| "Many Heads, One Tale" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode | |||
| Episodeno. | Season 3 Episode 8 | ||
| Directed by | Garry A. Brown | ||
| Written by | |||
| Cinematography by | Allan Westbrook | ||
| Editing by | Kelly Stuyvesant | ||
| Original air date | November 17, 2015 (2015-11-17) | ||
| Running time | 43 minutes | ||
| Guest appearances | |||
| Episode chronology | |||
| |||
| Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.season 3 | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"Many Heads, One Tale" is the eighth episode of thethird season of the American television seriesAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Based on theMarvel Comics organizationS.H.I.E.L.D., it followsPhil Coulson and his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they deal with revelations aboutHydra. It is set in theMarvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and acknowledgesthe franchise's films. The episode was written byJed Whedon andDJ Doyle, and directed byGarry A. Brown.
Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series, and is joined by series regularsMing-Na Wen,Brett Dalton,Chloe Bennet,Iain De Caestecker,Elizabeth Henstridge,Nick Blood,Adrianne Palicki,Henry Simmons, andLuke Mitchell. The episoderetcons the history of Hydra that was established in the films, tying it into the series'Inhuman storyline.
"Many Heads, One Tale" originally aired onABC on November 17, 2015, and according toNielsen Media Research, was watched by 3.60 million viewers.
Confirming he knowsGrant Ward is looking for a secret Strucker family vault said to contain a secret great power,Gideon Malick orders his men to kill him. However Ward overpowers and tortures them, learning the vault is inGermany.
Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie voices his concerns overPhil Coulson's relationship withRosalind Price, but Coulson reveals that though he wants to trust Price, he has been planning a sting operation to unearth theAdvanced Threat Containment Unit's (ATCU) secrets. While Coulson gives Price a tour of thePlayground,Daisy Johnson uses a device smuggled into the ATCU withAndrew Garner to hack their mainframe, andLance Hunter andBobbi Morse visit to deal with the security breach, disguised as anFBI team. Morse sneaks away to investigate the part of the facility where theInhumans are being held, but instead finds vitamin supplements containing Terrigen, discovering that they are given to all ATCU staff. She realizes that the ATCU are keeping the Inhumans elsewhere and are not working on a cure for Terrigenesis, but are instead trying to activate more Inhumans.
Updated on the situation, Coulson interrogates Price, suspecting she is Hydra, but she claims innocence of administering Terrigen to her staff, and reveals that Malick, her business partner, is responsible for overseeing the captured Inhumans. They realize that Malick has been removing the Inhumans to an unknown location, and is making more to serve him. Morse and Hunter are attacked by Malick's chief of security, the telekinetic InhumanGiyera. After they subdue him, Banks helps them escape.
Investigating the Distant Star symbol,Leo Fitz andJemma Simmons find variations over the centuries, and learn of a group who have been sending people through the Monolith for hundreds of years. Simmons becomes frustrated with Fitz for being so willing to help rescueWill Daniels, and he expresses his belief that they are cursed, because every time they have tried to express their feelings for one another something has interfered, such as Fitz nearly drowning[a] or Simmons being sent to another planet.[b] They kiss twice, the first being initiated by Fitz out of frustration, and the second being initiated by Simmons. By the way her head moves after the kiss, she is going for a third kiss, but Fitz breaks away, knocking a book off of the table. Simmons notices that one of the old Distant Star variants is identical to the symbol of Hydra. Price explains that she met Malick in 2001, when he was working withNASA on Project Distant Star. Meanwhile, Ward breaks into the Strucker vault and finds a waiting Malick, who shows him the family treasure: pieces of the Monolith carved centuries earlier. He claims thatRed Skull did not create Hydra - the organization was instead founded in ancient times by the worshippers ofa powerful Inhuman, whose enemies feared him so much that they banished him to another world using the Monolith. Ever since then Hydra have been sending sacrifices to this Inhuman (the creature Will and Simmons fought against), and have been seeking a way to bring it back to Earth. Malick has also been building an army of Inhumans to serve the ancient creature. Ward agrees to help Malick rescue the Inhuman, in exchange for his help destroying S.H.I.E.L.D. Ward later tortures Andrew with mustard gas in a bid to make him transform into Lash.
In November 2015, Marvel announced that the eighth episode of the season would be titled "Many Heads, One Tale", to be written by executive producerJed Whedon andDJ Doyle, withGarry A. Brown directing.[1]
In November 2015, Marvel revealed that main cast membersClark Gregg,Ming-Na Wen,Brett Dalton,Chloe Bennet,Iain De Caestecker,Elizabeth Henstridge,Nick Blood,Adrianne Palicki,Henry Simmons, andLuke Mitchell would star asPhil Coulson,Melinda May,Grant Ward,Daisy Johnson,Leo Fitz,Jemma Simmons,Lance Hunter,Bobbi Morse,Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie, andLincoln Campbell, respectively.[1] It was also revealed that the guest cast for the episode would includeBlair Underwood asAndrew Garner,Constance Zimmer asRosalind Price,Andrew Howard asLuther Banks,Powers Boothe asGideon Malick,Mark Dacascos as Mr.Giyera,Nelson Franklin as Steve Wilson and Astrea Campbell-Cobb as flight attendant.[1] Campbell-Cobb did not receive guest star credit in the episode. Underwood, Zimmer, Howard, and Boothe reprise their roles from earlier in the series.[2][3][4]
The episode expands the history ofHydra, tying it into the series' ongoingInhumans storyline. Established in the films as having been founded byRed Skull duringWorld War II, as seen inCaptain America: The First Avenger, it is revealed here that the organization was actually formed centuries earlier in service to a powerful Inhuman and Red Skull was just following the principles of the original group. This history of Hydra has ties to the comics, specificallyJonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver'sS.H.I.E.L.D.[5]
"Many Heads, One Tale" was first aired in the United States onABC on November 17, 2015.[1]
In the United States the episode received a 1.3/4 percent share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, meaning that it was seen by 1.3 percent of all households, and 4 percent of all of those watching television at the time of the broadcast. It was watched by 3.60 million viewers.[6]
