Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. may be dealing with literal ghosts right now but, as is often the case with fictional universes like this one, it is often Tueday's episode introduced a new character who is ruthless when it comes to Inhumans and has the political power to do some major damage. That new threat on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is Senator Rota Nadeer, played by Parminder Nagra — who you may remember from E.R. or as the star of Bend It Like Beckham. What is the senator's end game? What happened to her brother?
First, the Senator was just a presence on television speaking out against the Inhuman "threat" and blaming the recent blackouts and uprisings on these super-powered people. The episode delved further into how the events of Captain America: Civil War affects the Marvel universe at large. Inhumans are being asked to register, but any country who signed the Sokovia Accords has access to that information. Coulson figured out that this was the work of the Watchdogs, a terrorist group that was introduced last season. Unsurprisingly, this type of rhetoric from the Senator only begat more hate and suspicion, as both Elena and Daisy learned in the episode that a lot of folks are scared of Inhumans.
Then, at the end of the episode, we learned that Senator Nadeer was working with, if not behind and fully funding the Watch Dogs. Not only that, but her brother is either going through Inhuman terrigeneisis himself, or has been frozen in some kind of Empire Strikes Back carbonite state. Has she imprisoned him, killed him, or somehow frozen his transformation? Whatever it is, I'm creeped out.
There aren't any characters named Senator Nadeer in Marvel comics. There is an Asgardian demigoddess named Rota, which would be a fun twist. That still doesn't explain who her brother is, unfortunately. Family dynamics are always my favorite part of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Senator Nadeer's seems particularly intriguing.
