| “ | You and your friends are out of time. | „ |
| ~ Malachi to Jemma Simmons. |
| “ | Malachi: The technology here is quite primitive. Isaiah (Enoch in disguise): The human mind has its limits. Malachi: Along with its secrets, and we will soon unlock the rest of them. Now go find us the key. |
„ |
| ~ Malachi establishing his plan to defeat S.H.I.E.L.D. after taking over the Lighthouse. |
Malachi is a major antagonist in Season 6 and a minor antagonist in Season 7 of the TV series Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
He is a Chronicom Hunter who initially assisted Atarah in her quest to save their homeworld from destruction. However, he later betrays and kills her after seeing flaws in her plan and is now currently set upon erasing S.H.I.E.L.D. from existence so he can both save Chronyca-2 and take over Earth so that it can be established as a backup homeworld.
In Season 6, he is portrayed by Christopher James Baker, who also played Harmon James in The Purge: Election Year, The Creator in Keep Watching, and Brainwave in Stargirl. In Season 7, he is portrayed by Joss Glennie-Smith.
Biography[]
At some point in his past, Malachi became a high-ranking Chronicom Hunter and served under Atarah. After their homeworld was destroyed by the Shrike, Malachi became a high-ranking enforcer of Chronicom military leader Atarah and began assisting her in her mission to prevent their race from being driven to near-extinction.
After Chronicoms failed to capture human Leo Fitz and fellow Chronicom Enoch, Atarah sent Malachi to capture Fitz. He was then captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and explained that Fitz is wanted for tampering with the universe, implying that the Chronicoms blame them for destroying their race. After the agents arrived on Kitson to find Fitz and Enoch, Malachi escaped and pursued them. Inside a bar, he fought a high Quake but he was able to capture Fitz and return to Atarah.
After Atarah captured the agents, she projected hologram of Malachi holding Fitz at gunpoint and beat him for not obeying instructions. She turned off the hologram to get them to comply. After the agents attempt to escape, Malachi is present during their standoff and then escorts Simmons away when she turns herself in to assist Fitz in helping them. Malachi was later knocked out after Enoch had second thoughts and escaped with the two humans. Later, Malachi was sent to hunt them down.
Having reviewed Leo Fitz's and Jemma Simmons' memories, Malachi came to disagree with Atarah's plan of going into the past to prevent the Destruction of Chronyca-2. Instead, Malachi suggested that the Chronicoms should look for a new planet and turn it into Chronyca-3, which could be a backup for Chronyca-2. Malachi and Baal-Gad requested permission from Atarah to gather a group of Chronicom Hunters for such conquest, but their plan was judged unnecessary by Atarah, who considered her own plan flawless. As a result, Malachi stated that Atarah was the flaw in the Chronicom's plan and murdered her with his Chronicom Rifle, taking command of the Chronicom Hunters.
Following his takeover, Malachi reassigned all the Chronicoms that Enoch was trying to gather, including anthropologists, to the role of Hunters so the Chronicoms would be able to follow his plan of salvation.
Malachi and his fellow Chronicom Hunters later invaded the S.H.I.E.L.D. base known as the Lighthouse in an attempt to take over the Earth as their new home, first by stealing Nick Fury's Toolbox to uncover S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets. Seeing the agency as the biggest threat to their plan, Malachi sends several Hunters across time to dismantle S.H.I.E.L.D. by changing its history so it would either cease to exist in the future or become weaker in the modern era.
In Season 7, it was revealed that Malachi never established full leadership of all the Chronicoms. After Malachi's takeover of the Lighthouse, another Chronicom faction, led by Chronicom Predictor Sibyl, were sent into the past. Sibyl, as a Predictor was the ultimate superior of all Hunters (Including Malachi), and along with her right hand man, Luke, led the Chronicoms in creating an alternate timeline to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. in the past, while Malachi remained in the original present timeline to consolidate his power for the eventual takeover of Earth.
Malachi and Sibyl's factions never really communicated with each other, but worked together for a common goal of subjugating Earth to create Chronyca-3. After Sibyl and her Hunters were forced to return to the original present timeline, by the future S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents (As their past versions were currently preparing to flee to the past to escape Malachi's Invasion in the Season 6 finale), Malachi and his faction remained in the Lighthouse (Since they have just captured it from S.H.I.E.L.D. a few hours ago). As the future Agents split up to destroy Sibyl's fleet, and retake the Lighthouse from Malachi (Just as their past selves fled into the past), when Coulson Chronicom LMD tricked Sibyl into ordering Malachi and his faction into the Lighthouse along with her faction to reinforce him, Coulson and the team defeated Sibyl and captured her command bridge, that she used to control the Chronicoms. The S.H.I.E.L.D. team than used May and Kora's powers through Sibyl's Chronicom Control Device to give Malachi and his Chronicom faction, empathy and human emotions. As a result, Malachi and his army refused to attack the S.H.I.E.L.D. team in the Lighthouse led by Fitz and Simmons, and proclaimed that they are forever friends with S.H.I.E.L.D., this stopped Malachi from iniitating his dream of creating Chronyca-3 on Earth, for a peaceful coexistence with S.H.I.E.L.D. Sibyl and her faction didn't have long to suffer their defeat, as Sibyl's fleet was soon blown up by S.H.I.E.L.D., leaving Malachi and his army of friendly Chronicoms as the sole surviving Chronicoms after Izel's destruction of their planet. With Sibyl's death, Malachi became the sole (but benevolent) ruler of the Chronicoms.
Trivia[]
- Malachi's name is based on the prophet of the Old Testament of the same name.
- The actor previously stated that he would return in Season 7 as Malachi. However, this never happened due to his commitment on DC's Stargirl and he was replaced by Joss Glennie-Smith.
- Malachi is the only antagonist surviving at the end of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to redeem.
