Since the moment it was announced that Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) would return from the "dead" after his fatal confrontation with Loki in The Avengers, the big question was "how?" Over the course of one-and-a-third seasons of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC, the mystery has unfolded and we have most of our answers.
We know Coulson was in charge of the T.A.H.I.T.I. project which was designed to revive and heal fallen Avengers, and just as he wanted it shut down after seeing how it negatively affects subjects (making them crazy and sometimes violent), it was used against his will on him by the order of S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) when he needed it most. Fury considers Coulson an Avenger and needed him to take charge of the secretive S.H.I.E.L.D. organization after it fell apart during the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
That's the "why" of it. The "how" is a little other-worldly, relying on T.A.H.I.T.I. experimenting on the blood of a recovered alien body that has healing properties. Towards the end of season one of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. the facility housing the blue alien was revealed and then destroyed. Only one vial of the precious GH-325 healing serum was recovered and used to save Skye (Chloe Bennet).
The serum negatively affected John Garrett (Bill Paxton) and Coulson, causing them to sketch alien markings into walls, but it had no effect on Skye. Why? And what alien was it? We theorized and explained why the only logical choice would be Kree, given how the alien species was on its way to being introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy. We can now officially say (thanks to TV Guide) that the blue alien is in fact, a Kree, and this will be explored in two weeks during the December 2nd episode. We already knew this thanks to Chloe Bennet's slip up earlier this year:
While it's important to get that official confirmation after all this time, what really matters is how the revelation affects S.H.I.E.L.D. and how (and if) it'll lay the groundwork for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Executive producer Jeffrey Bell teases what the Kree confirmation means for the season:
"Our people don't know anything about the Kree or that there's a planet full of them. What they do know is that the strange carvings created by Coulson after he was injected with the Kree serum are actually the map of a city, and they need to find that city before Hydra does. But where is it? Here or on another planet?"
As we've discussed all along (our alien explanations here), the confirmation that the blue alien is Kree, means that the GH-325 serum that we've seen injected in so many characters contains Kree DNA. Since that serum did not have adverse effects on Skye, this lends that extra bit of credence to the idea that she (and her super strong father) are Inhumans. Chloe Bennet teased when chatting with TV Guide how she's not the only one who's special in that regard:
"You'll find out that Skye and Raina have something in common — and it's not that they're brunettes. Some of our überfans think the two of them are aliens. Or maybe they're something else — something different and special. It's all leading to a reveal that's mother-effing crazy."
Raina being an Inhuman (we talked about this possibility at length here) justifies her place in the stories so far and her fascination with superhumans, and really, there's no other explanation for Skye being a 0-8-4 (object of unknown origin) and her parents being dubbed "monsters." That city we saw the blueprint of last week seems like a much safer bet to be Attilan - the secret, highly advanced society of Inhumans up in the Himilayas, and if not, it's of an ancient Kree city built when they first came to Earth to experiment on early humans. In the comics, the Kree had an outpost on the moon where they created an artificial, breathable atmosphere.
That city of course can be changed to a secret city somewhere on Earth but the idea that the Kree crashed on our planet when it was trying to get to the moon or search for the Inhuman settlement is much more interesting for the series. There's no doubt about it - the Inhumans are coming to theaters in 2018 and the Kree being introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - and having a role in Agent Carter - is just the beginning.
So far, we're seeing a lot of the five things we wanted to see most in season 2 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Are you enjoying the ride so far?
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NEXT: 5 Marvel Comics That Deserve TV Shows
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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns next Tuesday with "The Things We Bury" @9pm on ABC.
The Avengers: Age of Ultron releases in theaters on May 1, 2015, followed by Ant-Man on July 17, 2015, Captain America: Civil War on May 6 2016, Doctor Strange on November 4, 2016, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 on May 5 2017, Thor: Ragnarok on July 28, 2017, Black Panther on November 3 2017, Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1 on May 4 2018, Captain Marvel on July 6 2018, Inhumans on November 2 2018 and Avengers: Infinity War - Part 2 on May 3 2019.
Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes for your Marvel movie and TV news!
Source: TV Guide