Tonight’s episode of Agents of SHIELD served as a bit of a light prequel to Avengers: Age of Ultron later this week. After a string of pretty weak episodes last season though, plenty of fans have checked out of the series for good. If you’re one of those people, but you still want to be caught up, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
Spoilers obviously.
SHIELD vs HYDRA
To keep things as brief and straightforward as possible for those who haven’t kept up with the Agents of SHIELD shenanigans, Phil Coulson’s organization is still dealing with the fallout from the events of The Winter Soldier and Project Insight. HYDRA is no longer the threat it once was, but a faction led by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and Dr. List (the last two remaining heads) is still going strong.
In the Age of Ultron tie-in episode, SHIELD infiltrates an Arctic base being run by List, where he is experimenting on enhanced individuals (including an Inhuman). Coulson’s team manages to destroy the base, but not before List makes his escape, fleeing to…
Slovokia
The episode more or less confirms that the HYDRA base we saw in the Winter Soldier stinger scene is located in the fictional Eastern European nation of Slovokia. The facility is run by Strucker himself, where he has used the power of Loki’s scepter to create two super-powered individuals (the twins, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver).
After dealing with the Arctic base, Coulson manages to pull info on the Slovokian installation from HYDRA’s computer network. He passes this intel along to…
Maria Hill
Maria Hill is still working for Tony Stark (with an awesome view of NY from Avengers Tower no less). Coulson gives Hill the location of the HYDRA facility in Sovokia, and asks her to assemble the A-listers…
Time to Bring in the Avengers
This leads right into Age of Ultron, with the Avengers team taking the fight to HYDRA as we saw in the trailers.
Raina’s Prophecy
And in case you somehow managed to miss every single Age of Ultron trailer, an Inhuman named Raina also foreshadowed the coming of Ultron himself.
Raina has the ability to see future events, and she pictures a “beautiful” and “dangerous” scepter that will bring much destruction, and men made of metal who will “tear cities apart.”
The scepter in this case is Loki’s, while the “metal men” are Ultron’s army, which the Avengers will be forced to contend with this weekend.
*Sokovia