Raina is a major supporting character in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Initially a scientist working with HYDRA's Centipede Project in Season 1, she would later be revealed in Season 2 as an Inhuman. She was portrayed by Ruth Negga.
History[]
Early Life[]
Raina was born under a long line of humans who had been genetically altered by the alien race known as the Kree, giving them the potential to achieve superpowers. While Raina herself never encountered them, she did hear exaggerated tales regarding the visitors from her grandmother.
During her youth, Calvin Zabo found Raina as a beggar in the streets of Thailand with a bunch of friends who called themselves "freaks", holding onto stories that her grandmother told her. From him, Raina learned the truth, or at least to some extent, of the Kree and her origins as an Inhuman.
He also told her about the Diviner, and how it would complete Raina's transformation. In exchange for finding his lost daughter, the man promised Raina that he could make those stories a reality.
Years later, Raina began working for the Centipede Project, the scientific branch of HYDRA behind the Centipede process, mainly as a recruiter due to her persuasion skills. She recruited Michael Peterson to be a test subject for the Centipede process after he lost his job.
Hong Kong[]
Raina would later approach Miles Lydon and pay him a million dollars to hack S.H.I.E.L.D. for information about a super-powered pyrokinetic, a Hong Kong native named Chan Ho Yin.
Raina approached Chan after seeing one of his street performances in Hong Kong, and after talking her way into his apartment, abducted him for her mysterious employers. Working with the doctor known only as Debbie, who was attempting to stabilize the Extremis element of the Centipede Serum, Raina assisted in the harvesting of the fire-proof platelets in Chan's blood that kept his power from burning him alive. After getting what they needed from Chan, he was scheduled to have all of his blood drained from his body.
Before that happened, Chan escaped and confronted Raina and Debbie. Raina closed the elevator door that separated her and Debbie and escaped, saving herself, leaving Debbie to be incinerated by Chan.
Raina later visited a prisoner named Edison Po at the Havenworth Federal Penitentiary. She informed Po that with the stabilization of the Centipede Serum, "Stage One" of the project had been completed and that they were moving into "Stage Two". She then asked Po to contact someone known only as "the Clairvoyant" for their mutual employers for any insights he might have as to "Stage Three".
California[]
Soon after, the Centipede Project arranged for Edison Po's escape. Raina was in Oakland, California, assisting Po and bringing him up to date on the project's progress. Raina inquired about the nature of the Clairvoyant to Po, who was adamant in not revealing any details about him.
Raina assisted Po in setting up an unsuccessful ambush on the S.H.I.E.L.D. unit under the command of Agent Phil Coulson, where Po realized that Coulson and his mysterious return from the dead was the key to Centipede's plans. Later, at Po's direction, Raina kidnapped the son of S.H.I.E.L.D. trainee and Centipede test subject Michael Peterson in order to bring about another confrontation.
At the meeting, Peterson betrayed Coulson to Raina in exchange for the safe return of his son. Raina escaped by helicopter with Coulson to a location in the Mojave Desert.
The Mojave Desert[]
At the Centipede Project site in the Mojave Desert, Po worked on interrogating Coulson, using a Theta Brain-Wave Frequency Machine designed to unlock hidden memories, while Raina saw to the recovery of Peterson, who survived an explosion set by Centipede back in Long Beach. This lasted until the Clairvoyant grew impatient with Po's progress and killed him, giving Raina the job of finding out Coulson's secrets.
Through persuasion and emotional manipulation regarding Coulson's former lover, Raina convinced Coulson not to resist and to let the machine do its work. While Coulson was under the machine's influence, his team arrived to affect his rescue. Raina was incapacitated by Skye, and taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody.
That S.H.I.E.L.D. was able to take Raina into custody alive would indicate that she was not outfitted with a Backscatter X-Ray Eye Implant.
Hunt for the Clairvoyant[]
Agent Skye asked Coulson if, during his time in the Mojave Desert, Raina mentioned the death of his father. Skye had found that information in Coulson's psychological profile; it was called "a defining moment" in Coulson's life. Correlating the two caused Coulson to realize that the Clairvoyant is a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.
Arguing with Agent Coulson about why Victoria Hand should be killed instead of sedated if she was the Clairvoyant, Agent John Garrett said that Coulson and Raina were both subjects of the Theta Brain-Wave Frequency Machine, a fact that Coulson revealed to no one. This knowledge led Coulson to realize that Garrett was the Clairvoyant.
S.H.I.E.L.D.-HYDRA Cold War[]
During the conflict between the S.H.I.E.L.D. remnants and HYDRA, Garrett organized Raina's release by sending Grant Ward to retrieve her; he even included a new flower-print dress for her. Upon meeting with Garrett, and learning he was the one known as the Clairvoyant at the Barbershop Headquarters in Havana, Cuba, Raina was very disappointed to learn that Garrett was not actually clairvoyant. Garrett won Raina over by presenting her with G.H.drugs recovered from the Guest House, and asked her to move the Centipede Project into "Phase Three".
Raina was unable to make much headway, however, as Skye had encrypted the hard drive containing the files on the drugs so that only she could access them. In response, Garrett sent Ward to capture her. Raina also presented Ian Quinn to Garrett, and seemed to delight in Quinn's discomfort at the situation.
Further Disillusionment[]
Raina's scientists recreated GH.325, but they could only make one vial, which she presented to Garrett. When Deathlok asked her about her motives, she explained that she wanted to help special people achieve their potential.
Then she witnessed as Garrett's body began to fail and Ward ordered her to leave as he helped Garrett's cybernetics take control. When Raina found information from Coulson's team's hard drive pertaining to Skye's past, she soon came to realize that Skye was in fact the missing daughter of the man who picked her up from the streets so many years ago. She called Ward and told him about rumours she heard about monsters destroying a village in China and truth that the monsters, or rather monster, was actually Skye's father.
When Garrett's cybernetics failed because of Leo Fitz's use of the EMP Joy Buzzer, he began slowly dying. He revealed to Raina that inside his cybernetics was Raina's Extremis formula which was keeping him alive. He asked Raina to inject the drug into him so he would not die. She agreed and injected Garrett with the last existing sample of GH.325 and she and Ward watched as he was first spasmed, glowed gold and seemed to reject the serum, then he became stronger, claiming he could feel the universe.
After Raina let him know that she was not allied with HYDRA, the Centipede Project or him, the enhanced Garrett convinced her that he could answer the question that she wondered since hearing of the "Clairvoyant"; so she asked him, "What will I become?"
As Raina and Quinn were leaving with the Gravitonium, Ward stopped her, but she told him that chasing Skye was more important. Eventually, Raina reunited with Calvin Zabo and showed him a picture of Skye, telling him that she knew where his daughter was.
The Obelisk[]
Several months later, Raina was given the task of recovering the Obelisk, a mysterious alien artifact recovered by HYDRA in World War II, by HYDRA scientist Daniel Whitehall. She approached Carl Creel, a superpowered man who had been infected by the Obelisk's potent effects, and offered him a carbyne ring to help him fight the effects in exchange for the artifact. Not taking Raina seriously, Creel stole the ring from her, warning her to avoid HYDRA. Unknown to Creel, the ring had a tracking device. The next morning, Raina contacted Coulson and alerted him that Creel could be tracked. She assured Coulson that she had no loyalty to HYDRA.
During the commotion that Lance Hunter caused trying to assassinate Creel, Raina stole the briefcase containing the obelisk before Sunil Bakshi could get it and presented it to Calvin Zabo. He insisted that she touch it, and she hesitantly did so. When she was unaffected by its power, Zabo told her that it allowed her to live and all will be explained upon delivery of Skye.
Raina booked a flight to Florida to find a painting with the Words of Creation inscribed on its back. Before she could leave however she was captured by Whitehall. He placed a control device onto her hand which paralysed her and caused her great pain. He told Raina he was not a man to be underestimated and that she had 48 hours to return the Obelisk to him as he relayed a story of how he kept a woman alive and conscious for a week as he performed painful invasive surgery on her.
File Transfer[]
Raina ran to Calvin Zabo and begged him for the Obelisk, scared of what Whitehall would do to her. He grabbed her by the throat and asked her if she feared Whitehall more than him. Loosening his grip, he told Raina to plead to Whitehall for her life.
Raina went to the HYDRA Laboratories where she saw Jemma Simmons and followed her as she sent a message to S.H.I.E.L.D.. Raina then called Phil Coulson to set up a meeting.
Lance Hunter, Skye, and Melinda May took positions in a restaurant as Coulson met with Raina. She told him that she would transfer a picture file showing Simmons betraying HYDRA to HYDRA Laboratories unless he released Skye to her custody in two minutes. Coulson refused and allowed the picture to be sent. Raina was shocked by his actions and pleaded with him to let her take Skye. She revealed the true purpose of her meeting. Coulson then had Hunter tag Raina so, if Whitehall ever found her, he could also find her, allowing him to rescue her and take down Whitehall. She revealed where Skye's father stayed and was allowed to leave. When Skye asked Grant Ward how he could find her father without Raina, Ward assured her that he could.
Chased by HYDRA[]
While in a coffee house in Vancouver, Raina was approached by a familiar-looking woman. Thinking she was talking to Melinda May, Raina told the woman in sunglasses that the point of a tracker was not to be stalked. Agent 33 removed her shades and told her that Whitehall wanted her. Sam Koenig used the Cloaking Umbrella to hide Raina before she was issued a S.H.I.E.L.D. Lanyard to enter the Vancouver safehouse.
Coulson sent an extraction team to collect Raina. Skye exited the safehouse with Raina and was forced to fight Agent 33. After the fight, Raina explained to Skye that she could touch the Diviner and Skye can too. When Raina learned that Whitehall wanted her alive, she attempted to surrender to HYDRA, but Melinda May prevented that.
Aboard the cloaked Bus, Raina discussed her past with Skye and her grandmother's stories. She debunked Skye's belief that she was an alien. Four HYDRA Quinjets then surrounded the plane. Grant Ward was able to trace the tracker to find Raina. Raina agreed to go with him, but Ward wanted Skye, too; the women decided to go to avoid a firefight.
Transformation[]
Ward took Raina to HYDRA, where she was waiting beneath the Ponce de León Theater in San Juan as HYDRA was using a Plasma Drill to dig directly into the temple. She was then summoned to see Daniel Whitehall, along with Ward, Skye, and her father, Calvin Zabo. Whitehall thanked them all for their aid in this moment, but then asked how Skye was important. Ward explained that he needed a hostage to prevent an attack, but Whitehall informed Ward that he knew he spared the Bus, having to counter the order himself. Whitehall then theorized that Skye was able to lift the Diviner and asked her to pick it up. Skye was able to survive touching it, but then she used it to petrify the nearest guard. Zabo used a scalpel to kill another and Ward shot a third. Despite their attempt to escape, the three of them were detained, while Raina returned to the drill.
Once the drill finished the tunnel, Raina took the Diviner and a light into the tunnel. There, she encountered a possessed Alphonso Mackenzie, who led her to the temple. Skye followed her and found Raina waiting with the Diviner. It then levitated out of her hand and onto a pedestal, prompting the chamber to seal itself, but not before Agent Antoine Triplett was able to get inside. The Diviner opened, revealing Terrigen Crystals that produced amist that encased both Raina and Skye in cocoons. Triplett tried to stop it by kicking over the pedestal, but not before the two women were covered. A piece of the Diviner embedded itself into Tripett's chest, petrifying him. As Skye used her newfound power to break free of her cocoon, Raina's began falling away from her to reveal clawed hands, golden eyes, and black barbs on her skin.
Taken to Afterlife[]
Raina after Terrigenesis
Terrified and humiliated by her appearance, Raina moved through the temple, slaughtering four S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists on her way out. She survived several shots by Jemma Simmons, and fled the temple via lift. She located Zabo, and angrily blamed him and Skye for her transformation. Not caring at all about Raina's predicament as he felt she had gotten what she had always wanted, Zabo abandoned Raina, leaving her morose and heartbroken.
Raina, still devastated by her transformation, attempted to commit suicide by walking out onto a highway. However, she was intercepted in her attempt by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents sent to retrieve her. She told them they would have to shoot her. Before a potentially bloody altercation could ensue, an eyeless man suddenly materialized in a field of blue energy, whisking Raina away from the scene. The man, Gordon, promised to help Raina cope with her new form.
Raina was taken to the Inhuman settlement called "Afterlife". She was given her own room and a "transitioner", an Inhuman tasked with training her to accept and use her powers. Raina spent time in her room becoming depressed, hating to be awake during the day. She continually suffered from nightmares, each portraying inexplicable events.
One day, Skye burst into her dark room with Lincoln Campbell chasing behind, accusing Raina of causing the death of Antoine Triplett; Raina retorted that Skye followed her into the Kree City on her own volition. Skye attacked Raina with her powers out of anger, vibrating her skull, Raina told her to kill her so that her suffering can end. Jiaying entered, demanding Skye to stop and to give Raina the same respect that all Inhumans in Afterlife share. Raina watched Jiaying tell Skye that their human past was gone and that she and Raina were now part of a larger community. Raina then placed her hood on over her head as Skye and the others left her room.
Discovering Her Power[]
Raina was cared for by Gordon. While Gordon was tending to the thorns protruding from her head, she lost patience and demanded to know why she would have to stay in Afterlife. Gordon told her that it was far too dangerous for her to remain in public, although he said that once they had discovered her gift, he would be willing to take her anywhere in the world she wished to go. Gordon tried to comfort her to telling her of his own experiences of losing his eyes to the mist. Lincoln also tried to offer her comfort, and Raina told him about her detailed dreams of Skye having dinner with flowers and being so happy. When Campbell witnessed Skye and her family having dinner, with all the details mentioned by Raina, he realized that Raina could predict the future.
Raina herself soon became aware of her abilities after she had a vision of Gordon returning to Afterlife with a head injury; moments after having this vision, it proved true as Gordon had a grueling encounter with HYDRA while trying to find Lincoln. Raina also experienced other premonitions, such as Skye rescuing Lincoln from hostile forces. She told Skye of this, but Skye was initially doubtful of Raina's clairvoyance, until Raina revealed another piece of her vision where she saw Skye and Grant Ward working together. Having encountered Coulson and Ward working together prior to returning to Afterlife, Skye realized Raina's visions were in fact accurate and convinced Gordon to take her to S.H.I.E.L.D. so she could find Lincoln.
Soon after, Raina was visited by Jiaying, who scolded Raina for convincing Skye to run off into danger. Unmoved, Raina scoffed at Jiaying's belief that she had some form of power over her, and questioned why Jiaying believed she should be in charge. Before the argument could escalate, however, Raina was suddenly hit by another vision. This time, she witnessed unknown parties taking and tampering with a mysterious Scepter, and a legion of robots laying waste to cities, slaughtering hundreds of people. Without realizing it, Raina had predicted the rise of Ultron, a genocidal AI created by Tony Stark, and his subsequent war against the Avengers.
Becoming Clairvoyant[]
With her new found power now under her control, Raina began to work as a fortune teller for the people of Afterlife, telling one man that his son would go through Terrigenesis and come out with magnificent powers. She was visited by Gordon and they began discussing her power, with Raina finally accepting it was a gift. Raina told Gordon that she had had a vision of a strange stone which transformed into liquid. Gordon was immediately horrified.
She and Gordon teleported onto the Iliad and began searching for the Stone and were forced to hide from Bobbi Morse and Melinda May. They discussed their powers and the effect they had on the people of Afterlife. Raina began asking why Jiaying put so few people through Terrigenesis when Lance Hunter saw them; Gordon teleported them away, but Hunter was able to trigger an alarm. Soon afterwards, they located the Monolith and witnessed it going from solid to liquid in seconds. When they were discovered by Morse and May, Gordon teleported them off the ship and back to Afterlife.
Back at Afterlife, Gordon and Raina informed Jiaying and Zabo of what they had found on the Iliad. Although Gordon insisted that Zabo should not be present, Zabo insisted that he should as his daughter was still at S.H.I.E.L.D.. When Zabo started to lose his temper, Raina tried to calm him but this only angered Zabo more. Zabo turned his attention to Raina and began claiming that she was putting on an act and was likely making up many of her visions to cause chaos. Jiaying managed to calm the situation and assured them that she would not allow S.H.I.E.L.D. to bring down their civilization.
Raina later had another vision and ran to inform Gordon. She explained that she had seen that S.H.I.E.L.D. was coming to Afterlife, and Quinjets would rain fire down upon them and burn Afterlife to the ground. When he went to inform Jiaying, she insisted that he could not as it started when she met with S.H.I.E.L.D., he asked who it should be if not Jiaying and Raina suggested that it should be her. When Gordon returned to her room, Raina asked him where he had taken Jiaying, but it way quickly revealed that he had in fact told her everything and brought her with him to arrest Raina. Jiaying told her that she had been using her powers to manipulate the people around her. Raina insisted that she was trying to save the people of Afterlife but no one would listen; she was locked in her room to await her fate.
Raina's visions came true and Afterlife was seemingly attacked by S.H.I.E.L.D.. Skye came into Raina's room to confront her, demanding to know what happened next. Raina told her that even if she did tell Skye the truth, she would not believe her. She began telling Skye that their lives and their destinies were intertwined from the very beginning. She told her that she had had a vision telling her the truth, knowing that Skye would never believe it, that her own destiny was to help Skye fulfill hers. When Skye stormed out, Raina told her they would never speak again, and Jiaying was misleading her people and it was Skye's destiny to lead the Inhumans.
Death[]
Raina met with Jiaying that night on a bridge to discuss the recent events. Jiaying told Raina that she was feeling better and apologized for not believing her; Raina explained that she had not foreseen Jiaying getting injured. When Jiaying offered to make Raina an advisor, Raina revealed that as a child her dream was to lead the Inhumans. She told Jiaying that she had seen the future, including Jiaying's plan to wipe out the humans. When Jiaying asked if the plan would succeed, Raina revealed that the key to success or failure was Skye.
When Raina told Jiaying that she planned to reveal who really started the war, Jiaying stabbed her in the neck, causing Raina to bleed to death. To Jiaying's horror, Skye had witnessed her mother killing Raina, resulting in Skye joining forces with S.H.I.E.L.D. in the war to stop Jiaying. This was what Raina had foreseen all along: she had purposely sacrificed herself by provoking Jiaying into killing her. In doing so, Raina fulfilled what she had come to regard as her destiny: help Skye accept her powers and become who she was meant to be.
Personality[]
Raina was an exceptionally intellectual and ever-scheming woman, having developed a selfish, immoral persona. Since her youth, Raina's dream of achieving Terrigenesis had been the sole motivating factor in her life to the point where she developed little to no concern for human life. The over-exaggerated tales of the Inhumans passed down by her grandmother also inflated Raina's ego, as she had always believed she would become a transcendent being upon her transformation. When she did finally transform, however, Raina's hopes and dreams were crushed and she became suicidal. She would have indeed taken her own life had Gordon not intervened. Even after going to Afterlife, these suicidal tendencies did not end, as shown when Skye nearly killed her and despite Lincoln Campbell telling Skye to stop, Raina told him not to, since she believed her nightmare would end.
Raina's time in Afterlife and the teachings of Campbell and Gordon, however did seem to give her more of a positive personality. Instead of using her precognition for her own selfish, scheming ways, she planned to utilise them for the good of the Inhuman community by attempting to dissuade others into allowing Jiaying to parley with Robert Gonzales and planning to inform the inhabitants of Afterlife that she was the one who attacked them, knowing Jiayang's methods would result in war and death. Before her death, she recalled her past and what she always wanted to be, the leader of the Inhumans before gaining perspective of what she was meant to be all along; the one who saved them and walked to her own death, knowing the purpose she would serve to Skye and the Inhumans.
Being a mysterious woman, Raina would rarely reveal the true purpose behind her precognitive visions, largely because she didn't understand them herself, and often used metaphors or figure of speech to hint at them. She did not attempt to defy her visions, even if it was her own life on the line, knowing they were etched in stone and accepted her own death with grace as she knew she was fulfilling her destiny to usher Skye into who she was meant to be.