Violet recaps Season 4 Episode 11 of Agents of SHIELD, titled Wake Up, where the team comes up with a mission to investigate Senator Nadeer, and the real Agent May tries to escape from Dr. Radcliffe’s office! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
- His thoughts on Wake Up, Episode 411 of Agents of SHIELD
- Her thoughts on Agents of SHIELD, Season 4 Episode 11: Wake Up
The SHIELD Mission
Over at SHIELD HQ, Talbot, Coulson, Simmons, Daisy, Mace, and LMD May have a meeting about what to do about Senator Nadeer. Meanwhile, Mack and Yo-Yo are having some alone time in his bedroom. However, Mack gets a mysterious text and becomes distant. He says he’ll have to back out of the mission.
LMD May asks Fitz how much Aida was aware of what she was going to do, and if could have stopped what she was going to do. However, Fitz interprets the question as guilt over ordering Aida to read the Darkhold, and reassures her that what happened wasn’t her fault.
Coulson reports to Talbot and Mace that Mack requested personal time off and won’t be joining them on the mission. Talbot asks Coulson to reconsider the second part of their mission, where they investigate Senator Nadeer, but he refuses.
Mace gives Daisy some words of advice before she is questioned at the Senate meeting. Meanwhile, Coulson and Yo-Yo sneak into Senator Nadeer’s office after Yo-Yo uses her powers to take an access card to get in.
Back at SHIELD HQ, Simmons tells Fitz he can talk to her, and leaves him alone to process. He uses the time to look into Aida.
At the Senate Meeting, Senator Nadeer asks Daisy about the money she stole while undercover. While that’s going on, Yo-Yo and Coulson plant bugs in Senator Nadeer’s office — and they are caught red handed. Senator Nadeer seems aware of the situation, and points out that SHIELD is engaging in illegal activities. She has Yo-Yo and Coulson brought into the room in handcuffs.
While Mace and Talbot discuss the situation with Senator Nadeer and her people, Daisy, Coulson and Yo-Yo agree that there must be a leak. Mace and Talbot come in and tell them that they’re free to go — and that there will be a full investigation. Coulson accuses Talbot of being the leak, but he denies it.
Simmons catches Fitz studying Aida even though he was ordered not to. She blames the leak on Fitz turning on Aida’s ocular receptors, but Fitz points out that she wasn’t in the briefing about Senator Nadeer. He tells Simmons that the reason he continued studying Aida was because it was an investigation.
LMD May shows up at Dr. Radliffe’s place and demands to know what he did to her. She threatens to tell Coulson, but he says she won’t be able to due to the mission he programmed into her. It turns out that she also is unable to hurt Dr. Radcliffe. He encourages her to go after what she really wants — or rather, who she really wants.
Suddenly, Simmons, Fitz, Coulson, and other SHIELD agents bust through the door to take Dr. Racliffe into custody. Fitz’s investigation was into Dr. Radcliffe. He figured out that it wasn’t the Darkhold that changed Aida’s programming, it was Dr. Radcliffe.
Back at SHIELD HQ, Yo-Yo is waiting for Mack in his quarters when he returns. She asks where Mack went, and he says he went to see his ex. He further explains that he had a daughter named Hope who died 11 years ago. She only lived for 4 days. Tomorrow is Hope’s birthday, which his ex has a hard time with, so he went to see his ex so that she wouldn’t be alone. Yo-Yo hugs Mack.
LMD May and Coulson have a drink together. She reassures him about the decisions he made.
Fitz goes down to the holding chamber to see Dr. Radcliffe. He expresses his disappointment with Dr. Radcliffe’s betrayal. Fitz borrow a gun from the guard and shoots Radcliffe in the head. The bullet glances off his forehead, and it turns out that he is the other LMD.
We then see that the real Dr. Radcliffe is sitting in Senator Nadeer’s office, where they’ve been spying through the LMD’s eyes. We learn that Radcliffe replaced himself with his LMD after Aida failed to recover the Darkhold, which is when he first called Senator Nadeer to gain her protection. She points out that she won’t be the one protecting him, and says he’ll have to meet “The Superior.” He agrees.
The Real Agent May
In a flashback to five days ago, Dr. Radcliffe approaches the real Agent May, who is about to leave to pick up Aida from his office. When Agent May leaves, Dr. Radcliffe calls Aida and tells her to activate “Sunset Protocol.” When Agent May arrives, Aida injects her with a solution, and punches her in the face to knock her out. Aida then dresses the LMD May in Agent May’s clothing and uploads Agent May’s memories into the LMD May.
One day ago, May wakes up at the spa, and is confused as to why she’s there. When she tries to leave, she wakes up once again in the same spot. This happens again. Then she punches her masseur, which causes her to wake up in real life, as we saw in the previous episode, where Aida almost choked her to death.
Today, Dr. Radcliffe seems to think they’ll be able to keep May asleep. He also expresses to Aida that they’re not killers. Additionally, it is revealed that there is another LMD in operation — though we don’t know who it is yet.
Later, after Dr. Radcliffe has left, and when Aida goes into the other room, May wakes up and begins trying to escape from her restraints. She finally breaks free. Aida finds her trying to escape and attacks her. They fight, and Agent May eventually stabs Aida in the stomach, then runs out the door and up the stairs.
Agent May reaches an empty penthouse, where Aida catches up to her, and they fight some more. Agent May kicks Aida off the balcony outside — but instead of Aida falling to the ground, she disappears into pixelations. Aida reappears inside behind her and reveals that this is a simulation, which she has reached the end of. May vows to beat it, then Aida wipes her memory and the simulation starts over again.
In the final scene, Dr. Radcliffe visits Aida and the real May at the new location where she has been moved. Aida reports that she has implemented the new simulation that Dr. Radcliffe suggested. We see the new simulation — the fight in Bahrain from which she got her nickname, The Cavalry. She calls Andrew and tells him that she saved the girl.
Her Thoughts on Agents of SHIELD, Season 4 Episode 11: Wake Up
When it was revealed that there was another LMD in the mix, I started to worry that it was Fitz. Then I also started to worry when it looked like Fitz and Simmons were about to get into a huge fight because he continued investigating Aida when he wasn’t supposed to. It seemed like things got resolved when it turned out that Fitz’s investigation led to Dr. Radcliffe, but I have a feeling that there might be some residual fallout between the two.
Speaking of Dr. Radcliffe, as if we didn’t think he was a big enough traitor for being the one behind Agent May’s kidnapping, it turns out that he is even worse, having gone to Senator Nadeer. Well, at least his LMD has been found out, so that’s one less thing to worry about. But there’s still the LMD May, and the suggestion of her and Coulson getting together hanging in the air. I hope the LMD May is exposed before anything actually happens between the two, because the real May would be devastated.
Meanwhile, the real May is quite occupied with the simulations that Dr. Radcliffe and Aida have come up with. Let’s hope she can break free soon.
His Thoughts on Agents of SHIELD, Season 4 Episode 11: Wake Up
Agents of SHIELD has been pretty good lately. It seems for myself at least, the show has gotten a pretty decent footing. More so than the DC shows have, which is unfortunate. As for this episode, it looks like SHIELD is in trouble again, given the Senator’s ability to create trouble for SHIELD with unveiling some of the mischief that Daisy had caused.
I had a feeling that Radcliffe was working with the Senator though. It seemed pretty clear that there was something more going on that we hadn’t seen yet. I also figured there was another android in the show, but the writers did a good job of masking who it was, as i didn’t figure out who it was until Fitz shot him in the head. Simmons and Fitz seemed on the rocks this episode, and the writers certainly tried to mislead us with Fitz’s intentions, but I had a feeling his examination of AIDA’s head would lead to Radcliffe. I wasn’t sure if Fitz was intentionally working for that or if it was something he would unintentionally come across once he started poking around.
As for May, she’s in a pretty precarious spot now–more than both the audience and herself knew. I had a feeling redundancies and precautions were taken to keep her in the “matrix”, but I wasn’t aware how in depth it had become. I am wondering how and when she will be broken free. Sadly, robo-May is unable to assist Coulson, despite her desire to want to do what May would, but as Radcliffe told her, it seems her coding along with May’s human “coding” are blended together so well she can’t distinguish between the two.
Scenes from Agents of SHIELD, Season 4 Episode 12: Hot Potato Soup
Preview of Season 4 Episode 12 of Agents of SHIELD
