Analyzing the Agents of SHIELD Mid-Season Finale: 5 Questions We Have After 'What They Become'

Wow, tonight Agents of SHIELD dropped a pretty huge episode to kick-off their three month hiatus. While it certainly didn’t answer every question we have (and actually raised a few more), what it’s setting up for the next half of the season is pretty huge.

So here are five questions we had after watching “What They Become,” two that definitely have answers, and three more we’re still speculating on.

1. So who are Skye and her dad?

Agents of SHIELD‘s second season was full of questions, but at least one got answered pretty succinctly tonight. It turns out, Skye’s real name is Daisy, while her dad goes by the name of Cal.

This lines up perfectly with a set of two characters from the comics. “Cal” is short for Calvin, as in Calvin Zabo. In the comics, he goes by the moniker of Mister Hyde, and was granted superhuman strength and speed through a lab-created formula he created.

As you can probably tell, he’s a heck of a lot more monstrous in the comics, although he has the power to transform back and forth between his human appearance and “Mister Hyde.”

Although Zabo is definitely a villain in the comics, he fathered a daughter who went on to become a member of SHIELD. Her name is Daisy Johnson, and her name is definitely the bigger half of the reveal.

In the comics, Daisy’s superhero alias is “Quake,” and she has the power to create earthquake-like seismic waves. We got a big taste of that in the final minutes of the episode, with Daisy/Skye seemingly bringing down the entire building.

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2. What was going on in the underground city?

So as pretty much the entire fan community speculated, the Diviner turned out to be the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s equivalent of the Terrigen Mists. It even sprouted crystals, just like the Terrigen.

In the comics, exposure to this substance is what enables the Inhumans to gain their powers. Inhumans were ancient humans who were experimented on by the Kree, and later established their own civilization sequestered away from the rest of humanity.

Tying this back into Agents of SHIELD, it looks like Daisy/Skye’s mom was an Inhuman (who likely had some kind of superhuman healing power), and passed those genes onto Daisy. This in turn allowed the Diviner to awaken Daisy’s powers. Trip meanwhile (poor Trip), being a normal ol’ human, was unaffected by the Diviner until it shattered and impaled him.

3. What did Raina turn into?

Some kind of animal-like being apparently. We only got a few glimpses of her transformation, but I definitely saw cat-like eyes, claws, and some kind of spiky protrusions on her skin.

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As far as I know, there aren’t any particularly feline members of the Inhumans in the comics, which leads me to believe that Raina was and still is an original addition to the MCU.

That is, unless she’s Niels.

Just kidding. Expect to see much more of her in the second half of the season.

4. What is the Theta Protocol?

Another mystery unsolved this season. SHIELD has done some crazy stuff in the comics, but nothing going by that name.

We don’t have enough information yet to really speculate, but here’s what we know.

Agent Koenig is the one Coulson entrusts with activating the protocol if things go south, and it sounds like it’s a pretty big deal.

Theta is the eight letter of the Greek alphabet, and in the system of numerals, it has a value of nine.

The biggest hint we have is the Theta Brain-Wave Frequency Machine, that piece of Centipede tech that was used on Coulson to unlock his memories. Could the Theta Protocol be some kind of brain-altering technology?

5. More Diviners?

More Inhumans! Probably. The episode’s stinger scene reveals a pretty creepy guy with no eyes.

He has a Diviner of his own, and asks someone on the phone, “are you seeing this?” He adds that there is someone “new” (referring to Skye and Raina no doubt), and to tell the others.

That seems to imply there are not only more Diviners out there, but also more people who were granted powers from them. We’re definitely going to be seeing a lot more of that side of the world soon, likely all leading up to the Inhumans movie in 2018.

So is no-eye-guy from the comics?

At least in terms of appearance, he looks most like an Inhuman named Videmus. He’s a super minor character, but he does look a little bit similar to the guy we saw in the episode. In the comics, Videmus is blind, but can attach his… eye-things to people heads to read their thoughts.

Some fans have also pointed out that there’s a relatively new Inhuman in the comics who is blind. His name is Reader, and aside from the blindness, there is another potential connection. In the comics, Reader’s mission to travel the world in search of new Inhumans after a Terrigen Bomb is detonated. That’s kind of akin to what’s going on in Agents of SHIELD, with this new character heading off to find the Raina and Skye.

All of that being said, I think there’s as good a chance as any that this is a new character. If Raina is an original, I really wouldn’t be surprised if most of the “Inhumans” we meet in the upcoming episodes are as well.

So what’s next?

Well aside from all of the Inhumans, Raina, and more HYDRA, I assume we’ll also be seeing more of Ward and Evil-May. And given how Skye dealt with Ward in tonight’s episode, I can’t wait to see how he gets over this: