Agents of SHIELD Premiere Reveals Darren Barnet’s Character, Explains Why SHIELD Must Save Hydra

Agents of SHIELD's final season premiere episode, "The New Deal," was released tonight and saw the team time traveling to 1931 to prevent the Chronicoms from changing history and destroying SHIELD. The episode saw LMD Coulson on his first mission, the long-awaited return of Patton Oswalt, and a fun glimpse at old New York. Since SHIELD wasn't founded until the 1950s, the team needs to uncover why the Chronicoms chose this moment in time to visit. After assuming the advanced, semi-robotic beings were after Franklin D. Roosevelt, the team learns that they're actually after the character played by Never Have I Ever's Darren Barnet, whose true identity was a big twist. Warning: Agents of SHIELD season seven premiere spoilers ahead...

The team meets Freddy (Barnet), a young man who is working for Patton Oswalt's Ernest Hazard Koenig, who runs a speakeasy during Prohibition. We learn Freddy's father had a lot of money and an important position, but it was all gone after he took his own life. A mysterious woman finds Freddy and attempts to give him vile of green liquid before being shot by the Chronicoms. Once the agents realize that Freddy is the intended target, his true identity is revealed. He is Wilfred Malick, father of Gideon Malick! The team realizes that in order to protect history and prevent the Chronicoms from winning, they must keep Freddy safe so he can go on to be an important member of Hydra, which must survive for SHIELD to survive.

In case you haven't watched season three in a while, Gideon Malick was a prominent businessman and political figure who served as one of the leaders of Hydra. Gideon worshipped Hive and sent Grant Ward to Maveth to retrieve the ancient Inhuman. Hive ended up taking over Ward's body after he was killed by Coulson and returned to Earth with a plan to begin an Inhuman takeover. As for Gideon, he learned quickly that Hive had no intention of working alongside him, and after Hive killed Gideon's daughter, he opened up to SHIELD about Hydra's secrets. In the end, Hive had a swayed Daisy kill Gideon while he was in SHIELD custody. As for past mentions of Gideon's father, we know that he was also 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 eventually took over this tactic after his father's death, which resulted in his brother getting sacrificed.

Agents of SHIELD airs Wednesdays at 10 PM EST on ABC.