Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: No Regrets (4x18)

!!! This plot arc just keeps getting more and more intriguing.

Cons:

We get a big death in this episode. Jeffrey Mace. I'm going to miss him, and the way the death was portrayed was nice... but Mace wasn't a big enough character in our minds for the death to pack the proper punch. I'm bummed that he's gone, because I think there were still a lot of interesting things that could have been done with his character. But I wasn't devastated, the way I think I was meant to be. A few more episodes getting to know Mace inside the Framework would have helped this death mean a little bit more.

A repeat of a complaint from last week: Mack and Hope are a little too cheesy. He's always calling her Sparkplug and she's always giggling and smiling and she just adores her father so much. I think if we saw a genuine moment where the two of them weren't seeing eye to eye, that would help. As is, the whole thing is just a little too perfect, which goes against Aida's whole thing about fixing one regret and then letting the world spiral out from there. In Mack's case, it feels like his relationship with his daughter was not only restored by her being alive, but was given this unrealistic sheen of perfect bliss.

Pros:

Very quickly, the main plot of this one is that the resistance, S.H.I.E.L.D., goes in to help break out a bunch of Hydra's prisoners. Meanwhile, May has been tasked to take down The Patriot, and she takes some of the super-strength serum that we know Mace uses in the real world, in order to do so. In the end, Mace gives up his life to hold up a collapsing building, while Coulson, Jemma, Ward, and a shell-shocked May are able to help a bunch of kids escape from this "reprogramming" camp. In the real world, we see Mace hooked up into the Framework. He flat-lines, and Aida disconnects him.

While all of that is going on, Daisy is still in prison, and so is Radcliffe. Aida offers Daisy a chance to be with Lincoln, if only Daisy will cough up her location in the real world. Later, Radcliffe whispers through the walls to Daisy, revealing a "back door" way out, although we don't hear what he says. In the end, May shows up and uses Terrigen crystals to turn Daisy back into an Inhuman, so she can dismantle Hydra. Fitz, meanwhile, is troubled about killing Agnes, but a talk from his dear old dad makes him realize that staying loyal to Hydra and Ophelia really is the right move.

Oh boy. Lots of intriguing stuff going on here. The easiest thing will be to take this character-by-character again.

Mace, as I mentioned, dies heroically. I may have wanted a bit more time with him so his death could be properly impacting, but it was still pretty sad. I think about all of the stuff Mace wanted to do in the real world, and how in this Framework he finally got to be the Inhuman hero of the people he was just pretending to be in reality. It was a fitting sendoff. I'll miss him.

Coulson continues to be this wonderfully in-between version of himself. He has snippets of memories, but he doesn't recall the training and authority of his real self. I love the fact that once he puts his loyalty and trust in a group of people, he's willing to do anything to protect them. While Jemma refers to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s refugees as nothing more than ones and zeroes, Coulson is unable to think of them that way. This has been his reality for too long. He risks it all to save a bunch of kids from Hydra's reprogramming centers. Gotta love that guy.

Ward is, as I've mentioned, super fascinating in this world. He's a genuinely good person who wants to rescue Daisy (or Skye, as he calls her) at any cost. He's also loyal to Mace. The look on his face when he realizes that Mace is about to die... well, let's just say Grant Ward really does have a heart. I also love the conversations that he and Jemma have in this episode. Simmons tells Mace and Ward about the "real world," which leads to a discussion about what constitutes "real." Ward is convinced of his own reality, just as Jemma is. I honestly love this weird tension between Jemma and Ward, and would love to see more of it.

Speaking of Jemma Simmons, she had one of the best lines in the episode, as she's telling Ward and Mace the news about the real world: "No one wants to hear that they're just an avatar in a digital prison, but sometimes that happens, and here we are." So dry, so matter-of-fact, so great. Also, Jemma's unshakable faith in Fitz really does warm the heart. She knows that this world can't be real, because she can't accept a reality where Fitz murders an innocent woman in cold blood.

Fitz, by the way, seems to be having a hard time with that as well. He's having doubts, which he talks over with his father. Turns out, Fitz's "one regret" in this world was the absence of a relationship with his dear old dad. It seems the cold-hearted man really warped Fitz into a dedicated devotee of Hydra. For a while there I wasn't convinced by this whole "one regret" idea, because it seemed absurd that just one thing being changed could alter Fitz so entirely. But now I see that while the real Fitz is under there somewhere, the ruthlessness and blind devotion is also a very real part of who Fitz is. Everybody has the capacity to do terrible things. It doesn't even necessarily make this version of Fitz an irredeemable monster, either. I'm fascinated to learn more about Fitz's father.

Daisy. Oh, Daisy. Fitz actually drops the line "nevertheless, she persisted," in this episode, and I swear, I literally did a fist pump. Daisy doesn't waver through all of the torture, never giving up any information. Aida then offers up something tantalizing: the chance for Daisy to live a happy life with Lincoln. Unsurprisingly, Daisy doesn't give in to temptation, although she does seem achingly tempted by the thought of seeing Lincoln again. I'm intrigued by whatever Radcliffe told her about the "back door" to the Framework. Daisy is such a strong character. Sometimes I think back to the early days of this show, and I can hardly believe how much I like her now.

May. Oh my God. I wasn't expecting her to turn around so quickly, but it was just golden. She's single-minded in her mission to kill Mace, but when she sees that Hydra has been holding kids, she's completely shocked and horrified. She doesn't shoot the Patriot, instead helping the group to save the kid who's been caught in rubble. She even gives Mace a little nod of respect before she leaves him to be crushed by the building. The ending scene was pure gold. She shows up in Daisy's cell, and when Daisy assures her she can bring Hydra down if only she has her powers, May gives her those powers. The two share this amazing look of determination. Shit is about to get real in the very best way. May makes a lot of sense to me in this world. She works for Hydra because Hydra is "saving the world" from the very mistake she made by saving that kid. But here, she's forced to confront the fact that saving children isn't wrong. It can't be. And Inhumans can't be wrong either. I love May.

Oh, and by the way... Trip?!?!?!!! When the rebels were talking about rescuing somebody from a Hydra prison, I just knew it would be somebody we recognized. But I wasn't expecting Trip, and the minute I saw him I was just so very happy. He was such a great character, and not very much was ever done with him. I'm intrigued by the presence of people we care about, like Hope and Trip, who won't be around in any way shape or form outside of the Framework. It ups the stakes, and makes the idea of dismantling this whole world a little tricky to justify entirely. I can't wait for more!

I'm honestly so invested in this show right now. I can't wait to find out what happens to all of these characters. I really appreciate all of the thought and development they are putting in to every member of this somewhat large ensemble cast. There are going to be some really tough real-world consequences once this Framework thing is done with, and that's mighty interesting.

8/10