Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 6: Coulson is back?!? Sort of.

At the end of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 5 we thought we had finally seen the last of Agent Coulson. We were very, very wrong.

It has been a long road for fans of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. but we’re finally back for the sixth season. The show looked to be on the brink of cancellation, then was renewed for one more season that would be shortened to 13 episodes. (Most seasons are 22 episodes.) It was a bittersweet feeling knowing the show would be back but that it would be over after that. Though, some wondered if the show would survive without Agent Phil Coulson.

Then we got the surprising news that the show had been renewed for a seventh season. The only explanation was that it was a matter of timing but no fans of the show are complaining. The seventh season will also be a short 13 episodes but at least we have the show for two more years. Now to the present matters at hand.

Catching up

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It has been a full year since we last saw our favorite Marvel television team and it would be easy to forget where we left off. After all of the time traveling craziness of Season 5, we ended up with Fitz being mortally wounded and Coulson accepting that he was about to die. Coulson has seemed immortal over the course of this show but this time it seemed that the show was going to allow him to walk off into the sunset. As for Fitz, he was frozen in a cryogenic chamber and sent into space to heal.

You’ll also remember that Mack and Yo-Yo had a falling out and that Mack was named the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. going forward. All of these situations are key to the start of the new season.

Fitz is in trouble

At the start of the episode, we see the ship that Fitz is in get blown apart. He has Enoch with him and Enoch says that he is going to have to wake Fitz up early just before this happens.

Time then jumps forward by one year and we see Quake, Simmons, Piper, and Davis landing their ship on a strange planet. When they’re boarded, Quake greets the armed aliens and after they realize who she is she destroys their weapons and chases off all but their leader. They believe Fitz is on this planet.

After interrogating the alien leader he tells them where half of Fitz’s ship is. They had already found the other half and this half contained Fitz’s chamber. Of course, when they find the chamber Fitz is not there and they have no idea where he could possibly be.

A new threat on Earth

Back on Earth, the team is trying to watch for weird ripples that seem to be happening. On a basketball court, we watch a basketball shatter before turning into a flock of bats. Then a huge guy comes out of a wall portal. His partner gets stuck halfway in the wall. May and her team show up but the big guy shoots their aircraft down and flees the scene.

Later in the episode, we see our big guy welcome two more of his people to Earth as they now go to pick up their leader who will be arriving at a museum.

Mack and Yo-Yo

As mentioned above, Mack is in charge of the team but he still has daily check-in’s with a holographic Coulson. He’s not sure he can fill Coulson’s shoes and uses the hologram messages to keep himself on track. The show just couldn’t live on without him was my first thought when I saw the hologram. May has been recruiting muscle but Mack tells her that he needs brains too.

Later, while training with Yo-Yo one on one, May tells her that she’s onto her and Agent Keller (Lucas Bryant.) She tells Yo-Yo that Mack knows it too. During this scene, they point out that Mack has been completely focused on the job and Yo-Yo says that he has shut her out. May actually tells Yo-Yo that she should go for it and this scene is difficult to watch because Mack and Yo-Yo may have been almost as beloved a couple as FitzSimmons at this point.

Later in the episode, Yo-Yo and Keller are talking and it’s clear Keller fears Mack. The relationship has been a private affair but he says he’d rather tell Mack himself than have him stumble upon it. Whenever Yo-Yo is ready for that to happen.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy

We learn that Mack has a new ritual. Besides his daily briefings with the Coulson hologram, he’s regularly in church and also spends time at a local bar to “connect to the people they’re protecting.”

May invites her new recruit, the brains they spoke of earlier, to the bar for a meeting with Mack. His name is Dr. Benson (Barry Shabaka Henley) and he’s a professor who was a friend and mentor to May’s former husband (Blair Underwood’s Andrew Garner). He’s developed a drinking problem since his husband died and the college he works for has basically been reducing his role.

Mack tells him he wants to build a new S.H.I.E.L.D. academy and that he wants Dr. Benson to run it. Dr. Benson is not interested in chasing “boogie men” but when Mack mentions deep space he’s intrigued.

Simmons

After climbing into Fitz’s chamber, Simmons finds a label with alien language on it. She comes out excited saying that she knows that’s where Fitz is. The team is ready to go home to regroup and see their families. They say it’s too dangerous and that they may not make it back from that deep in space.

During the argument, the Confederacy shows up and fires on their ship. After first trying to hide they realize they have to flee. Quake tells the team to put in the coordinates for Earth but Simmons has already put the coordinates for the planet she thinks Fitz is on and pulls the lever.

Coulson???

Mack and his new scientist are looking at the guy who got stuck in the wall when he wakes up and says that “Pachakutiq” is coming and that they can’t stop it. He drops a device and Mack quickly realizes that it is giving coordinates and a time. They make it to the Museum of Natural History in Indiana after our bad guys have already made their way inside to blow it up.

There is one woman among them and she fakes being a hostage to distract the team. That’s when the portal is opened and the museum explodes. There’s a huge cloud of smoke and everyone is disoriented. May, Keller, Yo-Yo, and another new guy are on the scene. The new kid grabs the lady who faked being a hostage and holds her at gunpoint as a large vehicle comes flying out of the dust where the museum previously was and almost hits May.

That’s when Coulson steps out of the vehicle and asks the new guy to let the lady go. The kid recognizes him and says “you’re from S.H.I.E.L.D.,” clearly confused. Coulson shoots him and says he’s never heard of it and leaves with the lady. Through her disorientation and the smoke, May sees Coulson but it’s blurry so it’s not clear if she recognizes him.

At the very end of the episode, we see Fitz talking to some alien in another language. He injects something into his neck that turns his eyes alien green before walking out.

What to make of it

So hologram Coulson wasn’t enough. The new big bad is not a random character that looks like Coulson but some version of Coulson according to the clip from the next episode. The character mentions that the name seems familiar though he doesn’t seem to know what it means. We’ll learn what all of this is at some point but right now it’s not clear what we should make of this new threat.

We’ll have to keep watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D to find out.

What did you think of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 6 premiere? What do you think about this version of Coulson? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns next Friday at 8/7 Central on ABC.