Pilot

"Pilot" is the 1st episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Summary
As the world comes to grips with the existence of superheroes and aliens, agent Phil Coulson assembles a small group of highly skilled agents; the team's first assignment is to find a man with extraordinary -- and potentially devastating -- powers.

Plot
The series begins with a message from Rising Tide.

"The secret is out. For decades your organisation stayed in the shadows, hiding the truth. Now we know, they're among us. Heroes and monsters. The world is full of wonders."

Michael Peterson attempts to bond with his young son over hotdogs in New York City but he is rebuffed due to his son's concerns over their finances. While Michael is reassuring him, a large explosion rocks the street in a building adjacent to them. Shocked, the general public scramble for cover and Michael leaves his son with the elderly hotdog owner as he attempts to help the people trapped in the building. Racing down a side street, Michael scales the wall of the burning building, exhibiting superhuman abilities. Entering through an open window, Michael notices a woman trapped under some rubble and rushes to help her. Michael leaps out of the window with the woman in his arms, saving the day. Michael then notices a young woman who has recorded the ordeal and rushes off, startled.

"We can't explain everything we see, but our eyes are open. So what now? There are no more shadows for you to hide in. Something impossible just happened, what are you going to do about it? "

AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.

Act I
In Paris, Agent Grant Ward is informed that hacktivist group Rising Tide are aware of a package that he is on his way to collect. Posing as a waiter in a bistro, Agent Ward takes the glass of a Rising Tide activist and uses it to retrieve a DNA sample to unlock the safe in which the package is being kept. After locating and collecting the small package, Ward is attacked by two hostile men. A struggle ensues and Ward neutralises the hostiles by hitting one with a blender, and smashing the other into an oven door. Once back on American soil, in the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, Ward is questioned about his knowledge of the organisation by Agent Maria Hill. After handing over the package, which is revealed to be a Chitauri Neuron Link, he states that he has Level 6 clearance thus knows that Agent Phil Coulson was killed shortly before the battle of New York. Suddenly, Agent Coulson emerges from a dark corner and welcomes Ward to clearance Level 7.

Agent Coulson tells Ward that S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury faked Coulson's death to motivate the Avengers during the Battle of New York and has since been living in Tahiti. Ward, Hill and Coulson survey the footage of Michael Peterson jumping from the burning building, which has been posted on the Rising Tide website. Maria explains that Coulson has put together a special team of S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives to combat Rising Tide and Ward will be joining them. Hesitant to join, Ward is dismissed by Agent Hill. Hill then warns Coulson that his team is sketchy and he should rethink his choices, but he rebuffs her stating that she needs to take a break and leaves. Dr. Streiten then appears and asks Hill "He really doesn't know, does he?" to which she replies "He can never know."

Act II
Meanwhile, in the streets of New York City, Skye has been trailing Michael and finally confronts him in a diner. Skye introduces herself and asks about Michael's superhero alias. Mike pretends that he doesn't know what she's talking about but finally succumbs after Skye warns him of an impending danger. She tells him that S.H.I.E.L.D. are dangerous and are not to trusted. Skye urges him to come out publicly about his superhuman abilities, offering her help. Michael attempts to leave, but not before Skye invites him to her "office" and swipes his drivers license. In the S.H.I.E.L.D. admin room, Agent Melinda May is doing her work when she is asked by Agent Coulson to join his team which she refuses without question, stating that she does not want to go back in the field. Coulson tells her that he just wants her to drive the bus for the group rather than combat. After deliberating for a short while, Coulson tells her that she has no choice and that it's a very nice bus.

In an air hanger, the team are introduced to the "bus" which is a large airborne mobile command station. Agents Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons are loading the equipment onto the bus, arguing about the weapons as they do so. Agent Ward makes his entrance and the two agents introduce themselves and prepare Ward for work at S.H.I.E.L.D., which includes smashing his phone to pieces and taking a DNA sample. Coulson then drives onto the bus with Lola, his technology enhanced car. After a short tour of the aircraft, Ward and Coulson are approaced by Agent May who tells him that they may have a hit on one of the Rising Tides routing points. Ward is shocked to discover that Melinda May is the pilot, obviously having knowledge of her past work. Meanwhile, Skye is broadcasting a Rising Tide message from her van when she is suddenly interrupted by Coulson and Ward who take her in for questioning after pinpointing her location.

Act III
Back on the airbus, Skye is taken into an interrogation room where she is put under questioning by Agents Ward and Coulson. Skye gives away no information about the Rising Tide, and seems nervous when asked about her real name. Coulson asks her about the man in the videos she posted and again, she has nothing to say. She is accused of blowing the apartment building up in hopes of attracting Mike, to which she is shocked by. Skye rebounds the accusations by bringing up the "Centipede" which leaves Ward and Coulson confused. Coulson tries to coax the information out of Skye, whilst Ward forcefully asks "What is Centipede?".

Michael Peterson is talking over the phone to somebody, saying that his "product" works fantastically. Mike lifts his shirt sleeve to reveal a strange bug-like device located on his forearm. He comes off the phone visibly angry and throws it at a picture of him and his wife, smashing it to pieces. Meanwhile, Agents Fitz, Simmons and May are investigating the burning building which is revealed to be a laboratory that was kept secret. Simmons takes samples of the surroundings whilst Fitz reveals a device which scans the room. Back in the interrogation room, Skye reveals information about the Centipede. She tells Ward and Coulson that there were rumours on the web but when she traced the axis point, the building was blown up. Ward and Coulson urge Skye to tell them where Mike is but she refuses, telling them that if he is danger, she should be the one to speak to him. Ward goes on to call Skye a "groupie" and Coulson takes him out to tell him that she is an asset. After getting nowhere with the interrogation, Coulson reveals a truth serum.

At the investigation site, one of the scanners has discovered a surveillance camera, which May tells the team is destroyed. Fitz disagrees, telling May that that model of surveillance camera has a flash memory and images from before the blast can be retrieved. Simmons, still investigating the surroundings, discovers a compound which is not native to Earth. Coulson reveals the truth serum to Skye, who is being held down by Agent Ward. Suddenly, Coulson injects Ward with the truth serum rather than Skye. Coulson tells Skye to ask Ward whatever she likes to gain their trust and leaves the room. Skye takes off her jacket, ready to ask Ward questions. At a factory, Mike is asking his former boss, Gary, for his job back to no avail. Gary, becoming tired of Mike's plea, tells Mike that he doesn't cut it. Mike, angered now, throws Gary into a pile of metal cylinders. Gary, injured on the floor, begs for his life but he is attacked by Michael with a gas canister.

Act IV
Skye tells Coulson what Ward told her about his time in Paris and how he wishes that Coulson were still in Tahiti. Coulson then shows her news footage of Michael's outburst in the factor, which shocks Skye visibly. The team regroup in the control room, reviewing the images from the surveillance camera. Fitz is unable to sync the timecode, however Skye offers her services and the data from her van to uncrypt the images. Agent May then escorts Skye to her van. Meanwhile, at a hospital, Michael visits Debbie, the woman he saved from the burning building. Michael reveals Debbie to be the one who supplied him with the Centipede, and asks for her help. Debbie refuses his help, stating that he exposed the program by attacking the factory foreman. Debbie warns Michael that the people who own the Centipede are serious and that he needs to disappear. Michael tells Debbie that he is a different person now, and she tells him that this situation is a disaster. Michael disagrees with her, saying that it is his origin story before leaving from the window.

In Skye's van, she is sending the information to Fitz who is in the airbus. Simmons and Coulson are looking over the alien substance which was found at the remains of the laboratory. Simmons states that the substance is dripping with gamma radiation and could be the source of the explosion. With the data from Skye's van, Fitz produces a holographic video of the surveillance from before the blast. In the video, a man is shouting angrily at a laboratory technician and requests to see "the Doctor". The team notice a strange artifact on his arm, which is identified as having every known source of superpower channeled inside. Back in Skye's van, the two are ready to leave when Melinda is attacked by Michael and knocked out. Michael kidnaps Skye and tells her that she is going to save him and his son as they board her van. In the control room, the source of the blast is identified as being Extremis, which is inside the Centipede. The team discover that Michael could explode if angered enough, taking out anybody in a 2 mile radius.

Act V
The team discover that Michael will explode in the next few hours, rather than just when angry. Fitz and Simmons tell Coulson that they have two options; either isolate him or kill him. Coulson states that they will need to come up with a third option, so that Michael's son will not lose his father. Meanwhile, May who has come around, tells the team that Michael has kidnapped Skye. Outside Union Station, Skye is busy deleting Michael's files from the S.H.I.E.L.D. database. Michael is sceptical and questions Skye about her abilities, to which she responds by saying that she has done this before. On board the S.H.I.E.L.D. airbus, Fitz and Simmons are frantically trying to find a third option when they realise they are being hacked. However, Coulson states that Skye has sent them her coordinates. Arriving at Union Station, Coulson attempts to reason with Michael using a megaphone which angers Michael as he kicks the sliding door off Skye's van and pulls her and his son inside the station.

Skye, seeing a group of intimidating men, takes her chance and creates a diversion as the group of men attack Michael. He takes them out with ease, sending one flying across the station. S.H.I.E.L.D. take Michael's son to safety as Ward attempts to neutralise Mike, to no avail. At the same moment, Debbie and her organisation arrive to dispose of Michael. The team split up, with Ward going high and Coulson going low to find Michael and Skye. Skye attempts to calm Michael down, telling him that S.H.I.E.L.D. are actually helpful which only angers him further. A man wielding a gun suddenly appears and shoots Michael, sending him flying over the balcony. As he is about to turn the gun on Skye, Agent May appears and takes him out. Coulson approaches Michael on the ground and provides a stalemate, dropping his gun. Coulson tells Michael that there is poison in his body and that he will explode if he doesn't calm down. Michael becomes upset, stating that Coulson took away his job and family. Michael knocks down a pillar and calls Coulson a liar. Coulson tells Michael that he has what it takes to be a hero, when a shot is fired through Michael's brain. However, it becomes clear that the shot did not kill Michael and was made by Fitz and Simmons to neutralise him, much to everybody's relief.

Skye and Coulson go to Michael's house and tells his family that Michael will be returning home, much to his children's delight. Leaving the house, Skye and Coulson review the events of the day and Coulson reiterates the fact that the owners of the Centipede are still at large. Skye states that it's a brave new world as they get into Coulson's car, Lola. Coulson offers Skye a place on their team, when Ward phones to tell them that they have an 0-8-4. Skye questions the numbers and remarks that there is no way they can get to the airfield in 10 minutes. Coulson sets Lola to flight mode and tells Skye "The tide is rising".

Gallery
Gallery of photographic stills released to promote the episode.