The last time fans saw Director Phil Coulson, he had just brutally murdered Grant Ward in the Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. midseason finale episode, “Maveth.” As the show gets ready to make its midseason return, star Clark Gregg is forced to consider how that moment has changed Coulson.

"I don't think he comes back with any easy answer. I think in the moment, it felt like the only course of action possible to him," Gregg tells TV Guide. "I don't think he's going to know for some time if this was a terrible mistake that changes him and maybe turns him into a super-villain - it becomes, really, a show about a team run by a super-villain - or not."

Gregg goes to clarify that the long stare he shared with Leo Fitz after their return from Maveth doesn’t necessarily indicate any kind of ill-will towards his teammate.

"I didn't feel there was any malice towards Fitz," he says. "He just didn't care too much about anything in that moment. And that's a dark place that Fitz saw him in, and that's a dark place that he goes back to his team in."

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.returns o ABC on March 8.