Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4 (HYDRA) Episodes 20-21 - Goodbye, cruel world/The Return

Goodbye, Cruel World

I think I might have a bruised rib or two from all the gut-punches these episodes deliver.

In this episode, the situation in the real world becomes intense as the crew are forced to sacrifice everything to keep the zephyr running, eventually including the cloaking, putting them in danger of being shot down. Up against the wall, Simmons and Daisy must get the others to leave the framework, but with Mack happy with his daughter - I think this is the first time they’ve called her Hope, a name that feels reverse engineered so they can have lines like ‘I don’t want to live in a world without Hope.’ - And with Fitz still a key head of HYDRA, they have their toughest challenge ahead of them.

Simmons holding onto hope, and I mean hope the concept not the child, is the driving force of the main arc as she finds out exactly what happened to Fitz in this world, leading her to confronting his father, ultimately killing him. And you bet Framework Fitz is pissed off. Ian de Caestecker is proving, once again, that he is an absolute acting gemstone and they give him a hell of a lot to work off of in this episode, both as the distraught man who lost his father to the scared man out of the framework having to cope with the life he’d lead inside. Just a shame his performance in Ultimate Spider-man was laughable, but it was only a cameo anyway

So, we continue to our path to redeeming Radcliffe, but not before beating him up some more, something I’m getting kind of sick of now. Anyway, he is ultimately the one to get Fitz to the exit point and ultimately knocks him unconscious so he can be brought through. Look, I know there are some people who wanted Simmons to get through but that was never going to happen, they made that blatantly obvious early on, having his likely final act of redemption being helping Fitz, someone he respects completely, through the portal was a good note for him to go out on.

But of course, whilst the team were successful, it wasn’t without cost. First of all, AIDA was successful, despite her robot body being dismantled with a scalpel. She’s constructed a human body, free of her programming and now has the ability to with it as she pleases. AIDA/Ophelia is now a genuine threat to the real world, and even more so because she apparently has inhuman powers, including teleportation and, because Fitz was in a state of shock after the framework, she managed to kidnap him as well. We’ll have to wait and see what happens there.

The show makes a what if scenario meaningful to the real world, a fantastic 5-episode arc that will take a lot of topping, even if Ward is noticeably absent from this episode.

Rating 9/10

The Return

Really, the return? That’s the best title you could come up with?

The Framework arc is probably the best work the showrunners have ever done, but it’s back to reality now and it’s time to catch up with events that had preceded it. May had been on ice since the finale of the first act, and doesn’t know anything that happened in the LMD arc for example, this includes Ivanov who continues to be the least interesting thing about this series, even if he’s now a brain controlling dozens of LMD bodies that Real Girl AIDA can kill at will, OK, I’m just gonna call her Ophelia now

This seems like as a good a time as any to praise Mallory Jansen who has killed it with her role throughout this season. Each time her character has changed throughout the season, she’s absolutely nailed it. I didn’t call Ophelia AIDA in the last arc as an insult, merely to avoid confusion with a hundred names running about. But the Ophelia in the real world is a fascinating character, and her performance for the nuance and child-like innocence she starts with to her manic rage near the end is absolutely fantastic.

Naturally Ophelia’s arc is closely tied with Fitz since they were so close in the Framework reality. Their initial scenes together as Fitz sees how human she truly is. Her empathy is the most interesting, since it leads her to making personal sacrifice to save people, and she feels great for it. But it’s not so easy for Fitz, who really struggles to cope with the life he lead in the Framework, he’s probably the worst affected, especially since his framework transformation was the most drastic. His worst fear though is how seeing him like that affected Simmons and ultimately his heart is still tied to her. This sets Ophelia off, heartbreak is something entirely new to her and *insert version of the Aya arc in Green Lantern: The Animated series here* Yes, I have seen this arc before but there are enough differences to go for it. Ophelia has the powers of inhumans she’d tested with Hydra and is nigh unstoppable.

But there’s more going on than just that. Let’s start with the fact that after the events of the Act 2 finale and the fact no-one made contact with Talbot in the aftermath, they’ve been branded terrorists and the crew have been unable to land. Talbot rears his ugly head again, especially now having found bones of Jeffrey Mace which thinks were crafted by Daisy but in fact it was Ivanov with a hammer. It’s a relatively short subplot, and it’s not entirely clear how it’s been resolved since no-one has seen Ophelia and lived outside of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team

In addition, we have the fact that Mack is still in the Framework. Of course, this means Yo-Yo gets a chance to be stubborn and want to go in after him herself, she really doesn’t know what she’s in for going in there and that’ll be another element to add to the finale next week.

And in case you needed more things to be piled on you for the finale, the portal back in the first episode opens and Ghost Rider is back, and with Ophelia on the loose it’s likely time for her to pay for her sins.

An exciting episode with some great emotional work, some of which I didn’t cover. Of course, being the set-up for the finale it is a little rushed but not enough to stop this from being a great episode

Rating 8.5/10