‘Agents of SHIELD’ 410 The Patriot answers questions with questions

agents of shield the patriots answers questions with question 2017 images

'Agents of SHIELD' 410 The Patriot answers questions with questions 2017 images

Agents of SHIELD 410 The Patriot Recap Review

Agents of SHIELD really tries is darnedest not to drag its stories to the point of non-interest. The series continues to quickly give us answers while replacing them with more questions. The latest episode, The Patriot is action-filled and fast-paced and quickly gives us the secret of Director Jeffrey Mace. They also go against a mysterious new group who are neither Watchdogs nor Hydra who are also after Mace’s secret. Major spoilers ahead so be warned. Watch the great episode first before going back here. Still interested? Well, we’ll try not to spoil it too much.

The show begins with Agent Quake’s public inauguration into SHIELD. The very public display presided by Mace is designed to gain the people’s trust in both Daisy and the organization. Hardly something one would expect from a spy agency, but the show was cut short with a sniper attack which targeted Mace. Daisy captures the sniper while Mace is taken by Coulson and Mack to a quinjet as part of protocol, along with Mace’s aide Agent Burrows and a mysterious briefcase. The quinjet was also sabotaged as part of the attackers’ plan to attack the SHIELD director. Agent Burrows gets sucked out of the plane when a hatch was blown off, and the plane crash lands in an unknown location. Mace suspiciously orders a search for the obviously dead Burrows instead of getting to a more secure location to get help. SHIELD, temporarily taken over by General Talbot attempts to rescue Coulson, Mack and Mace. The attackers, however, fake the transponder signals at the same time jamming the real one. The only hope of finding Mace is for SHIELD to crack the sniper for information.

Coulson, Mack and Mace encounter a group of their attackers jamming their communications. The find Burrows body and get the case. Coulson and Mack disable several of the attackers while Mace makes off with the briefcase that reveals two syringes filled with a mysterious substance. An attacker fights a seemingly weakened Mace who was trying to inject himself with the syringes. Mace fails, but before the attacker can kill him, Mack and Coulson come to the rescue. They find out that Mace wasn’t inhuman after all but was artificially enhanced with a derivative of the Calvin Johnson (Mr. Hyde) formula. More attackers arrive, and the trio is forced to make a stand in an abandoned ranger outpost. They try to bluff their way out of their situation and manage to take out the jammer enabling SHIELD to quickly find them. Daisy and LMD May come to the rescue, but May got injured in the process unbeknownst to the others.

Mace explains that he is just an ordinary person with aspirations who literally became an accidental hero when he seemingly rescued a woman during a terrorist attack. He clumsily tripped over her, and the public thought he was rescuing her. SHIELD required an enhanced human as the new director and Talbot found a way to give Mace the enhancements needed through regular injections of Hyde’s serum. Mace offers his resignation, but Coulson denied it as SHIELD needed someone who could be the organization’s public face and handle the politics. Coulson from that point will take over SHIELD’s operations. Mace’s heart was in the right place, but trust was never a thing with him since day one.

agents of shield 410 patriot action

In other parts of the show, we become privy to Radcliffe and AIDA’s plans to keep the real May sedated and try to get the Darkhold. Barred from SHIELD, Radcliffe can only hope LMD May doesn’t get discovered while she subconsciously finds her way to the Darkhold. The real May wakes up from her drug-induced paradise scenario, but both AIDA and Radcliffe manage to subdue her.

As the show ended, the mysterious attackers’ identity remains a mystery whether they’re connected to HYDRA or the Watchdogs. As for LMD May, she finds out about her robot parts through her injury but decides to conceal it. So now, audiences are left to question what LMD May will do from then on, how SHIELD will operate and who is actually behind the mysterious group of attackers and how they know of Mace’s secret.

The show was generally good. Pacing continues to be fast, and mysteries are replaced as quickly as they’re resolved. There’s no shortage of action as should be expected from a show full of armed and super-powered spies. One interesting bit though was the bullet used to attack director Mace. At first, this author thought that it was the ammunition used by HYDRA fashioned from the Terrigen obelisks, but it was actually more similar to the Judas bullet used in Luke Cage. The ones made by Hammer Industries (Iron Man) from Chitauri metal. Given Mace’s strength and invulnerability, it was the logical choice instead of the Terrigen bullet to which Inhuman were immune. Except Mace was not Inhuman. It’s nice that the show reminds us that it’s still connected to the bigger Marvel Cinematic and TV universe, but not everyone can catch up to that tidbit. At least maybe the appearance of someone from the films even if their backs are turned would be something. Oh, forgot Glenn Talbot was there.

Check out the next Agents of SHIELD trailer promo above for 411 Wake Up.