puts together a small, highly trained team of agents to tackle the cases that have not been classified yet. They focus on the new, the strange and the unknown. The team consists of specialist Agent Grant Ward, an expert in combat and espionage; pilot and martial artist Agent Melinda May; and brilliant if socially awkward scientists Agent Leo Fitz and Agent Jemma Simmons.
On their first mission, the team tracked down unregistered superhuman Mike Peterson, and in the process recruited a young computer hacker named Skye. With Skye's help, the team uncovered a plot run by a secret Project that was using a new formula that combined elements of the Super Soldier Serum, Extremis, Gamma Radiation, and Chitauri technology to create ultimate super soldiers. The team confronted Peterson, the enemy Project's newest guinea pig, at a train station and subdued him.
For the following months, the team was charged with various missions, including recovering an 0-8-4 in Peru, rescuing scientist Franklin Hall, procuring an Asgardian weapon from a hostile group of Norse Paganists, and preventing the spread of an extraterrestrial infection.
The Centipede Project warehouse in Hong Kong
The biggest threat faced by the team was the Centipede Project, a mysterious operation being controlled by a mysterious figure known only as the "Clairvoyant". The group is responsible for Mike Peterson's powers, and continually challenged Coulson's team, through various means such as former S.H.I.E.L.D. operative Akela Amador, whom the team saved from the organization's control.
Having decided to stop Centipede once and for all, Coulson and his team brought in Peterson, who had enrolled in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, in tracking down the leaders of the project.
The subsequent hunt resulted in both Coulson and Peterson being abducted by Centipede scientist Raina, whom the Clairvoyant tasked with discovering the secret behind Coulson's revival. During his time in captivity, Coulson was subjected to a Theta Brain-Wave Frequency Machine and discovered the truth behind his resurrection: after his death, Nick Fury ordered that Coulson be brought Project T.A.H.I.T.I., a top-secret operation whose purpose was to find a way to resurrect its subjects, where Coulson was subjected to numerous drugs and procedures that were so painful, Coulson was no longer the man he was previous to his death. He had "lost the will to live".
In order to restore his spirit, Coulson's memories had to be re-written so the trauma of the experience would not be remembered. Not long after he learned this, his team came to his aid and rescued him, having been under the charge of Agent Victoria Hand.
After a mission at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, the team learned that corrupt industrialist Ian Quinn was in league with the Clairvoyant and pursued him to Italy, where Skye discovered Peterson is in fact alive, but was under the control of the Clairvoyant. Quinn shot Skye and wounded her fatally. To save her life, the team joined with Ward's former commanding officer, John Garrett and Antoine Triplett. The group traveled to the Guest House, the facility where Coulson was revived, and recovered a drug from there called GH.325. Simmons injected the drug into Skye to regenerate her body and heal her. However, while there, Coulson discovered that the drugs actually originated from a dead alien organism, and feared the effects the drugs might have on Skye.
While Skye recovered, the team met the Asgardian Sif, and helped her apprehend Lorelei, a rogue Asgardian war criminal with the ability to bend the minds of men to her will. After she was captured and taken back to Asgard, Coulson's team began an operation to finally locate the Clairvoyant. However, their efforts were hindered by Peterson, who had been labeled "Deathlok" by S.H.I.E.L.D. after the project that gave him his new leg; while all of this was happening, HYDRA's infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D. was exposed by Captain America, and S.H.I.E.L.D. fell into anarchy. Believing Coulson and his team to be HYDRA loyalists, Agent Hand attempted to terminate the team.
The team was able to convince her otherwise, as Agent Garrett revealed himself to be the true Clairvoyant, the financier behind the Centipede Project and a HYDRA insurgent. With help from Agent Ward, who was also a HYDRA mole, Garrett escaped with Agent Hand's death. Garrett freed Raina and Quinn, and together they resumed their work on the Centipede formula.
However, they required important information from Coulson's Team Hard Drive which had been encrypted by Skye, and Ward was sent in to manipulate her into opening the files for them. While most of the team rescued Coulson's former lover, Audrey Nathan from Marcus Daniels, Ward abducted Skye with assistance from Deathlok. Teaming up with Maria Hill and escaping from Glenn Talbot, Coulson and his team pursued Ward from Canada to Los Angeles, rescuing Skye. The team later traced Garrett and Ward to Cybertek, a technology corporation that was responsible for the upgrades given to Mike Peterson, which was also a front for HYDRA. There, they uncovered files that revealed Garrett was the original Deathlok back in 1990, and his enhancements were failing, putting his life at risk. He was only allied with HYDRA so he may use their resources to save his own life. Raina managed to do so by synthesizing the drug that was synthesized from the dead alien with Garrett's enhancements, further augmenting his strength and perceptions.
After Fitz and Simmons were ejected from the Bus into the ocean by Ward, they were rescued by Nick Fury, with Simmons well, but Fitz in critical condition. Fury assisted the team in taking down Garrett and Ward once and for all. After a climactic battle at a Cybertek Manufacturing Facility, May subdued Ward while Garrett was killed by the freed Deathlok, then obliterated by Coulson using the Peruvian weapon. Ward was imprisoned, and Fury left Coulson to re-create S.H.I.E.L.D. as its new director before leaving to subdue the remaining HYDRA cells across the world. Deathlok, no longer bound to Garrett, departed to find a new purpose for himself.
Raina visited Skye's Father, informing him that she had found his daughter, as she presented him with a photograph of Skye.
Cast
- Main article: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D./Credits
Starring Cast
- Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson
- Ming-Na Wen as Agent Melinda May
- Brett Dalton as Agent Grant Ward
- Chloe Bennet as Agent Skye
- Iain De Caestecker as Agent Leo Fitz
- Elizabeth Henstridge as Agent Jemma Simmons
Supporting Cast
- J. August Richards as Michael Peterson/Deathlok
- Ajani Wrighster as Ace Peterson
- David Conrad as Ian Quinn
- Ruth Negga as Raina
- Cullen Douglas as Edison Po †
- Saffron Burrows as Agent Victoria Hand †
- Bill Paxton as Agent John Garrett/The Clairvoyant †
- B.J. Britt as Agent Antoine Triplett
- Jeffrey Muller as Agent Kaminsky
- Patton Oswalt as Agent Eric Koenig †/ Agent Billy Koenig
Marvel Cinematic Universe Guest Stars
- Samuel L. Jackson as Director Nick Fury
- Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill
- Jaimie Alexander as Sif
- Titus Welliver as Agent Felix Blake
- Maximiliano Hernández as Agent Jasper Sitwell †
Episodes
| Image | Title | Number | Airdate | Writers | Directors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Pilot | 1.01 | July 18, 2013 | Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen | Joss Whedon |
| Agent Phil Coulson (who survived his apparent death during the Attack on the Helicarrier) assembles a team of agents (Melinda May, Grant Ward, Leo Fitz, and Jemma Simmons) to investigate a superhuman, Mike Peterson. | |||||
|
0-8-4 | 1.02 | October 1, 2013 | Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon & Jeffrey Bell | David Straiton |
| Coulson and his S.H.I.E.L.D. agents travel to Peru to investigate an object of unknown origin, codenamed 0-8-4. But when he runs into Comandante Camilla Reyes, more than just sparks fly at 30,000 feet. | |||||
|
The Asset | 1.03 | October 8, 2013 | Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen | Milan Cheylov |
| When the brilliant scientist, Dr. Franklin Hall, is kidnapped, Agent Coulson and his S.H.I.E.L.D. agents must race against the clock to locate him. Skye is their only way in–pushing the team to their limits when the entire plan turns upside-down. | |||||
|
Eye-Spy | 1.04 | October 15, 2013 | Jeffrey Bell | Roxann Dawson |
| Agent Coulson and the S.H.I.E.L.D. team try to track down a mysterious woman who has single-handedly committed numerous high-stakes heists. But when the woman’s identity is revealed, a troubling secret stands to ruin Coulson. | |||||
|
Girl in the Flower Dress | 1.05 | October 22, 2013 | Brent Fletcher | Jesse Bochco |
| An elusive girl in a flower dress may hold the key to the mystery that brings Coulson and team to Asia to rescue a young man with an unusual and dangerous power; and Skye has a secret that jeopardizes her relationship with the team right when they need her most. | |||||
|
FZZT | 1.06 | November 5, 2013 | Paul Zbyszewski | Vincent Misiano |
| When floating bodies turn up, Coulson and the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D must hunt down an elusive killer. No one is safe–not even the team. | |||||
|
|
The Hub | 1.07 | November 12, 2013 | Rafe Judkins & Lauren LeFranc | Bobby Roth |
| Dangerous secrets are being kept from Coulson’s team, and he works the system to save Ward and Fitz when they are sent on a Level 8 classified mission that may end in tragedy. | |||||
|
The Well | 1.08 | November 19, 2013 | Monica Owusu-Breen | Jonathan Frakes |
| In the aftermath of the events chronicled in the feature film Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World, Coulson and the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. pick up the pieces–one of which threatens to destroy a member of the team. | |||||
|
Repairs | 1.09 | November 26, 2013 | Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon | Billy Gierhart |
| Coulson and his team are haunted by a ghost that threatens to destroy them all, and only a secret from May's past can save them. | |||||
|
The Bridge | 1.10 | December 10, 2013 | Shalisha Francis | Holly Dale |
| In a shocking cliffhanger episode, Coulson takes the war back to Centipede, and this time he brings in Michael Peterson for some super-soldier support. As they get closer to the truth, startling secrets are revealed and an unexpected twist threatens the team. | |||||
|
The Magical Place | 1.11 | January 7, 2014 | Paul Zbyszewski & Brent Fletcher | Kevin Hooks |
| Coulson uncovers vital information about the mystery of his death, but, with Centipede out for blood, this knowledge may come at the cost of one of the team! | |||||
|
Seeds | 1.12 | January 14, 2014 | Monica Owusu-Breen & Jed Whedon | Ken Fink |
| Coulson and May uncover startling information about Skye's past, while the team is swept into a storm at a S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Science and Technology. | |||||
|
T.R.A.C.K.S. | 1.13 | February 4, 2014 | Lauren LeFranc & Rafe Judkins | Paul Edwards |
| Hot on the trail of The Clairvoyant, Coulson and his team board a mystery train that seems to be headed for certain death. | |||||
|
T.A.H.I.T.I. | 1.14 | March 4, 2014 | Jeffrey Bell | Bobby Roth |
| Coulson goes on the attack to save Skye--enlisting the aid of Ward's former S.O. John Garrett--and uncovers shocking truths about his own life and S.H.I.E.L.D. | |||||
|
Yes Men | 1.15 | March 11, 2014 | Shalisha Francis | John Terlesky |
| When Coulson and his team are attacked by Lorelei-a deadly seductress who escaped from Asgard-Thor’s Lady Sif, her longtime nemesis, steps in to try to save them. | |||||
|
End of the Beginning | 1.16 | April 1, 2014 | Paul Zbyszewski | Bobby Roth |
| Agents Garrett and Triplett are back to help Coulson's Team track down S.H.I.E.L.D.'s nefarious enemy--The Clairvoyant. But will Deathlok destroy them all to protect his master's identity? | |||||
|
Turn, Turn, Turn | 1.17 | April 8, 2014 | Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen | Vincent Misiano |
| Coulson and his team find themselves without anyone they can trust, only to discover that they are trapped with a traitor in their midst. | |||||
|
Providence | 1.18 | April 15, 2014 | Brent Fletcher | Milan Cheylov |
| With Colonel Glenn Talbot now on their trail, Coulson and his team seek refuge in the last place anyone would look, where they begin to uncover S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most dangerous secrets. Secrets that could destroy them all. | |||||
|
|
The Only Light in the Darkness | 1.19 | April 22, 2014 | Monica Owusu-Breen | Vincent Misiano |
| With their WORLD turned upside down, Coulson races to save the life of his one true love as the mystery of "The Cellist," which began in Marvel's The Avengers, is finally revealed. | |||||
| File:Npactep.jpg | Nothing Personal | 1.20 | April 29, 2014 | Paul Zbyszewski & DJ Doyle | Billy Gierhart |
| With no one left to trust, Agent Maria Hill teams up with Coulson while S.H.I.E.L.D. is being destroyed. | |||||
|
Ragtag | 1.21 | May 6, 2014 | Jeffrey Bell | Roxann Dawson |
| In the last episode before the epic season finale, Ward's betrayal and HYDRA's shocking secrets are revealed as Coulson's team goes undercover on a mission that leaves no one unscathed. | |||||
|
|
Beginning of the End | 1.22 | May 13, 2014 | Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon | David Straiton |
| Dark secrets are revealed as Coulson and his team put everything on the line to stop Garrett and the forces of HYDRA, on the explosive season finale of "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.". | |||||
