Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. · Season 7 · Episode 2
Know Your Onions
Hello and welcome fellow Marvel fans to the Snark
Industries podcast. I'm John. And I'm Remy. And
we invite you to join us as we work our way through
every Marvel TV show, movie, and crossover. Meaning
if there's a Marvel character on screen, it's
fair game. All categorized in the temporal order
of their setting. By the time we're done, we'll
have built a complete start to finish timeline
of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. To accomplish
this goal and to have a bit of fun along the
way, each episode will be split into two parts.
The watch party and the deep dive. If you're
hearing this, you found one of our watch parties.
This is where we sit down with you and experience
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celebrating the high points and poking fun at
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we want to thank each and every one of you for
joining us on this incredible journey. We're
not affiliated with Marvel in any way, shape,
or form. We're just fans who are passionate about
these stories and these characters and wish to
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way. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy this episode
of Stark Industries. You'll never get me, Kappa.
Dude, the worst part about this is the fact that
this dude is Malik's father, not even the dude
that create shield. So how shitty is that that
he's at risk? His life is at risk because of
something his kid did. Time travel is funny that
way. Yeah, it's the baby Hitler thing all over
again. Oh, absolutely. Somehow. Is it? Yeah,
because it's like you said, it's not even him.
It's his it's his dad, you know, like. Yeah,
but this kid's at least he's a gangster. I mean,
he's he's not he's not squeaky clean. The baby.
You don't know how clean he is. He looks pretty
clean to me. Fair enough. Fair enough. Wow. Good
one. Giggle juice. I don't like how close that
man's talking. Take three steps back. Point at
me with that antenna. Yeah. I guess he wouldn't
even know what an antenna is. Let me take a shot
of this giggle juice real quick. Giggle it up.
Oh, oh, snap. OK, so he's not so innocent. I
don't think he would know what that is because
Hydra doesn't even exist yet, right? Yeah, but
how's that symbol even there? They've already
gotten the logo. Yeah. They trademarked the logo
before they even made the club. Yeah. Someone
was sitting around saying, we're going to need
this one day. I mean, that's kind of one of the
first steps, right? We had our logo months before
we launched our first episode. Yeah, I suppose
so. You got to start. What we're saying is we
are Hydra. Oh, yeah. Yeah, obviously. Oh, OK.
Not certain I needed to see that. The fun crossovers,
that's also MODOK. Yeah, you're right. You're
absolutely right. I totally forgot about that.
We'll see you again, sir. Many a times. Oh, you
tell him. She had to say hail Hydra. I mean,
couldn't say just Hydra. Yeah. Branded. Oh, what
a waste of a shot. Yeah, that was some perfectly
good giggle juice. Right. Especially during this
time. Prohibition, that shit's a gold. Plus,
it doesn't work that way. We've learned this.
That just makes a branch timeline. You're gonna
go home to your same old... Yes. Time travel.
They opened up a dangerous powder keg with the
time travel. It's funny doing this in temporal.
We're hitting time travel so early. Yeah. Yeah.
I am you. He just sounds evil. I know he's a
robot, but. Emotions. And looking at her stomach.
Sedate me. Good luck with that. I don't know
that we've ever seen May in the mood to take
orders. Well, I guess this is the first time
we're actually seeing her. Exactly. What do you
mean? I'm talking crazy. Sorry. The only thing
I know about May is I saw her stomach just a
minute ago. You're really, really stuck on that,
aren't you? I'm upset about it. Yeah. Oh, wow.
This means. The old syringe behind the back trick.
Nah, he's a droid. He doesn't know any better.
You were unconscious. What are they supposed
to take you with? Fireman carrier in there. See
if she wakes up. Oh, don't forget the casket.
Wah, wah. Hate it when that happens. Spoilers.
Hey, far from home. I wonder if that was intentional.
I'm going to say yes. I highly doubt it. You
think so? That's an entirely different branch
of the Marvel Universe that isn't even owned
by Marvel at this time. I'm still saying yes.
Okay. If they're making up everything else here,
I'm going to at least have a little tie -in that
I can hang on to. Fair enough, fair enough. I'll
add that to the Easter egg. Yes. Far from home.
Easter egg. I miss when everyone had cool hats
like that. We need to bring back cool hats. I
mean, be a trailblazer, man. Well. Everyone needs
a fedora. Yeah, there was a group of people that
tried that about a decade ago. Yeah. It wasn't
well received. Nope. I guess got his cock to
the side a little bit because he's a G. I was
going to say it was it was the the tilt. They
missed the tilt. Yeah. I recognize that actor
from somewhere and I can't put my finger on it.
Malik. Couldn't tell you. Coppers. Yes, I knew
they would say it. You'll never catch me, coppers.
You have a speakeasy with one door. You fool.
How dare you talk to MODOK that way? I mean.
But a speakeasy, the whole point is to be able
to get out. Oh, Canada. That bullet in the shot
glass. He's going to take a shot. I mean, just
drink a whole bullet. Yep. Yep. With blood in
there and everything. I mean, I guess it's somebody
else's body. Yeah. Yeah. That's a choice. I'm
upset. I'm more upset about that now than the
belly shot from before. This whole episode is
sending me for a loop. I love a kick there. Oh,
that's creepy. I don't like that at all. Say
this is an upsetting episode. There's the dead
lady back there. It really is. Without blood.
Give me some of that giggle juice. Oh, perfect
timing, lady. Yeah, right. He takes the one with
the least fire. Yeah, you guys take these ones.
Smart man. It's like, watch that blood down.
Yeah. Got to burn it out. Some fuzz on your peaches.
Wow. That's an image I won't soon forget. Mm
hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Ruh roh. Oh, man. Slow mo.
Wow. That was anticlimactic. I thought we were
going to have a diving catch. Same. Nobody even
moved. Oh, dear. Why are you still looking through
that hole, man? That's a very obvious open eye
spot. Right. Fix all my latches now. Yeah. All
right, they're gone. Let's immediately come out.
You see that massive D6 on the shelf? Sometimes
you just need a massive D6. Sometimes. That's
so stupid. I was giving him the hail hydro lockets.
Mm hmm. She's well traveled now. Back then, that's
a lot. I mean, that's. Keep correcting him. I'll
get it eventually. I don't think she's going
to change him. Dames and broads and all that
stayed around for another decade or so, at least.
Hey, she can fix him. I'm working on the walkie
talkies. I hear they suck. Maybe and all creepy
in the background over there. Yeah. Well, she
just Batman'd him. No, that was Mr. Talkie. Magic.
I'm dumb, but people like me. That guy has really
bushy eyebrows. Really thick. I can't stop looking
at him. Looks like a Franco. As the feds, they'll
tell you. Yeah, yeah. Always that last job. Yep.
One more job. That's how they get you. Arthur,
I got a plan. We know something you don't know.
Which one has the bullet? What? OK. Now, there
it is. Bullshit. You watched it. In slow motion.
Mm -hmm. Because you have a dumb hat on. That's
why. It wasn't letting the blood flow. Yeah,
it's pinching off the synapses in your brain.
Super Soldier Serum. Bergerka -derka science.
I hate when they just make stuff up. Ruh -roh.
Mm -hmm. Yeah, he is. Ooh, that's a face. Easy
Zima. Yeah, hope that little vial didn't open
up inside of the... The alcohol container, he
took a shot. It's in there. Just trying the wares,
man. And I'm way taller than you are. Yeah, and
my hat is cocked. My hat is sideways. We need
to get on the Verizon network. May to the rescue.
She's got her leathers. It's over now. Oh. That's
not a great response. Yeah. Beginning. The funny
papers. The funny papers. That's actually what
comics used to be called. I know. That's fun.
Yeah. Wow. I'm so confused as to. where their
timeline is right now. Yeah. Having bailed from
this show like three seasons ago. You get to
experience the same way our listeners will. Confusedly.
That's right. She looks like a mousy version
of Sigourney Weaver in Ghostbusters. Wow. Right?
But I'm not wrong. Let's take him on the airship.
Yeah. Blow his mind. Then you're going to have
to kill him or something. You can't just like
leave him with that knowledge. Well, I mean,
Patton Oswald's family or whatever this character's
name, I don't remember, but his his family is
pretty prominent in the rest of the series. I'm
guessing this is set up for that. Wow. Spoilers.
You're welcome. Out of time. Aren't they already?
I mean, that's fair. Yeah, I mean, this giant
man with his cocktads telling you to do something,
you better do it. Right. Especially with technology
you've never seen. What they shouldn't do is
both turn their back to that guy, though. See,
what a classic mistake. Whoops. Director, how'd
you get to be in charge of shit? Yeah, I was
going to say, these are S .H .I .E .L .D. agents.
You'd expect they'd be better than this. It's
one of the things that always drove me nuts about
this show. They're just they feel so disorganized
for being such a high tech, well oiled machine,
or at least that's the front that they put on.
Oh, they made the same mistake. Mm hmm. The slow
raising of the gun. Oh. He's doing the Neo treatment.
I know Kung Fu. Show me. No, that's totally what's
happening. Stop trying to hit me and hit me.
Yeah, pretty rude. Yeah, right. I bet she calls
them clankers behind closed doors. Wow. We don't
use that term. Right. I do appreciate how non
-lethal she's or he's being. Where she is just
going full force. Oh, man. Damn. I think I've
ever seen someone punched in the back before.
Yeah, that's pretty rough. As they pull up like,
whoa, whoa, what are you doing in Enoch? He looks
like he's just chilling. There's like, wow, that
was kind of rough. He had one too many giggle
juices. Yep. How many times? We're all dead.
I mean, this is at least the second time he's
been dead. Yeah, she hit it with it. You still
are, man. That's tough. Oh, man. If I'm not impressed.
Knocking on his head. This man's mind's blown
completely. Mm hmm. I love how they blindfolded
him to get him here and then just show him the
whole caboodle once he arrives. Well, I mean,
he can't know where it is. It's an airship. Can't
move. It could be anywhere. I know. I know. It's
ridiculous. So dumb. The blindfold thing only
works if you're like taking him to a secret base
or something somewhere. And it's invisible. Yeah.
All of that doesn't make sense. Absurd. Other
than just having this big reveal where he gets
to be like, oh, wow, stuff. Yeah. We kissed one
time. Yeah, she's gonna know your son, too, I'll
bet. Ew. Ah, not in that way. Creeper. I mean,
not necessarily in that way, I guess. You said
it. You started it. This isn't on me. No, you
said you. You're a pervert. I'm normal. That
made implications. So for takeoff and getting
up to speed, everyone should be sitting down
with the seatbelt on. You know, because of momentum.
She's still got the dumb hat on. Mm hmm. You
guys are in the airplane now. She's probably
got some pretty, pretty gnarly hat hair, to be
fair. Mm hmm. Got the minority report thing going
on. 17 minutes until I take over. Oh, a lot of
specifically 24s. They're standing right there.
That's bad trigger discipline. Yeah. That's how
you shoot yourself in the foot, literally and
figuratively. Mm hmm. Whoa, Daisy. Whoa, Daisy.
I know it's a little dark. Yeah, going behind
everyone's back to do this, too. Yeah. This is
how you aren't a hero, folks. Yeah, this is not
what heroes do. Kill that man. Trust me. That
does not look like a worm. Look at the stopper.
I don't ask questions. He just said that. Mac.
Look at the look at the lid. You can tell what
it is immediately. Right. That's what I'm saying.
Look at the stopper, man. Not yet, bro. See,
they got their branding. I must say, yeah, the
director's right there. Wow. That is a bark.
I have a little short tie. Let me live. That
that's a qualifier. Let me get a longer tie at
least, man. This is one of those things that
you he was. Oh, shit. Oh, he. Oh, OK. Yeah, I
would say, you know, he wasn't going to do it
to start with. I thought he was actually going
to try, man. That was that was a good little.
Everyone get your Tommy gun. As he gives him
a Tommy gun. See, love it. He fixed his head.
Yeah, he did. It was time for some of that spray
that the Wakandans have. Yeah. Head spray. The
Bacta. Bacta. Well, that's your fault. Blew your
whole wad at nothing. Right. Did it state somewhere
that he only had one bullet or something? He
fired off a couple. He squeezed off a couple
rounds. OK. All right. Max about to have a good
gun, though. Yeah, take the serum. Then you'll
be ready for anything. Really screw the timeline.
Captain Malik. Oh, man. Classic drive by. Yeah,
that was good. You got to hit the troops. Oh,
it's all out of all out of giggle juice. Oh,
man. Why don't we just throw the guns down? Yeah,
I don't know. Seems like good tech to have. Yeah.
Especially considering the fact that these guys
don't seem to care about bullets. See, that's
the gun you need. The Martians. The Martians.
I believe you, but my Tommy gun don't. Is that
from The Mask? No, that's Home Alone. The little
clip of the movie he plays. That's right. You've
got to help the animals. Get on your knees and
tell me you love me. That's right. Oh, man. I'm
glad they held the whole armory at their disposal.
They brought that guy a pistol. That's wild.
That's a sign they don't like you, brother. Yeah,
especially against things that can't die via
bullets. And there's no one else around to witness
this. Bust out the big guns, man. Keep telling
yourself that, kid. Put a couple bullets in our
shot glasses. Oh, shit. You don't know me. There
it is. Love a good trope line. Yeah, there's
a lot of them. A lot of tropes in general. Oh,
look at that. Now he's walking like a bad guy.
He's serious about it. He should have said hail
Hydra as he walked away. He looks so dejected.
Oh, man. I don't get to murder people. Lame.
It's a trap. That's a quick assessment. Don't
see it for a second. They left. There aren't
boxes and barrels to hide. All right. There's
not cover everywhere. They left. We're good.
Everyone get in the car. Where's Mona? What does
he care? Yeah, that's true. I like the way this
guy talks. Gotta get cadence. The future is secure.
Yeah, it's fun. Marvelous. You're just going
to leave an automaton in the past? Yep. Oh, man,
he's taking the long road. Yeah. At least he's,
you know, immortal as long as he doesn't break.
Up here he comes. Come on, Enoch. You got this.
Do that super jump you got. You can't you can't
pause the door for one second. Oh, of course
not. Dramatic timing. It's got to be perfect.
Oh. He's like, well, damn. At least you got a
car as long as they didn't take the keys. Oh,
well, not taking it. Guess I'll just walk around
this. See you in a few centuries, bud. Oh, yeah.
Shaken. He's going to be the bartender. He almost
did it. I would have flipped out if he said that.
Forever. Okay. That's fun. See, not that big
of spoilers. Well, I'm spoiled. It's within the
same episode. I could have been like, wow, just
then, but instead I'm not because of you. Well,
instead you were wow earlier. You're welcome.
I was just upset. Like the stomach. All right.
All right. Fair enough. That was actually a solid
episode. A satisfactory conclusion. All right,
folks, we will see you in the deep dive. Dive
in it. thank you for joining us in this episode
of the snark industries podcast to join the conversation
and further explore the marvel cinematic universe
with us head on over to snark industries pod
.com the link will be in the show notes but with
that we will see you in the next adventure
New York, 1931, and the clock is literally ticking. With the team about to be forcibly pulled back to their own time, the mission comes down to one question: does Freddy Malick live or die? The vials he is carrying already bear the Hydra logo, and his survival is the linchpin that leads to both Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. Daisy pushes Deke to take the shot and end it, a baby-Hitler gamble that he ultimately cannot pull the trigger on, preserving the timeline in the process. Amid a Chronicom firefight, Freddy slips away, shoots Ernest Koenig, and walks off into villainy with a faceless figure in a waiting car. The agents make their exit, all except Enoch, who misses the window by seconds and takes the long road home, hired on as a bartender to wait out the century. The timeline holds, Hydra is born, S.H.I.E.L.D. follows, and the stage is set for the dawn of Captain America.
Dive in further at https://www.snarkindustriespod.com/post/1931-ce-agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-season-7-episode-2-know-your-onions
Join the conversation at https://discord.gg/mJBCuxffF5
Hello and welcome fellow Marvel fans to the Snark
Industries podcast. I'm John. And I'm Remy. And
we invite you to join us as we work our way through
every Marvel TV show, movie, and crossover. Meaning
if there's a Marvel character on screen, it's
fair game. All categorized in the temporal order
of their setting. By the time we're done, we'll
have built a complete start to finish timeline
of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. To accomplish
this goal and to have a bit of fun along the
way, each episode will be split into two parts.
The watch party and the deep dive. If you're
hearing this, you found one of our deep dives.
This is where we slow things down and take a
more pragmatic, in -depth look at a piece of
Marvel media. We'll walk through the full plot,
explore connections to the wider MCU and Marvel
comics, highlight Easter eggs, unpack lore, and
of course, give you our own personal thoughts
and feelings. Although this episode stands on
its own, it is designed to complement The Watch
Party. So, if you haven't watched along with
us yet, we highly recommend starting there first
and coming back here for the full breakdown.
Most importantly, we want to thank each and every
one of you for joining us on this incredible
journey. We're not affiliated with Marvel in
any way, shape, or form. We're just fans who
are passionate about these stories and these
characters and wish to share them with everyone
in a new and exciting way. So, sit back, relax,
and enjoy this episode of Snark Industries. Hello,
ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Snark Industries
Deep Dive. Season seven, episode two, which takes
place in 1931. John, why don't you go ahead and
tell us what that was about? All right. So we
get the conclusion to episode one, as this was
kind of a two -parter blast to the past for the
Agents of S .H .I .E .L .D. Kind of left on a
cliffhanger before, but we get some somewhat
satisfying resolution here, I would say. So we
follow along as everything is sort of unraveling.
We have Freddy, Mac, and Deke sort of separating
themselves from the rest of the group as they
are there to sort of help him or hinder him as
this thing kind of changes with his delivery
of what's going on. Meanwhile, the rest of the
gang try to fix up the woman who was shot in
the previous episode who had given these vials
to Freddy to deliver. And we see very quickly
that these vials, as he tries to hide one in
a bottle of... booze that is called Giggle Juice,
which is still hilarious to me, that these vials
already prominently display the symbol of Hydra.
Branding. Branding right off the rip. As this
all sort of happens, they're working on her.
The Comicrons come in and sort of shake down
the speakeasy, and everyone is able to hide well
enough. Patton Oswalt's character, Ernest, is
able to... Talk his way out of it. A little surgery
that was done on his bar as a blood -covered
bullet was in a shot glass for some reason. He
was able to drink and hide the evidence of, and
the rest of them were in a hidden room behind
a picture that you could peek through. Scooby
-Doo style. Exactly. All while the other three
are on a train moving towards the final destination
of wherever this delivery is going to take place.
Back on the ship, we have May, who is now awake
and eager to get into the field. Enoch, who is
trying to stop her. We have a fight scene with
them. The other agents, in an attempt to try
to get back to Freddy and the delivery first,
talk Ernest into helping them. And they blindfold
him for some reason to take him to an invisible
ship, which is going to fly away and be gone
from this timeline anyway very shortly. Can't
let him know where it is, though. Exactly. And
as they pull in, they come in on this fight that's
happening between May. and Enoch, stopping it
from continuing as Enoch was getting his head
bashed in with a fire extinguisher. They load
up, fly out, and as they're doing so, these walkie
-talkies are finally starting to come back online
from, I suppose, being damaged or perhaps just
a part of being in the past and not working exactly
as they should. We have Daisy, who tries to convince
Deke to go ahead and shoot Freddy then and kill
him, even though the whole idea... Yeah, dude,
that was wild. Right. And almost borderline,
dare I say, evil. Yeah. You know, definitely,
definitely on the on the on the lower end of
good. If you try to say what you're doing, it's
the baby Hitler thing, right? You're doing it
to save lives. OK, but you're killing a guy that's
not yet done anything good. Yeah, it's it's it's
tough. So she tells him to do so when he, you
know, points the gun at Freddy and gets ready
to pull the trigger and says he's doing it under
orders. which he says to the director, Max, standing
right beside him, which is also just really crazy.
But ultimately, it doesn't pull the trigger,
therefore kind of preserving the timeline with
that decision. The Chromacons turn up and a firefight
kind of ensues between all of them. Everyone
kind of splits up to find Freddy, so he's not
able to make this delivery and he's not able
to continue on doing things. Ultimately, he's
found by Ernest, who lays his gun on the ground
and says, hey, you know, you're a lot of things,
but you're not a killer. And then immediately
gets shot. Not fatally, but Freddie does pull
the trigger and then adopts the evil walk that
everyone can instantly recognize. The bad guy
walk as he gets into the car with a nameless,
faceless figure and they drive off. All of this
is happening while a clock is ticking down to
where they're going to be effectively forcefully
X -filled from this timeline. So after all this
ensues, the Chromacons aside, we failed. Freddy's
alive. S .H .I .E .L .D.'s going to be formed.
Hydra's going to be formed. Let's just get out
of here. All the agents of S .H .I .E .L .D.
start... jetting back to the thing and ultimately
all are able to get there safely, minus Enoch,
who misses it by only a few seconds and then
goes and gets hired by Ernest back at the speakeasy
to be a bartender and theoretically will then
sit and be a robot through time and eventually
will link back up with the agents. He's taking
the long road. Yeah, a hundred years later or
whatever. Oof. That's the breakdown. The timeline
has been preserved. Freddy lives, thus Hydra's
formed, thus S .H .I .E .L .D. is formed, thus
all of these events can take place. So luckily,
it seems, minus the maybe problematic leaving
Enoch in the past, the timeline here has been
preserved, even though they were mucking about
with time travel, which is always a dangerous
game, which we discussed in previous episodes.
I think they did a good job here of not overly
stepping on the toes of how the timeline stuff
should work. Yeah, agreed. So tie -ins into the
MCU, obviously, and as we're approaching a very
big Nexus event with the creation of Captain
America, all this sort of stems from that, I
would say. Hydra Shield, the Super Soldier Serum,
all of this is sort of allowed to happen from
these events transpiring as if they're supposed
to or as they are supposed to. So that's the
tie -in. And I think that, you know, ultimately,
funny enough, the agents could have just, well,
I guess with the Chromacons there, they had to
intervene somewhere. Otherwise, the Chromacons
would have succeeded and thus messed up said
timeline. So, yeah, I mean, you know, a fun episode.
They'd have gone the Daisy route. Correct. Yeah.
You know, a fun way to kind of do it, ultimately,
while keeping the timeline the way it should
be, as almost as if none of them were ever there.
Minus the... introduction of technology to this
Ernest Koenig character, which you spoke on a
little bit about in the watch party about how
his family ties into stuff later. And I actually
didn't know that myself, as I've not seen more
than the first couple of seasons of Agents of
S .H .I .E .L .D. before I just burned out on
it a little bit. Yeah, totally fair. Yeah. So
that's interesting. And I said it may be a problematic
thing of leaving a super advanced robot. I do
want to address that when we get into the our
thoughts, because I actually kind of love that
they did that. OK, fair enough. Yeah. Hey, that's
that's what we're here for. It's all it's all
subjective. Yeah. Art is meant to be that way
and how it's consumed. And this is certainly
art. So, you know, I don't think it's a major
problem. I think that they can sort of live and
do, you know, without without it causing any
major issues to what is ultimately the sacred
timeline. So interesting, though, it looks like
maybe a little bit of a self -fulfilling prophecy,
maybe. You know, I almost in timelines and they
don't really do this in a lot in Marvel, but
other other things do touch on it with it's a
self -fulfilling prophecy. Like the Koenig family
is big onto that stuff. The robots were there
because they always went back in time and always
did that. That was always part of it. So I don't
know if that's what they were going for there,
but I like that how that fits with a nice, neat
little bow on it. Yeah, likewise. But yeah, so
and they talked about more tie ins. I said, obviously,
everything overarching, but they did talk specifically
about Erskine. about the super soldier serum,
uh, about the red skull and everything. So we
do get to see all of those things sort of, which
is direct tie -ins to a major, major event in,
in all of Marvel comics. I would say, overall,
those are the tie -ins that I see. Why don't
we jump over and talk a little bit about how
it ties into comic books? Yeah. First, we're
going to address the universe. Obviously, you
have mentioned a number of times the Sacred Timeline,
which, of course, is part of Earth -19999. Or,
if you want to listen to Doctor Strange, it's
616, which is wrong. But it is part of the main
Marvel Universe. I'm going to hammer on that.
I hate it. You are. Yeah. It is part of the main
Marvel Universe, which... as you said, has some
big implications for what's to come. And as far
as comic tie -ins, as mentioned, it's got the
Red Skull, it's got the Super Soldier Serum.
There's all kinds of stuff being built in that
we're going to see in future episodes, TV shows,
movies, everything like that. But the Super Soldier
Serum is absolutely massive. That is, of course,
the biggest tie -in because that is the kickoff
to the entire hero age. that Marvel has. Beyond
that, though, we do have similar to the previous
episodes because this is the continuation of
the previous episode, but we have references
to the Secret Warriors run from 2009 to 2011
by Jonathan Hickman, which is where the Malak
family was first introduced. So this is where
we got the origin of S .H .I .E .L .D. This is
where we got the origin, well, really the origin
of HYDRA, which then produced the origin of S
.H .I .E .L .D. and yada, yada, et cetera, et
cetera, basically what they were preserving this
entire episode. And of course, we've got the
LMDs, the life model decoys, which currently
Coulson is. So beyond that, not a ton of direct
pulls from the comics, but that's what I found.
And as far as Easter eggs are concerned, again,
mentions of Schmidt, mentions of the skull, mentions
of all the things that we're going to be seeing
over the next. God, that's going to be a big
chunk of our watching experiences, the Captain
America era. So I'm looking forward to it. Absolutely.
So overall, what were your thoughts? I liked
it. I said I thought it was a satisfying ending
to this little venture into the past. It was
cool to see some of the sort of tropes that we
talked about in the watch party. Oh, my God.
The Tommy guns, you know, the prohibition era
and kind of all that working. the tie -ins to,
let's say, big time events, which we discussed
sort of in the MCU and comic tie -ins with Super
Soldier, with S .H .I .E .L .D., with Hydra.
I said, I think that it was kind of a fun way
to see some of those origins without having a
dedicated movie, TV show, whatever, to that era
to get a little taste of that. Yeah, a couple
episodes did it just fine. Yeah, a couple episodes
just to show you kind of how it all started forming
up. Because I think that everyone is super familiar
with kind of what happens next. So it was kind
of fun to to see that overall, you know, I can
give my thoughts as this as a two part, you know,
I almost consider this one single episode. Sure.
Just because it was a direct continuation and
closure to this arc. I really liked it. I thought
it was fun. Even having missed several seasons
of Agents of S .H .I .E .L .D. before this one,
which we'll get to eventually. And I look forward
to doing that and catching up on on all of it.
Even just as a standalone, of course, there were
some nuance there that I'm sure that I missed
about some of the characters as I've, you know,
not gotten all those details. But even so, even
as a standalone, if this was just a two part
miniseries with these characters in it, I think
you could follow along just fine. I think it
makes sense and I think it's entertaining. So,
yeah, definitely worth a watch, I would say.
Yeah, 100 % agree. The things that I really,
really enjoyed about this episode were actually
the fact that they left Enoch behind with Pat
Nozzolot's character. What is his name? Ernest
Koenig. Koenig? I don't know how to pronounce
it. That's right, Koenig. So I love the fact
that they left Enoch behind with Koenig because
the Koenig family becomes such an embedded part
of S .H .I .E .L .D. in the future, which, again,
you didn't know, but you will find out as S .H
.I .E .L .D. goes on, you will meet many Koenigs,
which is really fun to have introduced their
forerunner, essentially, in this time. And the
fact that he was left with an android to... teach
him all these things to really ingrain him in
the tech, and he wants to learn everything about
robots at the end, and da -da -da -da -da -da
-da. I love that. That sets up so beautifully
for why this character and this family is so
embedded in the future. It's a fantastic little
way to just write him off. And this is the way
that a time travel episode should be done, or
a time travel story should be done, because they
didn't change anything. They didn't futz with
anything. All they did was give us context. And
a fun adventure to go along with it. Yeah. And
it was fun. And I enjoyed it. And I like John.
I highly, highly recommend it. It was a lot of
fun. Even if you don't have the built in backgrounds
of the characters, like we don't know why it
was such a big deal that this the gal. Again,
I don't remember her name because I'm not super
plugged into the shield team at this point. But
the gal that let the the wine bottle drop. Daisy
seems to think that she could have stopped it.
Yeah, I believe that's Yo -Yo. We don't know
this character's Yo -Yo. OK, thank you. We don't
know these characters as well as we would have.
We watched the previous six seasons, of course.
So we don't know if that character has some trauma
built in. So there's there's, of course, things
that we are missing watching it this way. But
even with that, highly recommended. Yeah, for
sure. But yeah, fun stuff. And we are about to
roll into Captain America next, which I am super,
super excited about. One of my all time favorite
Marvel movies. So we're looking forward to it
as we break it down. Our first Nexus event in
the formation of Cap. Yeah. We'll come on that
soon. Yeah. With that, folks, we will see you
next time. Thank you so much for listening and
coming along with us on this journey. Goodbye,
everybody. Thank you for joining us in this episode
of the Snark Industries podcast. To join the
conversation and further explore the Marvel Cinematic
Universe with us, head on over to snarkindustriespod
.com. The link will be in the show notes. But
with that, we will see you in the next adventure.
What's up with that belly though?
Snark Industries closes out the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. two-parter with the conclusion to the team's 1931 adventure, and both hosts agree it sticks the landing. The full plot gets walked through, from Freddy Malick's Hydra-branded vial delivery to the speakeasy shakedown to Daisy's morally murky order to kill Freddy outright, and finally to the moment the timeline locks into place exactly as it was always meant to. Comic roots are traced through Jonathan Hickman's Secret Warriors run and the introduction of the Malick family, with the Super Soldier Serum, Red Skull, and Erskine all getting name-dropped as the show barrels toward its first major Nexus event. The standout for both hosts is Enoch being left behind to mentor a young Koenig, a clean piece of writing that plants the seed for the family's deep future ties to S.H.I.E.L.D. and serves as a model for how a time-travel story should work: context and adventure without breaking the rules.
Dive in further at https://www.snarkindustriespod.com/post/1931-ce-agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-season-7-episode-2-know-your-onions
Join the conversation at https://discord.gg/mJBCuxffF5
Synopsis
A car chase tears through the streets of 1931 New York as Mack and Deke ferry young Freddy Malick toward a delivery, pursued by Chronicom hunters wearing stolen police faces. Mack kills the headlights and shakes the tail, while Freddy, letting the agents believe his cargo is only bootleg liquor, quietly slips a vial of green serum inside a bottle. Back at Koenig's speakeasy, Coulson and Daisy fight to save the wounded operative who arranged the delivery, and Simmons digs out the bullet just as the Chronicoms begin pounding on the door. Testing a residue scraped from the woman's shoe, Simmons identifies the green liquid as an early form of Abraham Erskine's super soldier serum, the very batch fated to turn Johann Schmidt into the Red Skull.
The discovery sharpens an unbearable choice. To preserve the future that eventually produces S.H.I.E.L.D., the team must protect HYDRA's supply line and, in effect, help bring one of history's great monsters into being. Daisy cannot stomach it, and in a hard turn she orders Deke to kill Freddy outright, a death that might spare countless lives or might be the precise unraveling the Chronicoms crossed time to cause. Elsewhere, May wakes in Enoch's care, dragged back from a fatal wound into a body and a century that both feel wrong to her, while Enoch settles in behind Koenig's bar after mixing a cocktail that wins the owner over completely. Koenig, delighted and intensely curious, wants to know everything about S.H.I.E.L.D., and everything about robots.
Reality Designation
This story takes place in the main continuity: 199999
Reality numbers are Marvel's official designations.
Where a universe has no official number we follow the Marvel Database and use its Temporary Reality Number (TRN-1092). Where there is neither — official or temporary — at the time we watch it, we assign a Snark Industries number of our own (SI-001).
Characters in the Episode
Works to save the wounded HYDRA contact alongside Daisy and weighs the moral cost of protecting Freddy.
Milestone: Is left behind in 1931 and becomes a bartender for Koenig
Tends to May aboard the vessel, is left in the past, and takes up his post as bartender at Koenig's speakeasy after his specialty drink wins the owner over.
Milestone: Gives the order to kill Freddy
Tends to the wounded contact, then breaks with the plan and orders Deke to assassinate Freddy to prevent HYDRA's rise.
Milestone: Gets a new bartender that will teach him and his family many things
Panics during the speakeasy crisis, then presses the team for the truth about S.H.I.E.L.D., eager to help and fascinated by talk of robots.
Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Drives Freddy through the opening chase, shaking the Chronicom pursuit, while wrestling with the mission's ugly logic.
Milestone: Makes the decision to join Hydra
Hides the serum vial in a liquor bottle and completes his delivery, unaware he is the linchpin both sides are fighting over. His father's ruin and suicide after the crash come into focus.
Wakes in Enoch's care after her near-fatal wounds, disoriented to find herself alive and stranded in 1931, and increasingly aware that something in her feels altered.
Arrives at the speakeasy with Simmons to help with the wounded contact, still adjusting to her new arms and struggling to rely on her powers.
Milestone: Nearly kills Freddy on Daisy's orders
Rides shotgun on the Freddy delivery, clashes with the young Malick, and is handed the order to kill him.
Milestone: Saves the life of Viola
Removes the bullet from the contact, then analyzes the residue and identifies the serum as the batch destined to create the Red Skull. Earns Koenig's "knows her onions" praise.
Milestone: Betrays Hydra by providing SHIELD agents with vital information
The wounded HYDRA operative who arranged Freddy's serum delivery. A residue on her shoe gives Simmons the clue that cracks the case open.
Comic Roots
Where the episode's people and places come from on the page.
In the comics, the Red Skull debuted alongside Captain America in Captain America Comics #1 (1941) by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, and his definitive wartime origin was later told in Tales of Suspense #66 (1965) by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. By confirming that the green vials are the precise serum formulation that will create Schmidt, the episode threads its 1931 bootlegging plot directly into the genesis of Marvel's archetypal Nazi supervillain, the same figure realized on screen in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).
Abraham Erskine's formula, introduced in that first 1941 issue, is the scientific cornerstone of the entire Captain America mythos. Placing an early, unstable version of it in the hands of a Depression-era HYDRA courier extends the serum's chain of custody backward by a decade beyond anything the films depict, and ties S.H.I.E.L.D.'s own survival to its preservation.
Gideon Malick, the senior HYDRA financier introduced in Jonathan Hickman's Secret Warriors (2009 to 2011), was a marquee antagonist in the show's third season. Freddy, his forebear, is a show-original creation built on that comics lineage, recasting HYDRA's institutional wealth as something seeded in the speakeasies and ruined fortunes of the early 1930s.
Recommended Reading
Where to go next if the episode left you wanting more.
The wartime debut of Captain America and the Super Soldier Serum. Essential context for understanding what the green vials represent in the MCU timeline and why their 1931 delivery chain matters.
The classic telling of the Red Skull's origin, useful for understanding the monster the team is wittingly allowing to be created.
Introduces Gideon Malick as a high-level HYDRA operative, providing the comics context for the Malick family's generational HYDRA ties depicted here through Freddy.
Marvel Comics tie-in to the film. Covers the early SSR and HYDRA history that Season 7 is now building backward from.
The Snark File
Easter eggs, callbacks and technical tidbits.
The Episode's Title - "Know your onions"
"Know your onions" was 1920s and 1930s American slang for being sharply knowledgeable about something. The phrase lands twice, first as Koenig's praise for Simmons's lab work, then again in connection with Enoch's bartending, giving the title its in-story payoff.
The Zephyr's period-appropriate title card
The "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." title card in the opening is rendered in a 1930s animated cartoon font, matching the visual language of Depression-era theatrical shorts.
Black Tuesday in the Backstory
Freddy's wealthy father is said to have been wiped out in the 1929 stock market crash and to have died by suicide soon after, anchoring the Malick family's fall to a real and specific moment in American history.