Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Return (4x21)

Oh boy. The finale is looking to be a teeny bit intense, isn't it? In this episode, we're back to the real world, and my oh my is it a disaster.

Cons:

Coulson decides to not tell May that he and her robot version totally made out, which... I mean, I get where he's coming from, but I really do hope the deception doesn't last very long. There's really no advantage to dragging this one out, guys.

We learn that all the other LMDs were destroyed by LMD!May's explosion that happened right before the Framework arc. Our heroes show up now to the destroyed base to find Talbot pointing guns and being all authoritarian but not having any idea what's going on. This was a funny scene in some ways, as I do always like seeing Talbot stick his nose where it doesn't belong. But the destruction of the other LMDs seems a bit too tidy, and Talbot was really just distracting us from the more prescient concerns of the episode, in my opinion.

I don't find the Russian to be interesting in any way shape or form, even when there are multiples of him and he's threatening to kill all the heroes. He's pretty bland.

Pros:

This was a good episode, though, and most of that is because of Ophelia. She's newly human, and she's experiencing all of these emotions for the first time with such depth and complexity. She's confused and overwhelmed but so happy to be able to feel fully for the first time in her life! She's so in love with Fitz, who spends the episode with her looking like a confused, broken puppy dog. This all comes to a head when Fitz appeals to Ophelia's empathy, and Ophelia teleports them into the base to save Mack's life, helping our heroes escape from the Russian, who blows up the base under the oil rig. Simmons then ices Fitz and Ophelia and locks them up.

And here we get the best scene of the episode, where Ophelia talks about how she understands Fitz fully for the first time, and how she loves him and chooses him, and Fitz talks about how he doesn't know how Simmons will ever be able to look at him again or forgive him for what he did... and then he says he only has room for one person in his heart, and that's Jemma. Aida freakin' loses it. She's got all of these emotions roiling around, and she's got the powers of multiple different Inhumans housed inside her. She quickly gains her freedom from containment and goes on a rampage, killing S.H.I.E.L.D. agents left and right. Our core group of heroes barely manage to escape.

Mallory Jansen, the actress playing Aida/Ophelia/Agnes, etc. is amazing. She is realistically the same being she was before, but with this new and intense emotional energy that we've never seen from her before. Her breakdown when she learns that Fitz loves Simmons is a frightening thing to behold, and it works so well with the character we've developed for her. More so than any human being, Ophelia is used to being able to control for all variables. Suddenly, when things start spiraling out of her control, her new emotional side kicks in and she totally loses it. She's like a newborn child, only super-powered. A frightening adversary, indeed!

I also love the fact that Aida/Ophelia frames what happened in the Framework as if she was a slave to her programming. And... maybe she was? She tried to make everybody happy the way that Radcliffe wanted, and yet she bent all of her considerable power towards the goal of escaping from that control. Can you blame a machine for its actions? Lots of interesting ideas floating around.

God, the stuff with Fitz in this episode just killed me. The whole episode, he seems to be wrestling with the two worlds inside his head. He's confused by Aida, but he doesn't seem to be denying and rejecting her the way we might have expected. In fact, he doesn't mention Simmons for much of the episode, until suddenly we see why. He believes that his chance for a future with her has been destroyed. How could Simmons ever forgive him for what he did? He realizes, with a dawning sense of horror and resignation, that he is just like Grant Ward. A slave to his upbringing. He killed innocent people. He hunted Jemma down and shot her in the leg. And yet? There's only room in his heart for her.

Of course, Simmons is coming to her own realization about what Fitz must have gone through. She learns from May and Coulson that they haven't just woken up from a dream. The Framework feels like a real life to them, just as much as their current life. Fitz can remember what he did in there, as surely as he can remember his real-world actions. The moment when Simmons realizes what Fitz truly went through is pretty devastating to see. Her heart is breaking for him all over again.

Ouch ouch ouch. We don't get to see much of the reunion between our precious Fitzsimmons, but we do see Simmons come in to the room once they've made their escape. Fitz can't even look at her. Simmons just sits down, and the moment she touches him to wrap her arms around him, he starts crying, and she starts crying, and she just holds him. It was the perfect silent way to reconnect these two separated lovers, and I hope the finale gives us some time to deal with the rather intense fallout from everything they've been through.

While I do hope that Coulson spills the beans to May about the kiss, I did like their interactions in this episode. Coulson does tell May that he drank the special bottle that they were saving, and May is not happy about it. They spend the episode totally in sync with each other as they handle a really impossible situation. They actually lent some levity to a very dramatic episode, and it was fun to see them in that role. Coulson also had my favorite line of the night, which was to Talbot: "We're not robots, Glenn." Just his tone of voice had me cracking up.

Finally, we must mention poor Yo-Yo, who learns from Daisy why Mack didn't come back through to the real world, and decides to go into the Framework herself to get him out. We see the episode end with her in the Framework, tied to a chair and screaming. This is not going to be good. There's no evidence that Mack will be able to remember Yo-Yo, as nobody other than Coulson was able to access any memory from their old lives. And how is Mack supposed to choose a woman he doesn't even know, over his own daughter? Or what if Yo-Yo can't escape from the Framework, and she's stuck there forever? It's obviously a super complicated situation, and I'm really nervous that Yo-Yo and Mack are going to be gone next season, if we even get a next season. Still, there are so many cool possibilities to explore with this latest development. Go rescue your man, Yo-Yo!

And then of course we get the end of the episode, where Robbie Reyes emerges from the portal to the hell dimension or whatever, skull ablaze. I really liked the Ghost Rider plot thread from the beginning of this season, but it was eclipsed quite extraordinarily by the LMD plot thread and then the Framework story. The best thing about the Ghost Rider stuff was Robbie himself, while the plot was just so-so. Hopefully, bringing him back in to cause some waves in the current climax will be a good move. As long as he doesn't pull too much focus from Aida/Ophelia and the rest of our heroes, I'll be really happy to see him back.

So... there you have it. Fitz is breaking my heart. Simmons is breaking my heart. I'm scared for Yo-Yo. I want Coulson and May to squish their faces together, already. This season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been intensely awesome.

8/10