Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Is Skye Really Daisy Johnson?

On last night’s episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., we got to peer into Skye’s psyche during a dream sequence. The sequence brought some of Skye’s fears to the forefront, mostly her fear of abandonment, represented by her new S.H.I.E.L.D. mother and father figures, May and Coulson. She clearly fears that her connection to the Doctor will force her new family to leave her behind.

There’s something else that may be important in that scene. May and Coulson only leave Skye behind after a music box is opened, and the song that the box plays may tell us the truth about Skye’s identity.

The song the box plays is “Daisy Bell,” which many sci-fi fans will recognize from 2001: A Space Odyssey. One might think that this particular song was chosen simply because it’s a simple song that sounds kind of creepy if played at the right speed, and in the right context, but we think it’s more than that.

Showrunners Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen both come from a musical background. Whedon used to write scores for video games, and Tanchoroen is a singer and dancer, and both co-wrote the musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog with Joss Whedon. Point being, when they pick a specific song for a specific scene, I find it hard to believe it’s without an equally specific reason.

According to the Doctor, “Skye” is not actually Skye’s real name. As a symbol of her lost childhood, the music box may have revealed what Skye’s true name is: Daisy. And in Marvel Comics, there’s one very notable character with the name Daisy and strong ties to S.H.I.E.L.D., and that’s Daisy Johnson, a.k.a. Quake.

This fits in snugly with our previous theory that the Doctor is actually the Marvel villain Mister Hyde, who is Daisy’s father. Daisy was introduced in Secret War, but reakky took center stage in the Secret Warriors comic book series, which followed Nick Fuy’s handpicked team of young agents, fighting the good fight against Hydra at a time when there was no officially sanctioned S.H.I.E.L.D. (does that premise sound familiar to anybody else?).

Daisy also has a very similar origin story to Skye’s. She once went by a fake name (in the comics, it’s Cory Sutter rather than Skye, likely changed to keep her identity from being too obvious in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), and she was taken in by S.H.I.E.L.D. at a young age, similar to how S.H.I.E.L.D. agents took Skye from China. Daisy is then groomed by Nick Fury, similar to how Skye has received special attention from Coulson, and eventually becomes an Avenger and the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. herself, hinting at potentially big things in Skye’s future.

There are some differences however. For one, Daisy is not an Inhuman, and we believe, at this point, that we can safely assume Skye is. Daisy’s powers were first believed to be a mutation, but were later revealed to be a side effect of her father’s altered DNA. We still believe this works, just with Marvel Studios taking some liberties. Instead of being mistakenly pegged as a mutant, she is accurately pegged as the closest thing Marvel can legally use to a mutant, an Inhuman (though Marvel could still throw a twist at us in the final stretch).

Of course, nothing is confirmed until it’s confirmed, but the clues just keep coming, and we think this theory just keeps getting stronger as they do.

The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. midseason finale airs December 9 on ABC.