Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4, Episode 12: Hot Potato Soup

This week Agents Of S.H.i.E.L.D. continues to barrel along, bringing us a couple of major reveals and finally answering a question fans have been wondering about for years.

Unfortunately most of these developments turned out to be big disappointments (for me, at least). I was very underwhelmed by the revelation that the Koenigs are just plain old quadruplets (spoiler, I guess!), and not clones, robots or Life Model Decoys. Yawn!

We also finally got our first look at The Superior this week, and he turned out to be a big letdown as well. I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting him to be, but it darned sure wasn't a plain old vodka-swilling Russian!

There were some interesting developments between Coulson and LMD May this week, as she succumbed to her feelings— or was it her programming— and finally put the moves on Coulson. Odd that LMD May seems more human than the real thing!

We also got our first (I think) mention of Fitz's father, and I'm sure it won't be long before he pops up on the show to cause trouble.

Lastly, I noticed there were a lot of incredibly intuitive leaps this week. Characters were making all sorts of wild connections and conjectures that of course turned out to be right. I get that they need to move the story along and don't want to waste time on endless scenes of investigation and deduction, but come on! It reminded me of the preposterous guesses on the Batman 1966 series, where he'd find some preposterously convoluted clue and say, "Aha! It had to be the Riddler! It's the only logical explanation!"

SPOILERS!

The Plot:

S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Sam and Billy Koenig are messing around in an adult arcadeTwo Russian Watchdogs enter, looking for an "Agent Koenig." The Watchdogs are confused when they spot two different Koenigs. Sam dives behind a bar and starts shooting at one of the Watchdogs. Billy's captured by the other Watchdog and taken. Sam immediately calls Coulson.

At S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson reveals to the Team that he gave the Darkhold to the Koenigs, as they're experts at "making things disappear." LMD May perks up at hearing this, since her secret mission is to acquire the evil book. Coulson somehow comes to the conclusion that Dr. Radcliffe (the real one) is working with Senator Nadeer, and she sent the Watchdogs to grab the Koenigs.

Meanwhile, Fitz repairs LMD Radcliffe (who he shot in the head last week), and paralyzes him from the neck down so he can't cause any more trouble. Fitz, Simmons and Mack interrogate the LMD, trying to find out where Real Radcliffe is. LMD Radcliffe whines, saying it's the real victim, and that things aren't what they seem.

Billy Koenig wakes, tied to a chair inside a Watchdog submarine. Real Radcliffe is tied up beside him as well. Real Radcliffe claims that after he told Nadeer where to find the Koenigs, she betrayed him and he ended up here. Radcliffe does his best trying to bond with Billy, but he's never met Radcliffe before and has no idea what he's going on about.

Just then The Superior enters. We've been hearing about him for weeks now, and at long last, here he is. It was well worth the wait too, because he turns out to be... um... some guy. A Russian guy who likes to sniff onions while he drinks vodka. Well, that was disappointing!

The Superior starts to torture Billy, and Radcliffe unties himself and tells him to stop, as he can't stand violence. We realize this whole "Prisoner Radcliffe" thing has been a ruse to try and gain Billy's trust, so he'll tell him where the Darkhold is. Radcliffe says he'll just go inside Billy's head and find out the info that way. He uploads Billy's memories and searches through them.

Back at S.H.I.E.L.D., Fitz looks at LMD Radcliffe's computer code and realizes it's too complex for him to understand. LMD Radcliffe says that's Fitz's estranged father talking. He says he knew Fitz's dad, and Fitz unplugs him and leaves. Mack asks Simmons what that was all about, and she says Fitz's dad was a jerk who never approved of him and walked out on him and his mother.

Daisy and Sam look at surveillance footage from the arcade to figure out who took Billy. They discover one of the Watchdogs attacked Director Mace a few episodes ago. He's also connected to the Russian Prime Minister who was attacked by an Inhuman last season, which resulted in Mockingbird and Hunter (remember them?) being forced to leave S.H.I.E.L.D. 

Coulson asks Sam where the Darkhold is, but he claims he doesn't know. Apparently the brothers played an intricate game of "Hot Potato" (hence the episode title), handing it off to one another over and over to throw off anyone following them. Sam says he ultimately handed the book over to LT Koenig, the "original" who got the brothers to join S.H.I.E.L.D. 

For reasons I can't quite figure out, Coulson and LMD May stake out a comedy club, while Daisy goes undercover inside. Coulson reminisces, and LMD May says maybe it's time they took their relationship to the next level. Just as they're about to kiss, Daisy calls them on their comms, telling them to get inside the club. Inside the club they see another Koenig brother, presumably LT, take the stage and start an angry rant. Just then they're attacked by a woman who turns out to be— Special Agent LT Koenig! GASP! LT's a woman!?!???!?

On Zephyr one, LT introduces the slam poet as her brother Thurston Koenig. Daisy does some investigating and discovers The Superior is really Anton Ivanov, a Russian industrialist who collects military antiques, including his very own submarine. Coulson asks LT where the Darkhold is, but she says she gave it to Billy, who put it in the Labyrinth, a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. vault whose location is known only to the Koenigs.

Radcliffe sifts through Billy's memories and sees that he place the Darkhold in the Labyrinth, and tells him to take the sub there. The Superior refuses, saying Radcliffe places too much trust in machines, saying nothing is "built to last" anymore. AIDA, who's there for some reason, takes down The Superior's men with ease. The Superior's impressed, and turns the sub around.

Meanwhile, Fitz stews over LMD Radcliffe's impossible code. He decides to take the direct approach, and opens the back of the LMD's head. Inside he sees a glowing virtual brain, identical to the one AIDA "knitted" out of energy after reading the Darkhold back in The Laws Of Inferno Dynamics. LMD Radcliffe slips up and reveals that he's connected to another such brain, and Simmons somehow deduces it has to be May's, and that she's really an LMD too.

Sam, Coulson, LMD May, Daisy and LT arrive at the Labyrinth. Sam makes them wait while he goes to retrieve the book. While they're waiting, LMD May moves in on Coulson, and they kiss. Sam returns with the Darkhold and hands it to LMD May. She then pulls a gun on Coulson, and he realizes she's an LMD. She appears conflicted, as she's programmed to kill Coulson, but her soul, if she really has one, won't let her. Daisy appears and blasts her with her quake powers. Coulson grabs the Darkhold.

The Watchdogs enter with Billy, and tell Coulson he can have him in exchange for the book. Coulson tosses them the book, and they release Billy. A battle breaks out, and in the confusion, Radcliffe appears and takes the book. LMD May begs him to take her with him, but he tells her she wasn't "built to last" and leaves.

Back at S.H.I.E.L.D., the Koenigs reveal they worked on the original LMD project, but as technicians only— they're not robots themselves. Fitz burns LMD Radcliffe and AIDA 1.0's head in a giant oven, which is apparently something they have in their headquarters. Coulson is reluctant to burn LMD May until they find the real thing. 

On the sub, The Superior and Radcliffe celebrate. The Superior says he wants to destroy all Inhumans, as they didn't earn their powers through hard work. He also wants to destroy the thing that brought them to Earth, saying wherever aliens have shown up in the past, one man has always appeared in the background and in the shadows— Phil Coulson.

Thoughts:
• I have to say I was disappointed by the revelation that the Koenigs are apparently nothing more than quadruplets.

Ever the Koenigs introduced in back in Season 1, fans have been wondering just what they are, and why there's a seemingly endless supply of them. Most viewers, myself included, suspected they were LMDs, programmed to assist S.H.I.E.L.D. however they could. 

But once Radcliffe created AIDA and started up the whole LMD story arc this season, it became obvious that the Koenigs had to be something else. But what? Clones, perhaps?

Nope! They're just plain old, ordinary human quadruplets. Well, I guess not ordinary, since quadruplets are pretty rare, but you know what I mean. How anti-climactic.

I'm wondering if the producers meant for the Koenigs to be robots all along. I'm betting when they decided to do this LMD arc, they realized that two different sets of robots running around would be too confusing, and had to hastily alter the origin of the Koenigs.

The "multiple Koenig" scenes were all very well done, as Billy and Sam seamlessly interacted with one another. If I didn't know better, I'd think Patton Oswalt actually had a twin brother!

It's amazing how far special effects have come since the 1970s, when obvious, static split screens were the only way to film twin effects!

• Radcliffe concocts an elaborate scheme in which he pretends to be a prisoner alongside Billy, hoping to find out the location of the Darkhold. When that plan fails, Radcliffe says he'll just use a mind-scanning device to get the info directly from Billy's brain.

Why the hell didn't he just do that in the first place? Why waste hours and hours on the overly-complicated little "fellow prisoner" skit? Answer: Because almost torturing Billy was more dramatic, plus they wanted to showcase Patton Oswalt as much as possible.

• I was also disappointed by The Superior in this episode. Senator Nadeer's been teasing his eventual appearance for weeks now, but not giving us any clue as to who— or what— he is. What would he turn to be? Some sort of cyborg, ala Deathlok? A massive, Hulk-like villain? A brain in a jar?

Nope! He's a just a guy. A Russian guy with oddly-sculpted facial hair who likes sniffing onions after he drinks vodka. Talk about a letdown!

By the way, is "sniffing onions after drinking vodka" a real thing, or did they just make it up for the show? I haven't had a sip of alcohol for decades, so I have no idea.

• Sam works with Daisy to try and figure out who captured Billy. He geeks out over the fact he's working with her, and tells her there's actually "Quake" fan fiction online, which pairs her with Black Widow.

All of Sam's fan fiction dialogue rings true here. The terms are all spot-on, especially "shipping," which of course is short for "worshiping."  The "Quack" mash-up name (Quake + Black Widow = Quack) is perfect as well, and sounds exactly like something that would really happen in the seamier parts of the internet.

This is because Patton Oswalt is a huge comic book & sci-fi movie geek, and no doubt knows of what he speaks.

• Sam tells Coulson he gave the Darkhold to LT Koenig, who apparently works at a comedy club. For some reason Daisy and several redshirt agents go undercover inside the club, while Coulson and LMD May stake it out in a car.

I can't think of ANY reason why they needed to approach this club so stealthily. Why not just walk inside and say, "We're looking for LT Koenig?"

• I was surprised when Coulson mentioned Mockingbird and Hunter in this episode. I figured the producers were hoping the audience would forget all about them.

When the two characters were written out of the series, I was sure their absence would negatively affect the show. Happily that hasn't been the case. I feel bad for actors Adrianne Palicki and Nick Blood (who played Mockingbird and Hunter, respectively) though. They were told TWICE they were getting their own spinoff series, and then after they were seemingly written out of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. forever, Disney/ABC changed their minds and said, "Yeah, no." Talk about an unlucky break!

I really don't see any reason why the characters can't be brought back. Yes, they were forced into cover and irreparably "discommendated" or whatever they called it, but Jesus Christ, if Coulson can come back from the freakin' dead, surely they can write around Hunter & Mockingbird's situation.

• For weeks now I've been saying the whole LMD storyline seemed like it was inspired by HBO's Westworld series. Nowhere is that more evident than in this episode.

When Mack wants to "kill" LMD Radcliffe, the robot says that would be murder. Mack says only if it had a soul, to which LMD Radcliffe says, "How do you know I don't?" That feels like a like straight out of Westworld.

Similarly, after LMD May was discovered, she told Coulson her feelings for him were "real," and not just programming. Again, that's a very Westworld thing to say.

• Now that LMD May revealed her true feelings for Coulson, it's safe to say she's probably awoken some similar feelings in him. As I said earlier, it's interesting that LMD May seems more human than the real thing.

I have a feeling that once they get Real May back, Coulson's going to want to try and pick up where he left off with her robotic doppelganger, much to her shock and horror.

• This week we find out that the Darkhold is stored inside "the Labyrinth," a super secret storage facility whose location is known only to the Koenigs. When Radcliffe sorts through Billy's memories, he sees images of him passing through numerous security doors in the Labyrinth before reaching the storage room.

Seeing Billy walk through the endless series of doors was VERY reminiscent of the opening credits of the spy comedy Get Smart. Coincidence, or homage?

• Eric Koenig, the first Koenig brother we ever saw back in Season 1, was actually a character in the comics. He first appeared in Sgt. Fury And His Howling Commandos #27 in 1966. He served with Nick Fury in WWII, and was an ordinary human, not a clone, robot or LMD.

Eric Koenig was the first of the brothers to appear in the series, in Providence. He was killed by Grant Ward in the following episode, The Only Light In The Darkness. Billy Koenig was first introduced in the Season 1 finale, Beginning Of The End. Sam was first seen in Season 2, in ...Ye Who Enter Here.

• This week's best lines:

Sam: "Agent Coulson, This is Agent Koenig. They've got Agent Koenig. I repeat, they've got Agent Koenig.Koenig."

Daisy: (to LT Koenig) "So, what was it like growing up with four of them? 
LT Koenig: "There was a lot of crying."
Daisy: "They picked on you?"
LT Koenig: "I picked on them. It was fun. The laundry was disgusting. Enough DNA to make a clone army."

Thurston Koenig: (performing his "comedy" act) "Welcome to the inside of my mind, Sheeple. You guys watching any, uh, any good programming lately? You know why they call it "programming," right? Because you're being programmed through little screens, big screens, little morphine drips of sequels and prequels and zombies and Kanyes, Snapchats and Grumpy Cats, all designed by the media, corporate S.H.I.E.L.D. machine, and you're asleep, binge-watching the Apocalypse! You know what Tony Stark's armor is powered by?"

Shockley: (to Billy) "The man who comes in here will do things to you, that I can't even watch. He will break you."
Billy: "Yeah, well, Koenigs don't break. All right? We're programmed to take pain, so bring it on! Bring it on! (Shockley leaves) Oh, my God. I'm in so much pain."

Daisy: "You're staring at me."
Sam: "I'm sorry. I just ... I can't believe I'm sitting here with Quake! You know, this is ... oh, somebody pinch me."
Daisy: "Sam, stop. We've known each other for three years."
Sam: "Yeah, I knew Skye, but you're ... you're "Quake." She's different."
Daisy: "No, she's not. And she doesn't love the name "Quake." 
Sam: "But you're ... you're a superhero! I mean, that's so awesome! Did you know that online, there's a library of fan fiction about Quake?"
Daisy: "Did not need to know that." 
Sam: "Oh, well, you should Google it. Because it's ... it's... actually, no, you shouldn't. You shouldn't. Forget I said that. Some of it is a little on the steamier side. Not that I've read it! You ... but you hear things. Wow. I mean, they got you 'shipping with Black Widow. Some of the drawings are ...they ... They call you Quack."

Radcliffe: (to Billy) "My intent was ... was purely scientific. But oh, the things I saw. It was expanding my brain and my reality."

Billy: "You're getting all Gollum-y again."
Radcliffe: "Well, that's ... that's what the Darkhold does to you. It drives you mad."

LMD Radcliffe: (to Fitz) "I'm not going to let this come between us. What's the occasional bullet in the head among friends?

Mack: "Just you and me now, Tin Man. You don't mess with my buddy and walk away from it." LMD Radcliffe: "If you shoot me now, it'll be murder."
Mack: "Nice try. Wrong guy. You're just a bunch of ones and zeroes, not flesh and blood."
LMD Radcliffe: "Flesh and blood? That's not life, Mack. That's just biology, and biology is just... software programming you to die."
Mack: "Maybe. But I have something you will never have. A soul... that will continue long after I'm gone.."
LMD Radcliffe: "How can you be so sure I don't have one? If a soul doesn't come from your flesh and blood or my ones and zeroes, then it has to come from somewhere else, somewhere unrelated to our physical bodies. If you can have one, so can I."
Mack: "You are a sly one, aren't you?"
LMD Radcliffe: "If you don't think I'm alive and don't have a soul, then why did you feel the need to switch me on before killing me?:
Mack: "I like to hear robots scream."

Daisy: "So, May's a freakin' robot.

Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4, Episode 11: Wake Up

Sorry, guys, but reviews are all gonna be late this week. Sometimes these things happen.

This week Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. continues to barrel through its storylines at a breakneck pace. As I've said before, I appreciate that they're not dragging things out interminably like shows such as LOST did, but I think they may be moving a little too fast. 

Just last week we all began to suspect there might be another Life Model Decoy roaming the halls of S,H,I.E.L.D. This week it was confirmed, and by the end of the episode we found out who it was! Jesus! Give those storylines a little time to breathe, wouldja?

On the other hand, if I had to choose between moving too fast and moving too slow, I'll pick fast any day.

There were a lot of great interactions between the various characters this week. The heart to heart talk between Daisy and Mace was especially well done, as he praised her for her forthrightness, while admitting he's constantly putting on an act for the public. Kudos to both Chloe Bennet and Jason O'Mara for adding some much needed depth to their characters. 

The exchanges between Coulson and General Talbot were also top notch, as always. It was especially touching when Talbot seemed genuinely hurt after Coulson accused him of being the leak at S.H.I.E.L.D.

It was nice to see Mack and Yo-yo finally reach an understanding, and to also uncover the mystery of Hope, first brought up in Deals With Our Devils.

Ever since the back half of the season started, I've been saying the S.H.I.E.L.D. writers seem influenced and inspired by HBO's Westworld. Nowhere is that more evident than in the scene in which the confused and distraught LMD May tries to figure out if she's real or not. Ming Na-Wen does an amazing job playing a version of May who's pondering her own existence. Unfortunately it's nothing that hasn't already been examined to death over on Westworld. 

SPOILERS!

The Plot:

We begin with a flashback to five days ago, when May goes on her "milk run" to Radcliffe's place, to deactivate AIDA and bring her in to S.H.I.E.L.D. (as seen in The Laws Of Inferno Dynamics). She tells Radcliffe she's going to destroy the Darkhold once AIDA's in custody, and leaves. Radcliffe calls AIDA and tells her to activate the "Sunset Protocol."

May arrives at Radcliffe's and tells AIDA to come with her. AIDA says sure, then knocks her out and opens the closet, revealing a perfect LMD copy of May. She then puts May in the closet, hooks her up to some kind of brainwave device and uploads her memories into LMD May (!). She activates LMD May, who picks up exactly where the real thing left off.

We then see that Real May's experiencing some sort of virtual reality simulation to keep her mind occupied while she's sedated. She's in a relaxing spa, but keeps trying to leave. She eventually wakes up and tries to escape, but AIDA captures her and almost kills her, as we saw last week in The Patriot. Radcliffe says he realizes his mistake, saying "Agent May doesn't do relaxation." He then says they'll have to design a better sim to keep her occupied. Or they could, I don't know, maybe increase the dosage of her sedative. But no, spending time programming an elaborate virtual world is fine too.

AIDA asks Radcliffe why it matters if Real May is alive or not, since they have a perfect LMD recreation of her. He tries to explain to AIDA that they're not killers, plus they need the original May alive for "calibrations." He says they also have their safety net in a second LMD at S.H.I.E.L.D. I knew it! I knew there had to be another one!

Cut to the present. Coulson, Mace want Daisy to publicly sign the Sokovia Accords (Captain America: Civil War shoutout!), to help generate trust in S.H.I.E.L.D. While, there, they plan to bug Senator Nadeer's office to find out what she's up to. General Talbot doesn't like this plan, but is outvoted. Talbot accuses Mace of being Coulson's puppet now, which isn't completely wrong.

Back at Radcliffe's house, he checks on Real May's condition and leaves. AIDA accidentally breaks a glass jar and leaves to get a broom. Real May reveals she was just faking being unconscious, and grabs a shard of broken glass. She begins cutting her wrist straps. 

Meanwhile Mack & Yo-yo enjoy a PG-13 romp in bed. Mack gets a text and immediately leaves, which isn't the least bit suspicious. Could he be the other LMD?

Real May manages to free herself and tries to escape Radcliffe's house. AIDA finds her and the two fight. Real May picks up a fireplace poker and runs it through AIDA's belly, causing her to malfunction. Real May goes through the front door of Radcliffe's house, and oddly enough finds herself at the bottom of a stairwell. That's weird! It's like something you'd find in an elaborate virtual reality sim. She begins climbing the stairs. 

In the Capitol, Mace, Daisy and Talbot enter the hearing room. Senator Nadeer greets them, and says something snarky. The hearing begins, and Nadeer implies that Daisy cares more about Inhumans than normal people. She also asks what happened to all the money she robbed from various banks when she was "undercover" as Quake. Daisy fumbles a reply. 

Meanwhile, Coulson and Yo-yo sneak into the Captiol. Yo-yo says she's noticed Coulson and May becoming more chummy lately. Coulson says he doesn't know what she's talking about. She uses her superspeed to swipe a key card, and they sneak into Nadeer's office. The begin planting listening devices in the office, but Yo-yo sets off some sort of alarm, and the two are captured. 

Nadeer then plays her trump card, saying tsince Daisy was working undercover for S.H.I.E.L.D. before signing the Accords, she was operating illegally, and she and S.H.I.E.L.D. both are guilty of violating the United Nations agreement. Just then she has Coulson and Yo-yo brought in, accusing them of breaking and entering or something. Admittedly none of this looks good for our heroes.

Coulson, Daisy and Yo-yo sit outside the hearing room, while Mace and Talbot try to smooth things over with Nadeer. Coulson says Nadeer knowing they'd be in her office means there's a leak inside S.H.I.E.L.D. Talbot enters and says they're free to go, but there'll be another hearing to discuss possible charges. Coulson accuses him of being the leak, which genuinely hurts Talbot. He says he's always supported Coulson, and S.H.I.E.L.D. only exists because of him.

Cut to Real May, who's still running up those steps. She exits into an empty penthouse apartment, but sees it's a dead end. AIDA appears and they fight again. Real May throws AIDA off the roof, but she shimmers and disappears. She reappears in the penthouse and tells Real May that she's in a simulation. AIDA notes that Real May gets a little farther through the sim every time, so they're going to have to rethink it. The simulation then starts over with AIDA breaking the glass and Real May trying to cut her straps.

Back at S.H.I.E.L.D., Simmons tries to talk with Fitz about his obsession with AIDA, but he reacts oddly. Almost like he was an LMD himself! She grabs his datapad and sees he's been studying AIDA's program. She accuses him of reactivating AIDA 1.0's severed head, and says Nadeer was probably using her receptors to gather intel. I guess this means AIDA's head was the leak?

LMD May (who discovered she was a robot in last week's episode) realizes she's the leak, as Nadeer is using her receptors to spy on S.H.I.E.L.D. She goes to Radcliffe's house and asks him what he's done to her. He's fascinated that she's become aware of what she really is. She threatens to tell Coulson what Radcliffe's doing, but he says she can't because she's programmed not to. She tries to bean Radcliffe in the head with a heavy knickknack, but can't, as her program won't allow that either. 

Suddenly Fitz and a squad of S.H.I.E.L.D. grunts enters and arrests Radcliffe. Fitz tells LMD May he figured out that AIDA wasn't altered by the Darkhold, but by Radcliffe himself. LMD May tries to tell him she's a robot, but can't.  

Back at S.H.I.E.L.D., Fitz visits Radcliffe in his holding cell. Radcliffe tries to explain his motives, saying he sees Fitz almost as a son. Fitz isn't having it. He suddenly realizes something's off, grabs a gun and shoots Radcliffe in the head at point blank range. Radcliffe looks stunned as his wound sparks, and then collapses. Looks like Radcliffe was the second LMD.

Mack returns from his mysterious errand, and a furious Yo-yo says she's leaving, as she doesn't want someone who keeps secrets from her. He says he had a daughter named Hope, who died eleven years ago. He said tomorrow is Hope's birthday, and Nicole, his ex, needed him to get through the day. Yo-yo's mortified and apologizes as they embrace.

Nadeer and Radcliffe monitor S.H.I.E.L.D. through LMD May's optical sensors. He says he built an LMD of himself after he failed to retrieve the Darkhold, as he knew he'd be in danger. Nadeer tells him it's time he met The Superior, whoever that is.

Meanwhile, Real May wakes in a new simulation. In it, she's back in Bahrain, on the night she got the nickname "The Calvary." This time though she finally manages to save Katya, giving the event some much needed closure in her mind.

Thoughts:

• I'd like to give a shoutout to actress Mallory Jansen, who plays AIDA. Somehow she gives AIDA a stiff and unreal quality, and her large, wide set eyes seem somehow... artificial. She plays a very convincing android.

• Last week I suspected that Fitz had most likely been replaced by an LMD, which would explain his obsession with AIDA 1.0. Welp, it looks like that's just what the writers wanted me to think, and it was wrong. Ah well. Can't guess 'em all!

For the record, I did NOT guess that Radcliffe himself was really the second LMD.

• I loved the scene at the beginning in which AIDA uploaded all of May's memories into her LMD doppelganger, like she was transferring a file to a flash drive. Amazingly it only takes about five seconds to transfer the contents of May's head. It's just that easy!

• By the way, where's Radcliffe getting the money and materials to build all these incredibly sophisticated and realistic androids? When he first appeared back in The Singularity, he was a scientist working in the field of transhumanism, who'd been captured by HIVE and forced to work for them.

Doesn't sound like there's much money in transhumanism. Is he just independently wealthy, like Tony Stark?He'd have to be, as I can't imagine these androids are cheap.

• The second Real May ran out the door of Radcliffe's house and into a stairwell, I knew she was in a simulation. There's no way that layout would make any sense in the real world.

• When we check in on Mack and Yo-yo, they're basking in the glow of their lovemaking. Mack then gets a text and immediately gets dressed and rushes out the door.

Um... did Mack really just get up and put his pants on a minutes after he was done having sex? Ew.

• Callback time! When Simmons finds out that Fitz activated AIDA 1.0's head, she thinks that's the leak inside S.H.I.E.L.D. She says, "We personally gave Radcliffe Deathlok's eye technology. Aida has it inside her head, doesn't she?... A camera, watching us this whole time. Aida hacked our base! Hell, it could've been broadcasting. Nadeer knew the details of our mission!"

It was nice to hear Deathlok's name again. Is he ever coming back to the show?

• As it turns out, Simmons was wrong about AIDA being the leak. This was a silly idea to begin with, as Fitz has had AIDA 1.0's head stored in a drawer for the past couple of episodes. Even if Nadeer had been using AIDA's eyes to monitor shield, all she'd have seen would have been a video feed of the inside of a pitch black drawer.

• After Radcliffe's arrested and thrown in a S.H.I.E.L.D. cell, Fitz pays him a visit. He detects something's not quit right, and shoots Radcliffe in the head, revealing he's really an LMD.

Lucky for Fitz his theory was right, else he'd be guilty of first degree murder!

•  Back in Deals With Our Devils, Mack sat brooding as he stared at a photo with "Hope. 4/18/06" written on the back.

At the time I didn't even have a guess as to what that meant. Now we finally know. Eleven years ago Mack and his ex Nicole had a daughter, who they named Hope. She only lived for four days, and now as Hope's birthday approaches, Nicole reached out to Mack to help her get through the emotional time. Mystery solved.

Well, almost. Mack just says that Nicole was his "ex." Was she his wife, or just a girlfriend?

• At the end of the episode Real May finds herself inside yet another simulation. This one's a perfect recreation of her tragic mission in Bahrain. How the hell would Radcliffe know enough about that particular detail of her life to recreate it in such precise detail? Can he somehow read her memories after uploading them into LMD May?

Anyway, it's been so long I'd completely forgotten what happened in Bahrain, and had to refresh my memory. I'll bet you did too, so let's recap. In the Season 2 episode Melinda, May and her husband Andrew discuss starting a family. Coulson calls May and tells her to meet him in Bahrain.

In Bahrain, Coulson's searching for a superpowered woman named Eva Belyakov. He finds her, but she flees into a nearby building that's filled with thugs. Coulson sends in a squad of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but loses contact with them. He sends May in to find out what happened to them all.

Inside she finds Eva's with a little girl, who she assumes is being held hostage. Turns out the little girl is actually the superpowered one. Eva stole Terrigen crystals and used them to transform her daughter Katya, giving her some kind of mind control/pain vampire powers or something.

Katya sends her mind controlled thugs after May, who's able to dispatch most of them. Katya then "absorbs the pain" of the rest of her thugs, killing them and making her stronger or something. She then starts to kill the captive S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, forcing May to shoot her in the head. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents come to, see May in the middle of all the carnage and assume it was her doing. They nickname her "The Calvary." 

May's so shaken by the whole event that she transfers to a desk job in the S.H.I.E.L.D. office, and gives up her dream of starting a family, which presumably led to her divorce from Andrew.

And that's one to grow on!

• This week's best lines:

Talbot: "This is politics, Phil. That means politicians. They are a festering cesspool of toxic waste fires."

Oh, General Talbot. If only you knew how right you are about that.

Talbot: (to Coulson) "Half the time, I’m dealing with the steaming pile of fart pebbles you give me!"

I have no idea what "fart pebbles" means, but it made me laugh

LMD May: "Today wasn't great."
Coulson: "Cauliflower isn't great. Today was a kick in the balls."

Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4, Episode 9: Broken Promises

Hey, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back!

I didn't expect the show to be back so soon, and would have missed it if I hadn't accidentally seen a mention of it online the day it aired. There's usually a two to three month gap between the halves of the seasons, but this time it was only about thirty days. I guess now that Agent Carter is kaput, ABC needs something to air, so they shortened the series' hiatus.

Whatever the reason, I'm glad the show's back. Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. became my favorite show in the first half of Season 4, mainly because of the addition of Ghost Rider. He seems to have ridden off into the sunset for now, so I hope this new "Life Model Decoy" storyline is as good.

Speaking of Life Model Decoys, as I said last month, I'm sure the fact that Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.  is doing an ultra realistic android plotline in the back half of the season has absolutely nothing to do with the phenomenal success of HBO's Westworld series. Nope, totally a coincidence!

Last month I also said that making AIDA turn evil was too obvious, and had already been done in Avengers: Age Of Ultron. I had a different theory for AIDA's motives. I said that Radcliffe programmed her to protect S.H.I.E.L.D. agents at all costs, so they wouldn't have to risk their lives in the field. What if she's systematically abducting the various agents, and replacing them with Life Model Decoys to protect them. Just like the well-meaning, but terrifying robots in the 1947 Jack Williamson sci-fi story With Folded Hands. Then the imprisoned agents will eventually have to rebel against her to get their lives back. 

Welp, that was an interesting theory on my part, but as we saw in this episode, completely erroneous. Ah well. Better luck to me next time.

SPOILERS!

The Plot:
Picking up right where we left off in The Laws Of Inferno Dynamics, AIDA changes out of her bloodstained clothes after killing Agent Nathanson. She then pokes her head into her closet, where she's holding Agent May. AIDA tells her she'll make her more comfortable as soon as the Life Model Decoy of her has served its purpose.

Back at S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, Director Mace meets with the team (including LMD May, who's secretly replaced the real thing). He tells Coulson to give the Darkhold to an agent who specializes in getting rid of mystical objects (?). He then orders Fitz and Radcliffe to wipe AIDA's hard drive (ouch), to remove her knowledge of the ancient and forbidden book. Simmons discovers that the Inhuman she helped treat in Deals With Our Devils was Vijay Nadeer, brother of the evil Senator Ellen Nadeer.

Daisy meets with Mace, who apologizes for threatening to have her arrested a few episodes ago. He welcomes her back to the team and tells her he wants to make a fresh start with her. He then recruits her and Simmons to go on a mission with him to rescue Vijay for some reason (I think because Senator Nadeer vehemently hates Inhumans, and Mace is afraid she'll do something to Vijay).

Meanwhile, Radcliffe takes Fitz and two grunts to his house to erase AIDA's memory. Radcliffe uses a remote to shut down AIDA (!), but she reactivates herself. She says she's upgraded her system and is now autonomous, and can no longer feel pain. She knocks out Radcliffe, kills the grunts and throws Fitz through a glass door, where he sees Nathonson's dead body (see The Laws Of Inferno Dynamics). Funny how she always seems to kill everyone except the main cast, eh?

Simmons goes undercover as a lobbyist to try and find Vijay's location from Senator Nadeer. The Senator's not in of course, and her aide recognizes Simmons and attacks. Simmons knocks him out and grabs his phone, which she can use to find Nadeer.

Vijay dreams about his mother, who died when the Chitauri attacked New York in The Avengers. He wakes up and has breakfast with his sister, Senator Nadeer. She asks him if he remembers being in the Terrigenesis cocoon for seven years. He says he kept hearing her telling him to fight, and he didn't let the cocoon change him. He tells her that Simmons saved him.

Senator Nadeer takes Vijay for a walk around the grounds, which is the secret signal for a group of Watchdogs, hired by her. They move in to kill Vijay, as Nadeer apologizes to him. She reminds him that when their mother was killed by aliens, they vowed to "do the right thing" if either one of them ever became infected by otherworldly forces. Vijay pleads with her, insisting that he resisted Terrigenesis and isn't an Inhuman. Nadeer believes him and calls off the Watchdogs.

Back at S.H.I.E.L.D., AIDA hacks into the system and addresses Coulson and the others. She tells them she wants the Darkhold or else. She then shuts off the power to the entire base. Fitz says he and Simmons set up a special "non-internet" server to power the Headquarters in cases like this. He and Radcliffe rush to start it up. Coulson tells Mack to go round up Yo-yo, while he and LMD May try to keep AIDA from entering the base. As they patrol the halls, they run into AIDA, who knocks them both out and throws them into a cell.

Mace, Daisy and Simmons arrive at Senator Nadeer's home, and demand she hand over Vijay. She refuses and orders them to leave. The Watchdogs arrive and attack Vijay, He easily dodges their attacks, as he appears to be an Inhuman after all, having developed some kind of superspeed while he was in his Terrigenesis husk. Mace, Daisy and Simmons hear the commotion and return. Daisy takes out the Watchdogs, and Simmons pleads with Vijay to come with them. He refuses and goes with Nadeer. Simmons tries to stop him, but Mace says to let him go, as he's made his choice.

Back at S.H.I.E.L.D., Fitz and Radcliffe debate what happened to AIDA, and if she's actually become human or not. Mack arrives with Yo-yo, and they're pinned down when AIDA takes control of a Quinjet and uses it to fire on them. Coulson and LMD May wake up in their cell. Coulson knocks out the cameras and tells LMD May where he hid the Darkhold— in a drawer in Mace's office, disguised by a holographic generator. Unknown to Coulson, AIDA is monitoring everything LMD May sees and hears. She heads to Mace's office, finds the book and takes it.

Fitz restores the power, and he and Radcliffe confront AIDA in a corridor. AIDA tries to hack into the main door to open it, but Fitz says he locked her out of the system. Just then Mack appears and cuts off AIDA's head with his axe gun. Well, that was anticlimactic.

Nadeer and Vijay get into a waiting chopper and take off. Once in the air, she kills her brother, and tells one of the Watchdogs to dispose of his body.

At Radcliffe's home, we see him talking to a second AIDA model. He's disappointed that AIDA 1.0 failed to steal the Darkhold, but praises her "Crazy Robot Becoming Human" act. He tells AIDA 2.0 that the brief glimpse he got of the book filled his head with all sorts of knowledge and ideas, and he believes he could use it to live forever. He says his only chance is for LMD May to steal the book for him. He checks on real May, and adjusts her sedatives.

Vijay's body is thrown from the helicopter into the ocean. It sinks to the bottom, where his body forms another Terrigenesis cocoon around itself.

Thoughts:
• During the briefing at the beginning of the episode, Coulson says, "We'll transfer the Darkhold to an agent who specializes in making items like this disappear."

At first I assumed he was namedropping Doctor Strange, but surely he's not a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. So I'm not sure who Coulson's talking about here. At the end of the episode we see the Darkhold's hidden by a hologram inside Mace's office. I doubt this is what Coulson was talking about when he said "make it disappear." They were probably just storing it in the office temporarily, until they could take it to the mystery person.

• Although Life Model Decoys are new to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they've been around in the comics forever. They first appeared in the first ever S.H.I.E.L.D. story in Strange Tales #135, in 1965. In that issue, S.H.I.E.L.D. made several LMDS of Nick Fury (who was white back then) to act as decoys, to protect him from HYDRA.

• Back in 2012's The Avengers, Iron Man dismisses a call from Agent Coulson by saying, "You have reached the Life Model Decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message." But this season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. strongly implies that LMDs are a recent creation. How could Tony Stark joke about LMDs five years ago if Dr. Radcliffe just invented them?

The Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki practically bends over backwards as it struggles valiantly to explain this. According to it, S.H.I.E.L.D. dabbled with LMDs some time ago, but abandoned the technology. Apparently five years or so ago Tony Stark must have hacked into the S.H.I.E.L.D. computers and read about LMDs. Then Dr. Radcliffe became an honorary  member of S.H.I.E.L.D., discovered the rejected project and revived it, genuinely intending to use it to protect field agents.

Eh, not a bad save, I guess. I'm willing to give 'em this one.

• Simmons has a really good eye for faces. In Deals With Our Devils she was taken to a secret location and told to remove a mysterious subject from his Terrigenesis cocoon. After running some tests on the cocoon, she peeled a bit of it away with her hands, revealing a very small portion of the face of the man inside. 

Somehow from that brief glimpse she was able to provide such a detailed description of the man's face to Daisy that she positively I.D.ed him as Vijay Nadeer. Amazing!

• I expected LMD May to be a spy for AIDA, and sneak around the base knocking out other agents and replacing them with androids. But from what we saw in this episode, LMD May is apparently unaware that she's an android, and thinks she's the real thing. Interesting.

LMD May was getting all flirty with Coulson— I guess that means Real May feels the same?

• In this episode, I naturally assumed that AIDA had been corrupted by reading the Darkhold, and had become an evil, sentient robot. Apparently that wasn't the case, and it doesn't look like the book affected her at all. 

Radcliffe mentions AIDA's "Oscar™ winning performance," which implies that she was just acting like a crazy evil robot, in order to steal the Darkhold for him.

• When the base is locked down, LMD May asks Coulson, "Where we headed?" Coulson replies, "Emergency staircase to the base's Bar Entrance. We need to lock that down manually."

So there's a secret entrance to S.H.I.E.L.D. in a bar somewhere? Since when? Unless I'm completely forgetting something, I'm pretty sure this is the first time that's ever been mentioned.

• Simmons can do a pretty good southern accent when she has to.

• Looks like Senator Nadeer's mom was killed during the Chitauri invasion of New York back in The Avengers. Man, they're still milking that event, aren't they?

• Senator Nadeer mentioned someone called "The Superior" several times in the episode. I have no idea who she could be talking about.

• Did Yo-yo forget she's a speedster? At one point AIDA hacks into the Quinjet and causes it to fire on her and Mack. Yo-yo just hides behind some conveniently placed cargo containers and occasionally fires a gun at the attacking plane.

Yes, I heard Mace mention that Yo-yo's still recovering from her injuries, but she looked pretty spry in the episode to me. Surely she could have zipped Mack and the other agents out of harm's way in between bullet hits.

• Apparently the producers must have told Henry Simmons, aka Mack, that he was getting paid by the robot movie reference in this episode. Literally every line Mack uttered in this episode was a shoutout to a 1980s sci-fi action film involving killer robots. It was kind of funny the first eighty seven times he did it, but after that it got a bit old.

For the record, here are all his robot references:

Mack: "This isn't some Johnny 5 we're talking about. This is a bloodthirsty murder-bot on the loose. This thing really killed Nathanson?"
Coulson: "Yeah. Question is why."
Mack: "If we catch her, I'm sure we'll get some crazy-ass Roy Batty explanation."
(We get a twofer here, as he calls out both Short Circuit and Blade Runner)

Mack: (to Radcliffe) "Looks like your creepiness finally works in our favor. Shouldn't be too hard to find your beautiful Weird Science sex-bot."

Mack: (when AIDA causes everyone's cell phones to ring at the same time) "This right here... it's exactly how The Lawnmower Man ends."

Mack: "Someone needs to make Radcliffe watch all the Terminator movies."
Yo-yo: "Even Salvation?"
Mack: "He brought this onto himself."
(OK, that was kind of funny, but there's no way in hell Salvation is worse than the cinematic turd that is Terminator: Genisys!)

Mack: (as AIDA causes the Quinjet to attack) "She did not just go all Maximum Overdrive on us!"
(Maximum Overdrive featured a comet whose weird radiation causes mechanical objects to come to life and kill humans)

Yo-yo: (quizzing Mack on 1980s robot movies) "Okay, here's another one. Have you ever watched Chopping Mall?"
Mack: "Eight teenagers trapped in a shopping mall while three deadly security robots hunt them down. Of course I've seen Chopping Mall. Come on, now, you got to do better than that."
(As annoying as all these references are, kudos to them for bringing up Chopping Mall, a fairly obscure little 80s film and one of my favorites)

Mack: "How's Radcliffe holding up?"
Fitz: "He's taking it pretty hard, actually. AIDA was his life's work. She was kind of like a child."
Mack: Small wonder.
(Arrgh! He did it again, managing to reference the awful 1980s sitcom about a robotic little girl)

• At the end of the episode we learn that Radcliffe is really the one who wanted the Darkhold, as the tiny glimpse he got of it a few episodes ago have already corrupted him, fueling unhealthy ideas in his head. So he concocted the entire elaborate plan to send AIDA to S.H.I.E.L.D. to retrieve it.

But was any of this really necessary? Does he really need the book? AIDA already read the entire thing, right? Surely the contents of the book is still there in her memory. Couldn't she just plug herself into a printer and print out a copy for him? Or is there some dark magic that prevents the book from being copied?