Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. continues to reveal more Inhuman secrets in Afterlife, an episode packed with triple crosses and maybe setting the stage for events in Captain America: Civil War and Inhumans films.
Before we recap and ask our latest burning questions…
Here’s a SPOILER ALERT!
If you did not see this week’s episode yet stop reading now.
Here it comes:
Starting with Skye…the newly Inhuman is transported by Gordon (the eyeless teleporter) to Lai Shi, a paradise in the mountains of Asia where she meets her Transitioner, a fellow Inhuman named Lincoln played by Luke Mitchell.
Skye awakens to find her body with glowing needles to calm her as she meets Lincoln, who later reveals his power of generating electricity.
We learn Skye and Raina aren’t the new Inhumans. They are everywhere and there have been secret ceremonies for decades…maybe centuries. Skye and Raina are just the first to be exposed accidentally making them objects of fear and envy.
We learned some things about the mysterious Jiayang – Skye’s mother. The seemingly immortal Inhuman is a leader of Lai Shi and will train her daughter in the use and control of her powers, will shelter even a ruthless killer like Raina because she’s now one of them and almost shares a hatred and pity of normal humans like Cal (Kyle MacLachlan) who is Skye’s father.
Meanwhile Coulson and Blood are on the run and recruit Mike Peterson aka Deathlok from a covert mission to help them against the forces of Robert Gonzales (Edward James Olmos) and his real S.H.I.E.L.D. Fitz and Simmons pull a fast one with Fitz on the run with Nick Fury’s “tool box” while Bobbi Morse and Melinda May may be switching sides in the S.H.I.E.L.D. civil war.
Which brings up our latest burning questions?
Two S.H.I.E.L.D.’s for two sides of a Superhero Civil War? Coulson believes in helping superpowered beings – he may be one of them with his Kree blood infusion. Gonzales is extremist in his anti -“Enhanced” stance. This S.H.I.E.L.D. veteran could be one of the leaders pushing and enforcing the Superhero Registration Act, a major plot of Captain America: Civil War. So you could have Gonzales working with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) while Coulson sides with Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) over the government crackdown on costumed heroes after Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Will Agent May betray Coulson and join Gonzales? Next week we’ll see a flashback into Melinda May’s encounter with an “Enhanced” in Bahrain.
What is Lai Shi? A seemingly peaceful mysterious haven in the Asian mountains isolated from the world. When we first encounters the Inhumans in comic books, the Royal Family lived in Attilan, hidden in the Himalayan mountains. (I also thought of K’un Lun, the mystical city where Danny Rand became Iron Fist.)
Who are the Elders? The ageless Jiayang appears to be just one of the Elders who have been guiding Inhumans over the years. While they welcome new Inhumans no matter their past, Jiayang and Gordon seem to have a distaste for humans or maybe just Cal, because he attempted to become like them? Is Jiayang connected to the Royal Family from comic books? Will we see Black Bolt, Medusa, Karnak, Gorgon or Triton on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or will Marvel save these icons for the big screen.
Is Hydra working on a Terrigen Bomb? At the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it appeared Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are subjects of experiments at a secret Hydra base. Has Hydra been creating their own Inhumans are living weapons and could they be developing a bomb to trigger Terrigenesis on global scale to unsuspecting people who have no idea they may have latent Inhuman genes waiting to be awakened?
Next week, May’s Enhanced encounter in Bahrain, Coulson recruits Grant Ward and more of Skye’s training among the Inhumans of Lai Shi.
By Editor