"Who You Really Are" is the twelfth episode of the second season of the American television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D., it follows Phil Coulson and his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they deal with an amnesiac Sif and revelations about the Kree and Inhumans. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and acknowledges the franchise's films. The episode was written by Drew Z. Greenberg, and directed by Roxann Dawson.
Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series, and is joined by series regulars Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, Nick Blood, and Adrianne Palicki. Special guest star Jaimie Alexander portrays Sif, also reprising her role from the film series.
"Who You Really Are" originally aired on ABC on March 10, 2015, and according to Nielsen Media Research, was watched by 3.80 million viewers.
Plot
In Faro, south Portugal, an amnesiac Sif emerges from the ocean looking for Kava. S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Phil Coulson has asked Lance Hunter to become part of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team permanently. His ex-wife, Agent Bobbi Morse, who he has been getting close to again, ponders what this will mean, as she is sharing a secret with Agent Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie, who has been asked to take on missions in the field. The two of them discuss bringing Hunter into the loop, but Mack shuts down any chance of that happening and advises Bobbi to push Hunter away, which she does.
S.H.I.E.L.D. travel to Portugal and try to work with Sif to find out what she was doing on Earth, rather than Asgard. Through social media they discover footage of Sif fighting a surprisingly strong man whose weapon removed her memories. Sif had managed to damage the technology that he was wearing, which was fueled by nitrogen. Morse and Agent Skye track the man to the local hospital's nitrogen supply. He is using the technology to hide his blue skin – he is a Kree. In the ensuing fight, Morse is thrown across the room, while Skye loses control of her new and secret earthquake-powers, allowing the Kree to escape.
Sif remembers that Kava means "keys", which leads S.H.I.E.L.D. to the Romanic City of Chaves (English: Keys), in the north of Portugal, where Daniel Whitehall found the Obelisk, or the Diviner (which gave Skye her abilities) during the dictatorial regime sympathetic to the Nazi ideology Estado Novo. There, they capture the Kree and confiscate the crate he had dug up. The Kree, named Vin-Tak, cooperates by restoring Sif's memory and explaining his mission on Earth: he had learnt that Terrigenesis, the transformation of a human with special genetic material into a Kree war-slave, had recently taken place on Earth, and had come to put down the "abomination" and destroy the Diviners remaining on the planet. Panicking, Skye once again loses control, and everyone realises that she has been changed. Vin-Tak wants to kill her, while Sif wants to take her to Asgard for the safety of the human race, but Morse stops the former, removing his memory with his device, and Coulson convinces Sif to leave Skye be.
Skye, unable to stop the shaking, uses a tranquilizer on herself, and when she wakes up, moves into the vibranium-laced cage away from the other agents, who fear her new abilities. Sif returns Vin-Tak to his homeworld of Hala and promises that the Kree will no longer be an issue for Earth, though she warns Coulson that Skye may be even more dangerous than he thinks.
In an end tag, Hunter confronts Mack about him and Morse, forcing Mack to knock Hunter unconscious.
Production
Development
In February 2015, Marvel announced that the twelfth episode of the season would be titled "Who You Really Are", to be written by Drew Z. Greenberg, with Roxann Dawson directing.
Writing
Concerning Simmons' apparent anger at learning that Skye has gained new abilities due to her exposure to alien materials, executive producer Jeffrey Bell explained that "The way everyone reacts to the situation is different, and different types of concern and different types of fear, and different types of determination...and I think all of our characters are reacting in very different ways to that, which is the whole point of doing it. When one of your best friends comes out as a superhero, how do you react to that? And just trying to find out, "Oh, my friend changed, they're different, and how do I feel about that? And this is cool, but it's scary, and I don't know how I feel about that. And it's wonderful, and why can't I have that? Or, I don't want that. Or, does Skye want that?" It just, to me, captures a whole bunch of questions, which is what we try to do."