Agents Of SHIELD Season 3: 10 Questions We're Asking After Laws Of Nature
5. Is The ATCU The New S.H.I.E.L.D.?
The 'Real S.H.I.E.L.D.' storyline in season 2 was a very intriguing one, although unfortunately it was introduced at a time when the show was approaching its endgame, so was ultimately left being half-baked. The themes and ideas it introduced though, of a rival to S.H.I.E.L.D., can still work, and are being revisited here.
We're introduced to the Advanced Threat Containment Unit, the ATCU (although we don't get the name until much later in the episode), right at the very start, as they're after Inhumans in much the same way S.H.I.E.L.D. are. Initially it seems as though they're the bad guys, because naturally we assume S.H.I.E.L.D. are the good ones, but it isn't so black and white.
It turns out to be setup by the government, with the President himself part of it (and perhaps under the control of Constance Zimmer's Rosalind Price), and is doing the sort of thing that S.H.I.E.L.D. used to do. There's also the question of what they're doing with the Inhumans, and whether they are truly villainous, as they deny any part in killing them.