History Series / AgentsofSHIELD

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Ward gets mind-controlled and raped by Lorelei. Yet he shows no signs of trauma, and he is the one apologizing at the end of the episode.

* MoralMyopia: In ''T.A.H.I.T.I.', the team assault the "Guest House" facility and kill the two guards posted there. Those two people are not bad guys. They are JustFollowingOrders, and those orders come from Nick Fury. Sure, the team tries a peaceful approach first, and they are in a hurry because of Skye dying, but it is surprising that nobody in the team has any second thoughts about murdering two decent guys. [[spoiler:The fact that two out of four members of the assault team were HYDRA agents trying to discover the base's secrets was part of the suspicious lack of moralizing. In fact, the HYDRA agents were the ones who did the shooting]].
** However, it should be noted that [[spoiler: Coulson was the one leading the team and ordered one of the men to counterattack.]]

** Season 2 uses a BigBadEnsemble of rotating {{Arc Villain}}s. The first half of Season 2 starts with Daniel Whitehall, a HYDRA leader who wants to weaponize the Obelisk and destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. The second half of season 2 introduces Robert Gonzales as the leader of a second branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. The other S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying to take control away from Coulson, who they distrust for his secretive leadership and exposure to alien influence. The final 3 episodes [[spoiler: turn Jiaying, the leader of the Inhumans in Afterlife, into one by starting a war with Coulson's and Gonzales' unified S.H.I.E.L.D. after killing Gonzales and pulling a WoundedGazelleGambit.]] An overall series Big Bad seems to have officially been established with [[spoiler: Ward, particularly at the end of the season two finale when he seems to be establishing himself as an impromptu HYDRA leader.]] For Season 3 at least anyway.
*** One could make a strong argument that since Jiaying's actions so heavily rely on what happened to her, that even posthumously, Whitehall is still the season's Big Bad through and through. His actions still cause pretty much everything terrible that happens after his death. The worst part about it? Even though he was killed, he still got off far too easy.

** Season 2 uses a BigBadEnsemble of rotating {{Arc Villain}}s. The first half of Season 2 starts with Daniel Whitehall, a HYDRA leader who wants to weaponize the Obelisk and destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. The second half of season 2 introduces Robert Gonzales as the leader of a second branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. The other S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying to take control away from Coulson, who they distrust for his secretive leadership and exposure to alien influence. The final 3 episodes [[spoiler: turn Jiaying, the leader of the Inhumans in Afterlife, into one by starting a war with Coulson's and Gonzales' unified S.H.I.E.L.D. after killing Gonzales and pulling a WoundedGazelleGambit.]] An overall series Big Bad seems to have officially been established with [[spoiler: Ward, particularly at the end of the season two finale when he seems to be establishing himself as an impromptu HYDRA leader.]]

** Season 2 uses a BigBadEnsemble of rotating {{Arc Villain}}s. The first half of Season 2 starts with Daniel Whitehall, a HYDRA leader who wants to weaponize the Obelisk and destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. The second half of season 2 introduces Robert Gonzales as the leader of a second branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. The other S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying to take control away from Coulson, who they distrust for his secretive leadership and exposure to alien influence. The final 3 episodes [[spoiler: turn Jiaying, the leader of the Inhumans in Afterlife, into one by starting a war with Coulson's and Gonzales' unified S.H.I.E.L.D. after killing Gonzales and pulling a Wounded Gazelle Gambit.]] An overall series Big Bad seems to have officially been established with [[spoiler: Ward, particularly at the end of the season two finale when he seems to be establishing himself as an impromptu HYDRA leader.]]

** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] with Bobbi Morse: unlike her comic book counterpart, she's not a superhero nor a member of the Avengers, just a regular agent, so there's no reason for her to have a codename. Ultimately played with though as advertisements do refer to her as Mockingbird, but its not used in-universe yet.

** Skye got a ''lot'' of criticism in the first few episodes for the fact she was recruited off the street after trying to cyber attack S.H.I.E.L.D.; in real life, its not uncommon for intelligence and/or law enforcement agencies to recruit rogue assets to their own side if they prove to be useful, particularly computer hackers.

** Skye got a ''lot'' of criticism in the first few episodes for the fact she was recruited off the street after trying to cyber attack S.H.I.E.L.D.; in real life, its not uncommon for intelligent and/or law enforcement agencies to recruit rogue assets to their own side if they prove to be useful, particularly computer hackers.

* EvilerThanThou: Raina is one of the primary villains of Season 1, and always keeps a calm demeanor, even when things are collapsing around her. Then comes Season 2, whose main antagonists -- Daniel Whitehall and The Doctor -- both absolutely ''terrify'' her.

** Season 2 uses a BigBadEnsemble of rotating {{Arc Villain}}s. The first half of Season 2 starts with Daniel Whitehall, a HYDRA leader who wants to weaponize the Obelisk and destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. The second half of season 2 introduces Robert Gonzales as the leader of a second branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. The other S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying to take control away from Coulson, who they distrust for his secretive leadership and exposure to alien influence. The final 3 episodes [[spoiler: turn Jiaying, the leader of the Inhumans in Afterlife, into one by starting a war with Coulson's and Gonzales' unified S.H.I.E.L.D. after killing Gonzales and pulling a Wounded Gazelle Gambit.]] An overall series Big Bad seems to have officially been established with [[spoiler: Ward, particularly at the end of the season two finale when he seems to be establishing himself as an impromptu Hydra leader.]]

* RewatchBonus: The complete first season gets a really different meaning after learning the truth about Ward's past, what happened in Bahrain and who Skye's parents actually are.

** Melinda May, so much so that her nickname is "TheCavalry," even if she claims to hate being called that. Initially, she joined the team on the condition that she was only there to pilot the plane and provide nominal support. But after a few close scrapes, she eventually volunteers for field combat duty. "Repairs" and "Melinda" reveal May's reluctance is because she once rescued a S.H.I.E.L.D. team single-handedly, hence "The Cavalry" nickname, but is haunted [[spoiler:by having had to kill an inhuman little girl mindcontrolling the team]].

** Season two ends with Coulson establishing a team "like the Avengers, [[ComicBook/SecretAvengers but secret]] [[spoiler:with Skye as the leader and current sole member]], HYDRA growing a new head in the form of [[spoiler:an angry Grant Ward]], a MassEmpoweringEvent with [[spoiler:Terrigen infected fish products which will cause Terrigenesis in random people with no obvious source]], and of course [[spoiler:Simmons getting ''swallowed whole'' by the Kree anti-Inhuman WMD]].

* SequelHook: Season One ends with quite a few dangling threads for Season Two to pick up on: [[spoiler: Coulson is now Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and tasked with rebuilding the organization; also, he has started to compulsively draw the same alien symbols that Garrett was. Meanwhile, Fitz is left in critical condition, with his future uncertain, and Ward is challenged as to who he is without Garrett. At the same time, both Quinn and Raina escape Garrett's downfall, the former with the gravitonium, and the latter getting in touch with a mysterious figure who is apparently Skye's father.]]

* BadassBoast: Two back-to-back from different characters in "Face My Enemy":
-->'''Agent 33''': I won't go down easy.\\

* BadassBookworm: Fitz gets to be one for an episode in "The Hub": secret agent labrat reporting for duty!

** The Inhumans themselves look down on anyone who wasn't born with a (latent) power, with Gordon disregarding Cal as a 'science experiment' despite the Inhumans themselves being the product of Kree experiments.

** Gordon is a teleporter, but despite having no eyes can "see" well enough to use his powers in close combat with mutliple S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and can "hear" Inhumans call him from anywhere on Earth and know when they are alone.

** Season 2 uses a BigBadEnsemble of rotating {{Arc Villain}}s. The first half of Season 2 starts with Daniel Whitehall, a HYDRA leader who wants to weaponize the Obelisk and destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. The second half of season 2 introduces Robert Gonzales as the leader of a second branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. The other S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying to take control away from Coulson, who they distrust for his secretive leadership and exposure to alien influence. The final 3 episodes [[spoiler: turn Jiaying, the leader of the Inhumans in Afterlife, into one by starting a war with Coulson's and Gonzales' unified S.H.I.E.L.D. after killing Gonzales and pulling a Wounded Gazelle Gambit.]]

** Two episodes, "T.R.A.C.K.S." and "T.A.H.I.T.I.", are stylized as acronyms which are never explained. T.A.H.I.T.I. appears InUniverse, so it may get some explanation down the road.

* AllThereInTheManual: Though the synopsis of several episodes confirm that Skye and the inhabitants of Láishì are [[spoiler: Inhumans]], the term has yet to be said onscreen. They're often called "powered people" or "gifteds" by S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA, and "descendants" by their own kind.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywaylking: Cal's formula includes several drugs, steroids as well as such oddities as gorilla testosterone and ''peppermint''.