Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4, Episode 21, "The Return" REVIEW (SPOILERS)

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Well, before getting into the review itself, here is how Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. connects to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2:  it doesn’t.  There aren’t any potential spoilers in the episode if you haven’t seen the movie yet, so don’t worry about it.  Both are good in their own right, so see both of them; it doesn’t matter what order you do it in.

Of course, since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ostensibly takes place in 2014, it shouldn’t be too surprising that there’s no reference to those events in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—uh… spoilers?  I don’t think that’s a spoiler.

With that out of the way, let’s get into the episode itself.

Positives:

• AIDA’s “I’m a real girl” arc in this episode is brilliant:  she went from imitating human emotions to feeling them instantaneously, and it is easy to understand how overwhelming it would be
• The Simmons—Fitz—AIDA love triangle resolved itself very quickly, which I really appreciated.  I’d much rather see Fitz and Simmons trying to repair their relationship while AIDA deals with a broken heart, than see Fitz being torn between the two for half a season.
• AIDA’s decision to save Mack was a really good move, especially since this was the only episode we really got to see her “origin”:  she was born, experienced positive emotions, made a “heroic” choice, felt negative emotions, and made an “evil” choice—all in the space of an hour of screen time.
• AIDA looked like she was going to have sex with the Ivanov-bot, but then utterly destroyed it—that took an unexpected turn!
• Coulson and May reconciling everything that happened after May was replaced was a really interesting scene for their characters and their relationship
• Talbot’s role in this episode is a good one.  It’s always annoying when they rehash character beats from previous seasons (Talbot not trusting Coulson), but this does give him a good reason for it.  I assume that by the end of the finale he and Coulson will be on the same page again.
• I actually like the decision for Yo-Yo to enter the Framework to rescue Mack.  It’s a good way to develop her character further.  Hopefully it will resolve itself in the finale.
• Ghost Rider’s introduction is awesome!

Negatives:

• Giving AIDA all the Inhuman powers makes a lot of sense from a story perspective:  it explains why Framework-Hydra was so interested in capturing and experimenting on the Inhumans.  However, it does make her seriously overpowered.  This is the kind of thing that works perfectly well in the comics but pushes the envelope in live action.
• I’m not sure about Ivanov as the primary villain for this pod, even teamed up with AIDA
• We aren’t really given any explanation for how Ivanov and AIDA are going to destroy the world in the finale

Things to Watch for:

• So Ivanov is basically the MCU version of LMD Dum Dum Dugan:  an almost infinite supply of spare bodies and no one has much chance of finding all of them to really stop him
• Just how many Inhuman abilities did AIDA steal and upload into her new body?
• Obviously Ghost Rider is the only one who can really match AIDA’s power, but how will he defeat her?  Also, how will the season finale set up a potential Ghost Rider series?

I really enjoyed this episode, though it was definitely a set-up episode before the season finale.  I am really excited to see next week’s finale, especially since we have reason to expect that the series will be renewed for a fifth season!

What was your favorite part of the episode?  Are you more excited for an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 5 or a Ghost Rider series?  Let me know in the comments!