I’m glad that the writers decided to do this now, instead of leading us on until the end of the season. If nothing else, season four has been about putting things back the way they’re supposed to be after season three. Daisy is now back with SHIELD, and Coulson is more or less leading things. Albeit with Mace as the public face of the agency.
I will say, even though we’re jumping around a bit right here, that I’m a little sad that they’ve found yet another way to keep Coulson out of the public eye. I’m assuming the reason they keep doing this is because they don’t want to have to reference it in the films. But SHIELD is back in the public eye, so that will have to be mentioned at some point, right? I don’t see the big deal anymore.
Anyways, the episode began with a neat little reference to Luke Cage. It’s a blink and you’ll miss it kind of thing, but during the end of the press conference, the sniper shoots at Director Mace with a Judas Bullet. If you don’t remember what that is, it was the special bullet that was bought from Hammer Tech in order to injure Luke Cage.
After the attack, Coulson, Mack, and Mace are separated from the rest of the crew. It was a little odd to see the quinjet sabotaged, and I wonder if they’ll ever explain who that was. As Coulson remarked, someone would have needed deep knowledge of SHIELD protocols. A lot of names were thrown around, like Senator Nadire, Hydra, and the Watchdogs. I’m not sure if any of them are connected, and bringing Hydra back into the mess seems like a bad idea. Especially after their seemingly definitive end in the last season.
Meanwhile, the LMD (Life Model Decoy) storyline continued to move forward. Radcliffe retooled Aida a bit in order to make sure she didn’t kill anyone the next time things were compromised. It’s interesting to note that he isn’t so desperate to get the Darkhold that he wants to kill people for it. But now that he’s banned from SHIELD HQ for a bit, the May LMD is on her own.
As things continue on the ground level, we discover that Director Mace doesn’t have powers, and isn’t even an Inhuman. Instead, he’s a science experiment. Apparently Talbott and the defense department – or something – recreated a version of the serum that powered Daisy’s father. Which as Simmons and Fitz said, only makes them mostly idiots. Talbott did mention that they’d taken out most of the side effects, so I wonder if that’s something that will come back to haunt them or not.
Two notes on the ending. The first is that I don’t know how many times Fitz has to lie in order to realize it probably isn’t a good idea. I know he means well, by trying to figure out what happened to Aida, but Simmons is only going to take so much. I’m not entirely sure why he’s constantly going down this self-destructive path. My only thought is that it will eventually lead him realize that Radcliffe is behind everything and he’ll be betrayed by his friend.
Finally, the May LMD is beginning to become self aware. What this means going forward, I have no idea honestly. It seems a bit early for her to realize this sort of thing, especially when she hasn’t actually done anything for Radcliffe yet. And where are the other LMDs? Is it just going to be the two of them for the whole story? Or will Fitz confront Radcliffe, be kidnapped, and then have an LMD put out for him? Also remember when Radcliffe said the purpose of the LMD program was so Fitz and Simmons didn’t have to lose any of their friends again? That seems to have disappeared. Maybe that’s what the Darkhold is ultimately for? I still feel like this storyline needs a bit more focus before it can match the earlier Ghost Rider story.
Written by Peter Freeman, TV & Animation Writer -- Click to read Peter's posts
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