Photo Courtesy Of ABC
Warning: Spoiler Alert
The landscape’s radically changed as season two of the ABC series “Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.” kicks off on September 23, at a later time than last year, now broadcasting at 9:00pm, perhaps reflecting a darker year for the series. The debut episode of the series, revolved around recovering agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) returning to S.H.I.E.L.D. to form an elite team based on a plane that he referred to as “the bus.” This season S.H.I.E.L.D. Chief Phil Coulson’s in charge of the recovering crime-fighting unit, after HYDRA breached their security and destroyed the organization’s credibility.
The sophomore season of the series, begins with S.H.I.E.L.D. barely functioning, its assets seized by the Government and most of their agents, dead, traitors, or have left the Agency for other opportunities. Coulson tries running the agency in the shadows, still doing the jobs they trained for, without leaving a footprint. The team refuses to give up attempting saving the world, they just have to do it far more discreetly.
Most of the team from “the bus,” are still on board, with Coulson’s closest confidante Melinda May, (Ming-Na Wen) now fully trusting the veteran agent. Also back for another go-round is newly minted agent Skye, (Chloe Bennet) as well as a member added to the team late in the first season Agent Antoine Triplett, (B.J. Britt) formerly John Garrett’s (Bill Paxton) before finding out that Garrett was working for Hydra.
For all you “Shippers,” it looks like Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) survived being deprived of oxygen without ill effects, however the FitzSimmons dynamic may have gotten damaged by Leo’s confession that Jemma Simmons’ (Elizabeth Henstridge) the love of his life. Simmons thinks of him as a brother and we may see a tense relationship this season.
Although this writer believed that former team member turned traitor Grant Ward, (Brett Dalton) got locked in a Federal Penitentiary and out of the picture in the upcoming season, that’s not the case as Ward’s featured in all the show’s promotional materials. What role, Garrett’s former protégé will play in this season’s storyboard’s unknown, whether he’s accepted back as a member of the team or they’re holding him to extract information, we’ll find out in the first few episodes.
We’ll also meet new characters in season two, starting with Kyle MacLachlan, playing Skye’s birth-father, a man Skye has no memory of. The description of him by others in the first season was that he and Skye’s mother were pretty close to being fully evil creatures, responsible for deaths of hundreds trying to track down their daughter.
Coulson will have some new allies as well including agent Isabelle Hartley (Lucy Lawless) a veteran, whose used to following her own agenda, but seems in lock-step with the Agency’s new chief. Also expected to join “the bus,” Mockingbird, (Adrianne Palicki) convinced by Coulson to join the cause. We’ll also welcome back Patton Oswalt as the Koenigs; a recent promo features Oswalt as Billy and Sam Koenig, both obsessed with lanyards and badges.
After a bumpy start, S.H.I.E.L.D. finished up its first season strongly, helped by the release of the Theatrical Feature “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and their parallel plots. The TV series will survive or fail on its own merits in its second season as they’ll lack the synchronicity they enjoyed last year. However, I saw the characters come into their own last season and with a huge task ahead of them in rebuilding the Agency, they can shine.
Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. premiers Tuesday September 23, at 9:00pm on ABC.
