Agents of SHIELD S04E14 Review: Plot Twist

Agents of SHIELD, Season 4, Episode 14: The Man Behind the Shield

So the LMD storyline is moving at a pretty breakneck pace, escalating more and more with every episode, and the final shot of this episode is pretty awesome. May and Radcliffe are the two LMDs that Radcliffe did the bait-and-switch thing we have so far, but Fitz and Simmons discovers that during the huge assault on Ivanov's compound, there is a period of time where everyone broke off communications at the same time, and find out that four SHIELD agents have gone through the gate and infiltrated the compound -- namely, everyone in the main cast except for them. It's a pretty cool plot twist that makes use of how the team was split out during the events of the episode,

The episode is a very solid one even without the twist, with a pretty cool Arrow style juxtaposition of the present day action with a flashback showing a similar mission. The way the episode is set up to show off a previous meeting between Coulson and Ivanov, only for Ivanov to barely show up as one of the mooks (we aren't even sure which ones of the Russian soldiers is supposed to be Ivanov) in the flashback -- which centered on the Coulson/May relationship, showing just how little Ivanov mattered. And Coulson's speech to Ivanov, painting him as someone he utterly forgot and doesn't even give a shit about, leaving him for Quake to deal with, is absolutely hilarious.

Yes, Ivanov tries to build himself up as this superior human being, but he only lasted that long against Quake because she humoured him by holding back her earthquake powers for a couple of rounds. This isn't Batman or Hawkeye or Black Widow -- Anton Ivanov is but a pawn in the grand scheme of things, and as much as he thinks that he's a bigshot that can mock Aida or the Inhumans, the joke's on him because he didn't even faze Quake at all, his rival Coulson doesn't even remember he exists at all, and Aida even gets a hilarious mocking bit at the end of the episode.

The flashback is pretty decent, showing a lot of nice callbacks to Coulson and May's adventures over the past four seasons, and it's definitely pushing the ship between them, which, honestly, if not for the presence of Andrew, is something that would definitely have already happened. They just need an extra push, is all, and even in the flashback they're already pretty flirtatious -- shame for the relationship that May actually fell in love with Andrew shortly afterwards.

The action scenes in the Superior's headquarters, how SHIELD shows off how awesome it is when it's prepared, taking down everything the Superior has prepared for them -- because really, you don't bring a knife into a gun fight, and you certainly don't bring a knife to an earthquake-generator-fight.

We get a bit of a torture scene with poor Jeffrey Mace, and honestly that just makes me want Ivanov to die even more. Or, in this case, be used as a further pawn in Aida and Radcliffe's plans. Which, considering how much of a complete douchetwat Ivanov has been throughout this episode and the two or three episodes he's been in, is definitely something that's long overdue.

With all its less interesting antagonists in the Watchdogs, the Superior and Senator Nadeer all gotten rid off, Agents of SHIELD cuts off its excess baggage and focuses on the far more interesting storyline of Aida, Radcliffe and the LMDs, which is definitely the right play to make here. Reducing the Superior into what's essentially a mere filler villain in Coulson's eyes is just sweet poetic justice.


Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Coulson's flashback scene is filled with references to things he would do in the chronological future (i.e. previous episodes), among others 'bio's always good', a common cover-up story that he keeps using throughout the first season of Agents of SHIELD. Coulson's aviator sunglasses is a trademark of his character ever since Thor, his  second appearance. May mentions his latest civilian is a shrink, a reference to Andrew "Lash" Gardner.