This week on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Koenigs return! And we finally find out about them.
Last week focused on both LMD May and real May as they both went through trials given their current situations. Regular May tried to escape being held captive by ADA 2.0 and Radcliffe. Unfortunately, her escape was another level of control as she was in a virtual reality prison and was unconscious the whole time. Also, the Radcliffe that was at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters was a LMD also, and once Fitz realized that comfortably put a bullet in his robotic brain. LMD May confronted Radcliffe where he revealed to her that he has a special mission for her and she will only realize it when the time is right. She also cannot harm him. John Hannah is turning out to be just a juicy a villain on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as he was on Spartacus.
This week starts with us seeing two of the Koenig siblings moving on what appears to be some sort of assembly belt. We’ve long thought that they were LMDs as there’s just too many of the same person walking around in S.H.I.E.L.D. However, it was a fake-out. They were at an arcade riding those God-forsaken hoverboards, and of course trading Star Wars references, something I’m sure Patton Oswalt is now required by law to do for anything he appears in. as the two siblings are enjoying some off time at the arcade, they are attacked by members of the Watchdogs. While they manage to hold their own for a little, Billy is abducted by the Watchdogs, leading his brother Sam to contact the agents that his brother has been abducted.
Turns out Coulson trusted the Koenigs with the safeguarding (and disappearance) of the Darkhold. Coulson remarked that they were good at making things disappear and were the best suited for the job. With Billy abducted, he is taken on a ship to be interrogated by Radcliffe and the Watchdogs. We finally get to meet The Superior, played by The 100’s Zack McGowan. The Superior brings Radcliffe (playing as an unassuming hostage) into the room where he interrogates both of them. As The Superior is about to use brutal methods, Radcliffe breaks cover to avoid unnecessary violence. He has another method in mind, a virtual interrogation.
Meanwhile, at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ, Fitz brings the LMD Radcliffe online to interrogate him to see where Billy is being held. However, the LMD has the same memories as the real Radcliffe and uses his dark wits and intelligence to turn the tables in a Silence of the Lambs kind of way. He gets into Fitz’s head by mentioning that he knew his father, and that reminds Fitz that his father treated him poorly raising him. To make matters worse, interrogating LMD Radcliffe doesn’t go anywhere as he starts speaking in other languages and literally “sings like a bird” after Fitz told him he would make him do so. Fitz is demoralized as a result.
Sam Koenig tells the agents that Billy doesn’t have the Darkhold as the brothers pulled the old “Hot Potato Soup” as a means of espionage. The real Koenig who has it is LT, “the original.” This leads the Agents to head to a comedy club where yet another Koenig is doing an anti-S.H.I.E.L.D. stand up set. This brother Thurston, is basically Oswalt as a character. When they arrive, there’s a member of the Watchdogs there about to strike, who is quickly taken down by a female agent. The female agent is the Koenig brother’s sister, LT, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who was safeguarding her brother. However, after they talk with her, she reveals that the Koenig who is in Watchdog custody is the one who really knows where the Darkhold is. It’s at “the Labyrinth.”Radcliffe is using virtual technology to map out Billy’s memories (by having him see a puppy) and then able to scan to see where it’s being held. It’s now a race against time between the Watchdogs and the agents to get to the Labyrinth and secure the book.
Mack is getting ready to dismantle LMD Radcliffe when the two have an interesting debate of who is truly “human.” LMD Radcliffe states that he does have a soul just as much as anyone else does. Just as Mack is going to dismantle the robot, Fits comes in wanting to experiment on LMD Radcliffe’s brain. As he is poking and prodding around his brain, LMD Radcliffe lets it slip and says “brains,” referencing another agent is a LMD. They correctly deduce that it’s May.
At the Labyrinth, LMD May and Coulson have some downtime and finally, we get what people have been kind of wanting for four seasons. The two share a brief conversation that ends with a kiss. While LMD May is a robot, she still has Mays memories (and desires). This means that the two will eventually become an item on the show. Shortly after they kiss, the book is found and in a confrontation with the Watchdogs doing a prisoner exchange for Billy, LMD May manages to grab hold of the book, and now she realizes her mission and pulls her gun on Coulson. Thanks to Quake, LMD May is subdued. However, in the aftermath, the book is knocked loose and LMD May (while crippled) grabs onto the book, just in time for Radcliffe to show up and take the book.The bad guys now have the book, but the Agents are determined to get it, and the real May back! Meanwhile, The Superior and Radcliffe discuss the Watchdogs true goal. The Superior believes that the key to all the alien problems in the world starts with one person, Coulson. They are going after him as well!
The LMD arc of the show has been very interesting. I thought it might be a rehash of the Terminator films, and many like it. However, the latter half of this season is perfectly blending the Inhumans, the Darkhold, and the LMD storylines and merging them into a compelling story. It was also good that we finally learn that the Koenigs are just normal human beings. They happened to have been technicians for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s LMD program before Radcliffe, and not LMD's themselves.
Next week is about the hunt for the real May.
