May fought for her freedom, while more moving parts were revealed in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 4×11.
‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ 4×11 recap:
This week’s episode, titled “Wake Up,” acts as the kind of narrative breaking point familiar to anyone who has ever woken from a dream, convinced it was real. The line between reality and wild personal fiction disappears; in those first moments of waking, there is no truth, only desperate instinct.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 4×11 continues to play with its recent themes of layers and secrets. But at this point, the shadows are (quite deliberately) beginning to overwhelm the light. Reality itself is in question. Our intrepid agents shuffle around confused and wary, stuck in a dream when they don’t even know they’re asleep.
“Wake Up” is peppered with ironic nods to the audience as characters coyly question the authenticity of their own reality. Simmons notes that Coulson and Daisy are acting out of character. Elena observes that Mack’s incredible arms “don’t seem real.” Coulson observes his own recklessness like a separate, uncontrollable code.
These are dialogic red-herrings, however. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s most prominent concern this week is the continued dream-state of Agent May. Having jolted out of her calming, spa-day dream, May seems to attempt to escape her most recent comatose holding pattern. She fights past Aida, and seems on the verge of her patented brand of self-rescue.
But alas, all of May’s struggles are merely her response to Aida’s simulation. In a brief moment of clarity, May takes strength from the fact that she seems to be gradually beating the labyrinthine simulation.
LMD-May also seems to be coming out of her reverie. Increasingly suspicious of her own reality, the synthetic May confronts Radcliffe and confirms her own true nature.
Unfortunately, as in all bad dreams, this moment of self-actualization is quickly choked off. With obscene gentleness, Radcliffe informs “May” that she is unable to act against her own programming. The line between “May” and Radcliffe’s programming is indiscernible, and “May” is compelled to pursue an instinct that she now knows is a foreign one.
Radcliffe urges “May” to do what she truly wants; a form of freedom, which is in reality slavery. She cannot reveal her true nature to Coulson, but can only continue to be drawn after him like a moth to a candle.
(Radcliffe thinks he is an excellent matchmaker. He’s actually the worst.)
At the same time, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team discovers that they have foreign eyes in their own base when Senator Nadeer gets the jump on their espionage plans. S.H.I.E.L.D. is plunged into a very public trial, and Talbot (who was right, for once!) is incensed.
In the attempt to staunch the leak, Simmons initially pins the problem on Fitz’s activation of Aida. But Fitz is refreshingly in-touch with reality in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 4×11, and identifies Radcliffe as the leak.
Fitz also quickly realizes that the Radcliffe they have apprehended is an LMD, whose eyes offer continual insight on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s movements to Senator Nadeer. The real Radcliffe has taken Aida and the comatose May, and fled to Nadeer’s protection. Nadeer is interested in his help, but wants him to meet that Superior we’ve been hearing so little about.
And so, secrets continue to percolate within secrets. Our agents have woken from one dream to discover that they are still caught in the bizarre matrix of sleep. Senator Nadeer has plans that cannot yet be parsed. “May” is still at large, drawing increasingly close to an unsuspecting Coulson.
The only person who gains any real clarity in “Wake Up” is Elena, who confronts Mack about an abrupt personal day that leaves him taciturn and secretive. Mack, it turns out, lost his four-day-old daughter Hope eleven years ago. He goes to comfort Hope’s mother on their daughter’s birthday, because he’s awesome.
The scene and the story are dark, but at least someone gets to enjoy a little bit of metaphorical sunlight.
Tragically, the real May believes the same thing. In interrogating the LMD-May, Radcliffe hit on the realization that May continues to re-fight her old battles. So the new simulation he cooks up allows May to win her oldest battle — to save the girl who’s death so destroyed her in Bahrain.
“I saved the girl,” May tells Andrew in her dream, and we can almost see her psychological wounds knitting closed.
But the thing about dreams — even perverse, Matrix-like simulations — is that they can’t last forever. Reality asserts itself, whether we want it to or not.
And it’s clear from “Wake Up” that just about everyone on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is due for a rude awakening.
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