1931 CE - Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 7, Episode 1: The New Deal
- Mar 20
- 6 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
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Jemma Simmons has just revealed to Mack and Daisy that she and Enoch, with Fitz's engineering, built a Chronicom-LMD hybrid of Phil Coulson. Daisy activates him before Mack can object. The new Coulson comes online with memories through the Framework, plus two years of updates Jemma has loaded, and learns, in rapid succession, that he is a machine, that Fitz is missing for reasons Jemma refuses to explain, and that the team is now aboard a time-jumping Zephyr stranded in 1931 New York City. The Chronicoms have gone back in time to dismantle SHIELD before it exists, and the team followed them into the past through what Fitz called a "Tide." Three Chronicom Hunters have already assumed the identities of corrupt NYPD officers by erasing their faces, and have set their sights on a target at a political fundraiser for New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Mack, Coulson, Daisy, and Deke go undercover in period clothing. Following the lead of the murdered officers, they trace the Chronicoms to Ernest "Hazard" Koenig's speakeasy, the Krazy Kanoe, where they bluff their way inside posing as Royal Canadian Mounted Police. There they meet Koenig, who operates under the SSR codename "Gemini," and discover that the Chronicoms' real target is not FDR but one of Koenig's employees: Wilfred "Freddy" Malick, a young man living on charity whose father, a HYDRA patriarch, recently committed suicide. A HYDRA operative named Viola has arranged for Freddy to deliver vials of what is later confirmed to be an early version of Dr. Erskine's Super Soldier Serum, destined for Johann Schmidt. The Chronicoms want Freddy dead to eliminate HYDRA and, with it, the chain of events that will eventually produce SHIELD. The team intervenes, because to save SHIELD, they must first save HYDRA.
Universe Designation
This story takes place in the main Marvel Continuity: 199999
Note - We at Snark Industries recognize and reject that this universe was named as 616 in Dr. Strange Multiverse of Madness
Characters in the Episode
Character Name | Voice Actor/Status | Role and Description |
Clark Gregg | A Chronicom-LMD hybrid built from Coulson's last Framework scan, reactivated by Daisy at the top of the episode. Adjusting to being a machine while immediately being thrown into 1931 New York. | |
Ming-Na Wen | In stasis for most of the episode following her near-fatal injuries. Wakes on her own near the end, observed by Enoch from below as she silently climbs the Zephyr walls. | |
Chloe Bennet | Activates the Coulson LMD over Mack's objections. Goes undercover at the FDR event and saves Freddy when the Chronicoms make their move. | |
Elizabeth Henstridge | The architect of the new Coulson and the team's current time-travel plan. Refuses to reveal Fitz's location, citing security. Interrogates the captured Chronicom to identify the real target. | |
Henry Simmons | Director of SHIELD. Deeply uncomfortable with LMDs and with the entire situation, but leads the ground mission into 1931 regardless. | |
Natalia Cordova-Buckley | Confined to the Zephyr by Mack because she still has a shrike inside her. Receives new organic-looking prosthetic arms from Jemma that can pass for human and have tactile sensation. | |
Jeff Ward | Sent into 1931 to purchase period-appropriate clothing for the team. Ends up driving Freddy to his delivery point while the others deal with the Chronicoms at the FDR party. | |
Joel Stoffer | Friendly Chronicom ally. Monitors May's condition and scans local radio frequencies for Chronicom activity. Impresses Koenig by inventing a cocktail on the spot and is hired as the Krazy Kanoe's new bartender. | |
Darren Barnet | A young man working at Koenig's speakeasy, living on charity after his HYDRA-affiliated father's suicide. The Chronicoms' true target. Accepts Viola's serum delivery job, setting the season's central mission in motion. | |
Patton Oswalt | Owner of the Krazy Kanoe speakeasy and ancestor of the present-day Koenig siblings. SSR asset operating under the codename "Gemini." Identical in appearance to every Koenig the team has ever known. | |
Nora Zehetner | A HYDRA operative with ties to the Malick family. Approaches Freddy at the FDR party and tasks him with delivering vials of the Super Soldier Serum. Shot by the Chronicoms during the confrontation. | |
Joseph Culp | New York Governor, hosting the political fundraiser that serves as the episode's central set piece. A non-speaking presence at the party. | |
Greg Finley | Koenig's enforcer at the Krazy Kanoe. Confronts Coulson and Mack before Koenig steps out. |
In-Universe Date - 1931
Date: 1931
Defense: The setting of 1931 New York City is explicitly stated multiple times in dialogue throughout the episode.
Date Confidence: TIER 1 for year, stated explicitly by multiple characters. Month and day remain unestablished.
Comic Roots
The Super Soldier Serum
The vials Viola delivers to Freddy are confirmed by the Disney Wiki and borne out in subsequent episodes to be an early formulation of Dr. Abraham Erskine's Super Soldier Serum, destined for Johann Schmidt. In the MCU, this serum transforms Schmidt into the Red Skull (Captain America: The First Avenger, 2011). In comics, the serum was introduced in Captain America Comics #1 (1941) by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Setting its delivery chain in 1931, two years before Hitler's rise to power and a decade before Schmidt receives it, extends the MCU's HYDRA timeline backward in a way the films never did.
The Koenig Family
Patton Oswalt previously played four identical Koenig siblings (Eric, Billy, Sam, and Thurston) across Seasons 1 through 4 of AoS. Ernest "Hazard" Koenig is their ancestor, establishing the family as a multi-generational SHIELD/SSR institution. In Marvel Comics, Eric Koenig is a former HYDRA agent who defects to join Nick Fury's Howling Commandos, first appearing in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #27 (1966) by Roy Thomas and John Severin. The show's Koenig lineage is a significant expansion of that single comics character into an entire dynasty.
The Malick Family / HYDRA
Gideon Malick was a primary villain in AoS Season 3, a senior HYDRA leader and worshipper of Hive. Freddy Malick, his father, is a show-original character but is rooted in the comics' HYDRA mythology. In comics, Gideon Malick appears in the Secret Warriors series (2009-2011) by Jonathan Hickman as one of HYDRA's hidden heads. The show's portrait of HYDRA as a 1930s organization financing through bootleggers and corrupt political networks is a dramatic expansion of the MCU HYDRA backstory established in Captain America: The First Avenger.
Life Model Decoys
LMDs have been part of Marvel Comics since Strange Tales #135 (1965) by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, where they were introduced as SHIELD technology used to protect Nick Fury from assassination. AoS introduced LMDs in Season 4 and here takes the concept further by merging LMD technology with Chronicom hardware to create a genuinely new kind of synthetic being in Coulson's body.
The Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR)
The SSR was established in the MCU in Captain America: The First Avenger as the wartime intelligence organization that eventually became SHIELD. Agent Carter (2015-2016) explored its post-war history. Ernest Koenig's role as an SSR asset under the codename "Gemini" is a new addition, placing the organization's informal roots in 1931, predating the wartime SSR by roughly a decade.
Recommended Reading
Captain America Comics #1 (1941) by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby -- 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.
Strange Tales #135 (1965) by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby -- First appearance of Life Model Decoys in Marvel Comics, introduced as SHIELD technology to protect Nick Fury. The conceptual origin of what Jemma and Enoch built in Coulson.
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #27 (1966) by Roy Thomas and John Severin -- First appearance of Eric Koenig, the comics ancestor of AoS's Koenig family. A quick single-issue read that shows where the Koenig lineage begins on the page.
Secret Warriors, Vol. 1: Nick Fury, Agent of Nothing #1-6 (2009) by Jonathan Hickman -- 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.
Captain America: The First Avenger Prelude (2011) by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, and Joe Simon -- 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
It references FDR's historic New Deal legislation, enacted after his 1932 election. It also refers to SHIELD's own new arrangement, a rebuilt team, a new Coulson, and a new kind of war. Coulson makes the pun himself during the episode. It also shares a name with a 2003 Captain America novel but has little relation.
The Zephyr's period-appropriate title card
The "Marvel's Agents of SHIELD" title card in the opening is rendered in a 1930s animated cartoon font, matching the visual language of Depression-era theatrical shorts.
Ernest Koenig's SSR codename is "Gemini"
A reference to the twin, consistent with his descendants all being identical. The codename implies his SSR relationship predates SHIELD's formal founding by decades.
The green vials are the Super Soldier Serum
Confirmed in subsequent episodes to be an early Erskine formulation. Freddy's delivery connects the 1931 criminal underworld directly to the creation of the Red Skull and, downstream, to the creation of Captain America.
