If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.
Synopsis: May works to uncover the truth about what happened to her. Aida’s next move puts everyone’s life at risk. (IMDB)
Writer: Drew Z. Greenberg
Director: Jesse Bochco
Rating: TV-PG
Running Time: 45mins
We learned a few things from the last episode, including the truth about Mace and settings things back the way they should be with Coulson in charge. Fake May is becoming self-aware thanks to seeing part of her insides. We also learned a lot more about fake May in this episode through her struggle with her sense of self. Ming-Na Wen continues to shine in her dual role. Radcliffe told her what she was but she couldn’t tell anyone else as it would go against her programming. So she had no choice but to keep going as May. Aida wondered why they had to keep the real May around but it was because their work was unproven and they needed the real May to help recalibrate the fake May.
The episode did not ignore the real May as we got to see the simulations she was being subjected to in order to keep her subdued. She started off at a relaxing spa but when that wasn’t enough, she managed to wake up and escape but unfortunately for her, that was not the end of it. Taking a cue from Inception, she had to face a simulation within a simulation which made it a nice twist. She got out of her restraints, killed Aida, and escaped before confronting Aida again. Unbeknown to her, she was stuck in this simulation, always beating it and going further every time before having her memory wiped and doing it again.
The big part of the episode was Daisy and Mace being called in for a hearing at the Capitol building where Nadeer was going to be. Coulson believed it to be an opportunity to plant surveillance equipment in her office so they can keep better track of her. This plan unfortunately failed, as she was tipped off and Coulson and Yo-Yo were apprehended. This interrupted Nadeer’s grilling of Daisy as she questioned her about her time supposedly undercover working for SHIELD.
They were set free of course. Talbot did not support the operation because if they failed, which they did, there would be an investigation which could destroy what they had worked so hard to build in bringing SHIELD back to prominence and now there will be one as a result. The worst part of the episode was a romantic subplot involving Mack and Yo-Yo. They were having problems with their relationship. Mack was called away from the mission which worried Yo-Yo but it was just a false alarm. This just didn’t fit very well within the rest of the episode.
The episode wouldn’t be right without another twist and there was another one here. Radcliffe wasn’t worried about fake May being discovered since he had inserted another LMD within SHIELD. Simmons figured out that Fitz was still working on the Aida head without her knowledge which greatly upset her. She thought it was an obsession but he pleaded that it was an investigation but through that, he discovered that Radcliffe programmed Aida to steal the Darkhold earlier and made them think that she had gotten powers from reading it.
SHIELD apprehended Radcliffe and took him into custody but there, Fitz noticed Radcliffe acting strangely which led to Fitz shooting him and revealing that he was also an LMD and presumably the second LMD he was referring to earlier. The episode cuts to the real Radcliffe and Nadeer watching through the fake Radcliffe’s camera. The fake Radcliffe was how Nadeer was tipped off of the mission. Radcliffe revealed that after Aida’s failed mission to capture the Darkhold, Radcliffe replaced himself and has been under Nadeer’s protection ever since. He’s not worried since he and Aida still have May in another location. Nadeer’s also wanted him to meet someone called “The Superior” which was someone she appears to be working for.
Overall, this was another great episode which answered some questions and also presented new ones. I’m glad they didn’t stretch out the fake May subplot and the idea that now she knows who she is but no one else does and that she is seemingly on her own is interesting. What’s Radcliffe’s plan now that they know he’s gone and who is The Superior?
Score: 8.5/10
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
