ABC/Kelsey McNealIt's a widely-known and accepted fact that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a million times more epic and intense this season than its first. And it's all thanks to Adrianne Palicki.
Sure, the story of ABC's Marvel series benefitted from Captain America: The Winter Soldier's huge plot twist, when S.H.I.E.L.D. was destroyed at its core from HYDRA corruption, but we can't get enough of Friday Night Lights veteran Palicki as the kick-butt agent Mockingbird, aka Bobbi Morse. Seriously, we're about as obsessed with her as Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) is...and that's really saying something!
Palicki enjoys playing the fierce new agent as much as we are watching her on screen.
"I love all the action stuff," Palicki told E! News. "That's my favorite thing at this point in my career. It's so fun and oddly therapeutic. Just getting to learn new techniques and be physically active is so great, and the action is a big part of her character. It's really what she's known for, her martial arts and her escrima sticks. I think that it's just going to continue and the thing that's so phenomenal is that it is movie quality action sequences that we're doing in a day. It's intense."
As awesome as her action scenes are, what we really want to see is why her ex-husband and new S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Lance Hunter (Nick Blood) calls Bobbi a "demonic hell-beast," because from what we've seen so far, that could not be further from the truth.
"That is going to be a big part of Bobbi's storyline, getting down to brass tacks and seeing what her story with Lance is," Palicki said. "Why were they together and why did they split? You can tell there's still a lot of love between them, with their banter and their fighting. You're going to see why that all unfolded and why they're no longer together."
Since there's obviously still a lot of chemistry between these ex-spouses, is there a chance we might see them rekindle their relationship?
"It's television, so anything is possible," Palicki said. "It still has yet to be seen what the future holds for these two."
But Lance isn't the only S.H.I.E.L.D. member who Bobbi has a past with.
"You'll also get to know that she has past work relationships with other S.H.I.E.L.D. members and what that past was with them," Palicki teased. "You'll see a lot of new information come to light with Bobbi."
Other information that is about to come to light is everything that Coulson (Clark Gregg) has been keeping from the rest of his team...and we do mean everything.
"In this episode, 'The Writing on the Wall,' the S.H.I.E.L.D. team finds a dead body with the alien writings carved into it," Palicki said. "That forces all of Coulson's lies and secrets to come to a head. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who weren't aware of what was going on are now going to be clued in as to what's going on with Coulson. It will be interesting to see how everybody reacts to it. Since Bobbi came into all this midstream, she didn't really know a lot about what's going on. She was undercover with HYDRA, so everyone's reactions will be very different as to what's going on. A lot of things are going to come unraveled. A lot of things we've been digging for and watching for and waiting to find out in each episode are going to come to light in certain characters and no fan is going to be left wanting."
Will that change the way that Bobbi views S.H.I.E.L.D.? It might.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore and Coulson is now running it, so it's a whole different beast," Palicki said. "It's scary for all the agents, especially Bobbi since she's such a strong person and wants to propel herself and be helpful wherever she's needed. She's still trying to find her way but in the end, she's good, and she will continue to be good and do the right thing."
Since we're loving Palicki on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. so much, we had to ask: is she sticking around for the rest of the season?
"She's going to be on for a bit!" Palicki said with a laugh. "I hope she's on for the rest of the season. But that's up to the writers."
As for that Hawkeye mention that eagle-eyed Marvel superfans caught in last week's episode, Palicki thinks that might not be the last time we hear the name Barton on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"I think eventually that connection [between Mockingbird and Hawkeye] is going to have to play into the show," Palicki said. "It's such a huge part of the comic book character and a lot of fans really only know them as a duo. I don't see how they couldn't mention more of him. Right now, they're focusing mainly on this relationship [between Bobbi and Lance]. Apparently, she's been married quite a few times!"
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Tuesdays at 9 .p.m on ABC.