Agents of SHIELD Episode 11 RETRO REVIEW

 By Mark Rodriguez

Originally written on Tuesday, January 7, 2014. Keep in mind these reviews were done way back when the show first aired, so we had no idea what future events or movies would bring. Also, before it was retconned away, at least at the moment, the Agents of SHIELD show was in canon with the movies.

OMG.... all I can say is... DAT ENDING... Anyways, before the break, we last left our team watching helplessly as Reina and her soldiers kidnap Coulson, and when Mike Peterson tries to run in to save them, the cars in the area explode. Everyone thought Centipede was after Peterson's ability to keep his Extremis powers stable... but instead they are after the secret of how Coulson was brought back to life.

The episode starts out with a secret meeting with a guy selling off a Chitauri missile to other bad people. Just then a SHIELD emblem slides out from other door and hits the room with a flashing light. Melinda and Grant bust in and start kicking ass, but the main dealer makes a run for it. Fitz and Summers send flying robots to distract him, but he makes a break for the elevator. Skye hacks the elevator to take him to the roof of the building. Up there, a helicopter with SHIELD agents led by Victoria Hand are all waiting for him, their weapons drawn on him.

Back on the plane, SHIELD wants to use this guy to lead them to Centipede. However, Victoria seems more interested in taking down Centipede and only rescuing Coulson if he happens to be there. She catches Skye trying to hack into SHIELD files to get information on Centipede due to a money trail used by their sales. Victoria recognizes her as the one that knocked out one of her agents on The Hub (even though technically Simmons did it) and wants her off the plane. Grant vouches for her, but Victoria gives the final decision to Melinda May. May says that Skye will be useless on the plane. Skye is surprised to find out May voted her out, and she is to be taken off the plane and be debriefed. As she waits outside, Fitz and Simmons give her a bagged 'sandwich' which is actually some tools she'll need to make her escape.

Coulson relives his fantasy of being massaged on the Tahiti beaches, before he awakens to find Edison Po watching over him. They want to know how he came back to life and he won't tell them. Coulson's also upset about how Mike died in front of his son. Edison says they promised Mike and his son would be unharmed and what happened after that was his own fault. Coulson says the Clairvoyant must be a fake since he can't see what he wants to know. Edison says he can see when Coulson died, but not how he came back. Since Coulson won't talk, he plans to have him tortured.

Meanwhile Skye finds a man named Lloyd that is involved in shady dealings with Centipede. Since she still can't hack into SHIELD files, she decides to steal his van instead. She then purposely drops it into a river and calls for Road Assistance to drive her home.

Coulson is beaten and taken to another room, still unable to be broken. He manages to get some sharp objects and is working on his escape.

On the SHIELD plane, Grant is tired of the interrogation with the man they captured going nowhere, so he decides to step in. Since the man isn't talking, Grant straps himself to his chair while Fitz and Simmons open are air lock on the roof. The guy is holding onto the table for dear life and swears to tell them everything if they close the air lock.

Coulson manages to escape and knocks out the guard. As he steps outside, he sees he's in the middle of the desert in a town that was abandoned for nuclear testing. Edison is there, and when Coulson tries to attack him, he's grabbed by the throat by one of the super soldiers. He's taken back inside to continue the interrogation.

Skye finds Lloyd's house and starts looking around. When Lloyd arrives, he finds Skye dressed in a dark jacket and wearing shades, calling herself Melinda May from SHIELD. She says he's in big trouble but she can promise him immunity if he can help her find Centipede based on his transactions.

Victoria asks Grant about his interrogation methods, but mentions they were able to get a list of Chitauri buyers that leads them to Centipede bases. Grant and Victoria argue a little, and again it's clear her main concern is finding and taking down Centipede. She wonders why Coulson is so important, since Fury and Hill have kept asking for updates on him by the hour. Grant says he is that important.

Reina shows up at the desert hideout and sees that Edison still hasn't broken Coulson. She wants to use more manipulative methods than outright torture. Just then the Clairvoyant calls and wants to speak to Reina. Afterwards she says he wants to put Edison back on the line. When he does, Edison suddenly freezes up and dies, leaving Reina now in charge of the interrogation.

Grant asks Melinda why she voted Skye off the plane. Melinda says she is useless on the plane... with all of Victoria's agents watching her every move. She says she works better outside where she's free to do what she wants.

Skye tells Lloyd to hack into the Swiss bank account of one of his buyers. Just then two cops show up. Skye flips one of the men to the ground and aims his gun at the other one. Lloyd says 'these SHIELD guys don't mess around' and gets onto his computer.

Coulson is with Reina now, and he asks her about the way she treated Mike Peterson and Chan and she says SHIELD uses similar methods to get what they want. Coulson says they don't him, they already have powerful super soldiers they can kill when they need to, but she also wants to be able to bring them back. She wants Coulson to use the mind machine without resistance, so also discover the secret that SHIELD is hiding from him.

Skye continues to get Lloyd into his buyer's payment history, but he's not as computer literate as she thought. He usually has someone do that stuff for him. One of the guards helps Skye with the files and it leads her to Reina and her general location. Skye takes one of Lloyd's fancy cars and is on her way.

Reina continues to manipulate Coulson with sweet words, mostly mentioning his lost love, the woman he left behind when SHIELD had to tell her he died in New York. Reina wants to know what happened in Tahiti, which Coulson calls a magical place. He notices he says that a lot, and wants to know exactly why. After much convincing, Coulson finally tells her to turn the machine on.

Fitz and Simmons perfect a bracelet that can inject the super soldiers with something that will turn them back to normal. Just then Skye calls Simmons, she tries to cover up the call, pretending it's someone else. Melinda suddenly grabs the phone and asks Skye what she found, which surprises her. They found Coulson's location in the Mojave Desert. Victoria still wants to send her main team to attack the Centipede bases... but Melinda says they should split up and Grant says he'll take his team to get Coulson. Victoria questions Melinda's decision to boot Skye off the plane, and she says she was useless on the plane and was more useful off it. Victoria says she's been played, but lets them go anyway.

Coulson remembers his massage in Tahiti, but something is wrong this time. One of the masseuses suddenly says 'who authorized this, this is wrong' and another says 'Director Fury himself authorized this'. This confuses Coulson.

Skye arrives in the desert hideout and is soon chased by one of the super soldiers. Just then one of the agents run the guy down with their car. The noise alerts Reina and she sends more soldiers, and Grant and Melinda jump into action.

Coulson continues seeing memories as the Tahiti illusion slowly fades to him being on an operating table. Reina asks what he sees, but he says he only sees darkness. Coulson suddenly sees himself on the operation table, his brain exposed with some sort of machine working on it, while he's begging to die. Coulson suddenly screams and Skye runs inside the house. Coulson is still begging to die, reliving his repressed memories and Reina says its for his own good. Skye socks her out. The mind machine is shut off and Reina snaps Coulson out of his trance.

Later on Reina is arrested and taken away. Coulson finally takes Skye's security bracelet off. She asks if they learned anything from him and he says they didn't. Victoria is also glad to see Coulson back and says they need him since she can't handle the way they run things on the plane (she's too much by-the-book).

Coulson later runs into the doctor that worked on him and wants to know more about what happened. The doctor says he feels horrible for what was done. Coulson wasn't dead for a few seconds or a few minutes as he was told. He was dead for days. The doctor didn't elaborate but he says the methods they used to bring him back were unethical and extremely traumatic. Coulson asked about the machine working on his brain, and the doctor says it was to fabricate a happy memory, something to give him the will to live. Coulson walks out of the car, leaving the doctor wracked with guilt.

The episode ends with the revelation that Mike Peterson did survive the explosion... though he's horribly burnt and is missing a leg. To make matters worse, he can now see instructions typed before his eyes... which mean he's now been implanted with the kill-switch eye...

My Opinions:

Oh my God. The episode did have lots of interesting things, like Victoria being back and the fight scenes and all that jazz, but wow... all that is eclipsed by that almost 'nightmare fuel' scene with the machine working on Coulson's exposed brain as he's begging to be left to die. Kinda makes you see the whole 'Loki kills Coulson' scene in the Avengers scene a whole more different now. At least it does show that it really is Coulson and not some clone or some Life Model Decoy as many people thought. I honestly would have felt cheated if all this time we were watching a clone since nothing would change the fact that the original died in Avengers. But still... wow. I wonder what of everything they did to rebuild his body and revive him. Based on what the doctor said it was horrible, painful and traumatic.

The only thing I can say though is, whatever happened, Coulson should at least be happy he's back. Especially with all the good he's done so far. The doctor, while wracked with guilt, thinks Coulson should have been left dead and so forth, but hey, the dude is alive and is helping people out now, like Skye.

It really sucks for Peterson though. He was used by Centipede and went insane. He was given a second chance to do what's right. And now he's stuck to do their bidding again with the kill-switch eye. I don't even know how they can remove it this time since they'll be a lot more clever about it this time. Man, it just really sucks for him.

We'll see what happens next episode as it seems Coulson will continue to deal with what he just learned.. but apparently we'll also see more about Skye's parents. And hey, it seems Stan Lee is gonna cameo in one of the episodes some time in February!  Looks like we gotta keep watching!