Written by: Monica Owusu-Breen

Directed by: Vincent Misiano

Plot: With their WORLD turned upside down, Coulson races to save the life of his one true love as the mystery of “The Cellist,” which began in Marvel’s The Avengers, is finally revealed.

Review: It’s interesting to know how something that could have easily just been a throwaway line could spark the imagination of a fan base.

In The Avengers, when Pepper Potts asks Agents Coulson how his relationship with his girlfriend, “The Cellist”, was doing  it sparked a huge discussion online to decipher who this Cellist was. Fan speculation of course goes straights to comics, so we started hearing theories that it could be Scarlet Witch because…fans want more super heroes.

Why did “The Cellist” cause such an interest? Well, it was the first time we got a hint of a life for Coulson that isn’t just running around investigating weird Marvel stuff, and the fact that we realized that he is leaving someone behind who will  miss him after he dies gave his death that added impact.

Will fans be ok to realize that “The Cellist” is nothing more then an innocent woman who got caught up in a sad situation? We’ll wait and see.

As a Whedon fan, it was nice to see another Angel alumni in this show and Amy Acker plays the Cellist, Audrey. She portrays the character very nicely, giving Audrey a sweet and natural charm that Acker usually brings to a role. Audrey is sadly not really much of a character. She is the kind of character that is about representing something that another character can’t have  rather then feeling like a living, breathing person. She’s a plot device, which is ok, but it would have been nice to get more than that.

In all honestly, the plot this week feels like it’s a bit like a episode of SHIELD from earlier in the season. It’s a “monster of the week” and Fitz and Simmons had to come up with a device to stop the monster of the week. Hell, the villain in this episode, Marcus Daniels, is obsessed with a woman to the point of stalking her, much like episode 9 (which was titled REPAIRS) .

Daniels is an ok villian , but I felt mostly underwhelmed by the actors performance and by the characters motivation.

In case you were wondering, Marcus Daniels is in fact a comic book character whose name is, appropriately, Blackout. In the books he usually looks like this….

I’ve actually never heard of him, but upon looking him up it was cool that they kept that he was a scientist who working on something called “Darkforce.” Mostly, I like that they kept the name Darkforce, as it’s a very silly and very comic booky name and concept.

Best part about this episode, for me at least, is the lie detector sequence.

Reminiscent of the interrogation scene from the Firefly episode Bushwacked, it was a fun way to get deeper into the characters mindset and get more of their backstory  (Hey! Antoine Tripplett’s grandpa was a Howling Commando! That’s nifty! And Gemma’s answer to the question concerning what she finds in the box on the island will make Tumblr very happy.) It was a also a fun showcase for Patton Oswalt, especially when it came to do the lie detector on Ward. I’m gonna miss Oswalt in this show. Damn Ward for offing him.

So, how long can Skye and Ward play this cat and mouse game? It seems like at the very least, Ward could be truthful only about his feelings for Skye. We’ll see how much of is that going to be an act, or if Skye is the one thing keeping Ward from being a 100% evil Hydra agent.

As for Melinda May, while I’m not that surprised by her leaving, I’m actually really surprised by who we met in May’s post credits sequence.

If there was one place I never thought I see a reunion for “The Joy Luck Club” movie, it’s here on this show, but I loved seeing legendary actress Tsai Chin play Melinda May’s mother.  I also love that she too is a former badass spy who still has contacts. You wanna talk about spin offs? I’d watch a show about Agent May and her “retired” but kick ass mother.

Next week is going to be fun, as we are going to see the return of Maria Hill on the show, Deathlok is back, and will we come to a full on showdown between the team and Agent Ward? I’ll guess we’ll see.