Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: BOOM (4x13)

I just love all the stuff with Aida. It's inspired. And the stuff with Mace. That's inspired, too. The more time we spend with these plot threads, the happier I am. I do have one thing to complain about with this one, though, and I'm afraid it's not a small complaint.

Cons:

Senator Nadeer is dead. She dies off-screen, the victim of a bombing caused by a literal exploding man. This character has been hounding us all season, and then in this episode, she's written off almost as an afterthought. We finally meet "The Superior" in this episode, and beyond the fact that his men seem eerily, supernaturally loyal to him, he just comes across as another generic baddie. Maybe he'll get more threatening with time, but as is...snore.

Pros:

There are two main plots in this episode, both of which are awesome. In one, the bulk of the team is working to catch Terrence Shockley, member of the Watchdogs and now an Inhuman. He tried to trap Nadeer into going through terregenesis, and instead it happened to him, turning him in to a bomb. He can explode and reform at will. Pretty awesome. Daisy is able to slow him down using her Quake powers, but it's Mace who saves the day and lets our heroes get away from the Russians' trap.

This plot thread was amazing for one big reason: Jeffrey Mace. He laments the fact that he's being put on the bench, using a football analogy to explain his frustration. He's gone from being Head Coach, to being Quarterback, and now he's being benched, since it turns out the serum he's been taking is very dangerous, and might kill him the next time he injects it. He genuinely wants to be helpful, something Coulson completely understands. Coulson compares Mace's current feelings of helplessness with how he felt when working with the Avengers. His advice to Mace is to just keep powering through, and wait for his moment to contribute. The payoff is excellent, as he does get his moment to contribute by finding his place in the team: he's the blocker. He takes the injection, even knowing it might be the last thing he ever does. However, he ends up being taken captive. The rest of our heroes are safe, but how long before the bad guys realize that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s "Director" isn't actually Inhuman? This could get really bad, really quickly.

Fitzsimmons was delightful this week. It honestly felt like a return to basics, with lots of quippy, fast-talking technobabble, finding impossible answers and talking at the same time. There was a great moment when Fitz and Mace helped to push a soon-to-explode Shockley into a containment unit, and Simmons runs up to Fitz and hits him, angry at him for risking his life. Of course she then gives him a big hug, which was exactly the sort of emotional catharsis we needed after the last several weeks of murky secrets between these two. If this episode marks a turning of the tide, I'll be very happy.

The other plot thread saw Coulson and Mack following up on a lead to get to Radcliffe, and thus May. They find the woman, Agnes, on whom Radcliffe based the design for Aida. She is his ex, and she's dying of a brain tumor. Coulson tells Agnes about May, and enlists her help in getting Radcliffe to reveal himself, so that maybe Coulson can get to May. This backfires when Radcliffe tells Agnes he's created a way to cure her. She takes off with him, and we see Radcliffe and Aida helping to hook up Agnes to the virtual reality machine where May is currently being held prisoner.

In some ways, the idea of a virtual world that's better than the real world is something that's been done to death in science fiction. Inevitably, the moral here is that even if reality can be difficult, it's preferable to a lie. But what I like about this setup is the many dichotomies it presents. Radcliffe has found a way to cure death by moving beyond the physical. At the same time, he has given physical form to Aida and to other LMDs, thus merging a computer with the world of humanity. As Aida becomes more human, do May and Agnes become more like computer programs?

We also have the wonderful fact that May is trapped in a world as realistic and complete as our own. While we started off with May as a prisoner, we may now have to face the reality that she won't want to come back. May is such a strong character, but she's been through so much, and Aida and Radcliffe have found a way to push all of her buttons.

Aida is just so interesting to me. The moment when she says "I'm not unique?" to Radcliffe is so telling. It bothers her, being a doppelganger. Later, upon meeting Agnes, she takes the unconscious woman's necklace and places it around her own neck. We've watched Radliffe being dismissive of Aida for weeks, treating her as you would treat a computer. But now we see him lovingly kissing the hands of Agnes, a woman who looks just like Aida. I think somebody's getting jealous...

Coulson was just breaking my heart all night. His desperation to get to May was a delight to see. Obviously things are not going to resolve easily, but I'm really excited to see their inevitable reunion. Mack tried to be a mitigating force, reminding Coulson that May wouldn't want him to be too reckless. Coulson has his blinders on, though. He's not giving up on May, no matter what. In a very Coulson-esque move, however, he doesn't force Agnes to help them. He considers it, but instead he tells her about May, and appeals to her good nature to get her to assist. I love that even in his moments of desperation, he proves himself to be a genuinely good person.

That's all I've got. Nadeer's death felt a tad anticlimactic, but everything else in this episode was firing on all cylinders.

8.5/10