Score: 7
“The Well” is the episode that ties into the Thor: The Dark World. It starts with Coulson’s team cleaning up the destruction left in Greenwich, England during the final battle between Thor and Malekith in the movie. Coulson is annoyed as the Asgardians leave another massive mess, like the Chatiuri invsation in New York. In his words, he wants them to send down a “God of Cleaning Up After Yourself”. Skye asks Coulson what he knows about the Asgardians. He reiterates the concept that earlier human beings could not understand that Asgardians were aliens and thus confused them as Gods. Accordingly, it is the basis for Norse mythodology. While Skye wishes the alien ship was left behind so she could experience piloting it, Coulson warns that nothing ever good came from something alien being in human hands. In a funny play on words, Skye notes that she “wouldn’t mind getting my human hands on Thor. He’s so dreamy.” While Coulson tries to downplay Thor’s look as “handsome”, the usually reserved Agent Melinda May agrees Thor is dreamy. I like how the opening sequence in the episode references the Thor movies.
Moreover, it does an excellent job expanding on the Asgardian world. A long time ago, a group of Asgardian warriors known as Beserker Army had the strength of twenty men and fought like beasts. The source of their power is the Beserker staff, which amplifies the anger of anyone who touches it to increase his strength and violence. When they fought on Earth, one of the soldiers stayed behind. As he did not want the staff falling into the wrong hands, he broke it into three parts and hid them. As it is a powerful item, people have been looking for it for centuries. In the episode, a group of individuals are finding the pieces and gaining superhuman strength to cause destruction. They want to obtain all three pieces to gain the strength to be Gods on Earth. This group is inconsequential to the substance of the episode. The Beserker story is very well done. When Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, first landed on Earth in his first movie and S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson consulted a professor on Norse mythology, Professor Randolph (Peter MacNicol). Coulson seeks the advice of the professor again. Accordingly, Randolph briefs Coulson about the staff and the Beserker story. The episode also does a great job with a twist related to Randolph’s plethora of knowledge about Asgardians and the Beserker.
As the staff is dangerous, Coulson’s team scours the Earth to find the other pieces of the staff before anyone else can. During that search, Agent Grant Ward touches the staff and gets affected by its magic. He gets aggressive and enhanced strength. Nevertheless, Ward recognizes he has a problem with the violent nature that the staff causes. As such, he is able to direct his rage toward the mission. Moreover, the staff fuels his anger by reminding him of a specific moment with his brother. It is a scene where one of them is at the bottom of the well and the other at the top. The brother at the top is unable to drop a rope as another boy threatens to push him in if he does. However, it is very unclear whether Ward is in the well or at the top. I tend to believe Ward is at the top as the boy at the bottom of the well appears to be drowning. It is ambiguous on purpose as Ward is very reserved and does not want to share his personal life. Nevertheless, I thought the show should have saved Ward’s story for another time. He is a great fighter but has lacked personality in the show. As such, a full episode should have been devoted to develop the character and his backstory. Hinting at an origin story and not going anywhere with it is pointless. The episode should have strictly stuck to the Beserker story.
As Coulson is aware of the effect the staff had on Ward in bring back a suppressed memory, he thinks about touching the staff himself believing that it could bring him back to the gap in his memories between the moment he was killed by Loki and his resurrection. Coulson is tempted but ultimately does not grab the staff. Nevertheless, the episode ends with having a flashback to waking up to a massage in Tahiti. When he says that “Tahiti seems too good to be true”, the masseuse answers “it’s a magical place”. It is a reference to Coulson’s robotic auto-response throughout the season. The show has hinted at a good story behind Coulson’s death. I am hopeful it will be.
About Pat Wong
Patrick is a contributor for Rookerville. He is an avid sports fan. Before joining Rookerville, he was part of a defunct New York Yankees message board, NYYankeefans, where he was its top poster and was inducted in its Hall of Fame for his contributions. Patrick is also a passionate fan of movies. He has enjoyed reading movie reviews over the years and is excited about the opportunity to review movies. Patrick is also a passionate foodie. He is Yelp Elite for three years in a row and shares his great finds in New York and his travels.