Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4, Episode 19: All The Madame's Men

This week on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., the pieces are all falling into place as we can begin to see AIDA's endgame.

We also get the return of yet another long-dead character inside The Framework, as Sunil Bakshi pops up as a propaganda-slinging Bill O'Reilly TV blowhard.

And we finally find out just what Project Looking Glass really does, as the writers may have just revealed how they plan bring back an old character for good!

SPOILERS!

The Plot:

We’re still inside The Framework this week. We see Sunil Bakshi, who hosts his own propaganda-spewing show called the Bakshi Report. He feeds the public a fake news story, claiming the Patriot attacked and destroyed the Hydra Enlightenment Camp (which is just the opposite of what actually happened last week). 

Inside Hydra HQ, Daisy completes her Terrigenesis, courtesy of Agent May, who’s decided to switch sides. In addition to restoring her quake powers, the Terrigenesis healed her many injuries sustained during her stay at Hydra. Daisy and May fight their way through wave after wave of Hydra agents as they try to escape the building.

They make their way to the elevators, where they’re confronted by Madame Hydra, aka AIDA, and a couple of her goons. They throw down their weapons and seemingly surrender to her. Just as AIDA starts monologuing, Daisy hits her with a quake blast, knocking her backwards. She crashes through the windows of the Triskelion and falls to the pavement several hundred feet below. Somehow she doesn’t explode on impact.

AIDA wakes up in the real world and sees the Superior standing over her. If you'll recall, at the end of Self Control, AIDA removed the Superior's head and placed it in a jar, and his brain now controls an LMD replica of himself. Why? Um... because comic books?

Anyway, AIDA tells LMD Superior that Daisy and May tried to kill her in The Framework. He pulls a gun on the real May, who’s lying comatose on a slab while she's hooked up to The Framework. Fortunately for May, he can’t seem to make himself pull the trigger. For some reason, AIDA built his LMD body with the same restrictions she has— she’s bound by her programming to protect the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents at all costs, and can’t physically harm them. Because Daisy and Simmons hacked into The Framework on their own though, they’re not covered by this limitation, and she’s free to kill them. She tells the Superior to find and kill them, pronto. OK, none of that makes any sense, since Daisy and Simmons are both S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and should fall under AIDA's programming restriction, but let’s just roll with it.

Back at Resistance/S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ, Coulson and the others debate how to carry on now that the Patriot is dead.

At the Triskelion, a doctor tends to the injured AIDA while Fitz and his father Alistair look on. The doctor tells Fitz that AIDA’s spine is shattered, and she’ll likely never recover. Fitz angrily sends him from the room. Alistair says that with AIDA incapacitated, Fitz is now the new head of Hydra! Fitz meets with Bakshi, who wants to interview AIDA to reassure the public. Fitz says he doesn’t want the public placated, he wants them afraid.

Bakshi goes on the air and announces that the terrorists “Skye” and Melinda May tried to kill Madame Hydra, and are dangerous enemies of the state. He urges the public to be on the lookout for them, and if they see something, to say something.

Back at S.H.I.E.L.D., Ward wants to go out and search for Daisy, but Coulson warns against it. Ward dismisses his concerns, pointing out that Coulson’s just a teacher, not an agent. Coulson reveals he was invited to join S.H.I.E.L.D. when he finished college, but passed because he was afraid. He realizes now that that was a mistake. Ward admits he was recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. as well, by Victoria Hand (Callback Alert!).

Daisy and May try to make their way to S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ, and see their faces on a billboard. Daisy says they’re too exposed out on the street, so they steal a car.

Back at S.H.I.E.L.D., Simmons examines the Project Looking Glass plans that Trip stole from Hydra last week. She realizes it uses Darkhold technology, which can generate matter from nothing. She says it’ll need a huge power source, and Trip says he heard chatter at Hydra about an oil rig in the Baltic. Simmons says the Superior had an oil rig in the real world, and that AIDA must be working with him.

Daisy and May make it to a S.H.I.E.L.D. outpost, and knock on the door (!). A Resistance fighter answers, sees May and pulls a gun on her. Suddenly a truck full of Hydra soldiers appears and open fire. They wound the Resistance grunt, and Daisy and May drag him inside and barricade the door. Burrows tells Coulson & Mack something’s happening at the contact point, and they go to check it out.

Inside the Resistance outpost, May admits to Daisy that she’s the one who called in the air strike that killed the Patriot. Daisy tells her it wasn’t her fault, as AIDA and Hydra both messed with her head.

Meanwhile, Fitz sits with AIDA. Alistair tells him that Bakshi’s fear-mongering is working, and their forces are closing in on Daisy and May. AIDA wakes up and makes Fitz promise to finish Project Looking Glass.

The Hydra troops break into the Resistance outpost, and Daisy and May take them out easily. Just then Coulson and Mack arrive. Mack sees May, and recognizes her as the Hydra agent who raided his house and threatened his daughter Hope. He points his gun at her, but Coulson talks him down, saying he doesn’t know why, but he trusts May.

Simmons and Trip fly a Quinjet to the Superior’s oil rig. They discover there’s a huge facility deep under water, below the rig. They infiltrate it, expecting to find Project Looking Glass there, but the place is completely empty. Simmons realizes that the Project is actually being built in the real world. AIDA plans to use to become a real girl, utilizing the Darkhold tech to create an actual human body for herself. Once she does so, she’ll be free of her restrictive programming and can kill the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents (and finally feel real emotions too).

Alistair tells Fitz that Daisy and May escaped. Fitz shrieks at his father, who shuts him down quick. He assures Fitz they’ll find the traitors. Fitz says he’d better, as he has to send a message that failure won’t be tolerated, even from his own father. Alistair tortures interrogates Radcliffe, asking him where to find Daisy and Simmons. Radcliffe laughs at him, pointing out that Alistair’s a pathetic drunk in the real world. That earns him another beatin.’

Coulson and the others return to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Resistance HQ. Daisy feels dumb for not realizing that the S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ inside The Framework would be in the same spot as it is in the real world (!). Ward’s happy to see Daisy, and they discuss what’ll happen when she leaves virtual world. Coulson examines May’s body cam footage of the air strike on the Enlightenment Center, which showed Hydra planes bombing a building full of kids. He says it’s the perfect anti-propaganda to sway the public to their side.

Daisy tells Coulson that Radcliffe told her how to escape The Framework, and they don’t have to go on any further missions that don’t matter in this fake world. Coulson says they can’t just leave The Framework in this state, and believes if they solve its problems, they’ll solve their own. Doesn’t make any sense, but they’ve got three more episodes to fill, so I guess this is what we’re going with.

Fitz finishes building Project Looking Glass, and tells AIDA it’s ready. He apparently knows what it’s for— to create a human body for her in the real world— and asks her to take him with her. So I guess that’s a thing that can happen?

Coulson and the others infiltrate Bakshi’s TV studio and take it over. As Coulson prepares to broadcast May’s footage, Ward tells Daisy that Hydra will try and stop them, and he’s willing to sacrifice himself to keep them on the air as long as possible. He says he wants Daisy to know he’s nothing like the Grant Ward from her world. Coulson records his message, and he and the others leave the station. Ward hits the switch, and the message goes out all over the country. In it, Coulson shows the shocking footage, and pretty much urges the public to rise up against Hydra.

Burrows enters the control room and tells Ward there’s a crowd outside the station. Ward grimly picks up his gun, ready to go out in a blaze of glory. Burrows then says it’s not Hydra outside, but the public, showing support for the Resistance. Jesus, why didn’t he just say that in the first place, instead of being dramatically vague?

In the real world, the Superior tells AIDA that he’s located Daisy and Simmons onboard Zephyr One, and prepares to rendezvous with the plane.

Thoughts:
• The late, great Bill Paxton makes a guest appearance on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. this week.! Well, sort of.

The episode opens in a TV studio which is airing The Bakshi Report. We see a bank of monitors displaying various graphics. One of the screens features a graphic saying, "In Memoriam: John Garrett, American Hero."

It's been a while since Garrett and Bakshi appeared on the show, so to refresh your memory, Garrett was the Big Bad back in Season 1. He was originally a high level S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, as well as a secret Hydra operative. He was injured during a mission and used Deathlok technology to extend his life. Later on he became the secret entity known as the Clairvoyant, and started the Centipede Project.

As for Bakshi, he was an assistant to Hydra leader Daniel Whitehall, and specialized in brainwashing experiments.

• During The Bakshi Report, there's a news crawl along the bottom of the screen. Among the stories in the news crawl:

"A UC Berkeley linguistics student has been arrested for harboring an Inhuman refugee in her dorm room (ten points to Gryfindor for spelling “Berkeley” right!)”

“...which commemorates the life and legacy of American hero John Garrett. (this one was incomplete, so I couldn't see the beginning of the line)”

“A new biography of Daniel Whitehall examines his close relationship with the Malick family. (Gideon Malick was one of the villains in Season 3)”

“New Inhuman Stop & Screen Program declared a major success after Hydra reports record number of incarcerations. (this one's obviously a not-so-subtle dig at Trump's ICE program, which targets the "bad hombres" who are in our country illegally)”

• One last thing about The Bakshi Report— it's a propaganda program, designed to misinform and sway public opinion. But take a look at Bakshi's logo. Would the general public really trust and believe in an organization whose logo is a stylized octopus with an evil skull for a head?

• It was extremely satisfying when Daisy blasted AIDA out the window of the Triskelion.

That said, is gravity different inside The Framework? AIDA falls a good twenty or thirty stories, and actually BOUNCES when she lands on the pavement far below! As a result of her fall, she suffers a shattered spine. That's it? She should have made a huge red splash from that height!

• With Agent May's help, Daisy undergoes Terrigenesis and gets her quake powers back inside The Framework.

Why do Inhumans and Terrigen exist in The Framework in the first place? Last week AIDA said she tweaked The Framework a bit to remove the biggest regrets of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents hooked up to it. So she can obviously has some degree of control over the parameters of this virtual world. So why didn't she just delete a couple lines of code and eliminate Terrigen altogether? That way there'd be no possibility of superpowered threats to her.

Even though it doesn't make much sense, I get why the writers added Inhumans to The Framework. AIDA's superhumanly intelligent, and could effortlessly alter the conditions inside the virtual world so there's absolutely no possibility for the heroes to overthrow her. They've got to give the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents a tiny advantage and level the playing filed a little bit, else there'd be no reason to watch.

• When LMD Superior points a gun at Agent May in the real world, he's unable to pull the trigger. When he asks what the hell, he and AIDA then have the following conversation.

LMD Superior: "What have you done to me? Why can I not kill her?"
AIDA: "Because I built you. The same parameters that limit me must also limit you. My primary directive requires me to protect these people."
LMD Superior: "Then we are both powerless."
AIDA: "Not entirely. If they become a direct threat to the Framework, then they no longer require protection."

So even though there're several helpless, comatose S.H.I.E.L.D. agents right there in front of AIDA in the real world, she can't kill any of them unless they threaten the virtual world she made. Doesn't May now pose a threat to The Framework? She just willingly transformed Daisy into an Inhuman, and now she's switched sides and is actively working with the Resistance to take down AIDA and Hydra. That sure sounds like "a threat to The Framework" to me!

• When Coulson takes Daisy to the top secret Resistance HQ, she feels stupid when she realizes it's the S.H.I.E.L.D. base, and even dumber when she realizes it's in the same spot as it is in the real world!

Um... how is it that AIDA never thought of that? She's been to S.H.I.E.L.D. in the real world! Why didn't she send a Hydra army to the base to wipe it out months ago? That's the first place she should have looked for the Resistance!

• Looks like Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. definitely believes in nurture over nature. Framework Ward was recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D. by Victoria Hand, who supported and guided him, making him into the decent fellow he is today.

Compare that to Real World Ward. He was recruited by secret Hydra agent John Garrett, who manipulated and twisted him into a cold, traitorous killer we saw in the first three seasons.

• Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. continues it's campaign against the Trump administration this week.

During Coulson's anti-propaganda speech that's beamed out over the airwaves, he says, "Hydra doesn't think we're smart enough to know when we're being fed alternative facts to keep us afraid, to keep them in power." 

This of course is a reference to Kellyanne Conway, who used the term in a Meet The Press interview back in January. Interviewer Chuck Todd asked why Conway why White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer lied about the size of the crowds at Trump's inauguration. Conway replied that Spicer's comments weren't falsehoods, but "alternative facts."

Naturally the internet went nuts over the comment, and a thousand "alternative facts" memes were born.

Toward the end of the episode, we see Bakshi brazenly hitting on an attractive female producer in his TV studio:

Producer: "That's very kind of you, Mr. Bakshi, but I couldn't possibly impose."

Bakshi: "I'm just saying, if you need to shop for furniture, I'll take you. I know just the place."

This is a reference to the infamous Donald Trump "Pussy Grabbing" tape, which was accidentally recorded backstage in 2005 while waiting to shoot his cameo appearance on Days Of Our Lives. 

In the tape, Trump brags to Access Hollywood's Billy Bush (whoever the hell that is) about how easy it is for a big shot celebrity like himself to bed any woman he sets his sights on. Our president, ladies and gentlemen!

Here's an excerpt from the tape:

Unknown Male: "She used to be great. She’s still very beautiful."

Trump: "You know I moved on her actually. You know she was down on Palm Beach. I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and f*ck her. She was married."

Unknown male: "That’s huge news."
Trump: "No, no, Nancy. No this was— and I moved on her very heavily, in fact. I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture, I said, ‘I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture."
Unknown Male: (laughs)
Trump: I took her out furniture. I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there, and she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look."

Obviously Trump must exist inside The Framework, and Bakshi was trying out some of the president's patented moves on his producer!

• During Coulson's anit-Hydra broadcast, he says (among other things): 

"Remember, there are more of us than there are of them. And now that we know the truth, we have a choice to make. We all have the opportunity to be patriots. Will you take a stand? Are you going to hold them accountable?"

Did Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. just encourage the public to rise up against the Trump administration? It sure sounded like it to me!

• So this week we find out the true function of Project Looking Glass— it uses Darkhold technology to create matter out of thin air. AIDA plans to use it to create a flesh and blood body for herself, one that can feel pain, experience emotions, and isn't bound by Radcliffe's restrictive programming.

I wonder... are the writers planning to use this device to turn Framework Ward into a real boy, and keep him around on the show? Think about it. The original Grant Ward was an irredeemable asshole who died a couple times last season. This would be the perfect way to reboot the character and bring him back full time. It would be convoluted as hell ("This is Grant Ward. He used to be a program in a virtual world, until we used a magic device to turn him into a real person), but it would make perfect sense in the universe of the show.

Assuming there's a Season 5, that is...

• This Week's Best Lines:

LMD Superior: "Has one of your playthings rebelled?"

AIDA: "Agent May has begun to question the narrative she was programmed with."

(I got news for you, AIDA, I question the narrative I was programmed with on a daily basis! Who the hell wrote this sh*t?)

Framework Ward: "Anyone else getting sick of this propaganda crap? It's like sipping poison. Little bit every day, you don't even notice till it kills you."

Coulson: "The smart move is to wait for her to reach out."

Framework Ward: "Look, this isn't your wheelhouse. I'm sure you're a good schoolteacher, but...uh, you're a schoolteacher."

Trip: (after Simmons explains the concept of The Framework to him) "Hey, I'm not gonna pretend to get all this, but I'm here to help."

Simmons: "You believe me? About another world?"

Trip: "Come on, girl. That's way too crazy a story to make up."

Alistair: "Don't you snap at me, boy. If I wanted you hysterical at every setback, I would have left you with your mother."

Daisy: (as she's brought into the Resistance Base, which is really S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ) "So the secret base is the base. Probably should've guessed that."

Alistair: "Do you think I don't know who you are? Where you're from? You come from that other world, just like them. You're just as tainted."

Radcliffe: "You want to talk about that 'other world,' as you call it? It's the real world. Here, you're just a snippet of code that Aida changed slightly so you'd stick around for Fitz. You may be part of his life here, but there Alistair Fitz is so thick, he doesn't recognize his own son's genius. He's a pathetic drunk. Even here, you're nothing without him. So do what you will. I've got nothing left to give. You'll be a disappointment to your son yet again."

Coulson: (as the Resistance infiltrates the Hydra TV studio) "Heard you were looking for some enemies of the state?"

Framework Ward: (to Daisy) "I know I'm not going with you when you leave, but I can still help out from this side. I would hate for you to think that I am anything like the Grant Ward you knew over there."

Coulson: (giving his anti-Hydra speech) "As you all know, a Hydra facility was destroyed yesterday. Hydra told you that it was an act of terrorism. They told you an Inhuman named the Patriot murdered civilians. But what they told you was a lie. We're gonna show you what really happened.

This footage was taken from the body-cam of a high-level Hydra operative. Hydra used this Enlightenment Center to brainwash anyone who dared to question them. Jeffrey Mace saved these people, but Hydra was willing to kill them just to maintain their lie. Once you see this footage, the truth is undeniable.

Hydra doesn't think we're smart enough to know when we're being fed alternative facts to keep us afraid, to keep them in power. Remember, there are more of us than there are of them. And now that we know the truth, we have a choice to make. We all have the opportunity to be patriots. Will you take a stand? Are you going to hold them accountable? 

Throughout history you've seen empires rise and fall. A wise man once told me that a person can do anything once they realize they're a part of something bigger. It's taken me a while to understand that. For years, I was just a face in the crowd, a history teacher who spread Hydra's lies. They seemed too imposing for any one person to fight. But now I'm choosing to stand up, to become a part of something bigger. I really do believe that together, we can accomplish anything. Because the truth is I'm not just a history teacher. My name is Phil Coulson and I'm an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4, Episode 18: No Regrets

This week in a jam-packed Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., an old favorite character makes a surprising return, a new character makes a shocking exit, we meet a member of Fitz's family and The Framework story arc finally starts picking up steam.

There're so many events and ideas crammed into this episode that's it's hard to know where to begin.

Last week I said this Framework story arc was OK, but so far just wasn't doing much for me. That all changed this week! In this episode the storyline's finally jump started, as it gains a brand new urgency. It's about time!

Due to a timely reference on the show last week, I wondered just when this current crop of episodes was actually filmed. Well, now we have a clue. This week's episode contains a blatant reference to the "Nevertheless, she persisted" incident involving Senator Elizabeth Warren back in February of this year. 

Apparently the answer as to when these episodes were filmed is "sometime between February and now!" That's a pretty quick turnaround!

SPOILERS FROM HERE ON!

We got the surprising return of Trip this week, as well as our first ever look at Fitz's long-lost father. Odd that the first time we see actually Alistair Fitz on the show, he's not even a real person!

This week cracks begin to appear in Agent May's steely exterior, as she begins to question Hydra and her place in the organization. Eh, I felt that her sudden change of heart seemed awfully abrupt and unearned. 

For the past two episodes she's been marching around like an SS officer, then suddenly this week she sees a couple kids in danger and does a complete 180º turn. I suppose part of her turn could be chalked up to the shock of the situation causing her to remember the real world and her real self. Still, it seemed a bit too quick. I guess that's only natural though, as the season (and possibly the series) is rushing to its conclusion.

We got to see The Patriot go out like the true hero he always wanted to be, in a surprisingly touching scene.

TV shows don't get much better than this, guys. It's a shame more people aren't watching. Actually I'm kind of worried that the series isn't going to be renewed for a fifth season. See, this fall ABC plans to air an Inhumans TV series, but rumor has it it'll be completely separate from the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. continuity. 

That seems odd (and a bit of a slap in the face), as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been featuring and setting up the concept of Inhumans for the past three seasons.

The fact that this new series has nothing to do with S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't bode well for the future. It's be really confusing if they had TWO different series about completely unrelated and contradictory groups of Inhumans. I'm afraid ABC's gonna scuttle the show so it doesn't step on their fancy new series. Hopefully I'm wrong.

SPOILERS!

The Plot:
Coulson and Mace stage a car crash on the route of a Hydra prisoner transport bus. Coulson believes they're attempting to rescue Daisy, but Mace says he's hoping to acquire a more important prisoner. When the bus stops, Coulson and Mace dispatch the drivers. They search the bus, but all they find are corpses in body bags. Fortunately Daisy's not among them. They commandeer the bus and return to S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ.

At Hydra, Fitz interrogates Daisy. He says he knows she's from the Other Side and somehow replaced the "real Skye" as part of a plot to take over the world. Daisy realizes these are the lies AIDA's been feeding him. Fitz tells her she won't succeed, as he and AIDA plan to go to the Other Side and conquer it.

Back at S.H.I.E.L.D., Mace tells Mack to switch the plates on the Hydra bus and wipe its GPS. He wants to use it to rescue an important operative with valuable info from a Hydra "Enlightenment Center." Mace and Ward don't quite trust Simmons, so they sit her down for a talk. She tells them about The Framework, and how nothing inside it is real. She says Mace is wasting his time and risking his life on pointless missions that don't matter in the real world. Mace refuses to believe this, saying he has an entire past that he remembers, and every mission he goes on is important. After Simmons leaves, Mace orders Ward to investigate her story and find out if she's lying or not.

AIDA tells May they have a weapon that may be able to defeat Mace, aka the Patriot. She warns May that there may be risks, but she volunteers anyway. May reports to a Hydra doctor, who tells her he's created a super-soldier serum (which is likely the same one that Calvin Zabo, aka Mr. Hyde, aka Daisy's dad used in the real world). May notices there are Terragen crystals in the lab (Plot Point Alert!. The doctor assures her the serum is non-Terragen based, and injects her. She grimaces in pain as the serum takes effect. The doctor tells her she'll now have super strength for about an hour.

AIDA meets with Daisy, who asks why she would make such a hellish virtual world. AIDA says all she did was remove one regret from every person hooked to The Framework, and the resulting world is a natural extrapolation of that. She tells the beaten and tortured Daisy she can make all her pain go away. All she has to do is tell her where she is in the real world, and she can live out the rest of her life peacefully inside The Framework with her ex, Lincoln. For a moment Daisy actually looks like she's considering the offer.

Back at S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson volunteers to go with Mace to rescue the important operative. Simmons is reunited with Mack, who doesn't remember his life in the real world. He introduces her to his daughter Hope. Simmons watches Mack interact with Hope, and smiles. Ward asks her if she still believes they're all nothing but ones and zeroes. He asks her why she dislikes him so much, and she tells him it's because he's a murdering psycho. He apologizes to her for whatever happened in the real world.

At Hydra, Fitz meets with his father Alistair, who's alive and well inside The Framework. It doesn't take long to realize he's a horrible bastard, and the reason Fitz is a Bond villain in the virtual world. Fitz tells Alistair about killing Agnes last week, and wonders if it was necessary. Alistar berates Fitz, saying that's his mother talking, and Hydra doesn't have the luxury of sympathy. He then tells Fitz about a security breach in Project Looking Glass (Another Plot Point!), which will become important in a few minutes.

Daisy hears Radcliffe sobbing in the next cell. She says she has no sympathy for him, since he created The Framework in the first place. He tells her it wasn't supposed to be like this. He tells her there's a secret back door out of The Framework, one that AIDA doesn't know about.

Coulson drives the stolen bus to the Hydra Enlightenment Center. A suspicious guard inspects the bus, and finds a body bag in the back. Mace pops out of the bag and punches the guard. They infiltrate the building, and find a room full of people locked in small cages. Mace breaks them out, and we see one of the people is Antoine Triplett, aka Trip, who died in the real world back in Season 2!

Here in The Framework, Trip is a member of the Resistance, working for Mace. He infiltrated Hydra and took photos of something called Project Looking Glass (told you it would become important!). Trip hid the film in his boots, and begins searching for them. He finally finds them on a dead Hydra goon and recovers the film.

Coulson sees a Hydra classroom full of kids who're being "reeducated," Clockwork Orange-style. He spots two of his former students in the class, including Burnell (the kid who loaned Simmons his car in What If...). He tells Trip to go on, as he's going to stay behind and rescue the kids. Outside, Trip hands the film over to Mace, and tells him Coulson stayed behind. Mace gives the film to Burrows (Um... where'd he come from? Was he in one of the body bags too?) and tells him to get it back to S.H.I.E.L.D. on the double.

Burrows radios S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ and tells Ward that Mace needs backup. Ward mobilizes a team, including Mack. Simmons sees Mack with Hope, and realizes that virtual world or not, she doesn't want anything to take him away from his daughter. She volunteers to go in his place.

Mace heads back to the building to help Coulson, but is attacked by Super May. They have a brutal fight that eats up several minutes of screentime. Mace asks her why she's attacking, and she calls him a terrorist and a thug. Eventually Mace defeats Super May, and heads into the Enlightenment Center. May radios Hydra and tells them Mace got away. AIDA orders a Hydra Quinjet to open fire on the building, and bring her the body of Mace.

Inside, Coulson and Trip free the kids. A few of them get out before the Quinjet attacks the building, bringing half of it down. May runs into the building and sees kids struggling to get out of the collapsing building. She's shocked that Hydra would deliberately murder kids in order to terminate Mace. Ward and Simmons arrive, and also rush into the weakened building.

Inside they see Coulson, Trip and Mace trying to rescue the last of the kids. A beam falls from the ceiling, and Mace jumps under it, saving one of the kids from being crushed. May enters and tells them all to stop, but Coulson angrily tells her to snap out of it. He and Trip pull the kid from the rubble, and then try to rescue Mace. He tells them there's no time left, and to get out of the building. They all flee, except for May, who stays behind for a few seconds. She and Mace exchange meaningful looks, as she realizes he's not a thug after all, but a hero. She runs from the building. Coulson and the others load the kids onto their stolen bus. They hear a rumble, and turn the see the building collapse into rubble. The Patriot is dead, but he finally died being the hero he never got to be in reality.

Back in the real world, AIDA reviews the row of captive S.H.I.E.L.D. agents hooked up to The Framework. She notices Mace's vital signs have flatlined, and shuts off his monitor. Just like Freddy Krueger's dreamworld, when you die in The Framework, you die for real.

Later, May visits Daisy in her cell. She asks if it's true that she's an Inhuman. Daisy tells her if she had her powers, she could bring down the whole Triskelion. May says, "I hope so," and throws a Terragen crystal at Daisy's feet. The gas escapes and encases Daisy in a cocoon as she smiles.

Thoughts:
• The second that Mace started infodumping his backstory to Simmons, I should have known his number was up. That's the same trick The Walking Dead uses on practically a weekly basis. Secondary character suddenly starts telling someone their life story? BOOM! They're walker food by the third act!

• Now that I think about it, was there any reason why Mace constantly wore his Patriot costume inside The Framework? He's the leader of an underground resistance in the virtual world, so one would think he'd want to keep a low profile. Kind of hard to do when you're wearing a faux Captain America suit!

• At Hydra HQ, Agent May stops to stare meaningfully at a plaque dedicated to the those who died in the Cambridge Incident. 

This seems to be the event that destroyed S.H.I.E.L.D. and allowed Hydra to rise to power inside The Framework. The Cambridge Incident occurred because in the virtual world, May didn't kill Katia, the Inhuman girl she encountered in Bahrain several years ago.

I looked closely at the names listed on the plaque, but I don't recognize any of them. If I had to guess, I'd say they're probably all names of producers, crew members and even friends and family of whoever made the plaque.

One last thing about this plaque— the text isn't laid out very well. The first line ends with "The," and then line two starts with "Cambridge Incident." Nope! In typography you never want to separate a name like that, and should always keep it on the same line if possible. There's more than enough room to move "The" down and keep "The Cambridge Incident" all on one line.

I realize this is some pretty hardcore nitpicking, but graphic design is what I do for a living, so it drives me nuts when I see bad typography like this.

• Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. gets very philosophical this week, as it examines the metaphysics of The Framework. Simmons constantly dismisses the lives and loves of the virtual people surrounding her, saying they're not real, and don't matter. Ward disagrees after watching Mack dote on his daughter Hope. He challenges Simmons' attitude, noting that the love Mack feels for his daughter is real, even if she isn't.

It's an interesting idea, and one that Simmons seems to start accepting by the end of the episode.

• The series also gets surprisingly political this week, as The Framework is filled with thinly disguised issues and references to the current inhabitant of the White House (or more accurately, Mar-s-Lago).

For example, Hydra runs several brainwashing facilities, that it tastefully dubs "Enlightenment Cultivation Centers." This is reminiscent of our the current leadership, who drafted a Muslim Travel Ban that they insist isn't really a travel ban and doesn't target Muslims. Or the failed Affordable Care Act replacement that they honest-to-god called "World's Greatest Healthcare Plan Of 2017." It's doubleplus ungood!

Later on Simmons and Mack flip through Hope's Hydra-approved history book. Mack says, "Hydra had a plan. I'll give them that. Scare everyone, take over the media, rewrite history. You know what's not in that book? The Trail of Tears. The Holocaust. Martin Luther King Jr." Simmons replies, "I can't believe it. The blatant lies, the complete disregard for historical or scientific fact." 

This is most definitely a nod to our nation's recent puzzling attitude toward science, in which the public disregards proven fact when it interferes with their personal beliefs. 

Lastly, after Fitz finishes his torture of Daisy, he reports to AIDA. He seems almost impressed with Daisy's resolve as he says, "Beaten to within an inch of her life. Nevertheless, she persisted."

This is a direct shoutout to February of this year, when Senator Elizabeth Warren attempted to give a speech criticizing the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General. Warren was interrupted and silenced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “Sen. Warren was giving a lengthy speech,” said McConnell. “She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”

If you've ever sat down in front of your TV on a Tuesday night and thought, "Say, I wonder what the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. writers think of Donald Trump and his administration?" you need look no further than this episode.

• A couple of old Hydra agents get name-dropped in this episode. Hope's history book features a chapter all about Daniel Whitehall. Long time viewers will recognize his name— he was a Nazi officer in WWII who became a prominent leader of Hydra. He was captured by the Strategic Science Reserve (the precursor to S.H.I.E.L.D.) in 1945. He was sprung from prison by Hydra operatives in 1989, and used organs and DNA from Jiaying (Daisy's mom) to de-age himself. He was killed by Coulson in the Season 2 episode What They Became.

Later at the Enlightenment Center, Coulson makes small talk with a guard and says, "How about that story on Bakshi News the other day?" Once inside the Cener, he finds a room full of students being brainwashed by a recording of Bakshi's soothing voice.

Sunil Bakshi was also a member of Hydra, and Whitehall's right hand man, helping him retrieve the Obelisk. He was later kidnapped by Evil Ward and brainwashed (ironic!) into working for him! Bakshi was killed by Simmons in the Season 2 episode The Dirty Half Dozen.

• Radcliffe explains the underlying principle of The Framework to Daisy, saying, "An entire life, an entire personality, can be permanently altered by just one sentence."

Eh, I dunno about that. I agree your life can be altered by one sentence. Sometimes even one word ("GUILTY!"). But your entire personality? I don't think so.

Of course this is the reasoning the show's using for Fitz's transformation into a supervillain. I just like to think that it takes more than a few words to switch someone from good to evil.

• At first glance, it seemed like serum that Hydra gave May was probably the equivalent of the one the Patriot used in the real world. But I'm ninety nine percent positive it's actually the one that Calvin Zabo used a couple seasons ago to become Mr. Hyde.

Too bad they didn't give May the "Cro Magnon" brow they applied to Kyle MacLachlan's head when he played Hyde!

• Dear god, could Fitz's dad possibly be more of a miserable, conniving, manipulative asshole? No wonder poor Fitz turned evil. Kudos to actor David O'Hara for playing such an evil, evil character so well.

• Fitz tells Daisy that he and AIDA are going to enter the real world and destroy it. That'll be quite a trick! There are only like six real people inside it, and only two of them (Fitz and May) work for Hydra. Everyone else in The Framework is a simulation! Surely they can't enter the real world? Is AIDA planning on taking over the real world with an "army" of two?

• I was not expecting to ever see Trip on the show again, so his return this week inside The Framework was a welcome surprise. 

So how do you suppose Trip can exist in The Framework? It's unlikely Radcliffe programmed him into it, as I don't think the two ever met. Maybe The Framework scans the minds of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents hooked up to it, and populates it with people from their minds, living and dead?

So far we've seen the return of both Ward and Tripp. We'd better freakin' see Mockingbird and Hunter return before the season's over, or I'm gonna be pissed!

• Inside the Hydra "Enlightenment Center," Coulson finds a classroom full of kids being brainwashed by some kind of hypnotic A couple things here:

When Coulson looked at the screen, for a second I was afraid he was gonna get brainwashed as well!

Secondly, there's no way in hell that putting a piece of tape on your forehead and cheeks will prevent you from closing your eyes. Go on, try it for yourself! You don't even have to use tape, just place your fingers above and below your eyes in the approximate positions of those strips of tape. Can you close your eyes? Of course you can! Maybe this is some kind of magic Hydra® Brand Hypno Tape? 

Even if the tape does keep the kids' eyes open, couldn't they just look slightly to either side to avoid seeing the screen?

• Man, that fight between Mace and Super May was brutal! Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has always had top notch fights and stunts, and this episode was no exception. Way to go, stunt team!

I was especially wowed when Mace through Super May halfway through abrick wall. Ouch! Of course I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't point out that this should have paralyzed May. Sure, the Hydra serum gave her super strength, but it's unlikely it hardened her bones. They should be just as breakable as they've always been. 

• I was sorry to see Mace go, but hey, at least he died being the hero he always wanted to be, but could never quite become in the real world. Does the fact that he died saving a bunch of kids who don't exist in the first place diminish his sacrifice? I don't think so! Real or not, he died saving them, and as Ward said, isn't that the same thing?

• When Mace dies, Simmons looks like she's on the verge of tears. Does she finally get it? Does she realize that Framework Lives Matter just as much as those in the real world? Or did she just realize that Mace is now dead for real? A bit of both?

• Just how much control does AIDA have over The Framework? If she sees that Daisy's regained her powers, couldn't she just reboot her avatar and remove them?

We should probably toss questions like this in the "Don't Think About It Too Hard" file.

• This Week's Best Lines:
Simmons: "Did you find Daisy?"
Coulson: "No, just a bus full of dead bodies."
Simmons: "Binary ones and zeroes can't die, nor do they feel the cold!"
Coulson: "Maybe we keep that part between us."

Coulson: (asking Simmons about Ward) "Okay, I got to ask. What is it about that guy Every time I see him, I get this weird itch, like hives."
(This is of course a reference to Season 3, in which Ward was possessed by an alien that called itself "Hive." Comedy ahoy!)

Coulson: (still talking about Ward) "Did we get along?"
Simmons: "Well, you crushed his chest with your cybernetic arm and left him for dead on an alien planet, so no."

May: I was told R&D has a new weapon, something that could take down the Patriot."
Doctor: "Ah, yes. Oh, no, it's not exactly a weapon, but it can make you into one."
May: "Steroids?"
Doctor: "Oh, no, not just any steroids. Augmented strength serum. The effects of which are very potent, although temporary."
May: "It's not Terrigen-based, is it?"
Doctor: "Oh, no. No, no, no. This is made from various metabolic enhancers, gorilla testosterone, even a dash of peppermint. The point is, one dose, you will have the Patriot begging for his life."

Simmons: (to Mace) "No one wants to hear they're just an avatar in a digital prison, but sometimes that happens, and here we are."

Mace: "In the the real world, how well do we know each other? Are we friends?"
Simmons: "More like coworkers. But I do think of you in a friendly way."
Mace: "Where am I from?"
Simmons: "Excuse me?"
Mace: "In your world, where am I from?"
Simmons: "Uh, I'm not sure. The midwest?"
Mace: "Well, am I married? Do I have kids? Any siblings? Hobbies? Do I cook?"
Simmons: "Where are you going with this?"
Mace: "You don't know me at all."
Simmons: "Not well enough, apparently."
Mace: "I'm from Brooklyn, son of a plumber, played baseball in college and guitar, can't carry a tune. I say "soda," not "pop," and I like my barbecue sweet, not spicy. Never been married or had kids, but in the last five years, I've buried seventeen of my closest friends and family. Some of them died right in my arms believing they were fighting for something real, stopping hate. And you're telling me it's meaningless?

Fitz: "Lies. That's all she gave us. Beaten to within an inch of her life. Nevertheless, she persisted."

Coulson: "This is Jemma Simmons."
Mack: "Ah, it's good to meet you. This little girl right here, this is my daughter, Hope."
Simmons: "It's lovely to meet you, Hope."
Hope: "Nice to meet you, British lady."

Mace: "Coulson, you got a second? Pulled this I. D. off one of the bus crew. Should get you past the gate. Ward just had to swap the photo, change the name."
Coulson: "Jamie Flugelman?"
Mace: "Well, it's the only one he could clear from Hydra's database, so mount up, Flugelman!"

Hydra Guard: "Flugelman?"
Coulson: "It's Canadian."

Radcliffe: (explaining The Framework to Daisy) "Aida changed him."
Daisy: "She said she took away one regret. One regret can't change an entire life. It doesn't change who you are."
Radcliffe: "Of course it can. One person in your life, one decision, one sentence has the power to change you forever."
Daily: "One sentence?"
Radcliffe: "Yeah, that's right. One single sentence like 'I love you,' or, 'We're having a baby,' or, uh, 'She's gone."
Daisy: "I just I didn't think Fitz was capable of doing something like that."
Radcliffe: "Oh, my dear. Depending on the circumstances, anyone is capable of anything. Just look around."

Alistair: "So, what's this about a woman?"
Fitz: "Someone I had to kill."
Alistair: "Had to? You mean in self-defense?"
Fitz: "No, she was unarmed."
Alistair: "Was she an enemy of the state?"
Fitz: "Yeah. I believe she was."
Alistair: "So what's the problem?"
Fitz: "What if I didn't need to kill her? What if maybe she wasn't lying or maybe she was mentally ill or something?"
Alistair: "What if? Maybe? Now, that's your mother talking. "
Fitz: "Sorry, father."
Alistair: "There she is again. Listen, son, I don't know a thing about what you do here, the science, but I know that it's important, and I know the man I raised. Not a coward, but a man of action, a great man in a hard world. And in a hard world, we cannot afford the luxury of what?"
Fitz: "The luxury of sympathy."
Alistair: "Exactly. We don't buckle to guilt or womanly sentiment. Everyone needs the strap across their back now and again. Teaches respect. You know that. You've felt it. And look where it's gotten you. You're protecting the human race, and the only other person who understands the weight of that is Ophelia. Madame Hydra. And you love her, don't you?" Fitz: "Honestly don't know what kind of man I'd be without you, father."
Alistair: "That's why I'm here, son."
(This chilling look into Fitz's family life perfectly explains why he's such a cold, heartless supervillain in The Framework, and how reversing his biggest regret— never knowing his father— completely changed him for the worse)

Bakshi: (as a voice in the "Enlightenment Center") "Take a deep breath. Calm your mind. You know what is best. What is best is you comply. Compliance will be rewarded. Surrender, and you will find meaning. Surrender, and you will find release. Take a deep breath. Calm your mind. You know what is best. What is best is you comply. Compliance will be rewarded. Surrender, and you will find meaning. Burnell? Surrender, and you will find release."

Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4, Episode 15: Self Control

This week Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. gives us what is possibly their finest episode yet, as they wrap up the LMD storyline.

I say it every week, but it's worth repeating— the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. writers have figured out the secret to writing serialized dramas. So many shows out there feature one plot per season, and give us numerous filler episodes to pad out the season (yeah, I'm lookin' at you, The Walking Dead!). 

Not so with Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. They give us two, and sometimes three different storylines per season. The show's writers call these "pods." Silly name, but whatever works. By giving us two or three pods per season, there's no filler or padding, and the storyline moves right along at a nice, quick pace. Even better, this means the audience doesn't have time to become bored with a particular storyline!

I wish more shows would adopt this business model, but I don't see it happening. Having three pods per season is a lot more work. It means coming up with three story arcs instead of one they can milk for a whole year.

It's amazing how much this series has improved since its admittedly less-than-stellar first season. Those early episodes chased away a lot of viewers, which is too bad. You guys who bailed have no idea what you're missing!

The end of this week's episode set up the next "pod," which looks like it's gonna feature an alternate "what-if" kind of world. Sort of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s version of the Flashpoint timeline over on The Flash.

There were many awesome and memorable moments in this episode, so let's get to it, shall we?

SPOILERS!

The Plot:

As AIDA busies herself, we see Coulson, May, Mack and Radcliffe strapped onto tables, as their minds are plugged into the virtual world of the Framework. AIDA works on The Superior, who was badly injured in his battle last week with Daisy. The Superior tells AIDA to let him die, because he doesn't want to become "a thing" like her. She tells him, "Don't worry. You'll be many things." She then starts carving him up with a power saw while he's still awake, which is the most horrifying thing I can imagine.

At S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ, FitzSimmons are terrified after discovering that Coulson, Daisy, Mack and Mace have been replaced with LMDs. Fitz says they need to stay calm and act natural so they don't draw attention to themselves. Sure, that's exactly what Fitz would say, isn't it? 

LMD Coulson enters and says they're going to round up all known Inhumans to keep them safe from The Superior, whose mission is to wipe them out. 

Outside the lab, LMD Mace tells LMD Coulson they need to scan and replace FitzSimmons as soon as possible. LMD Daisy says they need to contact Yo-yo to help bring in the other Inhumans.

LMD Coulson finds LMD May watching the snow fall. She's horrified and repulsed when she realizes Coulson's been replaced. She's still having trouble accepting the fact that she's not real. LMD Coulson says none of this matters, as their real minds are already living in the Framework, a painless version of the world, where their greatest regrets have been erased.

As FitzSimmons move some equipment to another lab, the LMD detector goes off. Simmons instantly pulls a gun on Fitz, believing he's a robot. Fitz tells her that he believes he's real, but admits that LMD May didn't know she was a robot, so it's impossible to be sure. For some reason, Simmons tells him to cut his wrist (instead of a less deadly body part) to prove if he's real or not. He slashes his wrist and begins moaning and bleeding profusely. Simmons gasps and moves to help him, and he immediately grows cold and emotionless, stabbing her in the leg and knocking her out. I KNEW he was an LMD all along!

Back at Radcliffe's lab, wherever that is, he comes out of the Framework. He's angry that AIDA's altered the Framework without his permission. She says it was necessary to provide "regret-free" virtual lives for all the new inhabitants. We see that Fitz is hooked up to the Framework, but Daisy's not. Huh? More on this later.

At S.H.I.E.L.D., LMD Fitz places a headset on Simmons so he can scan her brain and replace her with an LMD. While he busies himself with settings, she crawls across the floor and grabs a mallet. Instead of hitting him with it, she uses it to knock over a heavy piece of machinery on him. She then stabs the holy sh*t out of LMD Fitz, causing him to short out and "die."

Daisy goes downstairs to check out the Inhuman containment area, and finds a room filled with twenty or so identical LMD copies of her (?), all dressed in black sports bra and panties. Mack, who didn't want her to find this room, comes looking for her. She strips down and hides amongst the copies as he enters. As he tries to flush out the Daisy, she stuns him from behind with a quake blast.

Daisy hides in a closet and taps into the security cameras on her tablet. She sees LMD Coulson and LMD Mace find LMD Fitz's body, and watches in horror as they slaughter several S.H.I.E.L.D. grunts who discover them. Well, that took a dark turn!

Daisy then sees a trail of blood that leads to Simmons. Once again, each suspects the other of being an LMD. Finally Daisy grabs her and gently quakes her, just enough to feel if Simmons has bones or a metal skeleton under her skin. She feels bones, and Simmons realizes an LMD wouldn't have quake powers. The two embrace.

Meanwhile, AIDA tells Radcliffe there's a paradox in her programming. She's programmed to protect both Radcliffe and the Framework, but she fears he'll someday want to shut it down. He tells her that'll never happen. She thanks him, saying he's just solved the paradox for her, and slashes his wrists (!). She places his mind back into the Framework, as his body slowly dies. Yikes!

LMD Coulson and LMD Mace gather all the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and announce that Daisy and Simmons are robots, and they want them capture "alive." Daisy and Simmons release sleeping gas into the base (why do they even have such a thing in storage?), causing all the human agents all drop like flies. The LMDs are unaffected of course, as are Daisy and Simmons, who dosed themselves with "sleeping gas antidote." Sure, why not?

LMD Mace then attacks Daisy. They battle for a good five minutes, until she finally defeats him. She's then shot twice (!) by LMD Coulson and LMD Mack. As LMD Coulson monologues, she secretly forms a couple of balls of quake energy in her hands, then flings it at them. LMD Coulson is knocked out, while LMD Mack's head is blown off (!!!). 

Daisy then joins Simmons, who uses the sleeping gas antidote to wake four S.H.I.E.L.D. grunts. The agents fear the two are LMDs, but they somehow convince them they're real. They order the agents to power up the Zephyr One and wait for them. As Daisy and Simmons prepare to exit the base, they're confronted by LMD May, who's sitting on several barrels of explosives, a detonator in her hand. Uh-oh!

LMD Coulson wakes up and finds that LMD May apparently let Daisy and Simmons pass. He tells her to put down the detonator, but she says she can't handle the fact that she's not real, and wants to end her pain. She detonates the explosives.

The blast rocks the hangar as Daisy, Simmons and the four agents take off in Zephyr One. They pick up Yo-yo, and fill her in on the situation. They want to rescue Coulson and the others, but unfortunately there's no way to figure out just where AIDA and the Framework are located. However, Simmons says if they enter the Framework themselves, they can inhabit the versions of themselves that live there, and work out the location. Sounds perfectly logical to me!

Simmons lays out the rules of the Framework for Daisy (and the audience), saying if they're killed in the virtual world, they'll die for real. She also says they can't stay inside the Framework for too long, or their real bodies will die. Lastly, she warns Yo-yo not to pull them out of the Framework without warning, as that will fry their brains. Foreshadowing Alert!!!

Daisy and Simmons then lie down, put on their headsets, close their eyes and enter the Framework.

Daisy wakes up in her Framework avatar, who's taking a bath. She gets a text telling her to wake her "boyfriend" and come in to work. She assumes her boyfriend is Lincoln, but as she walks into her bedroom, she sees a framed photo of herself and Grant Ward!!!

Coulson is apparently a high school teacher in the Framework. Mack is at his house, picking up a little girl's bike that no doubt belongs to his daughter Hope, who's still alive in the Framework. Fitz is now a tech billionaire with a mysterious, unknown woman at his side. Simmons is apparently dead in the Framework, which seems more than a bit odd. Lastly, we see May working inside the Triskelion, which is now branded with a HYDRA logo. Wow!

In the final scene, The Superior wakes up, puzzled to find his body's whole. He asks AIDA what she did to him. She assures him that his mind is alive and well, and still inside his head. He calls her a liar, saying he can feel his robotic body. She points to a table, where he sees his head is now resting in a jar, and apparently controlling this new robotic body! She says she needs him whole in order for him to protect the Framework, and she wants him to still be able to feel genuine emotions, such as joy. He asks her when exactly she thinks he'll ever feel joy again. She replies, "When I am able to feel those things myself."

Thoughts:
• For weeks and weeks now I've been saying that Fitz was secretly an LMD who, like May, was unaware he was a robot. The writers did an excellent job hinting around at this, but never quite confirming it, keeping the audience guessing and wondering.

The clues were all out there in the open though, if you knew where to look. For me, the moment that confirmed my suspicions came in BOOM. Fitz is carrying Mace's new costume on a clothes hanger, and sets off an LMD detector when he walks by. He casually dismisses the alarm though, saying the metal hanger must have activated it. When's the last time anyone saw a metal clothes hanger?

Kudos to the writers for coming up with an actual well-crafted mystery, complete with subtle clues!

• Let's talk about Daisy and the LMD detector, shall we? I'm VERY confused by this whole situation. Last week, at the end of The Man Behind The Shield, the LMD detector goes off in S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. Simmons checks the security footage, and is horrified to see that Coulson, Daisy, Mack and Mace have apparently all set off the detector. The readout clearly says "[4] LIFE MODEL DECOYS DETECTED."

Yet in this episode we find out Daisy hasn't been replaced after all, and is still human. So what gives? How could she still be real if four people entered the base and the detector says they're all LMDs?

Unfortunately I don't have a good answer for this, and it seems like a huge goof on the part of the writers.

The only possible explanation I can come up with is that maybe the LMD detector's totals are cumulative. If you look closely at the readout on the detector, it says, "Memory Buffer — Compile All Report Totals." I think maybe when it says it detects four LMDs, that's the aggregate number, not the current number. In other words, the detector is counting the total number of LMDs it's recognized since it was activated (which would be four— Fitz a couple weeks ago, then Coulson, Mack and Mace now). It's not counting the number of LMDs currently entering the base (which would be three).

Ouch. I think I just threw out my back bending over backwards to explain away this mistake for the writers.

If this explanation is right, then that's a VERY confusing way for a device to keep track of the LMD population. It's a little too subtle and convoluted. 

I suppose it's also possible that LMD Fitz messed with the detector to alter the readout and make Simmons think that Daisy was a robot as well. If that's the case, a simple little line of dialogue was needed to explain it.

I'm all for not spoon-feeding every little detail to the audience and letting us make connections on our own, but not when it seems like the writer's screwed up. I'm going to go ahead and chalk it up to being a mistake.

• Surely there's a better way to prove if a person is real or not than by forcing them to slash their wrist? Sure, if the subject is an LMD it does no harm to them, but if they're real... "See, I'm a real person! Now help me lie down so I can quietly bleed to death."

• Last week I had many questions about how replacing most of the S.H.I.E.L.D. staff could possibly work, which I assumed would be answered this week. And I was right. Most of my questions were adequately dealt with.

First off, I kind of wondered why LMD Coulson, LMD Mack and LMD Mace seemed to know they were robots, when LMD May didn't (until she did). That's covered this week, when Radcliffe asks AIDA, "Are their commands working on a subconscious level to avoid detection, as with Agent May?" AIDA replies, "There wasn't time for such subtleties. They're much more... objective-driven." So that explains that!

I also asked why LMD Coulson would reactivate LMD May, since everyone at S.H.I.E.L.D. already knows she's a robot. Wouldn't that give away the fact that he's an LMD too? As we find out in this episode, he locks LMD May in a room, so no one else can see her. Also he's on a tight schedule to either replace or kill everyone at S.H.I.E.L.D. as well as round up all known Inhumans and kill them, so he doesn't really care if anyone figures out he's an LMD. So that was covered as well.

And last week, when I thought Daisy was an LMD, I questioned whether AIDA was able to give her quake powers, and whether that would tip her off that she was a robot or not. Again, these questions were dealt with in this episode. Well done again, writers!

• Maybe I'm missing something, but why would AIDA create an entire squad of scantily clad Daisy LMDs? Other than to give the horndogs in the audience something to ogle, of course.

As we've seen, the Daisy LMDs don't have quake powers, so they weren't created for that reason. Daisy's a kickass fighter though, and the LMDs would all have her skills, and they'd be stronger than normal, so maybe that was AIDA's plan.

When Daisy hears LMD Mack coming for her, she strips down and blends in with the copies of herself. What a lucky break for her that she just happened to be wearing the exact same undergarments as all the copies!

By the way, this whole "Hiding Among The Copies" scene is lifted practically shot-for-shot from I, Robot (with a dash of the Westworld TV series thrown in for good measure). 

• LMD Mace seems to have the superstrength that the original naturally lacks. Handy!

• When Daisy's being chased through S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ by LMD Mace, she picks up an iMac from a nearby desk and smashes it over his head. I actually cringed when I saw that! I use an iMac at work and thought, "Welp, there went about $3,000 of this week's budget!" Hopefully they used a dead computer that was destined for the scrap heap.

• One of the best moments in an episode filled with them, was when Daisy gently quaked Simmons to see if she was real or not. I loved the look of sheer relief on both their faces when they realized they were both still human. Kudos to Chloe Bennet and Elizabeth Henstridge!

• Man, that Daisy's quite the resilient lass. After her battle with LMD Mace, LMD Coulson shoots her twice (!). Once in the shoulder, and once in the leg. Even worse, he appears to shoot her with an actual handgun and not an Icer, as I didn't see a blue muzzle flash.

Daisy then simply shakes off these grievous injuries, limping along slightly for the rest of the episode. In fact by the end she's well enough to enter the Framework and rescue her teammates. Amazing!

By the way, when LMD Mace gathers the nondescript S.H.I.E.L.D. agents together and tries to convince them that Daisy and Simmons are robots, he says, "Shoot to maim. Stomach. Spine." Good thing for Daisy that LMD Coulson didn't listen to him!

• Is there any good reason why S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ has a storage room full of knockout gas? And a supply of knockout gas antidote? I didn't think so.

• LMD Coulson and the others are eventually undone by LMD May. Apparently Radcliffe programmed this robotic duplicate a little too well, as she's so much like the real May that she can't allow LMD Coulson to succeed, and destroys him (along with herself).

This "Robotic Duplicate Undone By The Original's Goodness" subplot was very similar to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In that film, the alien space probe V'ger kills Lt. Ilia and makes a robotic duplicate of her to study the Enterprise. Unfortunately for V'ger, it makes the Ilia-bot a little too perfect, and it falls in love with Commander Decker, a loophole that Captain Kirk exploits to defeat the probe.

• Near the end of the episode, Daisy and Simmons realize the only way they can rescue their teammates is to find AIDA, who could be anywhere in the world. They decide the only answer is to enter the Framework themselves, inhabit the avatars of themselves inside it, and figure out where it's located.

Earlier in the episode, AIDA said to Radcliffe, "You even asked me to repair one regret for each person entering the Framework." I interpret that as meaning that each of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents is living out an idealized life inside the perfect world AIDA created. Some of these lives deserve some scrutiny. Let's take a look at them, shall we?

First up we see Daisy taking a bath (man, they were obsessed with getting her naked in this episode, weren't they?). She assumes she's living with her late flame Lincoln, but discovers she's apparently shacking up with former agent Grant Ward (!). 

Daisy and Ward had a long history together as fellow agents and student/trainer. Later on she was even possessed by Hive, who looked like Ward. I guess it's entirely possible she could have secret feelings for him and regrets not acting on them.

This is clever way to bring back Ward yet again, but I worry it might be one time too many. On the other hand, actor Brett Dalton's probably happy to return to Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. so he doesn't have to star in more dreck like The Resurrection Of Gavin Stone.

Next we see Coulson, who's apparently a high school teacher inside the Framework. This makes sense, as earlier in the episode he— or rather the LMD copy of him— wondered what his life would have been like if he'd never become a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

What doesn't quite make sense is why he's apparently teaching a lesson in Inhuman fear-mongering.

We then see Mack, who's living the good life as a family man in the 'burbs. His late daughter Hope is apparently alive and well too.

This all makes perfect sense, as the death of his child would be Mack's greatest regret.

Next is Fitz, who's apparently some kind of tech billionaire, with a mysterious woman on his arm.

I guess from this scene we're to assume Fitz regrets not using his genius for monetary gain? I suppose I could see that.

Oddly enough, we then see Simmons' tombstone (with her date of death conveniently obscured by leaves)! Apparently she's dead in the Framework! Does that mean her greatest regret in the real world is that she's alive?

I'm hoping this is a fake grave, and that Simmons' Framework avatar is still alive and well and living in secret. It'd better be, otherwise she's going to spend the next six or seven episode in the body of a dead avatar, buried six feet underground!

Lastly we see May riding an elevator inside the Triskelion, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters that was destroyed in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Oddly enough, in the Framework the Triskelion is branded with the HYDRA logo! Yikes!

I'm not quite sure what to make of this one. Does this mean May regrets that she never joined up with HYDRA? What else could it mean?

• At the end of the episode, we see The Superior doing his best The Brain That Wouldn't Die impression. Even though this is just a simple "head sticking through the table" effect, something about it is absolutely horrifying!

So apparently AIDA severed The Superior's head, and it's now remotely controlling a robotic duplicate of himself. Not sure how that's better than just putting his living brain inside an LMD, but whatever.

• This week's best lines:

Simmons: "Cut your wrist. If you're the LMD, I'll see your substructure and I'll know. And if not ..."

LMD Fitz: " Not, then you're the android, and you just convinced me to slit my wrist."

Simmons: "Do it!"

Daisy: (to Simmons) "Are you a robot? Because I just saw a truckload of myself, and Mack is in on it. And Coulson just bashed an agent's head in ..."

Daisy: "Simmons... it's me. What about you? Prove to me that you're not a frickin' robot. Because it looks like you're malfunctioning."

Daisy: (to Simmons) "So, we fight our way through the trained military personnel, then the ultra-powerful android doubles of our friends, somehow make it to the Zephyr, which we can't fly, to escape the base and try to plug our minds into an alternate reality. Okay, well, don't say it out loud, because that made it sound way worse."