Out of the Past

"Out of the Past" is the fourth episode of the seventh season of the American television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D., it follows a Life Model Decoy of Phil Coulson and his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they race to stop the Chronicoms from unraveling history in 1955. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and acknowledges the franchise's films. The episode was written by Mark Leitner and directed by Garry A. Brown. Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series, starring alongside Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Elizabeth Henstridge, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, and Jeff Ward. The episode remains in 1955 after the characters traveled to that year in the previous episode, but takes on a film noir tone and is shown almost entirely in black and white; the episode was filmed in color like other episodes of the series before being re-graded to be black and white. Its title is a reference to the 1947 noir film of the same name. Guest star Enver Gjokaj reprises his role of Daniel Sousa from the MCU television series Agent Carter. "Out of the Past" originally aired on ABC on June 17, 2020, and was watched by 1.40 million viewers. It received generally positive reviews for its noir tone and black and white imagery. Plot Following the events of "Alien Commies from the Future!", the Phil Coulson LMD has been arrested by S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Daniel Sousa for trespassing on Area 51. Coulson is currently seeing the world in black-and-white and hearing an internal monologue due to damage sustained while battling the Chronicoms. Realizing today is the day Sousa is killed by the Russians after delivering vital technology to Howard Stark, Coulson uses his historical knowledge to impersonate Sousa's contact and convince him they are to pick up the device while in transit. He also makes contact with his team via their Chronicom ally Enoch to let them know what he is doing.