Danny Hale reviews the tenth episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 4…
“The Patriot” hit the ground running, opening with a very public acknowledgment of Quake and her heroic actions, further embellishing her steadily growing reputation to the general populace. Director Mace seems particularly eager to put her in this spotlight and to have the world recognise her as the hero she is, whether that be from the kindness of his heart or for S.H.I.E.L.D. in the big picture is unclear. It’s during this ceremony however that an attempt to assassinate Director Mace is foiled by both his own quick thinking and an always suspicious Daisy. Daisy managed to subdue the shooter with little struggle but thankfully this man’s bullet, which was very reminiscent of rounds seen in Luke Cage, was only the catalyst for the rest of the episode.
Radcliffe at the beginning of “The Patriot” expresses his concern to Aida that as he is not currently welcome at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ and so he cannot monitor the May LMD. This essentially makes the May LMD a complete wildcard and I couldn’t be happier; she is completely oblivious to her own directives and true nature making it almost impossible to gauge how she is going to behave. I was unsure if May was being controlled by Aida or Radcliffe remotely but it turns out she is, in a sense, an independent player. The entire May LMD plot thread has been so surprising; what appeared to be at first an ‘evil May’ storyline has in fact ended up going in directions I was never expecting it to. Subsequently, May’s self-discovery of her robotic innards poses a wonderful situation; will May turn herself over to Coulson assuming she has been compromised? I don’t think this will affect her subliminal programming to obtain the Darkhold but just play on her on a much more personal level, much like Boomer in Battlestar Galactica. It raises many intriguing questions and thoughts and presents a fascinating route to explore. Most importantly, it has me well and truly intrigued.
Aida, in a way, took a back seat this week but there was plenty to notice and many, many signs that things are not resolved. Is the new Aida model experiencing human emotion like her beheaded previous model? Radcliffe seemed to imply he had specifically programmed the first model to emulate human emotion but this week the new model certainly seemed to be responding to Radcliffe’s critiques and quips on a personal level which made me feel far more anxious than any other threat this week. This self-awareness is far more worrying than what we’ve seen before.
I lamented a few weeks ago that I really wanted to see Mace properly throw down in a fight and now this week I guess I know why we haven’t. Admittedly, once Mace’s mysterious case started getting all the focus it made it hard not to attempt to guess what it contained. The reveal that Mace was in fact a massive PR stunt himself fits so well and makes so much sense that I am astounded I didn’t see it coming. The budding question of what really happened with Mace in Vienna was where my focus was at, expecting this reveal to be his downfall but to have it all tie-in together and still make sense from what we’ve learned of Mace’s character thus far was a complete bonus. The fact that this all came from Talbot and the President himself simultaneously adds weight to the twist while, happily, absolving Mace from some of the blame. In fact, Mace seems to have acted with the best interests and genuinely cares about Inhuman rights along with protecting the innocent. Overall I’m happy that his secret is out without it ruining or removing his character from the show.
Although this week’s main focus was Director Mace and his humanity being revealed, the last few scenes also got a few new balls rolling; I absolutely adore that May being forced to live through a prolonged spa and peaceful retreat just made her more suspicious to her situation, leading her to temporarily break free of her bonds. This thus caused Radcliffe to rethink his means of keeping her under, realising that May is a warrior and thrives on combat. I am now wondering (hoping) will we get an opportunity to see May engage in an incredible fight we wouldn’t usually be offered. I even considered they may get Brett Dalton back for the fun of it to have him and May slug it out with no consequences. It could make a great opening to an episode but as it wouldn’t necessarily contribute to the plot, I might just be wishful thinking. We also learn that Fitz is not quite ready to give up on the original Aida and is keeping her head online for further research. Seeing Aida’s severed head speaking back to him was a little chilling, especially since Fitz truly believes she’s achieved sentience whereas we now know that this is just the result of complex programming designed by Radcliffe to dupe the others. On top of this we now have the worry that Simmons will find out Fitz is lying to her. I was thinking this week that FitzSimmons had been too happy for too long!
“The Patriot” closed with Coulson being placed back in charge of combat operations while the political and public side of running S.H.I.E.L.D. will remain with Mace. This was a nice move as the premise for this show back when it first began was about how not all heroes have powers. Coulson recognised the heroic qualities Mace had and despite the lies, he was and is on their side. This shake-up feels like a preferable mix; I have no strong desire to see Mace leave or Coulson resume the director role but will enjoy the relevant freedom our characters will have when it comes to field ops. With Radcliffe’s attempt to get the Darkhold now a part of a longer play and the original Aida model being sustained in secret this leaves the show open to fully tackle Nadeer and the Watchdogs in the coming weeks. There’s a huge amount of great material here for the rest of the season and I honestly can’t wait. Final mention goes to “Little Miss Richter Scale,” I missed you General Talbot.
Danny Hale