[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/agents_of_shield_pilot_438.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Coulson confronts Peterson.]]

The pilot episode of ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD''

After the events of ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson assembles a small team of agents to investigate a mysterious group called the Rising Tide. In doing so, they encounter Mike Peterson (J. August Richards), a laid-off factory worker who has acquired superhuman powers.

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!!Tropes:

* ActionBomb: The source of the explosion in the building that Mike Peterson saves a woman from. It's due to [[Film/IronMan3 Extremis]].
* AllYourPowersCombined: The Centipede device is a combination of gamma radiation (''Film/{{The Incredible Hulk|2008}}''), super soldier serum (''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger''), alien tech ([[Film/TheAvengers2012 the Chitauri]]), and Extremis (''Film/IronMan3''). This is lampshaded, comparing it to taking every known source of superpowers and throwing it in a blender.
* ArcWords: "Tahiti. It's a magical place," makes its first appearance.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: [[CoolCar Lola]] and the VanInBlack are parked on the Bus's loading ramp without any tie-down straps or other standard load locking mechanism. Pilots of cargo-carrying aircraft don't permit this. For an example of what happens when the straps aren't good enough, see [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lksDISvCmNI this]].
* BackFromTheDead: It's Coulson! He didn't die! Well, he did, but only for forty seconds. Well, eight, but he keeps exaggerating.
* BatmanColdOpen: The opening infiltration with Ward.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: The burning building victim is looking pretty polished.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Early on, Ward notes he's good at disarming explosives, and would prefer single-man demolitions to working in a team. Eventually, the team finds out that there ''is'' a bomb involved. It's [[Film/IronMan3 Extremis]]-driven [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity Mike]].
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Coulson is calm, collected, and reserved in just about all circumstances, but when Simmons explains that they can't keep Mike from dying, he gets very loud and angry.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: The doctor involved in Project Centipede. It's the beautiful woman who Mike saved.
* BlindfoldedTrip: How Skye is recruited.
* BlofeldPloy: A non-lethal variation. Coulson describes in detail the truth serum he apparently plans to use on Skye, then jabs Ward with it so he'll have to answer her questions.
* CallBack: Mike's rant about ordinary people getting stepped on by heroes calls back to the conversation between Loki and Fury in ''Film/TheAvengers2012''. "Ant, meet boot."
* CantStopTheSignal: Skye encourages Mike to go public with his gifts, believing the publicity will protect him from S.H.I.E.L.D.
* CaptainObvious: Ward is told of a danger of incoming hostiles...while he is being attacked by them. He promptly lampshades this.
* ChekhovsGun:
** The "Night-Night" gun comes in handy at the end.
** A longer term one is set when Skye secretly grabs a SIM card from her van and hides it. It's not until "[[Recap/AgentsofSHIELDS1E5GirlintheFlowerDress Girl in the Flower Dress]]" that we find out what's on it.
* ComesGreatResponsibility: Parodied:
-->'''Skye:''' With great power comes... a ton of weird crap that you are not prepared to deal with.
* ContinuityNod: When Simmons asks Ward if he's excited to join them on their "journey into mystery", he responds "It's like Christmas." [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] said that when talking about the new Arc Reactor he was building in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}''.
* CoolCar: "Don't touch Lola."
* CreepyCentipedes: While no actual centipedes are featured, the villains have this [[AnimalMotifs motif.]]
* DisneyDeath:
** Coulson. He was officially declared dead and then he walks out of the dark hallway.
** At the end of the episode, Mike gets shot in the head by Ward even though the situation was going calmly. The rest of TheTeam is distraught and worries he's dead... until they see that Ward just used a tranquilizer gun.
* DistractedByTheSexy: Skye tries to use this while being interrogated by Ward. The TruthSerum made him say "I mask my pain in front of beautiful women to protect my masculinity."
* DoubleEntendre: Skye tries to get Mike to embrace his powers through noting that the woman he saved wanted to thank him... or to [[RescueSex "thank" him]].
* TheEasyWayOrTheHardWay: Spoofed:
-->'''Ward:''' There are two ways we can do this.\\
'''Skye:''' ''[mocking]'' Ooh, is one of them the ''easy'' way?\\
'''Ward:''' [[BluntYes No.]]\\
'''Skye:''' ...[[ThisIsGonnaSuck oh]].
* EmergingFromTheShadows: Coulson, which he promptly gives a thorough LampshadeHanging.
-->'''Coulson:''' Sorry, this corner was really dark and I couldn't help myself. ''[{{beat}}]'' I think a bulb is out or something.
* ExactWords: The Centipede lab was leased as a "self-empowerment center", which is technically true: It's a place you go to be given superpowers.
* FemaleGaze: Second degree regarding Film/{{Thor}}.
-->'''Ward:''' I don't think Thor is... [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien technically a god]].\\
'''Hill:''' Then you haven't been near his arms.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: We get a couple hints at some serious shit waiting to pop down the line.
** Coulson says of Hill's evaluation of Ward's people skills (or lack thereof), that "considering your family history, I'm surprised it's not worse".
** "Tahiti... he really doesn't know, does he?" "He can never know."
** May ''refuses'' to go back in the field.
** Coulson notes that they haven't cut the head off Centipede.
* FlyAtTheCameraEnding: Courtesy of [[CoolCar Lola.]]
* FreezeFrameBonus: Agent Hill's ID shows her birthday as "1982''ARP''04." Colbie Smulder's birthday is one day earlier: April 3, 1982.
* GroinAttack: Skye kicks some poor guy in the nuts and pretends that Mike encouraged her to do so, so the guy's friends would attack Mike while she gets away.
* GroundShatteringLanding: Mike does this during his initial rescue. It doesn't have attention called to it at first, but we later see Agent May looking over at the dual footprint craters.
* HeroicFireRescue: The episode starts with a classic "burning building" scenario. However, it is later revealed that there's more to the rescue than just saving an innocent woman.
* HerosFirstRescue: Mike Peterson's heroic debut is climbing up the side of a burning building to rescue a woman trapped in the top floor. The scene provides the image on the trope page.
* {{Hologram}}: The team uses videotape footage and a holographic computer simulation to recreate a laboratory explosion.
* InstantSedation:
** PlayedForLaughs in a variation with the QNB-T16 Truth Serum, which is lampshaded by Ward.
--->'''Ward:''' My ''God'' that stuff works fast.
** DoubleSubverted with the Night-Night Gun. Simmons says that she can't cause instantaneous paralysis with its mechanism, but, as revealed at the end of the episode, it can do just that.
* MonsterOfTheWeek: More like Metahuman of the Week, but this is true of Mike. The actual villains are whoever was behind Project Centipede.
* MythologyGag:
** "With [[ComicBook/SpiderMan great power]] comes... a ton of weird crap that you are not prepared to deal with."
** "Are you ready for our ComicBook/{{journey into mystery}}?"
** Maria refers to Mike as an "[[ComicBook/CivilWar2006 Unregistered]] Gifted".
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: '''[[CreepyCentipedes Centipede]]'''.
* NeverTellMeTheOdds:
-->'''Simmons:''' We've a couple of hours at most, there's no way that we could possibly--\\
'''Coulson:''' Don't ''ever'' tell me that there's no way!
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Skye encourages Mike to embrace his powers and try becoming a full-on public superhero. He takes it to heart, seeing himself as the hero and everyone opposing him as the bad guy.
* ObliviouslyEvil: Mike Peterson's SanitySlippage leads him to believe that his JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope is his SuperHeroOrigin.
* OffTheShelfFX: Actual ''Avengers'' action figures from Creator/{{Hasbro}} make an appearance.
* OneWordTitle: "Pilot"
* PsychoSerum: The centipede makes its users increasingly emotionally unstable before they explode.
* SeenItAll: The gorgeous woman in lingerie in the BatmanColdOpen is completely unfazed by Ward doing covert shit nor by the ensuing fight. She just rolls her eyes, gets dressed, and walks out, heels in hand.
* ShipTease:
** A lot between Skye and Ward during the interrogation scene. "Mask my pain in front of beautiful women" and all.
** Fitz and Simmons' extremely close relationship could also fall into this trope, or PlatonicLifePartners, depending on your perspective. (They even come with a prefabricated PortmanteauCoupleName!)
* ShoutOut:
** Fitz softly sings [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs "heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it's off to work you go"]] as he sends out his little scanner drones. The one whose point of view we briefly see is designated "Bashful".
** "I'm not [[Franchise/HarryPotter Hermione]], I can't create instant paralysis!"
** Coulson's CoolCar turning into a hovercraft and flying away brings to mind the "Where we're going, we won't need roads" scene from ''Film/BackToTheFuture1''. It's a shot-for-shot replica, complete with wheels turning horizontal, putting on shades, and the car first zooming away from the camera and then ending by zooming back past the camera.
** [[CoolCar Lola]] is also a throw back to [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger hover car]] that was "a few years" away.
* SuperPowerMeltdown: The Centipede tech has this problem, as [[Film/IronMan3 Extremis]] is one of its components.
* SwordLimbo: Not a sword, but Phil Coulson leans backward to avoid being hit by the flying door of van propelled at high speed by a Peterson.
* TakeAThirdOption: When Coulson is looking over their two options in stopping Mike before his Extremis powers blow up, he asks that Fitz and Simmons find a third option so that they won't have to kill Mike to stop him.
* TemptingFate: Skye is recording a impassioned speech for Rising Tide saying they'll never be found and nothing will stop them... just as Coulson and Ward open the door of her van.
* TheyWouldCutYouUp: Coulson points this out as a reason why Skye should help them find Mike:
-->'''Coulson:''' We want to contain him, yeah. The next guy will want to exploit him and the guy after that will want to experiment on him.
* TranquilizerDart: How the "Night-Night" gun is supposed to work. Simmons is annoyed with it being called as such, since she can't make instant paralysis with it, but Fitz likes the name. The latter is justified, as it ''does'' work once they fix it up.
* TruthSerums: Coulson uses one in an unorthodox manner in order to help recruit Skye. He actually injects Agent Ward, who proceeds to babble more than a few secrets, which helps her to trust them.
* UnfazedEveryman: The woman in UsefulNotes/{{Paris}} whose apartment Ward infiltrates in the BatmanColdOpen barely gives more reaction than an eye-roll at her fireplace opening up or that men are wrecking her place as she leaves.
* {{Unperson}}: Skye has to do this for Mike. When he wants assurance that it'll work, she says she's done it before.
* VictoriasSecretCompartment: Skye tucks a SIM card into her bra just before Mike attacks May.
* WhyAmITicking: A side effect of Extremis is explosion.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: One of the side-effects of Centipede is progressive insanity, and eventually [[ActionBomb a bit more than that]].
* WrongGenreSavvy: Mike is obviously aware of the old tropes, claiming at one point that the events unfolding around him are the elements of a typical origin story of a superhero. Actually, he's close to JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope and was becoming violently unstable.
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