Agents of SHIELD “Broken Promises” was a season four highlight. Not because of the main storyline, which was, to be fair, damned cool, but because of the underlying story of Nadeer and her brother and because of the Mack and Yo-Yo interchange throughout. References to Aida and The Terminator were funny and spot on.
The May android plot line is solid and entertaining. The only problem with this is that we keep waiting for Phil Coulson to suddenly shout “Gotcha!” Phil is one smart cookie, he was the head of SHIELD after all, and he is pretty intuitive.
Sure Grant Ward managed to slip past the old Coulson radar but besides being a deep undercover agent for Hydra, Ward was a psychopath. Android May did ask about the Darkhold’s location a few too many times. So much, in fact, that it seemed Phil was going to rumble the robot’s secret.
It came as no real surprise that Radcliffe was a rotter all along. He always has been all about himself. His exposure to the book was just the nudge needed to turn the scientist back into a villain.
The fact that there are, obviously, multiple Aida’s running around was a tad surprising though. Just as surprising was the decapitation of the android in this episode.
The best bit of the episode hands down however was Mack and Yo-Yo with their running dialogue about how stupid it was to build Aida at all. Counting down a list of their favorite apocalyptic robot films was brilliantly comic and so appropriate to their characters.
“Someone needs to make Radcliffe watch all the “Terminator” movies.
“Even Salvation?”
The underlying story of Ellen (nee’ Rota) Nadeer and her brother Vijay was perfect. The fact that the poor guy had no idea that he had changed after emerging from that chrysalis was perfect.
Once the Watchdog’s start trying to kill him, though, Vijay learns what his powers are. His sister, who has a heart of stone, lies to her little brother and then plants a bullet in him once they are airborne.
Terrance and his minion chuck the poor chappy overboard and as his “lifeless” body sinks to the ocean floor another chrysalis forms over his body.
Senator Nadeer may soon regret her act of coldblooded murder.
As far as character dynamics go, the new uneasy relationship between the current head of SHIELD and “Quake” played out beautifully in this episode. Jeffrey proved once again that superpowers or no he is not above being a little…peevish.
“You are the weapon. The public was turning against you. Now? They look up to you.”
“You’re welcome!” He tells Daisy during their little talk. Mace does have superhero qualities but he is not above trying to force a little credit for making Quake into a more public friendly persona.
“Broken Promises” ends with Aida 2.0 talking with her creator. Phil is still apparently unaware that the Melinda May he is talking to is an android and Vijay is currently undergoing another transition.
Agents of SHIELD has taken things up a notch with this latest episode and the second half of the season should be really exciting. The series airs Tuesdays on ABC.
CAST:
- Clark Gregg – Phil Coulson
- Ming-Na Wen – Melinda May
- Chloe Bennet – Daisy ‘Skye’ Johnson, aka Quake
- Elizabeth Henstridge – Jemma Simmons
- Iain De Caestecker – Leo Fitz
- Henry Simmons – Alphonso ‘Mack’ Mackenzie
- Natalia Cordova-Buckley – Elena ‘Yo-Yo’ Rodriguez
- John Hannah – Holden Radcliffe
- Gabriel Luna – Ghost Rider. aka Robbie Reyes
- Jason O’Mara – Jeffery Mace
- Mallory Jansen – Aida
- Axle Whitehead – James
- Parmander Nagra – Senator Ellen Nadeer
Guest starring Manish Dayal as Vijay Nadeer and John Pyper-Ferguson as Terrance Shockley
Mikes Film Talk 