So every now and then I break my DC love fest and actually write something about the “other” big company that puts out comics or something. All kidding aside, I just finished rewatching Captain America: The Winter Soldier (which, I might add, I would give a perfect 5/5 if asked to review it) and also brought myself to purchase and binge watch the first season of Marvel’s Agents of S. H. I. E. L. D. A few guest performances (Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury) were good fun, and a tie-ins to Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, and even Captain America: The Winter Soldier made for a nice cohesive larger-than-life universe-building phenomena that captured America’s heart one movie (and now one episode) at a time.
To be completely honest, I think the show is pretty soulless. Ming-Na Wen is great to look at and Clark Gregg’s return, though idiotic and pretty much ruins the single best scene in Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, is charming and melting hearts of 50-something mothers all over the world, but the rest of the cast is, well, boring. No one’s really likable and the constant spy vs spy mentality is never really felt. For lack of a better way to put it, there’s not a whole lot of drama or sense of urgency. Until the final episode, that is.
Which brings us to the spoilers section of this piece.
So stop reading now if you don’t like spoilers.
Skye is a mysterious new character (possibly new to the Marvel Universe, even). She is recruited (kidnapped and then kept?) by S. H. I. E. L. D. and throughout the whole first season, it is hinted that her origin is going to have a deeper and darker secret than even Nick Fury is able to shed light on. Then that finale happened and we learned that her parents, though dead, were connected with the secret shadowy organizations of the world. Then Hydra took over (and Bill Paxton reminded everyone that yes, he is an awful actor). But we the viewers were treated to a glimpse of the rogue Hydra scientist who left the Deathlok project after Paxton got blown up by Coulson (who is probably going to be an alien or Captain Marvel in season two for some ridiculous reason) talking to a gross-looking guy with a nasty hand who has very obviously seen better days…
But I digress.
In the final act of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Alexander Pierce (expertly played by Robert Redford) reveals his master stroke to take over the world and protect the best way he knows how: by destroying a majority of it and hand the rest over to Hydra. He dies (which sucks) after Fury shoots him in the heart, but his final words (before inadvertently causing all of S. H. I. E. L. D. to become public enemy number one) show us that he is just one of many. “Hail Hydra,” indeed.
So Skye’s dad is a high-ranking agent. And Pierce speaks highly of Fury (before he shoots him like a bitch) because he saved his daughter when they were both much younger. Fury knows Skye’s origins (probably) and she’s got a deep dark secret connection to all things evil apparently.
So here’s my theory: Alexander Pierce is Agent Skye’s father. He’s still a high-ranking Hydra official, and the sassy scientist who left Paxton’s side has brought him back to life with either the Deathlok serum or the Extremis sciency stuff from Iron Man 3.
What do you think? Would that be awesome or what? Let me just be clear here: I don’t hate the show. I like the premise and I enjoyed the pilot and finale quite a bit. But the main characters need to get put through hell a little more and grow some collective personalities. It’s not the worst show in the world, but just imagine how much greater it would be if they brought in Robert Redford for the main villain of season two? Who knows… maybe he’ll be the new Red Skull or something crazy like that. You can’t tell me you didn’t expect him to rip off his face and reveal that he was secretly Johann Schmidt that whole damn movie… Or maybe you can.
What do you think?
My eyes are squinted, my ears are plugged… not reading this yet!