Where in the world is Agent Jemma Simmons? Or, more accurately, where in the worlds is Agent Jemma Simmons? That's the question on everyone's mind after last week's action-packed Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3 premiere. Fans of the ABC series were left hanging last May when Season 2 ended with the distressing sight of the unsuspecting biochemist being sucked into the imposing Kree monolith — after just having repaired her relationship with Fitz, no less, infuriating 'shippers everywhere. The mystery of what happened to Simmons hung over everyone's heads all summer long, and the premiere was quick to solve it... sort of.
While we now know for sure that the monolith transported her somewhere, rather than simply entombing her (or one of a dozen other theories), we're left with even more questions: Where exactly is she? What, or who, is she running from? How has she managed to survive on her own for six months?
While Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will no doubt delight in torturing fans by taking its sweet time to reveal the answers to these burning questions, we can go ahead and start formulating our own theories. Here are some possibilities for where Simmons is currently trapped.
1. The Blue Area Of The Moon
The first thought on the minds of fans who also follow the Marvel comic books was likely that Simmons had been transported to the Blue Area of the Moon. The blue-ish tint to the scene and the rugged landscape seemed to fit the theory fit perfectly. For those unversed in the comics, the Blue Area is a location on the far side of the moon created by the Skrulls with Earth-like gravity and atmosphere (which would explain how Simmons is still alive). The Blue Area is also home to an ancient, ruined city built by the Kree thousands of years ago; the same Kree that built the monolith.
However, this theory seemed to be disproved later in the scene itself, when viewers got a glimpse of the sky; that's decidedly not a view of Earth from the Moon, is it?
2. Attilan
Another popular theory is that Simmons has been transported to Attilan, the ancestral home of the Inhumans. Given the prominence of the Kree-created alien race in this season's storyline, it's a definite possibility. However, if Simmons really is in Attilan, then that still doesn't really solve the question of where in the universe she is — Attilan is a traveling city, having been situated everywhere from the Atlantic Ocean to the Andes to New York Harbor to the aforementioned Blue Area of the Moon.
However, there's one problem with this theory: given that Lincoln described the monolith as a Kree weapon that terrified the Inhumans, why would the monolith transport people to the latter's capital city?
3. Hala
Rather than transporting people to an Inhuman city, it would make much more sense for the Kree monolith to transport people to a Kree city — namely Hala, the central planet of the Kree's empire. The Marvel Cinematic Universe first introduced the Kree in last year's Guardians Of The Galaxy, namely in the form of that film's villain, Ronan The Accuser. However, we never visited the Kree home world, only ever seeing Ronan aboard his ship, the Dark Aster. Could we finally be about to get a little more backstory on this still-mysterious alien race?
4. Morag
Admittedly, this one is mostly just wishful thinking. While we're on the subject of Guardians Of The Galaxy, Simmons' location bears at least a passing resemblance to Morag, the planet where Star-Lord locates the orb at the beginning of the 2014 film. Typically, Morag is completely covered in water, with the tides only receding enough to expose land once every 300 years — which would put hell of a ticking clock on Simmons' efforts to escape. Plus, this possibility could pave the way for a Chris Pratt cameo; perhaps it could be revealed that Simmons' exploits were taking place at the same time Peter Quill was searching for the orb. Pratt told Zap2It, "I wouldn't rule it out," when asked about the prospect of appearing on S.H.I.E.L.D. And if CBS could get Bradley Cooper on television for Limitless , surely Marvel could pull off a similar guest appearance.
5. Negative Zone
If you saw this summer's Fantastic Four reboot, you might have noticed certain similarities between its depiction of the Negative Zone — the parallel universe that gifted the quartet with their powers — and the planet where Simmons is currently trapped. Marvel Studios might not have the rights to use the Fantastic Four in their MCU, but that doesn't necessarily mean they couldn't use the Negative Zone; it's a location that has been used in conjunction with characters as varied as Captain Marvel, Thor, and Spider-Man.
It's important to note that the Negative Zone features prominently in the Civil War storyline — which the MCU will be adapting in next year's Captain America sequel. In that saga, the Negative Zone is where the government sets up a massive new prison to hold any powered beings who refuse to comply with the Superhero Registration Act. Could S.H.I.E.L.D. be planting the seeds for that film, which will come out in May of 2016... just as Season 3 is wrapping up?
6. Helheim
Perhaps the biggest clue as to Simmons' location comes from the press release for this week's episode, "Purpose In The Machine." It reads, "Fitz and the team enlist the aid of an Asgardian to unlock the secrets of the ancient monolith that swallowed Simmons." What does an Asgardian have to do with a Kree monolith? Perhaps the answer lies in the nine realms — aka the nine main worlds of this universe, of which Asgard and Earth are but two. So far in the MCU, we've also seen Jotunheim (the home of the Frost Giants), Vanaheim (where Thor is doing battle at the beginning of The Dark World), and Svartalfheim (the home of Malekith and the Dark Elves). But there are several realms still unexplored, including Helheim — or just Hel, for short.
Why is this important? Remember the scroll Fitz discovered, which bore only the word "Death." This could be referring to the world where all souls go when they die, ruled over by Hela (who, in the comics, is Loki's daughter). Despite its reputation, Hel is not a place of punishment, but rather simply a resting place for the deceased. However, it is guarded over by a monstrous hellhound named Garm — perhaps the entity that's chasing Simmons, aware that she doesn't belong on Helheim? Perhaps this world will figure prominently in the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok, and S.H.I.E.L.D. is laying the groundwork for that 2017 sequel — not Civil War, as I previously theorized.
But next week's Asgardian connections aren't the only clue that Hel is the solution to the Simmons mystery. The biggest tip-off is actually an early Season 1 episode, "Repairs." If you can't remember that far back, the episode centered around a woman named Hannah, who the S.H.I.E.L.D. team assumed had telekinetic powers. In reality, it turned out that the strange events around her were caused by a man named Tobias, who had become "trapped between worlds" due to an accident at a particle accelerator. When Simmons recreated the accident, she discovered that the accelerator had briefly opened a portal to a "hell dimension." Has Simmons been transported to the dimension she glimpsed two whole years ago? If so, that's some impressive long-term payoff on the writers' part.
7. Realm Of Death
Of course, the "Death" on Fitz's scroll could simply be referring to just that: death. The Realm of Death (which is different than Hel) is ruled over by the personification of death itself, which most often takes a feminine form referred to as Mistress Death. In Marvel comics, Thanos falls in love with Mistress Death, and it's his desire to prove himself worthy of her that drives him to destroy entire worlds. As anyone who has seen a Marvel movie knows, Thanos is the Big Bad that's been lurking behind the scenes of the entire franchise, amassing Infinity Stones in anticipation of the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War — Part 1 and Part 2 , coming in 2018 and '19.
It's also worth noting that two of the heroes most central to thwarting Thanos' attempts to impress Mistress Death are Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel, both of whom have solo films coming up in Phase 3. And there's already evidence that Mistress Death herself will be making her MCU debut soon: Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson teased the character's involvement in the above tweet from earlier this year.
So, is Simmons in the Negative Zone, paving the way for Captain America: Civil War? Or is she in Helheim, planting the seeds for Thor: Ragnarok? Or is she in the Realm of Death, teasing the events of Doctor Strange? Whatever the answer ends up being, it's clear that Marvel is playing a long game with this S.H.I.E.L.D. mystery.
Images: Kurt Iswarienkio, Screengrab/ABC; agentsdaily/tumblr; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (2); 20th Century Fox
