For the alternate-timeline version of this character, see Jiaying (Alternate).
Jiaying was an antagonist in the second season of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. She was an Inhuman who appeared to possess advanced longevity, seemingly incapable of ageing. She was the leader of the Inhuman community of Afterlife and was the mother of series deuteragonist Skye. She was played by Dichen Lachman.
History[]
Early history[]
Towards the end of World War II, Jiaying was a resident of a small village in Hunan Province, China. HYDRA had recently discovered an ancient Kree artifact known as the Diviner and were conducting experiments with it in order to determine its true purpose. Rounding up numerous villagers, Dr. Werner Reinhardt subjected them to the Diviner which killed all those who touched it, turning their bodies to stone. Jiaying, however, was unaffected by the Diviner and Reinhardt was most curious as to why, intending to subject her to more experiments. Before this could happen, however, Reinhardt's base was attacked and captured by the Special Scientific Reserve and the Howling Commandos. Reinhardt was taken prisoner while his remaining test subjects were freed.
By 1983, Jiaying had undergone Terrigenesis, and was granted the power of absorb the life force from others; an effect of this power was that Jiaying could heal from any injury almost instantly as well as retain her current age. Because of this, Jiaying was able to retain the appearance of a young woman for several decades. She became the mother figure of other Inhumans who emerged from Terrigenesis, working alongside Yat-Sen to transition them into their powers. Her longevity allowed her to help many generations of young Inhumans adapt to their metamorphosis.
When Jiaying wasn't helping Inhumans with their transition, she was living in her home village where she was recognised as a village elder, since most of the villagers knew about her powers. During this time, Jiaying met Calvin Johnson, an American doctor who had opened up a clinic in her village. The two would fall in love and eventually have a child together, a daughter they named Daisy.
In 1989, Dr. Reinhardt - now known as Daniel Whitehall - had been freed from his imprisonment by HYDRA sleeper agents within the peacekeeping organization S.H.I.E.L.D.. Eager to resume his former research on the Diviner, he arranged for the capture of the elders from Jiaying's village. Whitehall was fascinated to discover Jiaying hadn't aged at all since he had last seen her in 1945 and was determined to discover the secret behind her youth. He subjected her to many painful experiments and surgeries, taking most of her organs and vital fluids which he would use to restore his own youth. Jiaying died during the course of the experiments and Whitehall discarded what was left of her in a ditch. Jiaying's husband Calvin had gone in search of her, eventually coming to Austria where he found his wife's corpse abandoned in the wilderness. In desperation, Calvin stitched Jiaying's corpse back together in the hopes that her healing powers would restore her to life.
Jiaying did indeed return from death and she and Calvin returned to their village. However, they discovered that their daughter had been taken by S.H.I.E.L.D.. They spent years trying to find her, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. Jiaying, whose hatred of humanity had grown after her encounter with Reinhardt, manipulated Calvin into bringing her various villagers so she could absorb their life forces and heal her wounds. Eventually, after their efforts were continually met with failure, Jiaying realized that she was turning into a monster and gave up the search. When it became apparent that Calvin would continue on his dark path, Jiaying returned to her people. Calvin, however, refused to give up and continued on a two decade-long journey to find their daughter, changing his name to Calvin Zabo and growing increasingly unhinged over the years. As a result of his change, Jiaying divorced him.
Leader of the Inhumans[]
By 2015, Jiaying had become the leader of Afterlife, an Inhuman community located in China. There, she counselled Inhumans who had yet to undergo Terrigenesis and helped those newly changed to learn how to control their powers. It was also during this time that Jiaying was reunited with her daughter Daisy, who now went by the name Skye. Skye had been brought to Afterlife by Gordon after she had undergone Terrigenesis, gaining the ability to control molecular vibrations. When Jiaying first met with Skye, she did not reveal their familial bond right away, instead offering her wisdom and guidance in teaching Skye to come to terms with her new gifts.
As Jiaying taught Skye how to use her powers, she met with her in private and they discussed her life before her Terrigenesis. When Skye mentioned that she didn't even know her own birthday, Jiaying told her she was born on July 2nd 1988, revealing that she was Skye's mother. Later on, Jiaying revealed to Skye that her father, Calvin Zabo, was also at Afterlife. Skye had previously met her father during her team's confrontations with HYDRA and knew that he was dangerous, but Jiaying assured him that he would behave as long as Skye was around. The three of them had dinner together as a family for the first and only time. Not long afterwards, they arranged for Skye and Calvin to spend some time together outside Afterlife and Gordon teleported them to Milwaukee where Calvin had once worked. However, Jiaying had actually intended on getting rid of Calvin, having Gordon leave him there when he took Skye back to Afterlife.
Jiaying would later learn that one of her young charges had been captured by HYDRA and experimented on to the point of death. Another Inhuman, Lincoln Campbell, would also be captured during a skirmish between HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D. when HYDRA attempted to capture Skye. Skye and Phil Coulson's team would organise a mission to rescue Lincoln, but Jiaying didn't trust S.H.I.E.L.D. any more than HYDRA and sent Gordon to spy on them. Gordon infiltrated the S.H.I.E.L.D. carrier Iliad where he discovered an ancient Kree relic known as the Monolith, supposedly a weapon that the Kree had intended to use to wipe out the Inhumans that they viewed as abominations. This solidified Jiaying's view of S.H.I.E.L.D. as a threat to her people and she made plans to eliminate them.
War on S.H.I.E.L.D.[]
After Lincoln was rescued and HYDRA supposedly crushed for good, S.H.I.E.L.D. attempted to move forward with their dealings with the Inhumans. There was concern among them that the Inhumans were a potential threat and they planned to arrange a meeting with Jiaying to discuss further action and resolve any conflict before it arose. Little did they know that Jiaying was determined to start a war with S.H.I.E.L.D. and had made plans to stage an attempt on her life and on Afterlife in order to gain the support of all the Inhumans into fighting S.H.I.E.L.D..
Robert Gonzales soon arranged to meet with Jiaying in private so that they could discuss the introduction of Inhumans to the world at large, though Jiaying made her views clear to him that she felt S.H.I.E.L.D. only wanted to contain or destroy the Inhumans. She enacted her plan by shattering a Terrigen Crystal in her house where she and Gonzales were talking. The crystal had been modified with Diviner shards that would petrify and kill normal humans on contact, and so Gonzales was killed when exposed to the Terrigen Mist. To complete her deception, Jiaying took Gonzales' gun and shot herself in the shoulder, then after leaving the house she had one of her supporters hijack a S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet and open fire on the empty house. She then claimed to Skye that Gonzales had tried to kill her and wanted to exterminate the Inhumans.
Jiaying attempted to manipulate Skye into siding with her against S.H.I.E.L.D., though her daughter appeared torn between her loyalty to her friends and her mother. Jiaying sent Skye away with a necklace, telling her to bring it back if she chose to fight alongside the Inhumans. After sending Skye away, she then killed a captured S.H.I.E.L.D. by using her power to leech his life energy, using it to heal herself.
That night, Jiaying met with Raina, whose powers of precognition had allowed her to see the future. Raina knew that Jiaying was intentionally misleading Skye and the Inhumans and planned on wiping out humanity with her tainted Terrigen Crystals. She threatened to warn the others of Jiaying's deception, but Jiaying pulled a knife on her and stabbed her through the neck. However, Skye had witnessed Raina's murder and overheard their conversation. Skye realized her plan and knew that her mother had murdered Gonzales with the intention of starting a war between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Inhumans. Jiaying explained that she believed that no matter what the Inhumans did, S.H.I.E.L.D. would always find them and they would never have peace, so they had to strike first so they would have the advantage in war. However, when Skye made it clear that she wanted no part in Jiaying's crusade, she was hit over the head by Jiaying's assistant and locked away.
Jiaying and her loyalists then invaded the Iliad using Gordon's teleportation power. While her people secured the Monolith and incapacitated most of the crew, Jiaying demonstrated what she intended to do to all of S.H.I.E.L.D. by locking the ship's command staff in a room and gassing them with the modified Terrigen Mist, petrifying them. She activated a distress signal in order to attract every S.H.I.E.L.D. team around the globe to the Iliad where she planned to kill them all in one swift motion.
However, Jiaying's plan was interrupted when Coulson's team recovered Skye and infiltrated the Iliad, warning all other incoming S.H.I.E.L.D. teams to turn back. With the plan coming apart, Jiaying prepared to depart, telling her loyalists to load the batch of Terrigen Crystals onto a Quinjet.
Death[]
As Jiaying attempted to escape, she was stopped by Calvin Zabo, who had failed to kill Coulson and had instead teamed up with S.H.I.E.L.D. in order to stop her mission. Zabo tried to convince her to stop and think of the effect her actions were having on their daughter, but Jiaying insisted she was simply trying to protect Skye from the dangers of the world. Seeing Zabo was a threat, she ordered Gordon to lock him in a room while she continued her escape. As she walked away, Zabo slammed his fist against the glass and demanded to know where Skye was, but Jiaying ignored his pleas.
Once she made it outside, Skye once again attempted to reason with her. Jiaying ordered her men to put the Terrigen Crystals inside the Quinjet while she spoke to Skye, trying to convince her that it was S.H.I.E.L.D. who started this war and they could rule the Inhumans together. Seeing that Skye would not be convinced that her plans offered the greatest hope for the survival of the Inhumans, Jiaying walked close to her and softly touched her face before using her power to drain Skye's life force, telling her that although she had always thought her daughter was her greatest gift, now she knew it was her powers. However, Skye was able to muster whatever strength she had left and used it to create a shock wave that pushed the Quinjet off the ship and into the sea, causing the Terrigen Crystals to be lost.
With her plan in ruins, Jiaying once again tried to kill Skye, only for Skye to use her powers to try to kill her, causing Jiaying's scars to open and bleed. The pair were interrupted by Zabo, who had escaped and begged them to stop. When Jiaying refused to back down, Zabo pulled her away from their daughter and gripped her in a superhuman bear hug that broke her spine and severed her nerve endings. He then dropped Jiaying's lifeless body to the deck and wept over her.