AGENTS OF
S.H.I.E.L.D. S2

AFTER THE FALL OF S.H.I.E.L.D.

HOW SEASON 2 OPENED AFTER CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, AND HOW MANY CAME BACK

The second season began from the wreckage of the first. The premiere, “Shadows,” aired on 23 September 2014. Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen wrote it and Vincent Misiano directed. It opens in 1945 Austria, where Peggy Carter, Dum Dum Dugan and Jim Morita of the Strategic Scientific Reserve attack the last known HYDRA base, capturing Werner Reinhardt and seizing weapons that include a mysterious blue body and the Obelisk.

The premiere drew 5.98 million viewers and a 2.1 rating among adults 18 to 49. Early figures put that 2.1 against a 4.6 for the first-season premiere, which had drawn 12.12 million viewers, so the new season opened with less than half of that audience. The first season had ended on 5.45 million. The new premiere’s viewership was comparable to that finale, and the show had not won over new viewers in the interim.

THE SEASON’S BIG IDEA

SKYE BECOMES DAISY JOHNSON, AND THE INHUMANS ENTER THE MCU

The season’s turning point came in “What They Become” on 9 December 2014, the last episode before the winter break. It drew 5.29 million viewers and a 1.7 rating among adults 18 to 49. After S.H.I.E.L.D. raids a HYDRA base in Puerto Rico, Skye finds an ancient Kree temple containing an Obelisk. Opening it releases Terrigen crystals that transform her and Raina into Inhumans. The episode reveals that Skye’s real name is Daisy Johnson and that she is the daughter of Cal, played by Kyle MacLachlan, and she comes out of it with seismic powers.

The showrunners said the team knew fairly early on that it wanted to tell the story, but that Marvel has an approval process. They also said they had not copied the comics’ version. Tancharoen described the approach as a blend of what already existed in the Marvel universe and the show’s own mythology.

“We’re blending and merging.”

Maurissa Tancharoen, December 2014

A MIDSEASON HANDOVER

AGENT CARTER TAKES THE WINTER SLOT, AND NEW AGENTS JOIN THE TEAM

The season ran 22 episodes, and after “What They Become” the show went on a winter break. Agent Carter filled it. ABC ordered the series straight to production on 8 May 2014, with no pilot, and its eight episodes aired from 6 January to 24 February 2015, between Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s 2014 finale and its 2015 return. Hayley Atwell played Peggy Carter. Tara Butters, Michele Fazekas and Chris Dingess ran it, and Jeph Loeb was among the executive producers. The Season 2 premiere had already shown Peggy in its 1945 opening.

The cast had grown over the summer. At San Diego Comic-Con in July 2014, Nick Blood was announced as Lance Hunter, a mercenary who comes in and helps the team, and Lucy Lawless as Isabel Hartley. Adrianne Palicki joined as Bobbi Morse, who is Mockingbird in the comics. Lawless and Palicki were among the additions that failed to bring the audience back.

THE WIDER UNIVERSE

THE KREE TEMPLE, THE INHUMANS FILM AND A DEADLINE CALLED AGE OF ULTRON

The season kept one eye on the film slate. The blue body in the premiere’s 1945 opening and the Kree temple in the winter finale both pointed at a species the films had barely touched, and the Inhumans were a film property too. Marvel announced an Inhumans movie as part of Kevin Feige’s Phase Three slate in October 2014, with a release date of 2 November 2018, while the series was already introducing the characters. Disney removed the film from its schedule in April 2016, and the project was later redeveloped as an ABC series that appears elsewhere in the Marvel Marathon catalogue.

At the time of the premiere, the show faced pressure to build momentum before Avengers: Age of Ultron arrived in May 2015.

THE REWATCH

A SERIES LOW IN THE RATINGS AND A THIRD SEASON ANYWAY

The finale aired in May 2015 to a 1.3 rating among adults 18 to 49, a series low, and 3.95 million viewers overall. ABC renewed Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for a third season, and Agent Carter for a second, on 7 May 2015. Both shows had plateaued at six to seven million viewers once DVR use was counted.

Critics rated the season higher than its ratings suggest. Rotten Tomatoes lists a 91% critics’ score from 33 reviews and a 92% audience score, and its consensus says the show “relaxes into itself during its sophomore season.” For the Marvel Marathon it sits in the Marvel TV shows in order guide between Season 1 and Agent Carter Season 1.