Raonaild

There's been some speculative discussion in other threads about where the show is going, and I thought I'd start a thread dedicated specifically to speculating about how future episodes will play out.

This isn't a spoiler thread, real spoilers belong in the Spoiler forum. This thread is about speculation based on what's happened in the show so far, and information on future episodes that's been released through official channels (e.g. future episode descriptsion, trailers, "sneek peek" scenes from Marvel).

Also, if anyone has ideas for a fancier title, I'm open to suggestions.

Now, to get the speculation going: What's going to happen with Simmons when she finds out about the "real" SHIELD?

My thoughts, after reading this this morning, is that it will play out something like this: Simmons will be drawn over to the "real" SHIELD (or as they're called in the article, SHIELD 2.0) for a variety of reasons, including their attitude towards gifteds (since Simmons seems to be more aligned with Mack's way of thinking). It also echoes her time spent with Hydra earlier in the year. But ultimately, she's going to be uncomfortable with the situation - like, they capture Skye and deal with her in a way that Simmons doesn't like. So Simmons betrays SHIELD 2.0 to help Coulson, which redeems her with Coulson. And maybe she rescues Skye in the process, redeeming herself with Fitz.

Musickat18

Thanks for the thread!

At first I was thinking that Simmons would be the logical person to go to Shield 2.0, but now I'm not so sure. Coulson is putting Skye on the gifted list and having Simmons do secret research on her, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being Fitz who leaves when he finds out, or even Skye herself, if Shield 2.0 somehow gives her a pitch about how she can help them. I'm assuming that the Avengers are a part of Shield 2.0, so it's possible Skye could end up over there after she finds out how Coulson doesn't trust her because she has powers.

indigo sunrise

Yeah, I go back and forth on that a lot. On one hand, it seems the most obvious theory right now, which is also exactly why I think it might not happen rule of thumb with this show, whenever I totally expect something to happen (like either Bobbi or Jemma being brainwashed earlier in the season - I mean it's still totally possible either one of them is but it's becoming less likely), it doesn't end up happening whatever it is, I definitely think they're going to make us think that Jemma will end up with SHIELD 2.0, regardless if she actually will.

Other than that, I've been thinking about Skye a lot. We know she'll eventually end up with the Inhumans, and when SHIELD 2.0 is attacking next episode would be the perfect time for Gordon to come teleport her out to safety. I'm actually wondering what the reason might be that he hasn't yet - like Cal asked him, it doesn't make a lot of sense that they haven't brought her in yet to help her cope with her new powers, especially since they know she's Jiaying's daughter and you'd think she'd be a priority to them. I'm guessing there's a good reason for that, but at this point I don't really have any guesses on what it might be.

Raonaild

I agree that Fitz's loyalty to Coulson is in serious question right now. He might have been able to accept putting Skye on the index or even general research on shutting down powers, provided it was used only on bad people. But I think locking Skye away in the safe house really crossed a line with Fitz. As I said in the episode thread, Coulson could have handled that better, he could have involved Fitz and framed it in a way that he was helping Skye to adjust to her powers, and not just locking her away somewhere. And when locking her away goes wrong, which is what the preview for next week seems to imply, it's going to make Fitz even more upset and angry with Coulson for doing it.

But I think that SHIELD 2.0 will be even less friendly towards gifteds than Coulson's SHIELD, so to me that rules out either Skye or Fitz joining them, voluntarily anyway. I think Fitz's main motivation right now is to protect Skye, and he'll go with whatever option best helps him to achieve that.

And I think that Simmons aligning with SHIELD 2.0 seems obvious to us, because we watch the show so closely, but for the average viewer Simmons actually crossing over to the other side would be surprising.

Also, just to say ... I think another possibility, if Simmons were to go with SHIELD 2.0, is that she might go as a double agent, with the intention of helping Coulson. Within the context of the show, others would believe her sincerity in joining SHIELD 2.0, even Fitz is at a point where he might believe her capable of such a thing. But we see so little from Simmons point of view these days, she and Coulson could easily have secret plans that we don't know about.

indigo sunrise

I want to think that they're deliberately planting seeds to make us doubt everyone's loyalty at this point, so that it's all up in the air who'll eventually end up where, but when it comes down to it I think they're always going to keep the core team together. Or maybe that's just what I want to believe

Raonaild

The whole season seems to have been designed to break the core team apart. Coulson leaving Skye at that cabin seems particularly calculated to alienate Fitz and Skye, two of his most loyal supporters.

When HYDRA destroyed SHIELD last season, the group kept on going because they had each other, and they were fighting for each other. Now, I keep thinking, what's the point? Why are any of them, apart from Coulson and May, still with SHIELD? It has limited resources, they've been harassed by both governments and HYDRA, and at this point none of them like each other very much. They certainly don't seem much like a family anymore - if they are, it's a pretty dysfunctional one.

I do agree that ultimately the core team will come back together. I think it's hard enough to keep Ward on as a regular but not part of the team, the other regulars will need to come back to the same side if they're to stay on the show.

I think that part of the gameplan is to isolate Coulson, so that when things go down with the "real" SHIELD he'll have to do something pretty spectacular to keep his position. Maybe at that point he'll actually try to pull his team back together - so far his team has been crumbling around him and he's done little to try to fix it. Mostly he's just made it worse.

Throwing out some other thoughts:

Although Bobbi is betraying Coulson at the moment, do you think Bobbi will end up back on his team?

Do you think the Inhumans might become Coulson's allies? Given the choice between HYDRA, the "real" SHIELD and Coulson's SHIELD, they might see him as the lesser evil.

Will Coulson still be the Director of SHIELD by the end of the season? There could be a scenario where he goes back to being an Agent with a team.

What about Ward, Agent 33 and brainwashing Bakshi - are they trying to get into HYDRA and go after Coulson and SHIELD? Or maybe trying to take down what remains of HYDRA to get on Coulson's good side? Or does it maybe have nothing to do with HYDRA at all, and they're going to use Bakshi to play some kind of game with Coulson (maybe something along the lines of the game Coulson played with Bakshi back in 2x11)?

Karri

I think part of the reason Skye was left at the cabin was so the Inhumans would be able to get to her. I wonder if Gordon was waiting for the most opportune moment to take her. He didn't help Raina until she was surrounded by SHIELD agents. Seems likely Gordon will show up next episode to help Skye when she is being chased by other SHIELD.

I do think Skye and Fitz will have issues with the way Coulson handled the situation, but I think their loyalty to Coulson will outweigh what he did for both of them.

Raonaild

I think it could go a number of different ways. Maybe the real SHIELD does get to Skye, and they hold her for a while. Or maybe she escapes on her own. Or maybe one of the Coulson SHIELD crew helps her. Heck, at this point, I wouldn't even rule out Ward getting involved. Even if the Inhumans don't pick her up at the cabin right away, taking her to that cabin has probably set off a series of events that will end up with her joining up with the other Inhumans at some point, if not in the next ep.

I certainly don't think either of them would outright betray Coulson, Fitz just isn't that kinda guy and for Skye Coulson's a surrogate father. But I don't think either of them are going to trust him now the way they might have before. Even I'm a bit surprised at Coulson's actions last ep, I'm glad he at least felt like he'd made a big mistake afterwards.

gingerly

So based on the sneak peek and promo for 2x16, it looks like Fitz is going to leave (to meet up with Coulson?) and Simmons is going to stay with SHIELD 2.0.

Raonaild

They suggest certainly that Fitz wants to leave, and I think he will, but there is a possibility that it won't happen, at least not yet. And it doesn't indicate at all what Simmons' plans are, though I think she will stay, at least for now.

I am very interested in seeing the specifics of how this plays out. Does Simmons try to convince Fitz to stay? Does Fitz try to convince Simmons to leave? Do they both agree that he should go and she should stay and try to help from the inside? Does Simmons stay even though Fitz thinks she should go, seeming to sympathize with SHIELD 2.0 after being persuaded by Bobbi/Gonzales through the course of the ep? What do Bobbi/Mack and the rest of SHIELD 2.0 do to try to convince FitzSimmons to stay? Under what circumstances do they actually let Fitz go?

Certainly, once Fitz leaves, he'll meet up with Coulson again at some point.

Tech Noir

I don’t know; it all seems so exciting!
But the one thing I do hope is that the show doesn’t drag out Simmons’s sl of trying to “fix” inhumane for too long.
What makes me feel uneasy is how fans of the show are now beginning to bash on her (even resorting to profanity to describe her), especially after the episode where she compared Skye to the Hulk. I don't think the writers intend for Simmons to be a despised character, but I already see it beginning to happen in the fandom.

indigo sunrise

Yeah unfortunately that is a thing that I've been seeing a lot in fandom too, and it makes me super sad. I might be biased because Jemma is my absolute favourite character on this show so I might make more of an effort to understand where she's coming from than most people - but to me her reaction has never been surprising. I fully understand why she's acting the way she is. I'm curious to see how it all plays out though once Jemma finds out that Skye is with other Inhumans now. I guess it also depends on how things go for Skye while she's there.

Raonaild

I also do not like what they've been doing with Simmons this year, especially since the break. I've been happy with her reaction to SHIELD 2.0 so far and her attitude from the 2x16 sneak peek scene, I really do hope she doesn't waver on that. And I'm hoping that she will find out in the next ep how SHIELD 2.0 went after Skye and tried to kill her, and she'll quickly see how SHIELD 2.0's extreme stance on gifteds is ugly and reconsider her position.

I am afraid though that they might drag it out for a while, that Simmons might not change her mind until she actually sees Skye controlling her powers and meets other good Inhumans. And I think we're at least a few more eps away from that.

I think another wild card here is what mysterious cargo SHIELD 2.0 has on that helicarrier. We don't really know anything about it other than it's powerful enough that Fury didn't want Hydra to get their hands on it. I'm guessing from SHIELD 2.0's very specific problem with anything alien that what they have is alien, possibly some kind of alien tech. The thought occurred to me that they might want to show FitzSimmons that cargo. Bobbi and Mack have pretty specifically befriended Simmons and Fitz, maybe SHIELD 2.0 wants their help with it.

Raonaild

I'm happy that Simmons didn't waver and that it was clear at the end whose side she was on.

I think though there's still going to be a reckoning regarding her attitude towards people with powers. I'm guessing that's the next thing that will come up with her, now that the cube is dealt with . And she doesn't know yet how SHIELD 2.0 tried to deal with Skye.

I'm curious now that Fitz is out in the wild with the cube how long it will take him to join up with Coulson. Given Coulson's next move seems to be finding Ward, I kind of suspect that he won't join up with Fitz right away - it'll be bad enough trying to deal with Ward, having Fitz in that mix would just make it more complicated.

Oh, and my theory for how Fitz connects with Coulson is that Fitz uses that modern Howling Commando kit to contact him. Since Fitz apparently helped put it together.

Mistified

Mark Waid who does the Shield comic.

'Yes, Skye stars in SHIELD #7 as solicits revealed today. I've been trying for Ward, but some (great) things may be beyond my control, sorry.'

Does anyone think Ward is going to get a reveal?