If you’ve seen the latest episode of Agents of SHIELD: LMD, who do you think could make a comeback? Coulson said in a trailer he knew a guy who could make a dangerous magic book disappear. Could it be that guy or someone else? This article contains some major spoilers so watch the episode first before moving on. Now that the disclaimer’s been mentioned, keep reading you naughty, curious person you. Agents of SHIELD: LMD has just delivered one great episode. I won’t spoil it too much so you can still enjoy watching.
Agents of SHIELD: LMD has just proven that even without the Spirit of Vengeance, this continuously improving series delivers. For those just jumping in, the LMD stands for Life Model Decoy which is what the android AIDA is. The episode features several cool twists to keep viewers on their toes and the pacing was quite fast. Pretty sure you’re curious who will make a comeback. It’s a pretty exciting prospect but let’s get the story out of the way first.
First off, nothing yet on Jeffrey Mace, aka The Patriot. No secrets, except for his one on one with the newly-reinstated Daisy regarding trust issues. He also said sorry for the bag to Simmons on the way to a mission. Their mission being, is to rescue Veejay (Did I spell it right?) Nadeer, the senator’s brother. The Senator, like Mack, is very war of aliens and that includes Inhumans. Her mother died in the Chiaturi attack in New York. Yes, the show remains connected way back. Senator Nadeer’s grudge is quite akin to a Ju-on, that intense. Intense enough to organize the Watchdogs to exterminate Inhumans and her brother is no exception. She attempted to have her brother killed like Old Yeller. More on that later.
SHIELD has another mission and that’s to erase AIDA’s mind of what she read from the Darkhold. It’s actually part of the overall plan to safely stow the book away. AIDA has been listening in through LMD May. If you haven’t been keeping up, AIDA replaced May with an LMD sometime in the last episode, keeping the real May in Radcliffe’s home and killing the agent sent to fetch her. Many of you probably thought that AIDA’s story was going to cover a separate arc, but she seemingly shows all her cards on the table in this episode. AIDA views the move to erase her as hostile and attacks Radcliffe, Fitz and a couple of agents. AIDA escapes and the sortie didn’t find captive May but they did see the dead agent. The sortie comes back to headquarters only to get attacked again by the android. AIDA makes it clear that she wants the Darkhold and hacks into the computers locking down the base, Ultron style. AIDA even manages to hack a quinjet to keep Mack and Yo-yo busy. She incapacitates Coulson and LMD May (who seems unaware of being an LMD) then goes into Mace’s office to get the Darkhold. Radcliffe and Fitz discuss how things went wrong with AIDA while isolating the headquarters’ systems with some pretty old offline tech.
Veejay didn’t end up like Old Yeller just yet by convincing his sister that he was not an Inhuman since the terrigenesis didn’t change his outward appearance nor did it give him any obvious powers. Mace and party arrive at the mansion but the senator held them back and tells them to leave. The leader of the Watchdogs squad however gets confirmation to kill Veejay out of sight of the senator. Veejay’s powers manifest as super speed and fights off the Watchdogs but is stopped by the senator. She convinces him to leave with her and the Watchdogs instead of SHIELD which Mace could do nothing about.
Fitz and Radcliffe succeed in rebooting the headquarters just as AIDA walks away with the book. They corner her at the backdoor, where Mack catches her by surprise and she gets decapitated. That seemed to be a very quick end to the LMD arc but LMD May is still LMD May. Back at the mansion, the senator escapes with her brother via helicopter along with the Watchdogs. She and Veejay have a little heart to heart before she shoots him with a handgun. Her grudge was that intense.
The agents celebrate their victory except for Fitz and Radcliffe. What’s fun about this episode is Mack and Yo-yo mentioning some old robots-attack films of the 80s and 90s to prove their point that robots with AI are bad. Mack even mentions a nice robot-related 80s sitcom later at the end.
Now here’s the twist. Click away if you don’t want to get spoiled. The AIDA that stormed SHIELD was a copy, or maybe the original but another AIDA stands with Radcliffe regretful that his plan to get the Darkhold didn’t push through. He’s okay with it though since with SHIELD’s enemy seemingly dead, he’s free to try again. So was AIDA really affected by the Darkhold or was she just following Radcliffe’s orders all along, including replacing May? In the last episode, Radcliffe was actually not oblivious of AIDA fashioning a holographic brain. He actually has a grand scheme regarding the Darkhold and we’ll just have to watch to know more and whether or not AIDA is completely self-aware.
So what’s the comeback we’re talking about earlier? Veejay’s body was dumped from the helicopter by the Watchdogs in a lake and left to sink with a concrete weight. But Veejay is not completely dead as his body is again wrapped in a terrigenesis cocoon. What does this mean? Veejay will be coming back he’s not who we’re referring to. Reina, was killed in a similar fashion by Jia-Ying and then dumped in the water. There was speculation before that she might come back and this episode shows us some possibility. She was too early a character to waste as we’ve yet to see what her body can do aside from just precognition. Hopefully she does. Re-cocooning could also suggest a secondary mutation as Veejay’s power seemed lame.
Obviously, the LMD arc is just beginning and ABC actually said that this season has three. Ghost Rider, LMD and one yet unknown which might actually bring the former two together. Coulson also mentioned an agent who can make dangerous objects like the Darkhold disappear. Could it be Johnny Blaze who may have kept the book before the Bowers discovered it? Or could it be Doctor Strange? A bit much to ask but if Samuel L. Jackson made an appearance, Benedict Cumberbatch could. Mr. Cumberbatch after all is back on TV with his Sherlock series. A Cumberbatch comeback wouldn’t be bad; a Reina comeback would be really interesting.