Spoiler alert! Coulson was shanked by Loki in the Avengers! *gasssssssssssp!*
Now in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson has been revealed to be alive still. The origin surrounding his death is a mystery since Maria Hill specifically said in the pilot that Coulson "could never know the truth" about what really happened. Everyone that has been watching knows that whenever someone mentions Tahiti around Coulson he responds with, "It's a magical place."
What the heck does that even mean?! It was awesome R&R? It really is magical? Judging by the ratio of women to men in the picture above it certainly DOES look magical!
First off, the most obvious speculation is that Coulson is really just a L.M.D. (Life Model Decoy). They were mentioned in The Avengers and seems like a plausible reason for Coulson being alive. I also read an article somewhere and in the comments someone thought that in Episode 2 when Coulson was with Reyes and The Dwarfs (the flying scanner robots named after the Snow White dwarves), they saw "Coulson vision" which looks like an android's vision. If that is true, then Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. may have already given the candy away.
With that said, I decided to go a little "Googling" to see if I could find anything else related to Tahiti and Marvel. I ended up coming across a list of Marvel comics that had Tahiti featured in them. Most were just about the Beachcomber Hotel located there. I went through each one and the last one was an Iron Man comic (Iron Man, Vol 3, Issue 22).
In this Iron Man comic, he teams up with Thor and they are trying to stop some mystic gems from being converted and releasing these deities who want to wage war. Very near Tahiti, there is a temple called the Temple of Valtorr on the ocean floor.
Based on these facts:
1) There is a magical temple near Tahiti
2) Dr. Strange has been rumored for Phase 3
3) Scarlet Witch is in Age of Ultron
4) The Writers and/or Producers of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have stated that all powers will have some sort of science explained reason...
5) Every episode has made reference to the heroes of The Avengers
I'm beginning to think that Coulson may possibly have been magically brought back. Since the temple is on the ocean floor, perhaps this is Marvel's way of introducing audiences to Namor through the show. Perhaps these gems in the temple were used to heal Coulson enough that they could transfer some form of consciousness to an android body. This might explain the rumored robot vision and the fact that Coulson has a pre-programmed "It's a magical place" response every time Tahiti is mentioned.
This may also be Marvel's way of getting people used to the fact that magic will be a part of Thor, Age of Ultron, and upcoming Dr. Strange project(s). Who knows.
What are everyone's thoughts? Sound off below!