Violet recaps of Season 4 Episode 13 of Agents of SHIELD, titled BOOM, where the SHIELD team encounters an unlikely new Inhuman! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
- His thoughts on BOOM, Episode 412 of Agents of SHIELD
- Her thoughts on Agents of SHIELD, Season 4 Episode 12: BOOM
The episode begins with Coulson and Mack in Spain, tracking the woman after whom Dr. Radcliffe modeled Aida. Her name is Agnes.
Back at Dr. Radcliffe’s new place, which has been provided by Ivanov, he and Aida are keeping the real Agent May “happy” in the simulation. Radcliffe shows Ivanov some Terrigen crystals he’s been growing.
Meanwhile, over at SHIELD HQ, Simmons runs some tests on Mace, which show that the serum he’s been taking is killing him. However, he begs Simmons to let him take the serum, because the team needs his strength. Fitz picks this bad time to unveil a suit for Mace that has a serum delivery device. But Simmons has to break the news that it’s too dangerous.
Just then, Mace is called away, and Daisy tells him about an Inhuman Relocation Program. Mace then gets a call from Coulson about Agnes.
In Spain, Coulson approaches Agnes to talk to her about Radcliffe, but she says she doesn’t want anything to do with Radcliffe ever again. However, Mack shows her Aida, and she seems in awe that Radcliffe did that.
Shockley visits Senator Nadeer at her office and smashes a Terrigen crystal, thinking that it’ll turn her into an Inhuman. However, it’s Shockley himself that becomes encased in a cocoon. Then suddenly, there’s an explosion. Soon after, Senator Nadeer is confirmed dead. Mace and the SHIELD team go to the scene of the explosion to investigate.
Coulson questions Agnes, who reveals that she has an inoperable brain tumor, and Radcliffe left her when he failed at helping her. Agnes wants to live as normal of a life as possible, and is not interested in helping Coulson find Radcliffe. Mack tries to talk Coulson down, but Coulson insists that he’s not giving up on May, and will make Agnes help them.
The SHIELD team notices on the surveillance footage that Shockley entered Senator Nadeer’s office just before the explosion. They begin looking for him using facial recognition. Meanwhile, Shockley returns to Ivanov’s place and tells him that Nadeer was the one who turned into an Inhuman and exploded. Not long after, Daisy raids Ivanov’s place with a team.
Coulson stops by Agnes’s place and calmly tells her about Radcliffe kidnapping May and replacing her with an LMD. He is able to talk Agnes into helping him.
Daisy brings Shockley and his men on board the plane and questions him about where Radcliffe is. But he’s not cooperating.
Meanwhile, Radcliffe receives a message from Agnes and tells Aida that he needs to leave immediately to help her.
Simmons and Fitz analyze the evidence from the explosion and realize that Shockley went through Terrigenesis in Nadeer’s office. They quickly run into the room to warn Daisy and Mace that Shockley is the bomb, just as he is about to explode. Fitz and Mace are able to push Shockley into a containment unit and drop it off the plane before he explodes.
Down on the ground, Shockley’s molecules re-form him back to being whole again. A man drives by and asks a naked Shockley if he’s been in an accident — and what happened to his clothes.
The SHIELD team reviews the footage of Shockley, and notice that there’s a high pitched sound that Shockley emits before he explodes. FitzSimmons conclude that the sound turns him into a flammable gas state. They convince Daisy to help, since she had absorbed shock waves.
Agnes sits at a table in a restaurant, waiting for Radcliffe, who isn’t showing. She is wearing an earpiece, and Mack convinces her to wait a little longer. A waiter gives her a phone, which rings, and she answers. It’s Radcliffe, who says people are after him and he has to take precautions. He says that he can save her, then begins giving her instructions on which way to walk. Coulson tells Agnes to follow the instructions and keep him on the phone.
Shockley, now driving the car and wearing the clothes of the man who stopped to check on him, drives up to a motel diner and asks to use the phone. He calls Ivanov and confesses about what happened to him. Shockley says he will still deliver SHIELD to him. Then he blows up the diner.
Meanwhile, Simmons works with Daisy to create a countervibration to Shockley, but it isn’t working.
Over in Spain, Radcliffe guides Agnes to him, and tells her that he can save her, saying he has built a world where death is obsolete. His speech convinces Agnes to go with him, and Coulson and Mack are too late to catch Radcliffe, as he has some guys pull up behind him and fire shots at them as he gets away.
SHIELD goes over to Shockley’s location. Daisy hasn’t figured out how to keep him together, so she uses her powers to blow him apart, over and over again, in order to wear him out. Mace figures out that this is a trap, that the Russians are after SHIELD, and Shockley is bait. Fitz and Simmons drive away, while Mace insists on going after the army of Russians coming after them. He is wearing the special suit Fitz gave him, and injects himself with serum, then runs straight into the incoming truck, stopping it. The other trucks surround him. Ivanov gets out and approaches him, then has his men knock him out with electric batons to capture him. FitzSimmons drive up with a device that captures Shockley’s particles while he is dissolved.
Back at Radcliffe’s, he and Aida hook Agnes up to the machine that they have Agent May hooked up to.
Coulson understands the choice that Agnes made. He also has figured out May is still alive, since Radcliffe said that he already had an active subject in the Framework who is thriving.
Agnes’s body dies, but Radcliffe says it doesn’t matter, because in the Framework, her consciousness will live on forever. Aida takes Agnes’s necklace and place it around her own neck.
Her Thoughts on Agents of SHIELD, Season 4 Episode 13: BOOM
While I’m not sad to see Senator Nadeer go, it did seem a bit sudden and convenient that the show gets rid of her just as the SHIELD team is facing a new enemy in the Russians. Also, I was kind of looking forward to the day when her brother broke out of his new husk and got revenge on her for killing him, after he trusted her rather than SHIELD. Ah well. Maybe she is somehow secretly still alive.
Speaking of the Russians, I wonder how long it’s going to take for them to realize that Mace actually isn’t Inhuman, and how that will affect their plans. I guess either way, he’s still SHIELD, so it may have no effect at all.
I had been wondering about the origin of Aida. Before, I had thought she hadn’t actually been based on anyone in particular, and that is why she seemed more robotic and less lifelike than the LMD May and LMD Radcliffe, who seemed to have the same personality as their counterparts, and you couldn’t tell them apart. Meanwhile, Aida is nowhere near the personality of Agnes. I suppose you can chalk it up to being Radcliffe’s first attempt, so he hadn’t perfected the invention yet. Also, he may not have wanted someone around with Agnes’s personality because it would have been too much of a reminder. In any case, I’m ready for May to break out and kick some butt again!
His Thoughts on Agents of SHIELD, Season 4 Episode 13: BOOM
On this week’s episode of Agents of SHIELD, once Shockley tells Nadeer about his plan, I had a feeling it would blow up in his face–literally. I am glad that Nadeer is out of the picture now, though, as I really hated her. But it does look like Shockley’s plan of getting the people against SHIELD and Inhumans is working.
As for the plan to use Agnes against Radcliffe, it looks like that didn’t work out in the end. I am not sure why Agnes would want to live in this completely fabricated world though–why wouldn’t she want her consciousness downloaded into an android, similar to how May was put into LMD May? I guess it still is not quite “you” but I would think Radcliffe might be able to come up with a way for that to happen. Regardless, it looks like May is getting restless again. When will she break free?!
Mace looks like he might be in some trouble though, given his situation. He was trying to be heroic, I suppose, and we certainly got the feeling this episode that he was feeling pretty useless. We will have to see if this all pays off in the end.
Scenes from Agents of SHIELD, Season 4 Episode 14: The Man Behind the Shield
Preview of Season 4 Episode 14 of Agents of SHIELD
