Spoilers for all works set prior to the end of Avengers: Endgame are unmarked.
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Chronicom Altered Timeline
Daniel Sousa
See Team Coulson
John Garrett
John Garrett
Species: Enhanced human
Citizenship: American
Portrayed By: James Paxton
Appearances: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
A S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.
- Boom, Headshot!: How his 1983 self dies in the altered timeline, at the hands of Victoria Hand, who's death he was ultimately responsible for in the original timeline.
- Casting Gag: Who better to play a younger incarnation of Garrett than Bill Paxton's own son?
- The Dragon: As of "Stolen", his Alternate Timeline self has become this to Nathaniel Malick.
- Freudian Excuse: In the new timeline, seven years prior to this incident, even merely learning about the future from Nathaniel Malick is enough to make him just as much of a monster as in the original timeline]].
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: 1983 Garrett in the alternate timeline suffers this fate. After being left to die by Nathaniel Malick, he teams up with S.H.I.E.L.D. to get revenge on him, only to get killed the moment they leave the bunker. No one really mourns his death, as they still didn't trust him in the least.
- Karmic Death: He suffers a strangely karmic death by being shot in the head by Agent Victoria Hand, someone that his older self would have later ordered Ward to murder.
- Shout-Out: The manner in which James Paxton portrayed 1983 John Garrett is very reminiscent of the roles Bill Paxton often took in the '80s, calling to mind in particular Weird Science and Aliens.
- Teleportation: He acquires a copy of Gordon's teleportation powers thanks to Nathaniel Malick's procedure.
Wilfred Malick
Wilfred "Freddy" Malick
Species: Human
Citizenship: American
Portrayed By: Darren Barnet (1931), Neal Bledsoe (1955-1976, pictured)
Appearances: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
A bartender at a New York speakeasy, working under Ernest Hazard "Gemini" Koenig. Eventually, the seemingly innocent young man becomes a force to be reckoned with...
- Affably Evil: As a head of HYDRA, Malick is not without a certain sense of courtesy and honor, as shown when he spares Deke's life in 1955 after the latter spared him in 1931, citing his gratitude for Deke's role in his rise to power, although he tells Deke not to expect the same courtesy a second time.
- Beard of Evil: By 1955, he's a HYDRA leader within S.H.I.E.L.D. and sporting a nifty beard.
- Been There, Shaped History: He helped smuggle one of the key ingredients of the Super Soldier serum, which in turn would allow for the rise of Red Skull and Captain America.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Joins forces with the Chronicom Luke to prevent the defeat of HYDRA. However, it only lasts one episode, as on their next meeting in 1976, Deke shoots him dead.
- Big Bad Wannabe: While a major player in HYDRA, he's a small fry compared to the Chronicoms, who use him to further their own schemes. They do not seem terribly fazed when Deke unceremoniously kills him.
- Broken Pedestal: His son Nathaniel admires him until he finds out Wilfred cheats during the ritual to choose Hive's sacrifice.
- Chekhov's Gunman: He was mentioned in Season 3's episode "Paradise Lost" via flashback, and like his youngest son, was a plot device meant to help further explore Gideon's past and the history of the cult that worshipped Hive. In Season 7, his past self becomes involved with the Chronicoms, and serves as one of the main antagonists.
- Cosmic Retcon: He originally died in 1970, but due to the Chronicoms' interference, he survived to 1976 in the resulting timeline.
- Dirty Coward: He resorts to using a scored stone to keep from becoming a sacrifice to Hive. His past self is also shown to be this, as shown he ran and hid from the Chronicoms, leaving his contact Viola behind after she was shot by the Chronicoms.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: After he and the Chronicoms sprung a trap decades in the making on S.H.I.E.L.D. in 1973, he was ultimately forced to let them go after they took his son Nathaniel hostage, pissing off the Chronicoms who simply could not understand his reasoning.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Seemingly an innocent bartender, Freddy Malick goes on to become one of the heads of HYDRA.
- Hypocrite: As a young man, Wilfred scorns his father for committing suicide after the stock market crash, viewing him as a coward. As an older man, Wilfred would rig the sacrifices to Hive in his favor out of cowardice.
- Kill Sat: As part of the Chronicom's alterations to history, he nearly launched Project Insight 38 years early, using satellites instead of helicarriers.
- Mole in Charge: He's taken part of the S.H.I.E.L.D. infiltration, occupying a position higher than Daniel Sousa's. Later, he achieves a position higher than that of General Rick Stoner.
- Rags to Riches: His family lost everything due to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 but he managed to rebuild the family fortune after joining HYDRA.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The Chronicoms want to kill him during his youth to prevent the rise of HYDRA and the creation of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Gideon Malick
Gideon Malick
Species: Human
Citizenship: American
Portrayed By: Cameron Palatas
Voiced By: Jorge Lapuente [The Avengers and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Disney Dub], Gabriel Pingarrón [Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Sony Dub] (Latin-American Spanish dub); Jaume Comas [The Avengers], Juan Fernández [Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.] (European Spanish dub)
Appearances: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
A member of the HYDRA faction that worshipped the Inhuman Hive and the brother of Nathaniel Malick.
- Casanova Wannabe: He suffered this in 1973 when he chose Daisy Johnson as his target, with her all too familiar with who he is, and who he would become.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: He only has one scene before completely disappearing from the story, while his younger brother Nathaniel gets involved with the Chronicoms. It is implied that he would have taken over his father's positon following the latter's death at the hands of Deke.
Nathaniel Malick
Nathaniel "Nate" Malick
Species: Human
Citizenship: American
Portrayed By: Joel Courtney (season 3), Thomas E. Sullivan (season 7, pictured)
Voiced By: Alan Fernando Velázquez [Sony Dub] (Latin-American Spanish dub); Javier Balas (European Spanish dub)
Appearances: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (first appears in Episode 60: "Paradise Lost")
Nathaniel Malick: Dad... he would swap in this stone during the ceremonies and feel for the notch to make sure he never drew it from the bag.
Gideon Malick: He would never do that.
Nathaniel Malick: But he did. It's all right here, Gideon. Dad was afraid to be the Traveler. He was a coward... and a cheater. Everything he said to us was a lie.
Gideon Malick: He would never do that.
Nathaniel Malick: But he did. It's all right here, Gideon. Dad was afraid to be the Traveler. He was a coward... and a cheater. Everything he said to us was a lie.
A member of the HYDRA faction that worshipped the Inhuman Hive and the brother of Gideon Malick. Originally sacrificed to Hive in 1970, his fate was changed via Cosmic Retcon when his father became involved with the time-traveling Chronicoms.
- Ambiguous Situation: Nathaniel's plan, laid out in Fake Ultimate Hero below, raises the question of whether he knows about the Chronicoms' plan to turn Earth into their new homeworld. If he doesn't, he's an Unwitting Pawn at best, and if he does, his plan is either the result of Suicidal Overconfidence or an astonishing lack of foresight.
- Anarchy Is Chaos: Nathaniel's vision of anarchy certainly sounds like this, coupled with Might Makes Right.
- And This Is for...: Villainous example, as Nathaniel injures Deke with a powerful quake for killing his old man.
- Bad Boss:
- When asked by Garrett if transferring Gordon's powers into him would also cause him to lose his eyes, Nathaniel states that he actually hadn't considered that as a potential side effect, yet doesn't even try to abort the transfer, even when Garrett tells him that he changed his mind. Fortunately, Garrett remained unaffected in the end, but still.
- After chastising an underling for calling him "sir", lecturing him on how such power structures will have no place in his new world order, he later killed the same underling on the spot when he called him "sir" again, visibly terrifying his other underlings and showing that he doesn't even understand the power structure he's building around himself
- In the penultimate episode, he promptly abandons Garrett when the latter gets caught by Coulson, May and Elena at the Lighthouse, leaving him there to die in the explosion. He doesn't know Garrett's been compromised, he's just unwilling to alter his timetable.
- Bad Vibrations: When he steals Daisy's powers, he also inherits the resulting Power Incontinence. By 1983, he has much more control over them.
- Badass Longcoat: He starts wearing a dark one in the 80s.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Nathaniel says that none of Hydra's main branches interested him, not sacrificing members for a squid alien or taking over the world, but seeing Daisy's powers made him research Inhumans, eventually wanting to gain powers of his own. He decides to take one of the most dangerous powers in existence, and has no idea how to control them, much as Daisy did when they first manifested. This culminates in him demolishing his hideout, and almost killing himself in the process (after he broke almost every bone in his body from the constant vibrations).
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Nathaniel is shown as the quieter of the Malick brothers, sitting alone during the S.H.I.E.L.D. celebration while Gideon tries to hit on Daisy. By the end of the episode, Nathaniel kidnaps Sousa and Daisy, and is planning on using Whitehall's methods to acquire her powers through vivisection.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: He and Sibyl are the two main antagonists of the seventh season, Sibyl seeking him out and forging an alliance after his father's death. Malick provides Sibyl with muscle in exchange for knowledge of the future, and while he's little more than a useful pawn for the Chronicoms he gains much greater prominence and enmity with the agents, even serving as the Final Boss.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Despite all of his grandiose posturing about balancing the scales by giving Inhuman powers to humans and averting deaths in the original timeline, as well as causing chaos for the sake of it, he actually just wants to Take Over the World and comes off as an immature entitled brat who is treated by Sibyl and the other Chronicoms as a useful pawn at best. That said, he's a much more direct threat, and S.H.I.E.L.D. beats the odds so many times he eventually deems Sibyl useless as an oracle.
- Blatant Lies: Most of what Nathaniel says to Kora in the penulitmate episode is a big fat lie, particularly his claims that before her death, Jiaying expressed her hatred for Kora and regretted that she'd ever been born (nothing could be further from the truth). Played with in regards to his claim that Daisy quaked the Earth apart in the original timeline; while it's implied to have been what happened before the team changed history, it was never firmly established whether Daisy or a Gravitonium-empowered Talbot was actually responsible, so Nathaniel's claim could be a deliberate lie (which would fit the narrative he's feeding Kora), or he could simply be misinformed. His insistent claims that Daisy is the villain and driven by The Power of Hate are unambiguously lies, though.
- Bomb Throwing Anarchist: His stated goals after being spared by a Cosmic Retcon are chaos and anarchy, wanting nothing to with the structured societies HYDRA or S.H.I.E.L.D. would have, and going about what he calls a "redistribution of wealth" by stealing Inhuman powers and giving them to people history had previously seen as unfit to live.
- Combat Pragmatist: As shown in the finale, Nathaniel deliberately confronts Daisy in the reactor room of the Chronicom ship so she won't be able to use her full power without destroying the entire ship. Daisy, however, anticipated this and actually intends to blow up the whole ship, only needing to stall until Sibyl's ground forces can be reprogrammed.
- The Corrupter: Manipulates Jiaying's daughter Kora into joining him after managing to interrupt her suicide attempt and destroy her gun. He also shows a young John Garrett his future which leads the latter to joining his team against SHIELD.
- Cosmic Retcon: He originally died in 1970, but due to the Chronicoms' interference, he survived to at least 1983 in the resulting timeline.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Nathaniel states that he really had a hard time finding his place within HYDRA, going as far as to call the cult ridiculous for worshipping the space octopus Hydra, though he was somewhat intrigued by Whitehall's experiments. This is a stark contrast to how he was depicted in the flashbacks in Season 3, where he considered it an honor to be a part of the cult, and had no interest in joining Whitehall's faction of Hydra.
- Didn't Think This Through: Nathaniel takes Daisy's powers, only to realize too late just how powerful she is when his bones crack under constant vibrations he can't control. According to Sybil, his plan only had a 22% chance of working anyway. He does manage to survive though.
- He also didn't consider whether transferring the powers of Inhumans with deformities might also transfer the deformities, and Garrett didn't think to ask about side-effects until he was already undergoing the procedure. Luckily for Garrett, it turns out that doesn't happen (at least in his case).
- Dirty Coward: A recurring trait in the Malick family. When he realizes that he doesn't have the upper hand on Daisy anymore, Nathaniel starts backing away in fear, and when May arrives and shoots him in the arm, he turns tail and runs.
- Effective Knockoff: Nathaniel may have stolen his powers from Daisy, but thanks to an effective gap of several years due to him taking The Slow Path, he has much finer control over her power than she does. He demonstrates this by firing off a quake blast that also has rotational force, which hits much harder with the same amount of effort. However, he recoils in fear when Daisy threatens to let loose, hinting that despite his greater control, he may lack the raw power she can unleash.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite previously claiming to have had little reaction to his father's death, Nathaniel cares enough about the late Wilfred Malick to assault Deke for killing him.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He rebuffs Coulson's attempts to convince him that the Chronicoms are using him as a means to conquer the planet, and that whatever they are promising him is a lie. He is also confident that Daisy won't kill him in their final confrontation since she would die as well. Daisy proves him wrong by unleashing a huge quake blast that detonates the reactor spheres around them, consuming Nathaniel in a massive explosion, though Daisy survives.
- Evil Counterpart: Becomes this to Daisy after stealing her powers.
- Evil Is Petty: Perhaps the pettiest villain on the show.
- Telling Jiaying all about her future Face–Heel Turn and death is cruel enough, but doing it all in front of Daisy is a whole new low.
- Slapping Jemma for mocking his failure to extract Fitz's location. When his efforts fail one last time, he offers her and Deke front-row seats to "the greatest show on Earth": the Chronicoms' massacre of S.H.I.E.L.D. and subsequent invasion.
- Later, he needlessly kills one of his men for calling him "sir" one too many times while he's in a bad mood.
- Eviler than Thou: When compared to his brother and father, he is by far the most dangerous and mentally unstable member of his family.
- Expy:
- He bears some similarities to the clone of Red Skull in the main Marvel Comics universe. He was affiliated with HYDRA, was a different version of his main counterpart, stole the powers of another by taking their body parts, and assembled a team of other enhanced villains. Also, both wore similar attire.
- His plan of cultivating and redistributing powers from Inhumans to those he deems worthy is quite similar to X-Men villain Mister Sinister, who used the same method on mutants. The two even share the same first name.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: Nathaniel's plan for world domination amounts to this: as he sees it, after the Chronicom invasion, there will be chaos and anarchy, so when he and Kora swoop in and start saving people, they'll easily be able to take over for the benefit of all. How well thought-out this plan actually is a bit debatable, since he doesn't seem to have a plan for dealing with the Chronicoms if they don't let him have the Earth.
- Faux Affably Evil: Covers his sadism with a thin veneer of humor.
- Final Boss: He is the very last antagonist in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., trying to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. once and for all with the help of Sybil. He even lampshades it in the finale, and claims to feel honoured to be their last opponent after researching S.H.I.E.L.D.'s past victories.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Was originally a blip on the radar of history, nothing but a pawn in Gideon Malick and Hive's story. Now, he's stolen the powers of one of the most powerful known Inhumans, aligned himself with the Chronicoms, and is out to cause chaos.
- Green-Eyed Monster: "After, Before" hints that Nathaniel has some jealousy towards Inhumans, who were naturally gifted with their powers while he and other baseline humans were not. Whether this also held true in the original timeline is unknown.
- Hate Sink: Perhaps rivaling that of Daniel Whitehall. A Smug Snake who tortures and kills innocent Inhumans to steal their powers while gloating over it, justifying his sadism with an obviously thin story about 'redistributing powers'. It's implied that even the love for his family he had in the original timeline is gone, as he makes no mention of any desire to avenge his father and is heavily implied to have had his brother killed when he gave the command to the Chronicoms to start blowing up S.H.I.E.L.D. bases. He arranges for Gordon to have his powers transferred into Garrett, the former being an innocent man unlike Gordon.
- The Heavy: While most definitely a Big Bad Wannabe being played like a fiddle by the Chronicoms, Nathaniel is nevertheless the de facto main antagonist of the season, as he does all of the work in assaulting Afterlife, corrupting Kora, and hunting Fitz. He even serves as the Final Boss, with Sibyl being anticlimactically knocked out and killed offscreen.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In "Adapt or Die", he almost ends up killing himself when he is unable to control the quaking powers he had stolen from Daisy.
- Hypocrite:
- He claims that he wants nothing to do with Hydra, yet continues to use Hydra connections for his own goals. Notably, he has nothing but contempt for Daniel Whitehall, but is content with using his theory of transferring enhanced abilities for his own means.
- He criticizes the leaders of Afterlife for picking and choosing who gets to undergo Terrigenesis. His solution is to forcibly drain power from Inhumans so that he can pick and choose who really deserves them, reserving such power for his own allies.
- For all his rants about chaos, he gets violent whenever people don't do as he says, striking Jemma when she refuses to give up Fitz's location and killing one of his henchmen for calling him "sir".
- He feels justified in abusing Deke as payback for killing his father, when he himself needlessly had just killed Jiaying for trying to stop him from killing Daisy.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Given that he is introduced as a meek young man who could never find his place in Hydra, and the fact that his brother was seemingly being groomed to take their father's place as a head of Hydra, it's possible that Nathaniel's arrogant and entitled personality stems from low-self esteem issues.
- It's All About Me: The final episode reveals that he doesn't really want to make the world with no order, but rather rule it himself.
- I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Nathaniel has Deke beaten up in front of Jemma to make her comply. When that doesn't work, he instead starts quaking Jemma's brain to make Deke talk, but he then discovers her implant on his own.
- Kick the Dog:
- While Li is an Asshole Victim, draining the goodhearted Gordon is far less defensible.
- He reveals, in gruesome detail, Jiaying's bleak future in the original timeline, up to and including her attempt to murder Daisy and her own death. After killing Jiaying, he mockingingly says that it looks like Jiaying won't live forever, and Daisy won't live at all.
- Make Wrong What Once Went Right: The people he's recruited for his team were all already dead or fated to die under ignominious circumstances in the original timeline, himself included, and he specifically recruited them to Screw Destiny. But at the end of the day, none of them were good people.
- Manchild: He is prone to almost throwing a tantrum when things don't go his way. He even mentions that he is used to getting whatever he wanted.
- Miles Gloriosus: He taunts Daisy's quaking powers after she uses them on him, before boasting how he is better at using them than her before quaking her against the wall. After he kills Jiaying and Daisy starts to go berserk, he almost immediately turns tail and runs.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain
- Nathaniel boasts that he has better control over Daisy's powers than Daisy herself, on account of having had them longer than she has in relative terms. When he snaps Jiaying's neck, however, Daisy loses her temper and the entire building begins to quake, with Nathaniel clearly terrified. Lucky for him, in a sense, May shoots him in the arm and cuts that potential battle short.
- Dispatching Kora to kill Daisy results in Sibyl's plan being ruined and Kora pulling a Heel–Face Turn.
- Preventing Kora's suicide is ultimately what allows the Chronicoms to be defeated once and for all in the finale.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: Come 1976 in the altered timeline, he's not terribly interested in HYDRA's machinations, but is still willing to use his access to their resources (namely Daniel Whitehall) to further his own goals in stealing Daisy's powers for himself. By 1983, his stated goals are pure anarchy, putting him squarely at odds with HYDRA's totalitarian vision. That said, he is content using Hydra loyalists and technology to help further his goals.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Nathaniel paints his goals as a noble defiance of the future fate laid out for people, but given that the people he's saving include mercenaries like Durant and future HYDRA leader John Garrett, his good intentions start proving more than a little shaky. He is also more than willing to facilitate the Chronicom invasion as long as he benefits from it. In the finale, it is clear he doesn't actually want to "balance the scales" of giving Inhuman powers to regular humans to create pure anarchy. He really just wants to Take Over the World.
- Obviously Evil: Starting in After, Before, Nathaniel's starts wearing in an all-black Hive-esque outfit, talking about power setting people above the rules and bringing chaos.
- Oh, Crap!: When Daisy is getting ready to unleash her full power against Nathaniel after he kills Jiaying, he defensively raises his hands and starts backing off, clearly terrified of what she'll do if she's not holding back.
- Power Incontinence: After successfully stealing Daisy's powers, he immediately has to suffer the same consequences she initially did as he quakes uncontrollably, shattering his own bones and bringing the roof down on his own head, allowing Daisy and Sousa to escape. He's gotten his powers under control by his next appearance.
- Psychopathic Manchild: He's extremely short-tempered and after he violently throws a fit, he says it's because he's "used to getting what he wants". Given that he was born into and capitalized on (even if ultimately rejecting) a powerful HYDRA legacy, it's not too surprising.
- Psychological Projection: A lot of Nathaniel's lines about Afterlife and the people there (that it's a cult, that those in charge did nothing to deserve their powers, and that ancient rules are the only thing governing it), although not entirely off the mark, hint that he's projecting issues he has with his old HYDRA ties onto the place.
- The Quisling: The Chronicoms are out to conquer Earth and terraform it as the new Chronyca-2, and they've found a willing human ally in Nathaniel. However, it's also not clear if he fully knows of their plans.
- Screw Destiny: Nathaniel's new anarchic beliefs revolve around averting what fate had been previously laid out; having avoided his own death (by Hive's assimilation), he intervenes to prevent Kora's, and he voices an intention of "redistributing wealth" from Inhumans who he feels did nothing to deserve their power.
- Self-Disposing Villain: He seemingly does this to himself in Adapt or Die, courtesy of his own Power Incontinence after trying to harvest Daisy's powers for himself. The following episode reveals that he survived.
- Smug Snake: Nathaniel believes that the Chronicoms are either his willing minions or Unwitting Pawns. The reality is that Sibyl barely listens to him and his only accomplishment in the episode is screwing up his ally's plan.
- In the finale, Nathaniel boasts that he's studied Daisy's past battles and that he'll be her last opponent, but even with both Daisy and Kora's powers at his disposal, he and Daisy are more or less evenly matched, and even that is at least partly because Daisy is drawing out the fight to ensure the success of the team's plan and because Nathaniel has confronted her in a location that limits her ability to use her powers to their fullest. Once she can stop holding back, she annihilates the ship (and Nathaniel) with one attack.
- Smug Super: He is almost always wearing a smug look on his face whenever he is using his powers against Daisy.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Nathaniel acts almost cordial when he is about to cut Daisy up.
- Speak Ill of the Dead: Nathaniel shamelessly smears Jiaying's memory to manipulate Kora into staying on his side, claiming that before she died, she regretted that Kora was ever born.
- Straw Hypocrite: All of Nathaniel's previous talk of anarchy (at least the implication that it was his end goal) is unsurprisingly revealed to be a pack of lies; his actual plan is to take advantage of the chaos to Take Over the World.
- Stupid Evil: He is so delusional thinking that the Chronicoms are working for him, when in fact they are using him as a pawn so they can take over the Earth, him included. He scoffs when the heroes try to bring this up, mocking them for trying to give him the "good guy pitch, appeal to his better nature" speech.
- Superhuman Transfusion: Nathaniel has refined Daniel Whitehall's process of transferring powers to the point that all it takes is about a half-hour of sitting in a machine which transfers blood and other fluids from the source to the recipient.
- Talking Down the Suicidal: Nathaniel convinces Kora to join him instead of taking herself out.
- Tantrum Throwing: After being told that the implant extraction device won't work unless Jemma herself uses it, Nathaniel throws it through a window, then remarks that he did that because he's used to getting whatever he wants.
- Took a Level in Badass: Starting out a normal powerless human, he steals Daisy's powers but immediately suffers from Power Incontinence and is left for dead. Except he didn't die, and in turn had years to master the powers before S.H.I.E.L.D. encountered him again, longer than even Daisy had herself.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: His first appearance in the flashbacks of Season 3 depict him as being a somewhat affably young man, who respected Whitehall enough to not disobey his invitation to meet at the Rat. Come, Season 7 he is shown to be extremely rude to the authorites, describing Whitehall as having "Mein Kampf" vibe.
- Unwitting Pawn: While he's willingly working with Sybil and the Chronicoms, it's implied he's not fully aware of their plan to conquer and terraform Earth as their new homeworld, as his own plans of redistributing Inhumans' powers and causing chaos for the sake of chaos would likely be at direct odds with it. However, the team bring this fact up to him several times, and he simply ignores their claims, suggesting that he is so full of himself that he thinks that the Chronicoms are going to help him with his plans.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The version of him shown in Season 7 is more hot-tempered and outwardly antagonistical compared to Season 3.
- Villainous Lineage: His father started off a Noble Demon, but getting worse as the years went by while running HYDRA. His brother likewise is introduced in the present day as a major HYDRA leader. Given his familial ties to an awful Nebulous Evil Organization, it's unsurprising he turned out to be at least as bad as them if not even worse, despite his own rejection of HYDRA.
- Walking Spoiler: Pretty much impossible to talk about his role in season 7, where he cheats death thanks to a Cosmic Retcon and becomes a Big Bad, without spoilers.
- Would Hit a Girl: Nathaniel slaps Jemma for defying him, then threatens to quake her into a coma to coerce Deke. He also feels no qualms about experimenting on both Daisy and Kora for their powers, and of course, killing Jiaying.
Victoria Hand
Rachele Schank (in 1983)
- Back for the Finale: She returns in the Grand Finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., stationed at the bar along with other agents after the Chronicoms attack their bases in 1983.
Rick Stoner
General Richard "Rick" Stoner
Species: Human
Citizenship: American
Portrayed By: Patrick Warburton
Appearances: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (first appears in Episode 99: "All the Comforts of Home")
A S.H.I.E.L.D. leader who oversaw the construction and implementation of the Lighthouse.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: While he is understandably dubious about Coulson and May's claims about sentient time-traveling aliens (S.T.T.A.s as he calls them), he immediately changes his mind after they save him from a Chronicom attempt on his life.
- Unwitting Pawn: A loyal SHIELD agent who's being manipulated by Malick and the Chronicoms into building HYDRA's Project Insight decades early.
The Deke Squad
The Deke Squad
Left to right: Roxy, Mack (in foreground), the Chang brothers, Olga, Deke. Not pictured: Cricket.
Species: Humans
Citizenship: American
Portrayed By: Tipper Newton (Roxy Glass), John Yuan (Tommy Chang), Matt Yuan (Ronnie Chang), Jolene Anderson (Olga Pachinko), Ryan Donowho (Cricket)
Appearances: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
A cover band formed by Deke Shaw while stranded in the early 1980s, as a disguise for his ad-hoc S.H.I.E.L.D. cell operating out of the Lighthouse.
- Ambiguously Gay: Olga tells Roxy (in Russian), "My heart resides forever in your beautiful clutches."
- Broken Pedestal: The Chang twins are upset to find that Deke actually didn't write any of the songs they're playing, not even "Walk Like An Egyptian".
- The Bus Came Back: Three episodes after Mack and Deke leave them, Roxy reappears, having started training to become a legitimate S.H.I.E.L.D. agent (having found out that Deke actually didn't have the authority to recruit her into S.H.I.E.L.D.).
- Cloudcuckoolander: Cricket doesn't seem to be on the same plane of reality as the rest of the squad. Notably, he's the only one to not double as a secret agent.
- Demolitions Expert: Olga.
- Dirty Coward: The Chang twins, despite putting up a decent fight against Sybil's Killer Robots at first, panic and abandon their team when the bots start shooting lasers. Deke still forgives them.
- Egocentric Team Naming: Named for lead vocalist Deke Shaw.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: As Deke explains to Mack, the band is actually a good disguise for a S.H.I.E.L.D. faction, as they can move heavy equipment unchallenged and any odd behavior will be chalked up to drugs.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Roxy seems to think Alfie is Mack's son (when the former is the latter's younger self), implying that Deke either didn't mention Time Travel to them, or just kept the situation with Mack's younger self a secret.
- Made of Iron: Olga is seriously injured twice in a manner that might look like a Red Shirt going down, only for her to recover soon enough.
- Master of Disguise: The Changs, according to Deke. We never actually see them do it.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: We never learn Cricket's real name.
- Plagiarism in Fiction: Unbeknownst to the rest of the band, Deke is ripping off 80's pop songs that were (will be?) written by completely different people.
- Psycho Party Member: Olga uses live explosives during the team's training sessions.
- Pun: Deke's cover band is a cover for his operations.
- The Runt at the End: When Deke is telling Mack about the squad, he lists off their capabilities as agents... except Cricket, who's just a drummer and drug dealer.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Cricket doesn't get any noticeable development before one of Sybil's robots kills him.
- The Smart Girl: Deke seems to regard Roxy as this.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Roxy tears into Mack for cutting himself off from everyone and abandoning his "son" (read: younger self), even while Deke checks up on the boy.
Jiaying
Jiaying
Species: Inhuman
Citizenship: Chinese
Portrayed By: Dichen Lachman
Appearances: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The leader of Afterlife.
- All-Loving Hero: When she is later met in 1983 before Whitehall got to her, Cal is proven plainly correct, and she is horrified to learn that Daisy's abusive mother was her own future self.]]
- Healing Factor: The source of her Long-Lived ability is her slow rate of aging. After Whitehall vivisected her, her husband revived her by piecing her back together. It is later revealed that her ability is fueled by Vampiric Draining. She can't seem to recover from spinal injuries, however. Both her permanent deaths came about this way, and on the second instance Kora even tried to offer herself as a sacrifice to heal her, but it didn't work.
- Mama Bear: Her past self, on the other hand, plays this completely straight, attacking Nathaniel Malick to protect Daisy mere moments after learning the latter is her Kid from the Future. Shame it got her killed, though.
- Neck Snap: How Nathaniel kills her past self in 1983.
Gordon
Gordon
Species: Inhuman
Citizenship: American
Portrayed By: Fin Argus
Appearances: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
A teleporting, eyeless Inhuman.
- Heroic Sacrifice: After being drained of blood, marrow, and who knows what else was necessary for Nathaniel Malick to transfer his powers to a young John Garrett, he was left extremely weak and imprisoned with Coulson. Despite Coulson's warnings he teleported the both of them out of their cell to free Coulson so that could he save the rest of his people, and died from the exertion.
Li
Li
Species: Inhuman
Citizenship: Chinese
Portrayed By: Byron Mann
Appearances: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Jiaying's second-in-command at Afterlife.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: He's fits the image to the hilt.
- Asian Rudeness: He's a Jerkass Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy who happens to be Asian.
- Asshole Victim: After constantly mistreating Kora, always pushing for her death and even planning her death, leading to her to be Driven to Suicide and have a Face–Heel Turn, he has it coming when Kora kills him.
- Canon Foreigner: There is no Inhuman in the comics called Li. His power seems to be inspired by Hela from Thor: Ragnarok. However it is similar to the obscure X-Men character Clearcut.
- The Corruptor: It's possible his ruthless approach's influence on Jiaying played a factor in her turning villainess in Season 2 aside from Daniel Whitehall's torture.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Of Season 2, even before Daniel Whitehall's torture of Jiaying, it's possible Li's corruption of his mistress with his influence stemming from his ruthlessness is what led her to become a villainess.
- Hate Sink: He's clearly made to be repugnant compared to the rest of the cast, he's even played by the turncoat General Ripper Tian Zhao, it's quite cathartic to see Kora Eye Scream him with her Hand Blast and later kill him. While Daniel Whitehall was responsible for Jiaying's torture that turned her into a villainess in Season 2, it's possible that Li's influence on Jiaying prior to her capture by HYDRA is what contributes her to taking on a darker path, only to be exacerbated by Whitehall's experimentation on her.
- Spontaneous Weapon Creation: His superpower.
Kora
Kora
Species: Inhuman
Citizenship: Chinese
Portrayed By: Dianne Doan
Appearances: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Jiaying's daughter, and Daisy's older sister.
- Anti-Villain: Most of her villainy is the result of Nathaniel manipulating her, after taking advantage of her volatile emotional state at the time.
- Cain and Abel: In the altered timeline, she's the Cain to Daisy's Abel, despite them being temporally and emotionally distant from each other.
- Dead Alternate Counterpart: Inverted, as she's the living alternate counterpart to the original timeline Kora. She accompanies Team Coulson on their way back to the old timeline.
- Driven to Suicide: In the original timeline, Kora shot herself after suffering from Power Incontinence for an unknown amount of time. In the altered timeline, Nathaniel Malick interrupts and destroys her gun.
- Face–Heel Turn: In the altered timeline seen in Season 7, Kora joins forces with the still-alive Nathaniel in his mission of chaos. She later pulls a Heel–Face Turn when she realizes Nathaniel lied to her.
- Hand Blast: Had the ability to release destructive energy blasts.
- Healing Hands: Another potential application of her power. She initially tries to use it to bring back Jiaying, to no success. Her second attempt, to revive Daisy, works.
- MacGuffin Super-Person: It turns out that her survival was the crux of Fitz' time travel ploy, as her energy manipulation powers, along with May's empathy powers, were needed to create a signal that would give the Chronicoms empathy, leading to them standing down.
- Power Incontinence: Unfortunately, Kora couldn't control her energy powers, a fact that, in the original timeline, led to her suicide. In the altered timeline, she gains more control over them with Nathaniel's help.
- Psychological Projection: Her fear of her own Power Incontinence led her to believe that Jiaying was afraid of her as well.
- Walking Spoiler: Her role in the series is hard to discuss without revealing that Nathaniel Malick is still alive in the new timeline.
Ernest Koenig / Gemini
Ernest Koenig / Gemini
Species: Human
Citizenship: American
Portrayed By: Patton Oswalt
Appearances: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The owner of a speakeasy during Prohibition and the grandfather of the Koenig siblings.
- Bad Boss: Downplayed and ultimately averted with Koenig. Yeah, he let's Freddy sleep in his bar, but charges him rent, but also gives him a discount on drinks, which he deducts broken glassware from. In the end, he insists on going with the team to find Freddie, insisting the kid's his responsibility.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Koenig's casual sexism contrasting the heroes' modern sensibility is mostly Played for Laughs.
- Eat the Evidence: When the Hunters barge into his bar looking for Freddie, Koenig sees the bullet Jemma extracted and left in a shot glass, so he quickly takes the glass and drinks it, bullet and all.
- Hidden Depths: Grandpa Koenig is just the owner of a speakeasy, a very low level criminal and businessman, but it's hinted that he's pivotal to the development of SHIELD in general and its science division in particular.
- Identical Grandson: He's identical to his grandsons due to being portrayed by the same actor.
- Not So Stoic: Koenig is a low level crime boss and has handled himself incredibly well so far, but when he sees the quinnjet and a chronicom, he freaks out.
- Stable Time Loop: It's implied that Koenig and his descendants become involved in S.H.I.E.L.D. because S.H.I.E.L.D. involves him when they travel back, making him want to be a part of what they will become. He also takes an interest in the LMD project specifically after learning that Enoch is a Chronicom and becoming friends with him, since Enoch is left behind after he is unable to reach the Zephyr before it jumps forward in time. Averted however when it is revealed that travelling to the past creates a branching timeline.
- Sustained Misunderstanding: Despite finding out that they're from the future, Koenig still thinks S.H.I.E.L.D. are Canadians.
