Josh provides this week’s episode recap of Agents of SHIELD, titled The Well. This episode revolves around events from Thor: The Dark World, and also delves into Agent Ward’s past some. Come see what both Violet and Josh thought of this week’s Agents of SHIELD episode!
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Agents of SHIELD, Season 1 Episode 8: The Well Recap Overview
Need a quick Agents of SHIELD episode recap of Season 1 Episode 8, titled The Well? Here is a summary of events for the episode. Each event is linked to the more detailed Agents of SHIELD episode recap for The Well if you need more information!
- The SHIELD team is cleaning up the alien mess left by the Asgardians. Meanwhile, hikers find a magical rod they were looking for, which seems to have given them superhuman strength
- Fitz and Simmons figure out the rod is Asgardian. Meanwhile, the rod finders have gone on a rampage in the city. Talking with a Norse history professor, he confirms it is the Berserker’s Staff of Asgardian legend.
- May and Skye come up with options to search for other pieces of the staff. Ward finds Randolph, the history professor, attempting to steal a section of it, and Ward becomes infected with its rage power.
- Professor Randolph turns out to be the Asgardian who was the previous staff owner. Coulson and Ward get the location of the final staff piece out of Randolph, but it is already gone when they go to pick it up–and Randolph is impaled with it by the Cultlist leader.
- Coulson and Simmons try to save Randolph, while Ward battles the cultists using the powers of the staff.
- Coulson is able to revive Randolph, and May and Ward are able to stop the Cultists. Ward and May have a “shin-dig” it would seem. Coulson has a nightmare about Tahiti.
Agents of SHIELD episode Recap: The Well, the Details
The Alien Rod
In Season 1 Episode 8 of Agents of SHIELD, titled The Well, we begin in outer space, and Simmons is narrating. She discusses that other worlds now are known to exist, and left us with a big mess to clean up. Ward, Simmons and Fitz are cleaning up all the alien debris, and Simmons seems to be dodging her parents’ phone calls. Skye is asking what other aliens are out there. Fitz finds a piece of alien technology, and locks it away.
Meanwhile, we see some park rangers looking at a spray painted sign. Two hikers seemed to have found something they were searching for in the woods, and use a chainsaw to get to it. The two rangers hear the chainsaw and go investigate. Inside the tree, the chainsawer finds what he was looking for: a rod shaped device, which looks alien. The girl touches the rod, and it seems to be changing her somehow, and she is able to shove the ranger 20 feet with a simple push.
The Berserker Staff
In the forest, Ward is trying to help Simmons cross a beam, which she seems to be scared of. Ward tries to distract her from the fear as she progresses up the tree farther. Coulson talks with the surviving ranger, and learns of the raging girl. Meanwhile, using some technology, Fitz and Simmons are able to figure out the rod found was Asgardian.
Agent May and Skye see that the man and woman who took the rod are on a rampage, as they are found on TV wreaking havoc in a city.
Ward identifies the two men as Norse Pagan cult leaders. Coulson tried to contact Thor for help, but no luck. Coulson decides to hit up Professor Randolph, to see if he can help with the markings on the rod that Fitz has 3D replicated. He identifies it as a piece of the Berserker Staff, which causes warriors to rage out of control when battling. We learn that the staff was broken into three pieces, and hidden in three areas. Randolph then tells them the riddles of the two remaining pieces’ location. They start searching for the remaining pieces.
Ward’s Rage
May and Skye find a couple options to search as far as cities. They hit their current location, Seville, Spain first, and Ward and Skye are on the ground doing the search. Fitz has spotted something on his machine, and Ward finds that Randolph has attempted to steal the staff. Ward touches the staff and it seems to be infecting him. Randolph tries to make his escape, but the people who found the first piece of the staff find him and take his part.
Back aboard the plane, Simmons is examining Ward. Ward says it is a waste of time, and Coulson interrogates Randolph. He says he just wanted to study the staff. Simmons notices that Ward’s heart rate is rising and his adrenaline is getting high. He begins to rage. He refuses to take a sedative to help.
Ward has gone boxing and he seems to be having memories of a child stuck in a well. May comes and pays him a visit, and nearly gets decked in the face. She offers to help calm him down, but he refuses. Meanwhile, the Pagan Cultists begin passing out “hits” of the Staff’s power.
Professor Randolph is More than a Professor
Coulson talks with Ward, and Ward admits he may be compromised, due to the staff unlocking his first memory of hate. Coulson says because he has admitted this, he can trust him. He then turns Ward onto Randolph. We then learn that Randolph is Asgardian, as he stops the knife Ward nearly shanks him with. Coulson, we learn, already expected this.
We learn that he is the Asgardian that had the staff before. Turns out the story of the peaceful warrior he told the girl he fell in love with was all a hoax. Randolph initially refuses to help with the search for the last piece. He comes clean, telling them it is in an Irish monastery. Ward asks Randolph about the effects of the staff, and the rage is very temporary, but not the thoughts put in his head by it.
The team comes down for the staff, but it’s already gone. The cultist leader stabs Randolph in the chest. To stop him, Ward touches the staff again, and tackles the leader.
Agent May is Zen
Coulson, Fitz and Simmons try to save Randolph, as Ward fights more of the cult members. Skye and May try to calm him down, while Ward is being taken over by his memories of his brother. We see the full scope of the memory, and a bully tossed his brother in a well. Grant tries to help, but the older boy won’t let him. Grant tries to finally sneak the rope down.
Exhausted, the woman cult leader comes to fight. Agent May takes the staff sections herself and puts them together, then takes care of her, seemingly unaffected by the staff’s effects. Randolph has managed to survive.
Afterwards, Simmons talks with her father, not dodging the calls anymore. Agent May and Ward talk, and he asks her how she was able to handle all three sections. She says because she sees the picture given every day as it is.
Ward and May Have a Connection
Randolph talks with Coulson, and Coulson tells him about his own death, and how he doesn’t remember much about it. Randolph takes off to live in a new area, so he can blend back in.
Ward heads to a bar, and Skye meets up with him. She asks how he is doing, and he says, “not great”. Ward tells her that his visions were about his brother, but doesn’t reveal the details. She offers to be someone he can talk to. but he declines her offer. He spots Agent May, going to her hotel room, holding a bottle of alcohol. She leaves her door open after making eye contact with Ward, and Ward decides to pay her a visit…
We see that Coulson is in Tahiti it seems. Getting the massages he always talks about. It seems it was a nightmare of some sort…?
Josh’s Thoughts: Agents of SHIELD, Season 1 Episode 8: The Well
I thought the idea of this week’s episode, tying into Thor: The Dark World seemed like a good idea. Sadly, the really only tie into the movie is that they’re cleaning up the mess, and they happen to work with another Asgardian who doesn’t even know Thor. It hardly even touched on the events of the movie, as it had been advertised it would.
As for the story, it was a pretty good one. I was a little confused by Ward’s back story. I guess I was expecting more resolution from that. Did the kid in the well die? Was Ward able to save him? I do not think that is ever fully resolved. We see him lowering a rope to him, but never if he is actually able to rescue him.
I actually thought Agent May was pretty awesome this episode, with her end battle scene, where she is able to maintain her rage while wielding all three Berserker Staff sections. I was surprised however, when Agent Ward slips into Agent May’s room. Are they going to just chat over a glass of booze? Or was a little more going to happen? That seemed to come out of nowhere, as Skye/Ward seemed like the relationship being pushed at first.
I guess the biggest question I have is this: Why is Tahiti a nightmare for Coulson? Nothing seemed to be bad in that sequence, yet he wakes up startled and shaken from the nightmare. There has to be more than just a beach side vacation going on in Tahiti for Coulson.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 8 of Agents of SHIELD: The Well
Alright, so when Ward was in his rage and yelled at Skye, asking why won’t she stop talking, saying all she ever does is talk, and she just likes to hear the sound of her own voice — I can’t be the only one that totally agreed with what he said, right?? Rage or no rage, I think he just about summed up the feelings of a large portion of the Agents of SHIELD audience towards Skye! I felt bad for what Ward said to Fitz though, because this is a raw subject that they just talked about in the last episode, about Fitz wanting to save Simmons, but Ward jumping in and saving her before Fitz had the chance. But back to Skye, I think these are Ward’s real feelings toward her, or else he wouldn’t have rejected her at the end when she offered to let him talk about his problems with her. He didn’t want to put up with her running her mouth, and that’s why he went back to his room. Of course, that is when he met up with Agent May, who is the opposite of Skye in regards to needlessly talking, and followed May into her room. At first I was like, wait, what? May and Ward?? Did not see that one coming! But then I figured they were trying to make it look like more than it was, and that they’re probably just going to drink a few and discuss how to harness the rage.
Speaking of the rage, which Randolph said would go away in a few decades, will that be something that comes up in future episodes? Or will it magically be gone because of the drunken discussion that Ward had with May? That would be dumb if it never came up again. What exactly is the source of Ward’s rage anyway? It feels like the story of the well was incomplete. Does the other kid come back and beat Ward up and throw him in the well because he lowered the rope down to his brother? We will ever get the rest of the story, or are we just supposed to assume what happened next? Or was that actually supposed to be the whole story? In any case, I am glad that the season has continued to progress by focusing on each of the different characters. It’s a vast improvement from the beginning of the season, and I’m starting to enjoy the show more. I also enjoyed seeing May kick butt again! She was awesome! I have a feeling that with her comment about seeing “it” every day, May might be the next character the show focuses on, so that we can find out what “it” is.
Overall, I was not very impressed with this episode, and was a little disappointed. There was all this hype about it being a tie in with the recently released Thor: The Dark World movie, but all that happened was that they were cleaning up the mess that had been made in the movie. Other than that, the rest of the episode just conveniently happened to be about Asgardians — a little too conveniently if you ask me. There was no relation whatsoever to the movie in this episode, and in all honesty, other than the cleanup, the events of this episode could have happened at any time. It was just a bit too coincidental that all this occurred right after the events Thor: The Dark World, and right as they’re cleaning up after that. Not to mention that it was a little too convenient that the second piece just happened to be in the city they were already in. Plus, the rod seekers seemed to be able to find the other pieces way too easily. Randolph really should have done a better job putting distance between the three pieces. It just bothers me when there’s too much convenience in one episode.
However, I do want to know more about Coulson’s Tahiti nightmare. It’s getting a little annoying just getting just a tiny piece of information about Coulson’s situation every episode. Looks like they’re going to milk this mystery for all it’s worth. I’m also looking forward to learning more about Agent May. Let’s hope the next episode is a good one!
Scenes from Agents of SHIELD, Episode 9, Repairs
Here are scenes from the next Agents of SHIELD episode, titled Repairs:
Scenes from Agents of SHIELD, Season 1 Episode 9: Repairs
What did you think about Season 1 Episode 8 of Agents of SHIELD, titled The Well? Let us know in the comments below!
