Shadows (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)

"Shadows"
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode
The Agent Carter tie-in sequence, featuring actors (L-R) Kenneth Choi, Hayley Atwell, and Neal McDonough, was a major talking point both before and after the episode aired.
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 1
Directed by	Vincent Misiano
Written by	Jed Whedon Maurissa Tancharoen
Cinematography by	Feliks Parnell
Editing by	Joshua Charson
Original air date	September 23, 2014 (2014-09-23)
Running time	43 minutes
Guest appearances
Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter B. J. Britt as Antoine Triplett Neal McDonough as Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan Reed Diamond as Reinhardt / Daniel Whitehall Henry Simmons as Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie Patton Oswalt as Billy Koenig Lucy Lawless as Isabelle Hartley Adrian Pasdar as Glenn Talbot Wilmer Calderon as Idaho Kenneth Choi as Jim Morita Simon Kassianides as Sunil Bakshi Brian Patrick Wade as Carl "Crusher" Creel Matthew Glave as Roger Browning George Stephanopoulos as himself
Episode chronology
← Previous "Beginning of the End" Next → "Heavy Is the Head"
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2
List of episodes

"Shadows" is the first episode of the second season of the American television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D., it follows Phil Coulson and his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they fight Hydra for a powerful artifact in the possession of the U.S. military. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and acknowledges the franchise's films. The episode was written by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, and was directed by Vincent Misiano.

Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series, and is joined by principal cast members Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, and Nick Blood. The series was renewed for a second season in May 2014, and production began that July. That month, guest star Lucy Lawless's role was revealed, building hype for her appearance, although her character was always intended to be killed off at the end of the episode. Other guest stars include Hayley Atwell, Neal McDonough, and Kenneth Choi, reprising their roles from previous MCU projects in a sequence that ties-in with another MCU television series, Agent Carter. Series composer Bear McCreary used Christopher Lennertz's Agent Carter theme when writing the music for this sequence.

"Shadows" originally aired on ABC on September 23, 2014, and according to Nielsen Media Research, was watched by 5.98 million viewers, considerably less than the first season premiere. However, the episode received a positive critical response, with the majority of critics finding many improvements over previous episodes, and feeling it to be a promising start to the new season. The inclusion of Marvel characters such as Carl Creel and Atwell's Peggy Carter were particularly praised.