The episode brings together several major guest stars from throughout the season, including J. August Richards, Titus Welliver, Saffron Burrows, Maximiliano Hernández, and Bill Paxton, with Hernández's appearance leading into the beginning of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a film that the rest of the episode mentions and partly runs concurrently with.
"End of the Beginning" originally aired on ABC on April 1, 2014, and according to Nielsen Media Research, was watched by 5.71 million viewers.
agents John Garrett and Antoine Triplett are attacked by Mike Peterson, who had become the cyborg "Deathlok" and is working for their nemesis, the Clairvoyant.
Weeks later, Phil Coulson recruits agents Garrett, Triplett, Victoria Hand, Felix Blake and Jasper Sitwell to join his team to hunt down the Clairvoyant and Deathlok.
Through the tracker planted by Blake, the agents pursue Deathlok in an abandoned horse racing track, while Triplett and Simmons stay behind at the Hub with Hand.
Nash, boasting that he is the Clairvoyant, claims he can see everything, and threatens to kill Skye, causing an enraged Ward to shoot him dead.
While Coulson accuses a defensive Ward of shooting Nash to misdirect them on the Clairvoyant's true identity, Fitz informs Skye of the secret phone line.
In March 2014, Marvel revealed that the sixteenth episode would be titled "End of the Beginning", and would be written by Paul Zbyszewski, with Bobby Roth directing.
[2]: 46:12 In March 2014, Marvel revealed that main cast members Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, and Elizabeth Henstridge would star as Phil Coulson, Melinda May, Grant Ward, Skye, Leo Fitz, and Jemma Simmons, respectively.
The script originally called for an abandoned shopping mall, but this was changed to the racetrack when the series' crew learned that it would be available during filming.
[6]: 153 Hernández reprises his role from the films, and is mentioned on exiting the episode early to be going to the Lemurian Star, a boat on which the character appears at the beginning of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
", all episodes leading up to the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the series' crossover with that film were marketed as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.