- "That's how we have to live now... in the shadows, to save people, even when they don't know it, don't want it."
- ―Phil Coulson to Alphonso Mackenzie
Shadows is the first episode of the second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Synopsis[]
Coulson and his team are now wanted fugitives with limited resources, but that's not stopping them from keeping the world safe from powerful and unseen threats everywhere. However, with new members they hardly know, will S.H.I.E.L.D. ever be trusted again?
Plot[]
In Austria, 1945, Peggy Carter led a raiding party of Strategic Scientific Reserve troops, with Dum Dum Dugan and Jim Morita, into a HYDRA Research Facility run by Werner Reinhardt, a HYDRA General and scientist. While there, she confiscated the alien corpse G.H. and labeled the first 0-8-4, an Obelisk devastating to touch.
In Alexandria, 2014, Roger Browning has the file on the Obelisk and is willing to sell it to Lance Hunter, Isabelle Hartley, and Idaho, three mercenaries working undercover for the new S.H.I.E.L.D. under Phil Coulson's direction. Melinda May, Skye, and Antoine Triplett act as back-up. Negotiations are interrupted by an assassin who rushes in, kills Browning, and, despite taking gunfire, escapes by jumping from a twenty-five foot high window.
The six returned to the Playground where Billy Koenig and Alphonso Mackenzie await them. To their surprise, Coulson is there as well, but he will only speak with May. During their conversation, Coulson prepared to leave for London, but decides against it when he is debriefed on the situation. The assassin stole a file on the original 0-8-4, the Obelisk.
Coulson sends Skye into the basement to get intelligence from their prisoner, Grant Ward, who says that he will only converse with her. Ward told her the history of Carl Creel and how HYDRA is communicating with him. She leaves before he can discuss her father.
Creel attacked Glenn Talbot, who was enjoying time with his wife and son, but he is saved by Skye and May. As Creel is detained by the United States Armed Forces, May and Skye kidnapped Talbot and take him to the Cage in the Bus. The two newly promoted men talk, but Coulson is forced to trick Talbot into revealing information, before Coulson puts him to sleep with an I.C.E.R. Meanwhile, Creel uses his powers to escape detainment.
Coulson sends the six on a two-pronged mission: obtaining a Quinjet and getting the Obelisk. When Hartley finds the Obelisk, the Absorbing Man attacks. She touched the object in order to defend herself and it begins to kill her. Hartley, Hunter, and Idaho attempt to escape to get Hartley medical attention, but Creel flips their S.H.I.E.L.D. SUV, killing Idaho and Hartley. Hunter feigns that he is dead as Creel takes the alien artifact.
As Coulson explains to Mackenzie and Koenig why he sent them on this mission despite the incredible odds, the agents escaped with a cloaked Quinjet. Coulson told the two that the brain damage Leo Fitz has made him withdrawn. Now alone, he talked to an imaginary Jemma Simmons, who left the team. For weeks, Fitz was tasked with making cloaking technology for the Bus but he has failed.
Later, Sunil Bakshi approached Daniel Whitehall to tell him that Creel was successful. Whitehall is Reinhardt, seventy years later, without aging.
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 (hallucination)
- Nick Blood as Lance Hunter
Guest Stars:
- Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter
- B.J. Britt as Agent Antoine Triplett
- Neal McDonough as Sergeant Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan
- Reed Diamond as Werner Reinhardt/Daniel Whitehall
- Henry Simmons as Agent Alphonso Mackenzie
- Patton Oswalt as Agent Billy Koenig
- Lucy Lawless as Agent Isabelle Hartley
- Adrian Pasdar as Brigadier General Glenn Talbot / Phil Coulson (voice; in disguise)
- Wilmer Calderon as Idaho
- Kenneth Choi as Private Jim Morita
- Simon Kassianides as Sunil Bakshi
- Brian Patrick Wade as Carl Creel/Absorbing Man
- Matthew Glave as Roger Browning
- Raquel Gardner as Carla Talbot
- JB Tadena as Private Tilden
- Franco Vega as Staff Sergeant Mason
- Ben Turner Dixon as HYDRA Officer
- George Stephanopoulos as Himself
- Rich Ceraulo as Staff Sergeant Smith
- Tom Crisp as Armed Soldier (uncredited)
- Unknown Actor as George Talbot (uncredited)
- Unknown Actor as Private Walter (uncredited)
- Unknown Actor as Staff Sergeant Logan (uncredited)
Appearances[]
Locations[]
- Alexandria, Virginia
- Arlington, Virginia
- Government Storage Warehouse
- Pentagon (mentioned)
- Playground
- Washington, D.C.
- New York City, New York
- Dover, Delaware
- Austria (flashback)
- HYDRA Research Facility Number 4 (flashback)
- Madagascar (mentioned)
- London, England (mentioned)
- Budapest, Hungary (mentioned)
- Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (mentioned)
Events[]
- War on HYDRA
- World War II (flashback)
- Attack on HYDRA Research Facility Number 4 (flashback)
Items[]
- Obelisk
- Words of Creation
- Holocom
- I.C.E.R.
- S.H.I.E.L.D. Lanyard
- Taser Projectile Launcher
- Inertial Confinement Laser Barrier
- Bendeery English Ale
- Musgravite
- Toolbox (mentioned)
Concepts[]
Vehicles[]
- S.H.I.E.L.D. SUV
- Bus
- Quinjet
- S.H.I.E.L.D. Motorcycle
- S.H.I.E.L.D. Jump Jet
- HYDRA Truck
- Volkswagen Kübelwagen
Sentient Species[]
Creatures[]
- Horses (mentioned)
Organizations[]
- S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Silhouette Protocol (mentioned)
- HYDRA
- United States Air Force
- American Broadcasting Company
- Strategic Scientific Reserve (flashback)
- Schutzstaffel (flashback)
- Howling Commandos (flashback)
- Rising Tide (mentioned)
Mentioned[]
Trivia[]
- In the "Previously On" segment at the start of the episode, Billy Koenig's line "I know we don't have much, but what we have is yours, sir." from the previous episode is changed to "I know we don't have much, but what we have is yours, Director Coulson.".
Videos[]
