As I said in the title, there are some SERIOUS spoilers here for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. If you haven’t seen it yet, you might want to get on that if you want to continue watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
If you’ve been watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. weekly like I have, it’s likely you were seeing the building blocks for Captain America: The Winter Soldier that were hidden away in the show. However, it doesn’t really prepare you for the gut punch that can be felt through the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the film unfolds. It’s a big deal for future movies, but it’s gargantuan for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. With six weeks left of season one, what is the immediate fall out going to mean for the team? I’m not The Clairvoyant, but that doesn’t mean I can’t speculate. Let’s start with the most pressing and build out for the future.
The moment Sitwell spoke of Project Insight and how it uses S.H.I.E.L.D. intel to target any potential threats, I stomped my feet and cursed the beautiful long game the show has been playing. Whoever the Clairvoyant is, it is likely they were working with Sitwell the entire time.
This is why my money is on Hand, but Garrett’s been kind of fishy too. However, I don’t think May is. I believe she’s working internally, but I could be wrong.
The Data Leak could mean danger for the team…: Natasha Romanov uploaded every secret about S.H.I.E.L.D. onto the internet to expose HYDRA. This includes her own, but would also include the whereabouts of every field agent and every classified location the agency has. There is literally no where the team can go now to hide from their enemies.
…but it also could answer all of our questions: What is GH-325? What alien was being used in the T.A.H.I.T.I. project? Why did Nick Fury bring Coulson back from the dead? Fury may be using deep cover in Europe, but a whole database full of secrets might work out just fine too.
The gap between Earth and Cosmic Marvel will start to be bridged: This might be wishful thinking, but we have an alien presence. There are S.H.I.E.L.D. secrets in the world about said alien presence. Between Skye the 0-8-4 and that possible Kree or something, it’s very possible the last few episodes of the season will be the first stepping stones to what’s happening on Earth and what’s happening in Guardians of the Galaxy. But again, this is wishful thinking from someone who wore her Captain Marvel necklace to The Winter Soldier.
A second season could mean rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D: This is definitely pure speculation since ABC has not said either way if the show has been canceled or renewed. If we get one season, we’ll get a complete arc of a story and let the characters go off into the world. Maybe to be used in future films or shows. However, if we get a second season, it might just mean that whoever is left is going to be rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D. from the ground up. No HYRDA, no Clairvoyant. Just recreating S.H.I.E.L.D. for what it was supposed to be. Maybe with Coulson at the head.
Or they could just go complete covert ops and that would be pretty awesome too.