Agents of SHIELD Analysis: The Frenemy of My Enemy

This week’s episode of Agents of SHIELD was a lot of setup for something big next week, but that doesn’t mean it was short on action or story development by any measure. Here are a few MCU observations you might have missed

Echidna Capital Management

A little Marvel Comics easter egg snuck its way onto this episode. In the comics, Echidna Capital Management was a shell company that HYDRA used to research new technology, fund its operations, and legitimize some of its less shady work.

Echidna was run by one John Allen Adams in the comics, although that role seems to have shifted over to the mysterious Doctor List for the MCU. More interesting is the fact that it debuted in Secret Warriors, which we had a little talk about last week…

Who Was Kara Calling?

It seems Agent 33 is still in touch with her family, giving her mom a quick phone call at the beginning of the episode. According to Kara’s mom, some men had been asking around about her. Are they SHIELD? HYDRA? The government? Thats a mystery for another day it seems.

More Vibranium References

It wasn’t the first time, but Vibranium gets name-dropped yet again in this week’s episode, with the other SHIELD shipping in some super-laser in an attempt to open up Fury’s toolbox. With Wakanda playing a substantial role in Avengers: Age of Ultron next week, it makes sense that Agents of SHIELD is reminding us that Vibranium is still a thing, and it’s really, really, really hard to break.

Doctor List

Speaking of Doctor List, the man finally gets a bit of real screentime in this episode. We’ve seen him a few times before now, but this is the first time that we’ve seen him flex his HYDRA muscles a bit.

We were originally introduced to List as the assistant of Wolfgang von Strucker, aka that creepy Nazi-looking guy from the Winter Soldier post-credits scene. As Agents of SHIELD showed us earlier this season, List is more than a henchman, and given recent events in Agents of SHIELD, he’s now arguably the #2 guy in the entire organization.

So what’s his deal? Well we know that he was working with Strucker on using the Chitauri Scepter (aka the Loki pokey stick) to create superpowered individuals, a project that eventually resulted in Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. His interest in “enhanced” people doesn’t end there though, as Afterlife earlier this season revealed that List has been sending HYDRA agents after enhanced people, presumably capturing them for experimentation.

Deathlok’s New Outfit

Is it just me, or do Deathlok’s new duds remind you of Black Widow’s Age of Ultron costume? Similar tech maybe? Or maybe Marvel superheroes just really like blue lights.

Quantum Entanglement

Hey, we finally learned how Gordon teleports, and it’s something something quantum entanglement. Good enough for me!

Daisy Johnson

It’s not exactly new information for us, but Skye finally learns her real last name. And just like her comic book counterpart, it’s Johnson.

If you were wondering why she didn’t have either her father or her mother’s last name, that’s also explained. Cal changed his last name when he went on the run. Why he went with “Zabo” of all things is anyone’s guess.

Hula Girl

There was a nice little call-back this week to the hula girl figurine Skye used to keep on her dash in her pre-SHIELD days. Ah, the simpler times.

Next Week, Get Ready for Your Age of Ultron Tie-In

Baron von Strucker gets name-dropped a bunch of times in this episode, and it’s no surprise why. Strucker is set to appear in Avengers: Age of Ultron next week, so more than likely, we’ll get a peek at his plans a bit early.

Rumor has it members of the SHIELD cast were also spotted on the film set, so with any luck, we’ll be getting another tie-in on the level of The Winter Soldier, rather than say, Thor: The Dark World‘s.