TV Review No. 44 Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Hot Potato Soup (S4, Ep12)

Strong Points:
Twists and turns
The return of an old friend
More fleshing out of characters
Radcliffe Bot
Connections to the films
Pace
Humour

Weak Points:
Have to keep remembering who's an LMD
Please let that not be The Superior
The end of some people
Pace

In-depth Review:
Coulson being seen as the person bringing all the threats to the world? I guess to an outsider such as the Russian agents it would seem so, what with him being everywhere but to us, the audience, it's a fun, almost comedic twist for the motives of the enemy. We know he's not the source (at least I think we do) but it at least allows these agents to attack S.H.I.E.L.D. with a slightly more original motive than 'The Avengers hurt...'

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. seems to be taking the time these last couple of episodes to flesh out characters back stories while the main action is taking place elsewhere. It happened last week with Mack and this week with Fitz, with him learning that Radcliffe knew his father (who we also learn wasn't a nice man). It's always nice to have more fleshed out characters and I think this one was done slightly more organically than Mack's reveal. I wonder if these little bits of story will come back to the forefront later in the season as well.

The Koenigs are back! Yes, the agent triplets have returned from the first season and hang on, are there two more now?! While there may be four Koenigs now (one died in the first season), they're all relatively simple to keep track of due to their varying personalities, which is more than can be said about the LMD's who are starting to become very difficult to keep track of due to how similar they are to the originals now. Back to the Koenigs quickly though and their nicely light tone that was brought to the episode and some great lines from a Quake and Black Widow fan fiction and the no electric sheep t-shirt. It was good to see them.

So, The Superior is a Russian who likes the old ways and drinks plain vodka with a sniff of onion? Not to get stereotypical here but really?! Seems a tad cliche and with all the great characters we've had this season I hope he isn't the big bad guy. His reveal seemed a bit anti-climatic as well, with them covering his face until suddenly they switched to a camera angle which showed it clear as day. The reveal that Radcliffe wasn't actually double-crossed by The Superior was well done, however, keeping me unaware until Radcliffe just undid his handcuffs after realising Bill wouldn't talk.

They're really punching through these story poi, ts aren't they? May has now been revealed to be an LMD to the rest of the characters, Radcliffe has the Darkhold in his possession and Aida V1 and Radcliffe bot have both been destroyed (after the nice reveal of a brain made from the magic from Doctor Strange). While I'm grateful for the increased pace I am worried that AoS may run out of ideas or settle on a not quite so good character by the end.

Conclusion: overall I really enjoyed this episode and AoS has proven again how adept it is to juggle multiple storylines both past and present as well as having a firm idea of the future, I just hope it doesn't run out of steam after just reaching half-way through (all things point to it not).

Rating: 88%

Thanks for reading, Satamer.