Week 89: Wake Up, Hot Potato Soup

Wake Up: When this episode began with a reveal to the audience that Holden Radcliffe and Aida had a second android hidden in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters, I wondered why this show was determined to spoil its own surprises. Wouldn't it be better to have a human character suddenly injured with a reveal of machinery underneath, one that we didn't suspect? But of course, telling us that one of them is an LMD, but not which one, keeps us guessing throughout the episode. I've said numerous times that this show is best when paranoia sets in among its main characters, and for once the only ones being paranoid are us the viewers, as the agents all trust one another even though they shouldn't. It's a clever use of information and I give the show a lot of credit for it. I also appreciated the selection of a "happy" memory for Melinda May at the end; that's a gut punch for longtime viewers.

The rest of the episode doesn't fare as well. I still don't understand why Senator Snotty Pants, who perpetually has a look on her face like she just smelled a nasty fart, gets to throw out public accusations against S.H.I.E.L.D. and generally go about her business when the agents have documentation of her collaboration with terrorists to commit murder. Shouldn't she be in federal prison awaiting trial? The hearing scenes are bullshit. General Talbot is depicted as his usual officious idiot even though everything he says is correct (though at least Phil Coulson acknowledges it). Jemma Simmons and Elena Rodriguez both get depicted as jealous girlfriends even though their reactions are appropriate given the secrecy and untrustworthiness demonstrated by their male partners. The spa scenes are supposed to be creepy but it's laughable (I hope intentionally) that May would ever believe them, and it's clear that May is still trapped in the simulation well before Aida's reveal. I don't know why Leo Fitz would shoot Robo-Radcliffe in the head instead of an arm or leg if he has any doubt at all, but, oh, right, I'm overthinking this. (5/10)

Hot Potato Soup: When I first saw the less-than-thrilling title for this episode, I hoped that it was a callback to Lance Hunter & Bobbi Morse's mushroom soup. And when it began, I expected that the revelation of Holden Radcliffe's LMD at the end of the previous episode would have meant screenings of all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to detect any other LMDs in their ranks, even just using a simple metal detector if necessary. And when Coulson tossed the messenger bag with the Darkhold inside it to the Watchdogs in exchange for Agent Koenig's life, I thought for sure that he had swapped the book for Ulysses or something else, especially after the bag became the titular "hot potato" and everyone chased it until eventually it was seized by (the real?) Radcliffe. But I don't write for this show, which is lucky for me, because I couldn't do the assignment if it meant writing things like Simmons describing Fitz this way, an unintentionally hilarious line that exposes just how much self-awareness this show is lacking; I had to pause it because I had busted out laughing too hard to pay attention.

The episode does have its moments: The "quantum brain" inside Robo-Radcliffe is a really clever idea, well established earlier in the season with Aida's use of gestures and light to draw a brain. And the conversation between Robo-Radcliffe and Alphonso Mackenzie about whether the former has a soul is its highlight, partly because it's thought-provoking and partly because it begins to redeem the asshole that Mackenzie so recently became about the subject of "killer robots." I also liked the Labyrinth, an appealing representation of the idea of a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. library, albeit one too tastefully decorated for the Koenig boys to be in charge. So far at least, the Superior is not a distinctive villain for this series, but his talk about how "the old ways are best" makes that lack of originality go down easy and I thought it was a nice subtle bit of lampshading. (6/10)