| “ | Bring me my daughter, and i'll show the both of you. | „ |
| ~ The Doctor, telling Raina to bring Skye back. |
Calvin Zabo (Born Calvin L. Johnson) is the secondary antagonist/anti-hero turned supporting character of Season 2 in the TV series, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He is the father of protagonist Skye and an Inhuman who wants to fulfill a mysterious prophecy involving the Kree, which could possibly cause the apocalypse.
He is portrayed by Kyle MacLachlan, who also portrayed Cliff Vandercave.
Biography
Hunan Province
- "I worked in a clinic. People liked me. I liked myself."
- ―Calvin Zabo
Calvin Zabo worked in a clinic in China as a young adult, where he met Jiaying, who would become his wife. As he could not understand the Chinese, she helped him with the translation. After a while, the two of them had a daughter, whom Zabo delivered himself, and they named her Daisy.
Men claiming to be S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but who were in truth members of HYDRA, came to their clinic and demanded the woman be handed over. Zabo and Jiaying resisted, but their efforts were in vain, as she was kidnapped nonetheless. He then left Daisy among people he trusted, and set off to search for his beloved wife.
He later found her remains in Austria, apparently dead as a result of a vivisection performed by Daniel Whitehall. When Zabo discovered her body, he swore vengeance on her killer.
He later returned to his village, only to find that Daisy had been rescued by S.H.I.E.L.D. He went into a murderous rage, and butchered the entire population of the village. He then set off to find his daughter.
Monster
- "I found your daughter."
- ―Raina
Zabo found Raina living on the streets as a beggar, holding onto stories that her grandmother had told her. At that time, she was in Thailand with a group of friends who called themselves "freaks." He sheltered them and raised their self-esteem. Meanwhile, he revealed to Raina that, if she could reunite him with his daughter, he could prove that her grandmother's stories about the Kree were true.
Years later, Zabo was visited by Raina, who had discovered his daughter, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent now going by the name Skye, and presented him with a picture.
The Diviner
- "Bring me my daughter and I will show the both of you."
- ―Calvin Zabo
Raina retrieved what he truly wanted, the Obelisk, and in order to test its authenticity, instructed Raina to hold it. Instead of turning into stone, the Obelisk glowed orange with the Words of Creation. He was pleased by the outcome, but in order to explain to her its significance, he required his daughter.
Raina begged him to give up the Obelisk, so she would not provoke Daniel Whitehall. He refused, saying that she has still not brought him Skye. Grabbing Raina's throat, he asked her if she feared Whitehall more than him. Loosening his grip, he told her to plead to Whitehall for her life.
Later, Coulson's team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents reached his hideout, only to discover it deserted. A picture of him was left on the ground and Skye finds it in shock. Meanwhile he was hiding in his car outside and watched through a secret camera embedded in a clock on the wall. After seeing the two corpses of two men he had killed, Skye called him a monster. In response he angrily smashed his tablet, which he used to see the hidden cameras.
He then went to HYDRA Laboratories to meet Daniel Whitehall. When the guards tried to stop him, he promptly slayed them both. He then showed Dr. Whitehall the Obelisk, and offered not only to teach him how to control the power of the Diviner, as it is called in its native language, but how to survive it. When asked his motivation, Zabo said that they had a common enemy: Phil Coulson.
The New Alliance
- "He's a murderer!... You forgot to mention that."
- ―Skye
Schematics for the Splinter Bomb were sent to Toshiro Mori from Daniel Whitehall and Calvin Zabo. When Skye attempted to get information about Senator Christian Ward from his brother Grant Ward, the conversation strayed into discussing her father. Phil Coulson activated the Inertial Confinement Laser Barrier to stop the discussion. Later, Skye returned to Vault D and had Ward tell his version of the massacre at the Hunan village.
Unable to sleep, Skye confided to Phil Coulson that she was upset because everything that was happening seemed to be connected. She mentioned her father's connection to the Diviner, HYDRA, the alien symbols, GH.325, and Grant Ward.
Daniel Whitehall had a meeting with his scientists, but was disgusted when they only told him things he had already known since 1945. Zabo was brought in and he told Whitehall that he would help him learn the origin of the Diviner and edited the story that Whitehall told him of what he knew.
Zabo was given a team of operatives to take to Australia to find the city matching the City Blueprints. When S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Antoine Triplettwas shot during a firefight there, Zabo assisted in saving his life, in order to talk face-to-face with Phil Coulson. He revealed to Coulson that the Diviner had something within it, but when Coulson asked if it was equal to the Tesseract, he had no clue of the comparison. The Doctor then escaped, leaving the medical care of Triplett to Coulson and Fitz.
Before Coulson could tell Skye that he and Leo Fitz met her father, a match was found by the satellites searching for the Kree City. Meanwhile, Zabo met Grant Ward during his meeting with Whitehall.
Jemma Simmons asked Antoine Triplett his impression of Zabo; before Trip could describe his insanity, Skye entered and joined the discussion. Coulson decided that he did not want Skye to go with him to the hidden city in San Juan because he did not want to accidentally reunite her with her father; he instead assigned her to go to Vancouver to help Rainainstead. During the mission, Raina confided in Skye about how she met her father, and how he had saved her when she was living on the street and he took her in. Raina also debunked Skye's belief that she was an alien, but did tell her that they both had the potential to be more than humans.
Family Reunion
- "Best day ever."
- ―Calvin Zabo
Zabo sat in a room and waited for Grant Ward to bring Skye to him inside the Ponce de León Theater, a temporary base HYDRA established in San Juan. Zabo told Skye how he had waited so long to be reunited with her. Though she was repulsed by him, calling him a monster, she listened as he told her of how he met Jiaying. She corrected his story when he said that S.H.I.E.L.D. took her to Austria to kill her, revealing that it was HYDRA that truly did the deed. Zabo told her he had known all along that Whitehall killed his wife and that he was using the HYDRA leader to reunite them; he planned to rip Whitehall apart in revenge.
Whitehall had a meeting with Zabo, Skye, Ward, and Raina, wanting to know if Skye would survive touching the Diviner. When she did and attacked a HYDRA operative with it, Zabo lunged at Whitehall, but Whitehall had him knocked out. When he awoke he was stopped with a Control Device that paralyzed him remotely. Stunned, Zabo used the opportunity that Ward gave him by distracting their guard to remove the device and kill the guard. He did not free Ward or Skye because he did not want her to see or Ward to help him kill Whitehall; he left them still bound. Whitehall was about to shoot Zabo, but Phil Coulson shot the HYDRA leader from behind.
Angered that he could not exact his revenge on the now dead man, Zabo took his rage out on Coulson. Coulson fought back for a while, but Zabo eventually got the upper hand and beat Coulson into submission. Skye found the two struggling, and at gunpoint, told her father to leave and never see her again. Zabo agreed to leave, but promised that she would eventually come to him for comfort, because no one else would understand her after her transformation. He also revealed her birth name to her: Daisy.
Revenge Against S.H.I.E.L.D.
- "I can't live as this repulsive creature."
"Then don't."
- ―Raina and Calvin Zabo
Zabo went into hiding following his confrontation with S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA, intending to leave Puerto Ricoinside one of the container units of a cargo ship.
Raina, who had traveled with Zabo using that method many times before, went to the cargo ship to confront him, having been transformed into a new Inhuman form. She demanded to know what had happened to her, but Zabo simply told her that she had become what she always wanted and there was no way back. Raina then revealed that Skye had also gone through a transformation; he danced with glee and swore he would have to help her through her confusion the same way Jiaying had years before. He also decided to contact other powered people he knew from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Index. When Raina told him that she could not live looking like that, Zabo dismissed her and left.
Personality Traits
Since experiencing the trauma of discovering the brutally murdered corpse of his wife, Calvin Zabo has demonstrated a highly unstable personality, easily prone to outbursts of rage, driven by a desperate motivation to restore the family he feels he has lost while seeking revenge on his transgressors.
Under normal conditions Zabo maintains a calm demeanor, expressing a high level of intelligence and a sensible, levelheaded personality, but at times may still express mild anger or annoyance in a more tactful manner.
Powers and Abilites
Powers
- "If my daughter wasn't here, I would tear you and your men to pieces."
- ―Calvin Zabo to Daniel Whitehall
- Enhanced Strength: Calvin Zabo shows physical strength that exceeds that of an average man, being capable of easily killing a man with his bare hands and breaking a HYDRA operative's neck by lifting him and tossing him on the floor. His strength allowed him to toss a now transformed Raina to the ground, even though she had him by the throat, once he got enraged when she insulted his daughter.
Abilities
- "I can help. I'm a doctor."
- ―Calvin Zabo
- Master Physician: Zabo has extensive medical training, having worked in a clinic in his youth, and having performed underground surgeries in his recent years. He possesses extensive medical knowledge regarding human physiology, which in turn makes him effective at saving lives, or killing others whenever he loses his composure.
- Kree Knowledge: Zabo has extensive knowledge of the Kree and their intentions for Earth, probably learned from his wife. He was able to tell Raina about her true nature, and revealed to Daniel Whitehall the existence of the Kree City and the properties of the Diviner.
Relationships
Family
Allies
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Enemies
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Trivia
- In the comics, Calvin Zabo is best known as the supervillain Mister Hyde, a recurring enemy of Thor and Daredevil, and father of superpowered S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Daisy Johnson.
Behind the Scenes
- Though the character's full name wasn't yet revealed in the series, it was confirmed by Maurissa Tancharoen that the character is Calvin Zabo.
- Kyle MacLachlan did not play Calvin Zabo in the character's first appearance, Beginning of the End; the character was instead portrayed by a stand-in.