Episode Title: “The Magical Place”
Writers: Paul Zbyszewski & Brent Fletcher
Director: Kevin Hooks
“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” has proven to be a very problematic show despite its promising beginning. I can’t remember the last time that a show has not only squandered its potential, but also stubbornly refused to change course long after it was clear that something was wrong.
The problems facing this series are pretty basic: the characters aren’t very compelling and the stories haven’t been engaging. There are few legitimate dramatic stakes and no sense of danger to any of the main characters. Real moments of drama have been few and far between. Those issues carried over into this episode as well.
“The Magical Place” did have the benefit of a partial reveal about Coulson’s survival to give the episode some kick. And this was an improvement on the lackluster episode that preceded this it and set up the cliffhanger of Coulson’s abduction and the apparent death of Mike Peterson (J. August Richards). The ending of this episode was pretty strong too, but “The Magical Place” was largely uneven.
There are full spoilers ahead for “The Magical Place,” so if you haven’t seen last night’s episode of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” then you should probably skip this review or else you’ll be receiving new instructions when you wake up.
It always comes down to Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg). Can you imagine this show without him? Gregg is not a typical leading man, but his performance as Coulson gives that character more life than the rest of the cast can match. Coulson resonates in a way that no one else on this show does. That’s the real world reason that Coulson is back from the dead. “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” was never going to get Samuel L. Jackson back as Nick Fury on a regular basis. And in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, only Coulson would be a suitable replacement for Fury on TV.
Which brings us to the important question that very few people are asking about Coulson’s return from the dead: Why?
Within the world of the show, why did S.H.I.E.L.D. devote so many of its resources into resurrecting a man who had been dead for days? Coulson wasn’t the only S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who was killed during The Avengers, so why was he singled out to get a second chance at life? Why was he the only one brought back?
Here’s another question to ponder: what if Coulson is not the only who was brought back to life? If S.H.I.E.L.D. has the capability to bring its agents back from the dead, then why stop at one? That’s a resource that would be invaluable to anyone, hence Raina’s (Ruth Negga) interest in discovering how it was done.
The scenes in which Coulson is forced to relive his resurrection were effective and it was really creepy to see Coulson begging to die as a machine tinkered in his exposed brain. I can forgive the episode for glossing over the details of how that feat was achieved, although I would like to know at some point.
Gregg was also very strong in the scene in which Raina wore down Coulson’s resistance by bringing up his girlfriend, “the cellist” who believes that he’s dead. I think the cellist has to appear on this series at some point, as there’s only so many times that the writers can avoid giving her a name. And if we’re really meant to invest in Coulson’s romantic life then we need to meet this woman.
As for Raina herself, I’ll be very happy if this is the last we see of her. Negga has no screen presence here and she’s just not very good in the role. Although it’s not as if Negga is tanking a well written part. Neither Raina nor Edison Po (Cullen Douglas) were particularly interesting villains. Po’s death in this episode was so meaningless that it wasn’t even slightly surprising. As adversaries, Po and Raina were flops. The Clairvoyant may be meant to be the main villain, and he’s already more interesting than Po or Raina simply because there’s some mystery surrounding that character. We don’t know who or what The Clairvoyant is, but it’s strongly suggested that he (or she) does have some kind of mental abilities.
The other narrative in this episode dealt with Coulson’s team trying to rescue him while dealing with the authoritarian leadership of Victoria Hand (Saffron Burrows). It’s funny that Coulson’s team felt so uncomfortable with so many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on the plane, since that was the first time since “The Hub” that it felt like the team actually belonged to that organization. Instead of being five randomly selected people and Coulson on wacky misadventures.
Hand has no tolerance for Skye (Chloe Bennet) and she quickly gets her booted off of the plane, thanks in part to Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) backing Hand’s decision. This led to Skye having a solo adventure as she tried to dig up leads on Coulson’s location by herself with the full support of Agents Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), Leo Fitz (Ian De Caestecker), Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) and even May herself; who only wanted Skye off the Bus so she wouldn’t be held back by Hand’s rules.
Although I wonder if May would have approved of Skye’s impersonation of her while she attempted to intimidate a crooked businessman into helping her look into Centipede’s money trail. The initial shot of Skye in her Melinda May costume was pretty funny, but it quickly became groan worthy when Skye subdued the two rent-a-cop security guards. Skye has definitely not earned that kind of physicality in the few brief training scenes we’ve had this season. I simply didn’t buy it and it was one of those moments that kicked me out of the story.
However, it was a joy to see Simmons become one of intentionally hilarious characters on the show. Simmons has no idea that she’s funny, but her attempts at lying are always hysterical. Simmons has no talent for subterfuge and that’s kind of refreshing. There were also some good team building moments between Ward and May before the remaining members of Coulson’s team openly defied Hand to rescue their leader.
By the end, Centipede is apparently in disarray, Raina is in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody and Coulson gets Dr. Streiten (Ron Glass) to admit that he was dead much longer than he was led to believe. But The Clairvoyant is still out there and he’s got at least one more big surprise.
Which brings us to this week’s tag scene, in which we learn that Mike Peterson lived through the explosion on the bridge… but he may wish he hadn’t. Mike’s missing a leg, he’s sporting some nasty burns and he’s got an artificial eye (with a kill switch) feeding him instructions ala Akela Amadour (Pascale Armand) from earlier this season.
That’s a really exciting way to keep Richards on this show. I would have preferred that Mike join up with Coulson’s team, but turning Mike into a reluctant villain could be something that this show badly needs. Because there are no compelling adversaries on this series. Not even one. Mike could help fill the void until we learn who’s really pulling the strings. Also, Mike knows far more about Coulson and his team than anyone else who has gone up against them and he has history with them. That makes him uniquely suited to be one of their greatest enemies.
There’s still the hope that Mike could be saved, but I doubt that the show would repeat the same storyline after Amadour was saved from the same fate in her first appearance. I think Mike is stuck working for the bad guys for at least the rest of the season, but it may be the best thing for Mike as a character and for the health of the show.
“The Magical Place” had some encouraging developments, but I’m still wary about the long term creative direction of this show. Every interview I’ve read with Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen makes it sound like they’re tone deaf to the issues facing “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and they’re not changing course. If Whedon and Tancharoen can turn this series around, I’ll be the first to acknowledge that and congratulate them. But I’ve lost a lot of faith in them at this point.
