‘Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD’ Spoilers: Is Phil Coulson A Life Model Decoy? Agent Coulson’s Return Explained!

"Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" will premiere its third episode "The Asset" next week, and although we know about super heroes, villains, and Norse gods we still don't know just how exactly Agent Phil Coulson seemingly returned from the grave. Clark Gregg previously revealed his return to his infamous role as Coulson, who notably died in "The Avengers" after engaging in combat with Loki. Now, in the new TV series, which is set in the world post the Avengers initiative, Coulson is back without much of an explanation.

While the audience has yet to learn just how Coulson returned to his Agent status and life itself, we do know that the true answers to that are secure and classified. In the pilot episode, Maria Hill reveals that even Coulson himself must never discover just how he returned from the dead. As far as he knows, he did die at Loki's hands but was immediately resuscitated by S.H.I.E.L.D. medics and sent to recover in Tahiti. Nick Fury withheld this information from the Avengers to give them something to fight for and "avenge" his death. But after Hill's comment in the pilot episode of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", this is certainly not what happened.

So if Coulson wasn't revived on scene, what exactly did happen to the Agent? Maybe Coulson simply didn't die. I mean it wouldn't be completely out of the question that Coulson could survive a knife wound, and that would explain why Fury showed Tony Stark and Steve Rogers the bloody Captain America cards instead of just revealing his dead body. But then why exactly would Maria Hill say that Coulson must never know how he returned. Considering the world of Marvel, Phil Coulson was returned but not by medicine. The best theory we can come up with, and our favorite theory, is that Coulson is a Life Model Decoy. Think about it, what if Coulson did die, which seems most likely, and he was "brought back" and is now a robot? Life Model Decoys would not be a new part of S.H.I.E.L.D, they were a popular plot inclusion in the graphic novels used by such characters as Tony Stark and Nick Fury. A LMD is a robot that was exclusively designed by S.H.I.E.L.D, and is used to take the form of the person, essentially becoming his or her clone.

The owner of the LMD possesses all the senses through the body and has the ability to control everything the body does. But wouldn't Coulson know if his brain was just in some tank floating around? Wouldn't he feel the difference between his real body and the LMD? Be sure to watch episode 3 of "Marvel's Agents of SHIELD" on Oct. 8 at 8pm!"

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