Tonight’s Agents of SHIELD episode was a doozy! Between potentially altering the events of Captain America: The Winter Solider and opening up a ton of new questions about Jemma, “A Trout in the Milk” was a packed episode. The team traveled to the 1970s to discover that Project Insight is now nearly 40 years ahead of schedule. While attempting to stop the Chronicoms, the team discovers that some old foes have lived longer than they were meant to, and a lot of people in their lives are in danger.
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During the episode, Daisy and Sousa find a list of important people that seem to be targets of the Chronicoms. The list includes Bruce Banner, Peggy Carter, Victoria Hand, and more. In addition to taking down SHIELD in the past, the inclusion of a young Banner means the Chronicoms are probably trying to stop the Avengers, too. This could further prove the theory that the team is going to end up at The Battle of New York in 2012. Now that the team has reached a period in time a little closer to their own, their family members are at risk. In fact, Mack is forced to abort their mission to stop Project Insight when he realizes his parents are being held hostage in the base he planned to flood. This could mean that as the team progresses through time, more loved ones (and hopefully old series favorites) will start to come into play.
In addition to the mention of some important names, this episode also saw the return of Gideon Malick, who was played by Powers Boothe in the show’s third season. However, you may recall a flashback episode that saw young Gideon attending his father Wilfred’s funeral. During the flashback, we learned that Gideon’s father was a prominent member of Hydra who worshiped Hive, and used a sleight of hand trick for years in order to prevent getting sent through the monolith to be sacrificed. Gideon soon took over this tactic after his father’s death, which resulted in his brother, Nathanial, getting sacrificed. According to the new episode, those events were supposed to take place in 1970. However, the team discovers in 1973 that both Wilfred and Nathanial are still alive, creating changes to the timeline.
To make matter worse, Nathanial kidnaps Daisy and Sousa, and the episode’s end tag scene sees him making a very unsettling phone call. It appears he’s trying to learn how to steal Daisy’s powers through surgery from Doctor Whitehall. While it hasn’t happened yet, Whitehall did succeed in using Daisy’s mother’s powers to make himself younger in the 1980s. We’re certainly eager to see how everything unfolds!
Agents of SHIELD airs Wednesday nights on ABC at 10 PM EST.
