Fair enough. As far as I can recall, though, Roxxon has not yet been the specific antagonist in any MCU storyline, though other antagonists occasionally have some peripheral connection to them.
Hey, “Mac Rider” actually knew the proper vehicle to take. Too bad he didn’t “flame on” on it ever.
I thought AIDA’s dimensional portal looked a bit like the mystic shields & portals used in Doctor Strange. On purpose? Weird that an android can use magic, but I’ll go with it.
The MCU might slightly chicken-out in that regard, make the “magic” of Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider and the Darkhold out to be just more examples of funky alien super-science, like Asgardian “technology”.
OK, I don’t think that too many folks who were paying attention didn’t guess the direction we’re headed. Clearly, Aida was going to be corrupted by the Darkhold, although it wasn’t quite clear how it was going to go down.
I had no doubt that Uncle Eli wasn’t the big bad for the season. He was taken down cleanly by Shield with magic/science and all hands on deck. It was cool seeing Mace in a superhero outfit, but he really didn’t do all that much. Yo-Yo was key to the final battle, and how Coulson and Mack used her interactions were great. I loved how Coulson put his hand in place to receive a gun. The reference to the Demon Core was kind of cool, an attempt to ground this fantasy in some sort of reality, but it wasn’t needed. Is Robbie gone? Not likely, and I like how Coulson referenced previous Ghost Riders. I’m guessing he has a lot of stories.
The Mack/Yo-Yo relationship is interesting, but I’m not sure the show needs another pairing. Still, this one is much better than Daisy/Lincoln. Just don’t pair Daisy with anyone for a while; that’d be great. Not much from FitzSimmons this episode, but both actors did a great job. I like Mace more than ever; he’s quite relate-able compared to the rest of the Scooby team. And he seems to have won over the team about why he did what he did. And it was kind of inevitable that he’d be how Daisy made it back on the team. Doing it in front of the TV cameras was a nice touch.
OK, so now to the payoff and second half of the season. We all knew that Aida would be turned bad by the Darkhold, and we don’t yet know what she’s thinking (?) or what her goals are. And especially why she kidnapped and replaced May with another LMD - that caught me off guard. The way she causually killed Agent Expendable but is being careful keeping May alive still needs to be explained. That was a fairly creepy scene. I was wondering why May was being sent to fetch Aida and it was kind of a clue that something was going on. Aida getting shot will fit into this somehow, but she had kidnapped and replaced May before that so it wasn’t the cause of her evil turn.
Looks like we’ll need another thread for the second half of the season since they changed the subtitle. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: LMD. Hrmm, too many capital letters.
We’re not doing “evil twin” again, are we?
The moment where FitzSimmons threw some lead was pretty cool, though.
I was a little surprised that they’d do a plot so similar to the Ultron storyline, especially after they even mentioned it during the episode.
There’s a lot of talk about the tall order for the Flash movie, seeing as how Avengers, Ultron, and the Flash TV show have all done speedsters really well. I think it’s time to add this scene to the list too. I loved the afterimages in the wide shot.
You left out X-Men Days of Future Past.
Don’t forget the X-Men version of QuickSilver - which clearly led some of the thinking behind Yo-Yo’s work in this one.
Whoops, yeah I mean X-Men instead of Ultron.
I wasn’t a huge fan of it at the time, but I grew to like Ghost Rider and didn’t mind his story, it’s a bit of a shame that it’s all done though.
I thought the last 2 weeks of episodes were good. Last week’s especially. Really great acting all around but extra great acting from Fitz (as always) and Coulson.
As for the next half season…sigh…bad robots again? Really? Maybe it’s just because I’m coming off of 10 weeks of Westworld, but it’s so lame to me to have a “I created an AI! Oh no it’s bad!” storyline. It’s the lazy man’s sci-fi.
Ever since Frankenstein it’s been a bit of a retread. Hopefully there will be some interesting twist on the genre but I don’t have particularly high hopes. Maybe they’ll just execute the plot well.
My favorite line in this last episode: “Okay, time for plan B… Any ideas? Anyone?”
I’m thinking the next half will be less “Robots run amok” and more “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” I wish they hadn’t gone with May though, seeing as they’ve gone down that path with her before. Someone like Fitz would have been a lot more interesting.
Well, QuickSilver was in Ultron as well -
“What, you didn’t see that coming?”
The grab of Mjornir as it flew - that was one of the better LOL moments.
I mean, on some level, I have sympathy for you but, just to offer a data point for the opposing view… I did not watch Westworld, and I’m not generally a sci-fi fan, so I’m not personally suffering from “bad robot” fatigue. The last thing I watched with a “bad robot” was Avengers: Age of Ultron, so I am here for this, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out.
Sucks for you, though, I guess. 
Yeah, but he was pretty lame (as it were) compared to the over-top awesomeness of the kitchen scene in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
I’m hoping AIDA’s actions have more to do with the dark magic of the Darkhold book than the inevitable robots going bad.
Anyone going to watch the online streaming Yo Yo series? Slingshot, I think it’s called?
I’m still disappointed they got rid of that other new recruit, the one who could control metal.
Maybe there’ll be some “Zero-th Law” thing going on.