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."

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."

It Came From The Cineplex: Ex Machina

Ex-Machina was written and directed by Alex Garland.

Garland previously wrote the screenplays for 28 Days Later, Sunshine (both of which were directed by Danny Boyle) and the underrated Dredd. Ex Machina is his directorial debut.

And what a debut it is! Ex Machina is a slow burning character study that takes its time as it examines the nature of humanity and consciousness and springs its various traps when you least expect it.

Finally, an intelligent and thoughtful sci-fi film. This is the kind of movie the similarly-themed Chappie should have been, but sadly wasn't. Unfortunately it's going to be buried at the box office by the one-two punch of Furious 7 and Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Hopefully it'll find a larger audience on home video.

Ex Machina is very similar to 2013's The Machine, another film about a female robot with artificial intelligence. The Machine even featured a character named Ava! Ex Machina is definitely the better film, but that's still a hell of a coincidence.

SPOILERS!

The Plot:

Caleb Smith (played by Domhnall Gleeson) is a young programmer working at Bluebook, the most popular online search engine in the world, which absolutely isn't meant to remind us of Google. He wins an in-house contest to spend a week with the company's reclusive CEO Nathan Bateman (played by Oscar Isaac) at his secluded mountain home.

Caleb is flown to Bateman's remote Alaskan complex by helicopter. Caleb's initial meeting with the eccentric genius isn't what he expected, as Nathan is brash, overbearing and a borderline alcoholic, who absolutely isn't meant to remind us of Willy Wonka, Tony Stark and Steve Jobs all rolled into one. Nathan says he's developed a new artificial intelligence, and wants an objective outsider to administer a Turing Test to determine its validity.

Caleb is then introduced to the A.I.— a highly advanced humanoid robot named Ava (played by Alicia Vikander).  Although Ava has a human face, her body is clearly robotic, with transparent sections revealing the machinery and circuitry within. During their initial meeting, Caleb is impressed by Ava's grasp of language and seeming intelligence. She tells Caleb she dreams of someday visiting a large city and people-watching near a busy intersection.

Nathan records all the tests with multiple surveillance cameras. Suddenly the power goes out, and Ava leans forward and says they can now speak in secret, and gravely warns Caleb that Nathan isn't to be trusted. When the power is restored, Ava goes back to normal conversation mode, leaving Caleb puzzled and more than a little terrified.

That night at dinner, Nathan expresses annoyance at the power outages, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Ava is causing them. He drinks too much and becomes angry when his beautiful Japanese servant Kyoko spills wine on the table. Caleb is appalled by the way Nathan treats her.

The next day, Ava puts on a dress, sweater and wig and notes that Caleb is now physically attracted to her. Later Caleb accuses Nathan of programming Ava to be attracted to him in order to skew the Turing Test. Nathan denies this, saying he simply programmed sexuality into her in an effort to make her more human. Caleb also figures out that he wasn't chosen to visit at random, and Nathan admits he's right. He was chosen based on his intelligence and knowledge of A.I.

Caleb and Ava continue to meet and converse. Ava worries what will happen to her if she fails the Turing Test. Later Caleb asks Nathan about this, and he says if she doesn't pass the test, she'll be reformatted— which will in effect kill her.

That night Nathan then gets so drunk he passes out. Caleb steals his key card and accesses his computer. He sees video files of Nathan's previous A.I. models, all of which look like beautiful women, and who all beg to leave the facility. He then enters Nathan's bedroom and finds the deactivated models hanging in his closet. Kyoko appears and reveals she too is an android. Caleb begins to fear he may be an android as well, and slices open his arm with a razor to prove he's human.

During Caleb's final interview with Ava, she cuts the power and they plot their escape. Caleb will get Nathan drunk again, and reprogram the security doors to allow them to leave. Caleb offers Nathan a drink, but he refuses, claiming to be on the wagon. Caleb realizes he's been played by both Nathan and Ava all along. Nathan says the real test was to see if Ava was capable of tricking Caleb into helping her escape, which proves she's "human" and means she's passed the Turing Test.

But Caleb is a sneaky bastard as well, and has already reprogrammed the doors. Ava is then able to escape her sealed room. Nathan tries to stop her, but she attacks him. He hits her with an iron bar, knocking her arm off. Kyoko then stabs Nathan in the back with a large knife. Nathan crushes her head, and Ava takes the knife and stabs him again, killing him.

Ava then goes to Nathan's closet and uses parts from the older prototypes to repair her body and covers herself in synthetic skin and a wig. Now looking fully human, she exits the building, leaving Caleb locked inside Nathan's office with no way out. She's picked up by the waiting helicopter and whisked away.

We then see her standing at a busy intersection, people-watching.

Thoughts:

• Kudos to Alex Garland for setting the movie slightly in the future, but not in any specific year. As readers of my blog are all tired of hearing by now, one of my pet peeves is when a sci-fi movie is full of futuristic technology but set in the far off year of 2018.

• The title is of course derived from "deux ex machina," meaning "god from the machine." And by the way, it's pronounced "MACK-ih-na," not "Masheen-ah."

• Oddly enough, actors Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac are both starring in the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens film.

• The Turing Test is a real thing, designed to determine a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equal to or indistinguishable from a human. It was invented in 1950 by Alan Turing, the famous mathematician, cryptographer and computer science pioneer.

I freely admit I'm much dumber than Turing, so I don't understand the value of the test. Supposedly you converse with two subjects, one human and one a machine. If you can't tell which is which, then the machine passes and is considered intelligent.

But how can you ever know if a machine is actually thinking, or just simulating thought and saying what you want to hear? Is simulated thinking the same as real thought?

• The Ava effects are absolutely brilliant, and look completely real. There are tons of details visible inside her transparent body, including flashing lights and slowly whirring gears and fans.

Supposedly no green screen was used, as her human parts were painstakingly rotoscoped out and replaced with robotic versions. Complicating matters were the reflections she cast in the numerous glass walls, which also had to be "roboticized."

The effects are even more amazing when you consider the budget for the entire film was a scant $16 million! Heck, most films spend more than that on their craft service these days!

• I don't get why Nathan came up with the "win a week at his complex" contest ruse. Why go through all the publicity-generating pretense of a contest? Why not just discreetly invite Caleb for a visit?

• Is Nathan the only person inhabiting his complex? It sure seems that way (well, until Caleb arrives of course). If so, he really is quite the genius. He's not only a brilliant computer programmer, but also a talented engineer and gifted roboticist as well, somehow constructing a life-like humanoid robot all by himself.

Realistically there should have been a team of hundreds working on such a project. I guess they were going for a Dr. Frankenstein, mad scientist kind of vibe here, that wouldn't have been possible unless Nathan was the only one involved.

• Apparently Nathan's never heard of Isaac Asimov's Three Laws Of Robotics. You know, the ones that say "a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm," etc and so on. He'd have avoided a whole lot of trouble (and would still be alive) if he'd built those into his bots.

You'd also think someone as smart as him would have built some kind of kill switch into Ava, to prevent her from leaving the complex (or even her room, for that matter).

• There's a lot of full frontal female nudity on display here, which is something you don't see a lot in movies these days. I wonder... did the studio consider the nudity acceptable because none of the women in the film are real? Robot nudity is OK, real nudity not so much?

• I'm very impressed that Nathan's complex doesn't blow up at the end of the film, which is how 99.9% of most sci-fi films end.

• At the end of the film, Ava walks into the landing field, boards the waiting helicopter and flies away to her new life. Shouldn't the pilot have questioned her? Wouldn't he have been expecting Caleb, not some woman he's never seen before? Shouldn't he have tried to check in with Nathan to make sure everything was kosher? I half expected her to kill the pilot and fly the copter herself. Maybe she used her manipulative female ways on him to allay his suspicions.

Ex Machina is a rarity at the theater these days— a simple, thoughtful and intelligent sci-fi film that demands your attention and actually makes you think. I'm hoping against hope it'll do well, so we'll see more films like it. I give it an A-.