Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Recap: One Hero Returns... and One Hero Falls

This week’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. featured the return of a familiar face from a previous iteration of the team, in another wild Framework escapade that resulted in a most heroic death.

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With a bloodied and bruised Daisy/”Skye” still being held captive at Hydra, Jemma ultimately had no choice but to read in Ward and Mace on the whole truth about the Framework (and his corny, T-shirt-worthy “Team that trusts…” slogan) — which they had a hard time swallowing, given the full lives, rife with love and loss, that they have been “living.” As he processes Jemma’s story, Mace sets out to sneak into Hydra’s conversion facilities, accompanied by Coulson/”Agent Flugelman” and Agent Burrows. Soon after arriving, one of their rescues from a “rehab” center includes Agent Antoine “Trip” Triplet (welcome back!) .

Over at the triskelion, Doctor Fitz gives Skye a listen, but refuses to give any credence to her “lies” about his true self. Madam Hydra then sends her lovah away while she tries her “own methods” on the subversive. In private, Aida explains to Daisy that all she did was remove one regret from each person’s life, and that the world cold-blooded Fitz and others now live in is merely a “consequence of actions.” Aida then offers Daisy a sweet deal: a life in the Framework with Lincoln, in trade for her and Jemma’s secret location in the real world!

Fitz meanwhile is meeting with his father (!), played by The Tudors‘ David O’Hara. Dad can tell that his son is distracted by something, and Fitz says it has to do with a woman — the one he killed in cold blood, he later claims. “What if she wasn’t lying?” the Doctor wonders. Dad says he raised “a man of action,” and that in “a hard world, we cannot afford the luxury of sympathy.” He then adds, “You’re protecting humanity, and only Madam Hydra understands the weight of that.” Back in her cell, Daisy picks neighbor Radcliffe’s brain about how Fitz could have changed so drastically, and he says that a shift in a person’s life could come down to any single sentence, such as “I love you,” “We’re having a baby” or “She’s gone.”

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When Hydra detects that Mace & Co. have breached their conversion facility, they send over a super-charged, juiced-up May, itching to lock horns with The Patriot. And lock horns they do, in a knock-down, drag-out, concrete-crushing melee, with Mace emerging victorious as May’s power-up wanes. Mace then goes to help Coulson, Trip and the others extricate dozens of kids/teens from a conversion center. Madam Hydra orders the Quinjet to blast that building to smithereens, setting the stage for Mace to bravely protect Coulson’s kidnapped student Chris from the tumbling rubble. Mace eventually raises the fallen girders and such up and off them, long enough for Chris to get free — as an increasingly sympathetic May holds her fire and instead looks on — but ultimately The Patriot must selflessly allow the building to collapses on top of him, as a teary Jemma and the others flee.

Elsewhere in the busy, busy episode:

* After “reuniting” with Mack and meeting his sweet daughter Hope, Jemma sees enough value in his not-real life to take his place in joining Ward on the dangerous conversion center mission.

* Trip, we learn, covertly snapped photos (using his Howling Commando dad’s old-timey camera!) of a top-secret project The Doctor is working on, to eradicating Inhumankind.

* As Fitz and his father toast Hydra’s latest victory, Aida checks in on the plugged-in S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, where she realizes that Mace has died. [DISENGAGE]

* In the “bonus scene,” May — in the wake of being urged by Coulson to “Snap out of it!” during the building collapse — asks captive Skye if she is an Inhuman. When Daisy confirms that she is powerful enough to bring the entire triskelion down, May responds, “I hope so” before smashing a terrigen crystal in front of the prisoner. Daisy smiles as the terrigenesis husk begins forming around her….

What did you think of the episode “No Regrets”?

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