Agents of SHIELD S1E11 – The Magical Place – Recap

tahiti

The wait is over. Agents of SHIELD is back! SPOILERS ahead, so if you haven’t watched The Magical Place yet, you may want to do that before you continue. It’s cool, we’ll hold a chair for you.

This episode could have been called Answers, because that’s what we get. Coulson DID die in The Avengers.  From what we learn in this new episode, this Phil Coulson is not a LMD, but rather is the same Coulson brought back from the dead. How did they bring him back? It involved at least seven surgeries, and a crazy brain scanning/operating machine that looked like it was borrowed from The Matrix. I winced when that machine has its pincers in Coulson’s exposed brain. Exposed brain makes me wince too, by the way. And there is no Tahiti, at least not for Coulson. Tahiti was a mirage/hologram/implanted memory.

agents of shield coulson brain

Cut away! No, not cut away his brain! Cut away from this shot!

I was glad to see Firefly alum Ron Glass, aka Shepherd Book, aka Dr. Streiten, return. We haven’t seen Dr. Streiten since the pilot episode. When Streiten is confronted by Coulson, he fesses up immediately, and it very sorry that they brought Coulson back. On the operating table, Coulson kept saying “Let me die” and that he was in a lot of pain. Not wanting a whiny post-death Coulson on their hands, SHIELD messed with his brain to keep his pre-death personality intact. Looking at the preview for next week’s episode, it’s safe to say Coulson is not okay with having his brain mucked with. Expect to see the very “company man” Coulson travelling down the path mostly traveled by Skye.  If they messed with his brain to make him more like his old self, what else did they do while they were in there?

Skye shines this episode from the moment she’s booted from the plane by May. We all knew why May booted her right from the start, right? It amazed me that it took the rest of the team so long to catch on. If I was Victoria Hand, after hearing the way May answered whether or not Skye should stay, I think I would have confined Skye to her quarters.

may skye

On her own, Skye unleashes her inner May, even going so far as to call herself Agent May when interrogating Rob Huebel. I was so happy that Rob Huebel was cast for this episode. I’ve loved the man since his Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man commercials, which are easily the best silence your phone spots ever! Human Giant? Awesome. His Twitter feed? Hilarious. Hollywood casting agents: More Rob Huebel!

There were some deaths and a resurrection (besides Coulson’s) to round out The Magical Place. Mike Peterson is killed off-screen at the beginning of the episode, only to shown alive (but missing a few body parts) at the very end of the episode. Po, the creepy dude freed from prison by Centipede, is killed through his phone when The Clairvoyant decides it’s time to promote Raina. We all agree Raina is the creepiest, right? Yes, she’s one of the bad guys, but she seems pretty cool until she gets all crazy-eyed when she talks about The Clairvoyant. I really liked that Coulson got an answer to the question everyone wanted to ask, but was afraid to, namely what’s with all the flower dresses?

Next week’s episode is called Seeds. I’m guessing it’s about Ward’s secret gardening habit or a wild sex party on the bus. We’ll find out if I’m right on Tuesday!