EXCLUSIVE: Chloe Bennet Opens Up About 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Shocking Twist and the 'Really Dark' SkyeWard
SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers for Tuesday’s episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. lie ahead. May HYDRA have mercy on your soul if you read before watching! (Just kidding, HYDRA has no mercy.)
Daisy, no!
After fans of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spent Tuesday’s episode worrying about Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet) being betrayed by one of her fellow Secret Warriors, it turned out it was actually S.H.I.E.L.D.’s young Inhuman agent who had been infected by Hive’s (Brett Dalton) mind control powers and was working behind-the-scenes to betray her team and help HYDRA.
“I’m happier than I’ve ever been,” the brainwashed agent told Lincoln (Luke Mitchell), whom she had framed as the rat, before making her escape. “You get it. You’ve felt an emptiness your entire life, like me. We’ve tried to fill it, but it never works. I found the answer. And it’s beautiful.”
ET spoke to Bennet about the game-changing twist for her character, and what comes next now that Daisy has turned to the dark side.
“[The producers] brought me in to tell me beforehand, so I was like 'Oh, I'm dying. That was a great run. See you guys!'” the 24-year-old actress joked of learning about her character’s upcoming arc.
“They told me before I got the script, but I had a really hard time accepting it,” she continued. “We play these characters for 10 months out of the year and for 22 hours of content, and you really want to defend them. Daisy is a huge part of who I am, so when she does something that is bad, you kind of go, 'No, no, no, no I don’t want to do that!’”
Bennet admitted that she worried about the backlash from S.H.I.E.L.D. fans after the shocking turn, which saw Hive-controlled Daisy swiping the powerful Kree orb and terrigen crystals before using her powers to reduce the S.H.I.E.L.D. base to rubble. The actress also said that she struggled to find her character -- a once-devoted agent for good whose allegiance is now “100 percent to Hive – completely” -- as the show wraps up its third season.
“I think it's undeniable how powerful she is. She's really ruthless and she's really determined,” Bennet said, explaining the traits that helped Daisy become a strong S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and now, will make her a formidable foe to her former team.
As for what comes next, after betraying Lincoln’s trust and turning her back on the team, Daisy has likely lost out on one love, but is there a chance she’ll be returning to an old romance? S.H.I.E.L.D. fans fawned over the “SkyeWard” relationship between Bennet and Dalton’s characters back in season one, before Ward was revealed to be a HYDRA infiltrator.
Both characters now go by different names now, but they’re also both on the dark side, and the actress says there will be a reunion of sorts between the two. (New ship name possibilities: Dive? Hivesy?)
"It'll be a weird and twisted way for fans to experience a little bit of SkyeWard after wanting it for so long,” Bennet explained. “I can't say what happens with that, but it's really dark.”
WATCH: 'Agents of SHIELD' Sneak Peek: Can Skye Control Her New Inhuman Powers?!
And it sounds like things are only going to get darker int he back half of the season, as Daisy settles into her role as “Hive's right hand man – or should I say woman.”
“Let's just say, the rest of the season after [episode] 17, it's as big of a switch as finding out that Ward was in [HYDRA] in the first season,” Bennet revealed. “The finale is the biggest episode and the most heartbreaking of out the whole series. Nothing is the same -- nothing. Everything will change after this whole season.”
Additional reporting by Leanne Aguilera.
For a lighthearted laugh after Tuesday's intense episode, check out the video below for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. bloopers!