Agents of SHIELD rewatch: S1E11 “The Magical Place”

Okay kids, a lot goes down in this one.  Skye is on her own and she is useful every step of the way! This episode really got me onto the train of liking Skye. There is a nice evolution of the team’s work-together abilities. We get a hard-and-fast answer to the truth behind Tahiti.  This episode has everything: death of a villain, a Melinda May imposter, a gasp-inducing final stinger, and Raina!  Now let’s track down our dad

Footnotes are spoilers for future episodes.

Vanchat!  Here he is. We’ve heard mention of him a few times (and totally clocked it and remembered it every time…). Ward stole the Chitauri neural link from him in the pilot.  We also know his guys are the ones that took out Akela Amador’s entire squad and captured her years before her robot eye was put in.  We don’t like Vanchat. But now we see him for the first time. He specializes in selling alien crap.  There is a very cool looking woman ^[1]whom we never see again? But why not? She looks so cool! prepared to buy this new Chitauri device from him.  Before he can name his price, a beeping disk with a SHIELD logo on it slides into the room.  The woman says, “Is that a roomba?” okay back to the good jokes (that one really landed for me). The not-roomba issues a blinding flash so May and Ward can rush in and attack! They chase Vanchat out into the hallway. Ward radios FitzSimmons to take over. (Now here I will nitpick…   Simmons says “we’ve never done anything like this before. Are you sure?” okay what is she talking about? All they’re doing is sending the dwarves out to shine some intimidating floating lights in front of the guy… I can imagine it’s true that they have never done that before but what’s the big deal? It’s not dangerous.  Is she just worried that the guy won’t fall for it? If so, what’s the point of worrying now?) Anyway, their dwarf trick was neat, and it worked! Vanchat tries to escape in the elevator.  Now it’s Skye’s turn.  She has hacked the elevator and shoots him up to the rooftop!   There, Victoria Hand and her men are waiting.  Got him. Teamwork captures the bad man with the good accent.       
It was legitimately exciting to watch the team work together without Coulson around to give direction.  The lil bickering babies from episode 2 are growing up!

In the Bus lab, Simmons is patching Ward up as we’re reminded that he GOT SHOT in the last episode (this hottie gets shottie a lottie).  SHIELD wants Vanchat to lead them to Centipede since there was Chitauri metal used in some of the Centipede tech.  
There are a bunch of extra agents cluttering the plane from Big SHIELD.  Fitz is frustrated and bosses one guy around (I appreciate them including scenes that show us that although Fitz is the naïve bumbling goof of our main cast, he is brilliant and respected by other agents), but Simmons is glad to have some new eyes looking at the problem at hand.  It has been 36 hours since Coulson was taken.
Everyone is annoyed at Victoria Hand giving a briefing – a great contrast to Fitzsimmons being starstruck by her just four episodes prior.
At the briefing we see the likely cause of their annoyance; Hand is more focused on taking down Centipede than saving Coulson.  We also learn that burnt remains of a body were found on the blown-up bridge and SHIELD believes them to be that of Mike Peterson.  Waahh. 

In her bunk, Skye is trying to follow Vanchat’s money trail. Her bracelet won’t allow her access to the files, triggering a confrontation with Hand who orders Skye off the plane!  Ward stands up for Skye, but Melinda May agrees with Hand! Agent May, no!

FitzSimmons secretly passes off a satellite phone to Skye; she will be able to make one call on it before her bracelet shuts it down.  Ward basically tells her that she has 12 minutes to sneak off the plane before agents come to get her.

But where is Phil Coulson?
 He is strapped down on a table with his head placed in this sci-fi glowing ring. Po is there asking what memories he is seeing.  Coulson lies and says he saw Jordan in the ’98 finals, “so clutch.” His distressed delivery of that is so great.  Po is trying to threaten him, but Coulson isn’t having it.  He’s like, ‘bro why would I give you anything? You murdered Mike Peterson in front of his own son.’  Po tries some weak-ass attempts at prodding Coulson’s psyche by bringing up his childhood.  Apparently, Phil lost his father at a young age as well.   Po says the Clairvoyant can see when Coulson died, but not what happened after. 

In a coffee shop, Skye is still trying to hack shit while holding her braceleted wrist out behind her, but it doesn’t work.  So, she’s goes old-school and rifles through a magazine stand. In ‘Wealth & Capital’ magazine she finds an article about a Lloyd Rathman.  This guy is an investor who is getting into hot water because of some offshore bank accounts.   Skye spies a cool black jacket in a window.
She tracks down Lloyd’s empty car and hops behind the wheel.

Fitzsimmons is having a weighty argument about the morality of killing Centipede soldiers. Fitz stresses that they are extremely dangerous, but Simmons says they are normal men being controlled ^[2]ahhh but in season 2 (at this same exact point in the season actually) they have a similar argument regarding Inhumans.  By that time, they have both seen and experienced a LOT and have switched … Continue reading  

In the stolen car, Skye can’t even access the gps without activating SHIELD lockdown.  She comes up with a clever backup plan.  She intentionally crashes the car into some water barrels so that OnStar contacts her and she can request to be towed back to “her” house.  Smart!

Ward doesn’t like Hand’s interrogator’s gentle tactics, so he takes a turn.  He straps himself down in the honeycomb room and has Simmons open the ceiling! Ah!!!  Vanchat has to grab onto the table to avoid flying out of the plane!  Now he agrees to talk. I mean damn, that could have gone really wrong if Vanchat didn’t have quick strong hands.

In his own containment situation, Coulson manages to steal some tweezers from a torture-implement table to unlock his hand and foot cuffs.  He runs out of the building but finds himself in a ghost town.  Po is there to explain this is a town that was set up for nuclear testing but was spared when the Cold War ended.  “There’s nothing but desert for hundreds of miles.” Damn.   

At Lloyd Rathman’s rich-person house, Skye reports his car stolen to get him to come home.  Meanwhile she looks through his things for any private info she can use. When he arrives, she steps out from around the corner in a cool, strapping, bad-ass black jacket and introduces herself as Agent Melinda May… with SHIELD.  Nice. I support this.  Skye is convincingly playing the part of intimidating senior agent. She claims she needs help tracking down some bad-guy money in exchange for immunity for whatever nasty off-shore shenanigans Rathman has gotten into.

Using Ward’s intel from Vanchat, Hand has the team heading to Sidney, Australia to track down some Chitauri-buyers… that doesn’t sound like the desert Coulson is trapped in.   Hand pontificates to Ward about the magnitude of response that Coulson’s kidnapping has elicited from agents around the world. Ward assures her that Coulson is just that important.  That’s right, hun.

Ayayay Coulson is being tortured some more, but he won’t be broken.  Raina shows up to disapprove of Po’s tactics.  The Clairvoyant calls! The Clairvoyant asks to speak with Raina for the first time!  We don’t hear the other line, but Raina says “I agree” and when Po takes the phone back, some sort of deadly pulse/tone is released into Po’s ear! The Clairvoyant killed Po! Raina is now in charge of this operation. 
I. love. This.  Po was presented as this suave cool-headed know-it-all baddie with Raina as his underling.  Now he’s just out of the game. I did not expect it and I’m pleased to see Raina – in all her viperish manner – step up to her villainous potential. 

Ward finally confronts May about sending Skye off the plane.  May is like ‘okay idiot, Skye is definitely out there doing what she needs to do. You’re welcome.’  This is a nice reflection of the previous episode when May confronted Ward for an action of his that she misinterpreted.

Rathman has called security, but Skye takes them down! Secret agent style! Aw go girl.

Coulson’s like ‘wow Raina you killed that dude… and also Mike … and also Chan… you wanna be friends with me now?’   After some back-and-forth she gets down to it.  Centipede wants to know how to bring people back to life. That’s the secret they want Coulson to reveal. 

Some fun interactions with Skye, Rathman, and his guards finally get her on the money trail. She finds some of Raina’s purchases and drives off in Rathman’s fancy car!

Raina is making a persuasive case to Coulson that he should also want to know what really happened to him.  To add some credibility to the Clairvoyant’s power, she mentions his love! The cellist in Portland! When she mentions Tahiti, Coulson once again instinctually replies, “It’s a magical place” and realizes he does want to know why. He agrees to go back into the memory machine willingly.

Fitzsimmons has crafted a device to inject dendrotoxin into the supersoldiers.  They get a call from Skye’s sat phone regarding Raina’s likely location.  Hand is pissed when she realizes May played her to send Skye off the plane (get over it. You were going to do it anyway, lady). Ward doesn’t care. He’s taking the team to follow Skye’s lead with or without backup from Hand.

Coulson inquires of Raina how she knows the memory machine will work. She says, “it worked on me.” It’s a brief, un-remarked-upon comment, but it’s important ^[3]this is the bit of information that clues Coulson in to the true identity of The Clairvoyant several episodes from now. Garrett brings it up even though Coulson never told anyone about it. I … Continue reading.  Also, this exchange about the flower dress…. Chef’s kiss. Coulson asks, “what’s with the flowers?” in such a gentle, genuine, curiosity. Raina responds, “who doesn’t love flowers? I’m glad you noticed.”  Bang already, you two!  
Okay machine on. Memories awaken. He’s in Tahiti, but wait! Dr. shepherd book is there (sorry genuinely can’t remember the character’s real name). Gradually the memory alters piece-by-piece until he sees the memory is of a hospital instead of a beach hut.  He never tells Raina what he is actually seeing

Meanwhile, Skye and our team have closed in on the ghost town. Fight fight fight. Ward takes a guy out with the toxin, by shoving the capsule in his mouth.

The hospital memory is becoming clearer. The doctor says “this is wrong.” The nurse says “Director Fury ordered this.” Oh my goodness there is a terrifying needly robot stabbing all over Phil’s exposed brain! He is saying “please let me die” in the memory and in present day.  Skye busts in and knocks out Raina. May unplugs the machine. Saved. Distressed.

Raina is going into SHIELD custody.  Centipede operations have been taken down across the globe. Hand turns the bus back over to Coulson. Tender moment with the team welcoming him back.  Coulson thanks Skye and finally removes the bracelet (by just saying ‘disengage bracelet’ nice touch)

Coulson tracks down the doctor from the memory. He learns that after the Avengers movie, he was dead for DAYS! Fury moved heaven and earth and approved dangerous procedures.  The doctor is ashamed of what he did. He agrees with Coulson that he should have been allowed to die instead of going through that trauma.  The brain-poking machine inserted the Tahiti memories to hide the trauma and renew his will to live. Oof

 
SHIELD logo up. Stinger on. And oh, what a stinger it is.  Mike Peterson is alive! Yay? Okay he’s on a table in a dingy room. He’s burnt up and missing a leg. Then we see a message come up from his point of view! He has had a robot eye implanted in him that tells him to await orders! Oh no! He is going to be controlled like Amador and the other super soldiers!  Damn that sucks, hooded dad.

** Spoilery footnotes below **