Agents of SHIELD S04E19 Review: The Sunil Bakshi Show

Agents of SHIELD, Season 4, Episode 19: All the Madame's Men

Another very strong episode, with this one developing the whole Framework world stuff (which I am very pleasantly surprised to say that I am in love with) and setting the stage for the eventual season finale. Agents of SHIELD has been experimenting with a different format, with this season divided into three very distinct arcs (Ghost Rider, LMD and Agents of Hydra) with the central villain of Aida and the threat of the Darkhold being the thing that unifies it all into a big mega-season. Presumably we're going to spend a couple of the last episodes in the real world, which is completely fine by me. All of this works really, really well as a more cohesive arc, and I'm a big fan of that. 

It's a bit of a silly mistake on Aida's part not to remove Quake's powers, really, but I guess the Framework world is just one regret removed and extrapolated from it, and not Aida actually reshaping the world from scratch beyond apparently hanging around as Fitz's lady-friend. So yeah, Aida's in-universe avatar, Madame Hydra, gets quite epicly thrown out of the side building of the Triskelion in this show's big "OH SHIT!" moment. And it's glorious. 

The episode takes a while to tell us what Aida's planning, though, and both in the real life and in the Framework world, we learn that Aida's big master plan is to use Darkhold technology through something called Project: Looking Glass to take the human body she has in the Framework World and rebuild it in the real world, basically allowing Pinocchio to become a real boy. Also, Aida's robotic flunky Ivanov is totally going to betray her at some point, yeah? He's positively chomping at the bit. 

The other big key in this is Fitz, the Doctor. Fitz could have simply been used as a plot device, the brainwashed ally trapped by Aida and kind of forced to help her realize her plans. Fitz is smart enough to build the Looking Glass thing, and it's been hinted that Aida might have grown smitten for him. Or maybe it's entirely robotic and she's just using Fitz as a pawn and redirected the romantic feelings towards Simmons towards her in-game avatar. Either way, it's an interesting conundrum with Fitz being a big card-carrying villain, easily one of the best I've seen in Agents of SHIELD and being absolutely entertaining by virtue of 'oh shit, how is everyone going to react when they return to the real world?' especially with Fitz having gone around and killed real people in the Framework world. Especially Director Mace.

We also get a pretty great scene between Fitz and his father. Who, of course, is a far more dangerous abuser than what I initially thought. See, he's not a child-beater. Not really. What's really dangerous is the ideas that he's planting into Fitz's head. Succeed at all costs, or you're absolutely worthless. All the while he's doing this under the guise of being a supportive parent helping his child grow strong, and honestly, he kind of probably believes it himself. Yeah, Fitz getting his one regret reversed is kind of not working well for his mental health, and more so than Fitz's transplant as one of the leaders of Hydra and as Aida's lover, the presence of his father (and the absence of Simmons, too, I guess) in this simulated reality is the one thing that truly fucks up his mentality and turns him into the ruthless tyrant that he is here. 

For the good guys, some of the pieces are getting placed together. May turning to the side of light is more or less complete here. We get some really tender moments between Good!Ward and Daisy, talking about what's going to happen about 'his' Skye, and yeah, he might just be a very advanced simulation but you can't help but feel for the dude. In the real world, Aida has discovered where the Quinjet is, giving our heroes a definite timeframe in which to complete their Framework mission, ensuring that the arc doesn't overstay its welcome. 

Which is fine and dandy, because, shit, as much as Simmons and Daisy are roped into "we must solve their problem for them to wake up!" all video game style, it didn't last very long, and amazingly, we get the unexpected and very welcome return of Sunil Bakshi, which has been a recurring yet under-utilized character all throughout the second season, and seeing him as the Voice of Hydra's propaganda is amazingly entertaining, as he pulls out all the stops at being a very believable bombastic TV announcer that's in Hydra's back pocket. Bakshi being absolutely cowardly when Fitz comes in all main villain style is also well done. And he ends up being the lynchpin for Coulson's operation, which is basically to rile up the public against Hydra oppression (in yet another example of a speech in superhero work that's reflective of the general sentiment to the American administration at that moment). Again, it's not something that will really end up mattering because it's just a virtual world, but hey, it has to be done, and at least they were succinct about doing it.

Triplett, by the way, is a bit of a tricky situation here. I really enjoyed seeing him back mostly because I always thought Triplett is yet another character that was woefully underused, and was unfortunately killed off in season two when the show was still very uneven and finding a proper groove. Is this, then a sneaky way to hijack Aida's body-creating machine to bring Triplett and maybe Good Grant Ward into the fold? It would be slightly convoluted, but it wouldn't be too far of a stretch for them to do this either. 

Overall, a very great installment. Compared to the previous episodes this is the one that's obviously just a bridge to get all the Framework storyline over with, but it's still a pretty great installment nonetheless, showing that, yes, Agents of SHIELD can have its many interconnecting and overreaching plotlines and still tell satisfying episodes that don't feel disconnected from each other. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Lots of callbacks to earlier moments in the series, among them Daisy emerging from the Inhuman cocoon basically shot-for-shot identical to how she did back in season two, Coulson placing his hand on Ward's chest to recall how real Ward died (before being used as a vessel for Hive), Coulson reads a file about the Inhuman Diviner, and Coulson recalling Nick Fury's line about being part of something bigger.
• Sunil Bakshi and Antoine Triplett both died during the events of the second season, and here return as their AU Framework selves. In addition to that, Sunil Bakshi's news crawl has a lot of goodies that reference previous Hydra villains, who have all apparently been seen as heroes, with John Garrett being deceased and remembered as a hero, whereas Daniel Whitehall is a writer who's selling a new book detailing his work with the Malick clan.