Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S4 Ep13

You could call that an explosive episode of television (see what I did there?).

It was fun to hear Mallory Jansen speaking in her natural Australian accent. She was wonderful as Agnes, too, of course.

This week, Coulson and Mack are trying to track down May, wherever Radcliffe might have her hidden. This leads them to a woman named Agnes. Agnes looks really familiar. In fact, she looks exactly like Aida, having been Radcliffe’s model for the android. When Coulson & Mack show Agnes her LMD lookalike, she’s surprised but not overly so. See, she and Radcliffe used to be a thing. But she’s dying of brain cancer, and wants to live her last days in peace. So Coulson has to persuade her, by telling her about May and how awesome she is. Aww. Unfortunately, Radcliffe ends up convincing Agnes to come with him so he can upload her consciousness into the Matrix (okay, he calls it the Framework, but it’s basically the same thing) so she can be without suffering forever. I mean, it’s got to have been pretty tempting, especially for a woman dying of cancer. At least Radcliffe provided accidental evidence that May is alive. Coulson refuses to give up on her, because he is Coulson and she is May. <3

Meanwhile, the Superior tasks Shockley, the long-haired Watchdog commander guy, with trying to turn Senator Nadeer with one of the Terrigenesis crystals that Radcliffe conveniently still has from when he worked for Hive. But in a twist of fate, the crystal turns Shockley, instead – who promptly blows up, killing Nadeer and a few of her people. Oops. He’s not dead, though. Fitz and Simmons discover he vibrates his own cells so fast that he becomes a gas and releases all that energy in explosions. After each one, he can reassemble himself.

How do they discover this? Why, when Shockley lets himself be captured and tries to blow up the jet, of course. (He still wants to kill all Inhumans, despite being one now.) But Fitzsimmons figure out he was the cause of the explosion at Nadeer’s office just in time to save Director Mace and some bystanders from being blown up. And that leads to the hilariously awesome moment when Fitzsimmons come up to Quake all sweet & cajoling, trying to get her to agree to try canceling out Shockley’s vibrations with her own. I love these guys.

Between Shockley and Nadeer, I wonder which one hated Inhumans the most? Also, bye, Nadeer.

In the end, Mace – who has been told that any more doses of his Super Soldier Serum (anyone want to trademark that?) could kill him – decides to risk it in order to keep the Russians from getting to Quake, Shockley, and Fitzsimmons. So even though Simmons told him earlier in the episode that he’d “never be Captain America,” he’s certainly got the heroic self-sacrifice part down. His move leads to the Superior and his goons capturing the ‘Inhuman’ SHIELD director. This in turn gives Fitzsimmons and Quake time to capture Shockley in his gaseous state. Their container looks like a larger, fancier version of the things the Ghostbusters use to imprison ghosts. Which is not a criticism, by the way.

Final thoughts: it wasn’t just me who thought the relationship between the Superior and Shockley was weird, right? That scene where the Superior strangles him and then hugs him – super weird. And speaking of off-putting, how about that final scene between Aida and poor physically dead Agnes? Wonder what’s going through Aida’s head now.

What did you think of the episode? Whose fate are you most worried about? Let us know in the comments!