In Season 4 Episode 10 of Agents of SHIELD, titled The Patriot, a major secret about a member of SHIELD is revealed, and we see that HYDRA isn’t quite eradicated yet! Check out our recap, followed by our thoughts about the episode.
- His thoughts on The Patriot, Episode 410 of Agents of SHIELD
- Her thoughts on Agents of SHIELD, Season 4 Episode 10: The Patriot
The episode begins with Mace holding a press conference honoring Daisy for her heroism. However, it is interrupted by a sniper, who shoots an explosive object into the podium. Mace is able to throw the podium into the air, where it explodes. Coulson, Mack, Mace, and Burrows take off in the quinjet for a safe house.
Back at SHIELD HQ, Talbot assigns May to interrogate the suspect they apprehended.
Over at Dr. Radcliffe’s office, Fitz packs up some things, and tells Radcliffe he should probably stay away from HQ for a few days. After Fitz leaves, Radcliffe expresses his frustrations to Aida about not being able to be at SHIELD to keep an eye on the LMD May.
Daisy begins questioning the suspect with May in the room. The man reveals they didn’t fail, and that “Phase 1” only had a 13% chance of success.
Up on the quinjet, it suddenly loses an engine, and Burrows is sucked out of the plane to his death — but with the briefcase that Mace likes to keep close to him. The plane crashes, killing the pilot, McCafferty, but Mack, Coulson, and Mace are fine. Coulson figures out that crashing the quinjet was Plan B for the assassins. They are unable to get a signal. Mace goes out looking for Burrows, and Coulson and Mack follow him.
Dr. Radcliffe and Aida check on the unconscious real May. They discuss the LMD May, who is apparently unaware of her mission to retrieve the Darkhold.
At SHIELD HQ, they have lost the location of the quinjet.
When Coulson asks Mace about the briefcase, Mace tells him that it’s classified. They hear trucks driving up nearby and hide. Coulson and Mack want to go after the trucks so they can make contact with someone, but Mace tells them to stick to the plan of going after the briefcase.
Fitz returns to SHIELD HQ, and wants to keep working on the Aida head, but Simmons is against it.
The real May awakens in Dr. Radcliffe’s office and takes off all of the medical equipment. However, Aida finds her doing so, and begins to hold May by her neck, despite Dr. Radcliffe’s protests. But Dr. Radcliffe comes forward with a syringe, saying to sedate May, which Aida does. They are confused as to why May awakened from the relaxing simulation of a day spa they had put her in.
Meanwhile, LMD May is tasked by Talbot to get information out of the prisoner they captured during the assassination attempt while Talbot also instructs Simmons to figure out a way to find Mace, Coulson and Mack. Mace and the trio meanwhile find some HYDRA agents where they have crash landed as they look for the missing agent Burrows and the briefcase. HYDRA seems to have teamed up with the Watchdogs.
We also get some more tension between Fitz and Simmons as they talk about AIDA. Fitz seems to think they could have fixed her had Simmons helped, while Simmons is of the opinion she shouldn’t have existed at all.
Then we get a big bomb dropped about what the deal with the suitcase is. Both Simmons back at HQ and Coulson and Mack figure it out around the same time–the suitcase contains a formula similar to the Super Soldier serum of Captain America, which is what gives Mace is invulnerability–so he isn’t an Inhuman at all. Coulson and Mack have to rescue the now de-powered Mace from the Watchdogs, but not before the remaining vials in the suitcase are destroyed. Since Simmons figured it out at base, Talbot explains that the serum was developed by Daisy’s father, Hyde. The reason for the serum according to Talbot was that the head of SHIELD should be an Inhuman, to bridge the gap between humans and Inhumans, I suppose.
Back to Mace, Mack and Coulson, they take refuge in a cabin while Coulson comes up with a plan–Mace will continue faking his abilities for the Watchdogs/HYDRA so that Mack can head outside undetected and cause some mayhem. The plan seems to work, but the three get attacked by the remaining enemies.
While Coulson is hatching his plan, Simmons has a plan of her own–use AIDA’s head as a prop to get the prisoner to talk. The prisoner gives up the goods, and Simmons is able to locate where Coulson and company would up. Stuck in sidethe cabin, Coulson and company are saved by Daisy and fake-May, who come to the rescue.
After making it back to HQ, Coulson talks to Talbot about the serum of Mace’s, and Talbot says that World War III is going to be won by whoever has the most enhanced beings. Following this, Mace explains that his whole involvement in Vienna where he was declared a hero was just a photograph taken out of context–he had tripped over the woman he “saved” and had no idea she was even there. Mace offers to resign as head of SHIELD but Coulson decides that it is best for Mace to remain the face of SHIELD, but all of the tactical decisions will be his going forward.
Meanwhile, LMD May, who took some pretty hard hits when saving Coulson, inspects her wounds back at HQ, and discovers that she is not as human as she had been thinking…
Also, Fitz manages to get hold of AIDA’s head and has hopes to revive her in a much less aggressive state it seems.
Speaking of May, during this episode, May was able to awaken from her stupor that Radcliffe and AIDA had been keeping her in. After some wrestling, AIDA gets May back into sleep, and Radcliffe comes to the conclusion that May needs some conflict in her dreams to keep her sedated. So he gives her one.
Her Thoughts on Agents of SHIELD, Season 4 Episode 10: The Patriot
So this was the big reveal, the big secret that Mace has been hiding, the reason for the SHIELD team members not to trust him – that he isn’t really an Inhuman. He’s just been taking super strength serum all along when it was needed for him to show off. Also, that he isn’t really the big hero of Vienna that he’s been made out to be – though we already knew there was something fishy about that story during that episode when Simmons was feeding him facts through an earpiece. It seems like everything is out in the open now – or is it? Is there something else that Mace is hiding? Is there any other reason that he shouldn’t be trusted? I feel like this was supposed to be the end of the suspicions toward Mace, but you never know. I’m not sure that I’ll ever trust him completely.
The good news is that the SHIELD team got a win out of this, or at least I count it as a win: that Coulson is back in charge, as he should be. The only reason he really gave up his role was because he thought the face of SHIELD should be an Inhuman, and now it turns out that the director is not Inhuman after all. So with Mace as the formal Director, there’s really no reason that Coulson shouldn’t be in charge of everything in reality. I’m glad that Mace agreed with this decision and didn’t put up a fight. It’s not like he had a leg to stand on anyway.
I am kind of worried about Fitz continuing to work on the Aida head, and behind Simmons’s back. I know that he has the best intentions at heart, but we’ve seen what can happen, what has happened, and what is still happening. I hope that Fitz can fix things rather than have things go wrong again. But with such secrecy, it seems like things are bound to go wrong. I hope that whatever happens, it doesn’t come between Fitz and Simmons. Those two are so perfect together, I don’t want something like this to come between them!
His Thoughts on Agents of SHIELD, Season 4 Episode 9: Broken Promises
This was a pretty interesting episode, I thought. But I am a bit disappointed how Mace was basically made out to be a wuss now. I actually liked his character as it was, an Inhuman leading a Governmental agency that wasn’t a sinister man. I guess he is still a good man, but just one with a little less bravery in him.
As for HYDRA, they never seem to quite go away. I am curious if we will be seeing more of a resurgence of them, or if this was just a small tidbit for the episode. I would guess we have not seen the last of them, as HYDRA always seems to find a way to make its way back.
As for AIDA, I am guessing that as Fitz works on the head more and more, he is going to realize what Radcliffe had done, and that will be the way Coulson and company eventually discover that Radcliffe is actually behind the mayhem AIDA caused. I wonder how May will fair though–will she once again be able to break the dream she has been stuck in? The scene where Radcliffe decides to put her into a conflict felt right out of the Matrix, when Agent Smith tells Neo that paradise Matrices did not work, and one of suffering seemed to work better for humans.
As for where the season goes from here, I am not sure. We have Watchdogs to deal with, real-May to wake up, and Radcliffe to be stopped from getting hold of the Darkhold. I guess we will have to see what happens next.
Scenes from Agents of SHIELD, Season 4 Episode 11: Wake Up
Preview of Season 4 Episode 11 of Agents of SHIELD
