“ | Discovery requires experimentation. | „ |
~ Whitehall's sadistic motto. |
Dr. Daniel Whitehall, born Werner Reinhardt, is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Grant Ward) of the TV series Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
He serves as the unseen overarching antagonist of Season 1, one of the two main antagonists (alongside Jiaying) of Season 2, a posthumous antagonist in Seasons 3 and 7 and the posthumous overarching antagonist of Season 5. He also appears as a posthumous antagonist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Avengers: Endgame.
He was an immortal Nazi scientist and HYDRA leader following Johann Schmidt's disappearance, who wanted to use the potential capabilities of a mysterious object known as the Obelisk for the organization's intentions of genocide and world domination. He is also best known for being the one who dissected Daisy Johnson's mother Jiaying for her longevity and drove her and her husband Calvin Zabo to insanity.
He was portrayed by Reed Diamond.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- Committed several war crimes as a Nazi officer during World War II by performing countless experimentations on various prisoners of war, presumably under Adolf Hitler's orders.
- Joined HYDRA to serve Johann Schmidt and assist him with his projects, even working on the Tesseract with him.
- Sought the Darkhold, a powerful and corrupting dark magic book capable to hurting several realities (as shown decades later by Agatha Harkness and Scarlet Witch), during his time as Schmidt's apprentice.
- Using the Obelisk, he forced several prisoners to touch it to see any distinguishing variations in their deaths.
- After being locked away for decades and finally being let out by HYDRA spies, he spent a week vivisecting Jiaying, who touched and survived the Obelisk while also never aging, to take her powers. After successfully doing so, he had his men dispose of her body in a ditch. While this is extremely evil even for the show's standards, it also led to Calvin Zabo becoming mad and wanting revenge, and Jiaying to be a vengeful warmonger, which led to many more deaths.
- As a now active HYDRA leader, he began mentoring students and forcing them to kill their dog compatriots to prove their loyalty to the organization.
- He forced a young General Hale to have a child for his Destroyer of Worlds project and threatened to brainwash her if she refused, which is pretty much rape.
- After getting a hold of Carl Creel and Donnie Gill, Whitehall would later brainwash them both for his purposes of using them weapons.
- He had Bakshi kidnap Agent 33 from S.H.I.E.L.D. and then spent an unknown amount of time brainwashing her until she complied.
- He confronted Raina for stealing the Obelisk and as he had her paralyzed through a device, he threatened to torture her the same way she did Jiaying unless she returns it.
- He sent his men to pose as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and attack the U.N., before using the attack to lure S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to safehouse and kill them there as revenge for the constant setbacks.
- After Ward captured Raina and Daisy Johnson from S.H.I.E.L.D. but didn't had their plane shot down like he was told to, Whitehall order Agent 33 to counter the order.
- After learning that Calvin Zabo was Jiaying's husband and Daisy was their daughter, he intended on making him watch as he dissected her for whatever powers she may possess.
- When Grant Ward betrayed Whitehall, he threatened to brainwash him with the Faustus method for his own evil ends.
- He attempted to use the Obelisk by using its supposed power to cause mass genocide and then take over the world.
- Although his records state that Whitehall is a widow to a deceased woman prior to joining HYDRA and the Nazi Party, their relationship is never explored or further established and he doesn't even talk about her once. Regardless, his actions following her death have pushed him far past it being an redeemable trait even if he did genuinely love her at one point.
- Even though he presents himself to be well-mannered in some sense towards his subordinates, he never valued any of their lives and only viewed them as pawns to further his own agenda as well as HYDRA's goals, including his most loyal enforcer Sunil Bakshi. Plus, if they refused to follow any of his commands, he would use cruel means to make them comply against their will, and would gladly discard them once they've outlived their usefulness.
- Despite many of HYDRA's leaders being vile in their own ways, Whitehall stands out for his unique crimes of using people, including his own minions, as subjects for his own twisted experiments to further HYDRA's agenda and overall satisfy his sadistic pleasure. While in-series villains such as Grant Ward, Aida and Kasius have had their own personal impacts on the protagonists, Whitehall's actions continued to affect their lives such as his psychological impact on Daisy Johnson's parents, his Destroyer of Worlds project which drove Glenn Talbot insane and nearly resulted in Earth's destruction, and how Nathaniel Malick used his experiments to take Inhumans' powers whilst in another timeline.
- Plus, unlike John Garrett and Red Skull, Whitehall's villainy was never affected by any serum that would've amplified his heinousness, such as when Garrett took GH.325 and when Schmidt took the incomplete Super Soldier Serum.
- Of all the villains in the series, Whitehall is widely despised and considered one of, if not the vilest antagonists yet.
Trivia[]
- The scene where Daniel Whitehall vivisects Jiaying was so disturbing and graphic that it gave the show its first and only TV-14 rating (at least until season 4 came along) when it was normally TV-PG.
External Links[]
- Daniel Whitehall on the Villains Wiki.
- Daniel Whitehall on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
- Daniel Whitehall on the Hate Sink Wiki
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Pure Evils | ||
John Garrett | Daniel Whitehall | Sibyl |