The Mystery of the Missing Suitcase
(This review contains
spoilers!)
Director Mace went front and center
this week, as Senator Nadeer seems to be working from the shadows to destroy
him once and for all, even going so far as to employ HYDRA soldiers to shoot
down the Quinjet he was traveling in. Through this, Coulson and Mack discovered
a dirty little secret he’s been hiding.
Not much went on back at home base
this week that didn’t tie back into the main plotline about Mace. We saw the
return of Talbot, who took control of operations with both Mace and Coulson
gone missing.
Meanwhile, Radcliffe and Aida spent their time catering to May,
who actually woke up! She was put back to sleep almost immediately, yes, but
this tells me the real May will be back sooner than later.
The episode knew where the focus was
meant to be, and that was with Mace, Coulson and Mack being stranded in the
woods somewhere on a hunt for Mace’s secretive suitcase. What’s in the
suitcase, you ask? Well, as it turns out, syringes pumped with formula that
gives him his super-strength! Mace isn’t inhuman at all, and was only told to
claim he was because Talbot couldn’t find an inhuman worthy of running
S.H.I.E.L.D. That picture of him saving the lady in Vienna was nothing more
than a picture of him tripping.
Not only is this a great twist that I
didn’t see coming, the aftermath of the twist is equally fantastic! In S.H.I.E.L.D’s past whenever some huge
secret about somebody comes out, they usually result in turning evil or against
Coulson or something else. Here, it actually allows Mace to turn over a new
leaf and be honest about himself: he’s just an ordinary politician who wants
equal rights for humans and inhumans. I’ve said many times before that Mace has
been one of the best parts of the season, and this added onto that fact. He’s a
much more relatable character as a result of this, and the fact he immediately wanted
to resign is really telling that he’s a good person. Of course, he didn’t
resign and will be sticking around, but I feel that he’s going to be a much
more interesting character in the weeks to come as a result of us knowing him
better.
The episode did end with an
interesting new development: as we know from last week, LMD May doesn’t know
she’s not the real deal. This week, she was hurt badly in a fight to rescue
Mack from one of the HYDRA goons, and in the final moments of the episode she
discovered the metal beneath her flesh. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say
that LMD May isn’t lasting much longer, as the original May is already starting
to wake up. When that happens and Radcliffe’s plot is finally revealed, the
cast is likely going to stop trusting in each other, because anyone could be
one of Radcliffe’s LMDs. All season Mace’s mantra has been “A team that trusts
is a team that triumphs”, and I can’t wait to see that be put to the test.
I’ve always said that S.H.I.E.L.D makes every episode feel
like a season finale, and The Patriot is no different. While Mace’s dirty
little secret was pushed to the backburner in the wake of the Ghost Rider
storyline, the show did a great job of never really making you feel like you
could trust him fully. Despite that, I do like that once his cover is blown
open he’s not a mustache-twirling villain. He’s just a guy trying to do the
right thing. I also think it’s good that this was gotten out of the way early
on, as to give us more time to focus on the upcoming LMD storyline and give us
more sympathy towards Mace’s crumbling ideals when everything inevitably goes
wrong. I do wish the other main characters had more to do this week aside from
react to Mace’s big secret, but S.H.I.E.L.D
continued to do what it does best and make the most of every episode.
FINAL SCORE
8/10
Great
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