Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season Two Episodes 1-2 Plot Synopses & Major Guest Star Revealed

Image Sources: IGN & TV Guide

Old friends and new enemies emerge from the shadows for Coulson's team to confront!
ABC have today released official plot synopses for the first and second episodes of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and revealed the identity of a major guest star scheduled to feature in the former of these much-vaunted instalments. Titled "Shadows" and "Heavy is the Head" respectively, Episodes 1 and 2 will centre on Director Phil Coulson's valiant efforts to contain the looming threat of Hydra and to understand the sudden hints of insanity which revealed themselves to linger within his psyche in the critically acclaimed Season One finale, "Beginning of the End".

First and foremost, though, let's discuss the aforementioned newly-announced guest star who'll act as a neat segue-way between this and another of Marvel's upcoming television projects. Hayley Atwell will reprise her role as Peggy Carter in a 1940s flashback sequence contained within "Shadows" later this month ahead of her leading role in next Spring's Marvel's Agent Carter. As if that weren't enough to have Captain America fans across the globe clutching their replica shields so as not to faint, a new promotional image (which you'll find at the bottom of this article) for the season opener has revealed that she won't be alone: Kenneth Choi and Neal McDonough will also be back to portray the characters they brought to life in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Jim Morita and Dum Dum Dugan in the very same episode. Be still, our beating hearts, in other words!

Recovered from the onslaught of exciting info expressed above yet? Apologies if so, as the fun doesn't stop there by any stretch of the imagination. Fresh off the presses, so to speak, here are the full narrative précises for "Shadows" and "Heavy is the Head" in all of their Marvel Cinematic Universe-upheaving glory:

• "SHADOWS" -  "Coulson and his team are now wanted fugitives with limited resources, but that's not stopping them from keeping the world safe from powerful and unseen threats everywhere. However, with new members they hardly know, will S.H.I.E.L.D. ever be the same again?"
• "HEAVY IS THE HEAD" - "Hunted and running out of solutions, Coulson puts his team right in the line of fire in the hopes of saving them all. But with General [Glenn] Talbot [who first appeared in The Incredible Hulk and then later featured in the first season of Agents in a recurring capacity], Hydra [presumably led by someone other than John Garrett in the event of his untimely demise in last year's season finale] and [Carl] Creel [aka the Absorbing Man] on the attack, can they possibly survive? Meanwhile, a mysterious Doctor [aka Skye's biological father, played by Kyle MacLachlan] harbours some dangerous secrets that could destroy one of our core team members."

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will blast back onto ABC with its dramatic second season on September 22nd and on Channel 4 at some point during the Autumn months.