It’s been the sole mystery which has been driving Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. from the start, and now the time has finally come to reveal what all happened to Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) after he heroically died in The Avengers and was whisked away to "Tahiti", leaving behind a certain cellist with a broken heart.

After being kidnapped by Centipede – and unceremoniously killing Mike Peterson (J. August Richards) in the process (or not) – Coulson was held captive in “the town that the bomb forgot”, surrounded by hundreds of miles of desert. Though Coulson initially fought off the pokes and prodding of Raina (Ruth Negga) and the phoned-in Clairvoyant, he quickly folded when details of how his beloved musician handled his death were revealed.

As it turns out, Coulson was not on a beach in Tahiti; instead he was strapped to a gurney with doctors surrounding him as he continuously begged them to let him die, and throughout the operation, a machine was operating on his exposed brain. Agent Coulson was dead for days, and it wasn't until the seventh operation that they were finally successful in bringing him back to life. That’s it!

Agents of Shield - Coulson Death Operation

So after 11 hours of television entertainment... was the partial reveal worth it? Share your thoughts and theories in the comments!

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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Tuesdays @8pm on ABC