An assassination attempt is made on Director Mace, which may expose a secret he has been hiding. Radcliffe continues to pursue the Darkhold.
Tropes in this episode:
- Accidental Hero: Mace's heroism at the Vienna bombing was tripping over somebody and landing in a way that made it look like he was shielding her to the man who took a photo of it. To be fair, he tried to tell people it wasn't what it looked like, but they thought he was being modest.
- An Arm and a Leg: After Agent Burrows falls to his death, the briefcase is still handcuffed to his wrist, so the ex-HYDRA soldiers resort to chopping his arm off with a machete.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Coulson's speculation on the contents of a Handcuffed Briefcase are nuclear launch codes, hush money, and Girl Scout cookies.
- Batman Gambit: The assassin, Yuri Zaikin, was expected to fail his mission, and the mercenaries had already plotted out the escape route of the Quinjet so they could intercept Mace and his serum. They didn't count on Coulson and Mack coming along for the ride, throwing a wrench into their plans.
- Becoming the Mask: When Mace reveals his false heroism at Vienna, he explains that he took the Project Patriot offer in the hopes of becoming the hero everyone thought he was.
- Big Damn Heroes: Daisy shows up just in time to save Coulson and Mace from the ex-HYDRA goons, and LMD May shows up just in time to help Mack against their lieutenant.
- Blatant Lies: Mace insists on finding Burrows because No One Gets Left Behind, but both Coulson and Mack realize his primary concern is the briefcase, which Mace makes abundantly clear by his evasiveness about its contents.
- Blood Knight: As May's only happy when she can fight someone, she eventually breaks out of the peaceful illusion (a spa day) she's trapped in by Radcliffe and Aida.
- Composite Character: Mace is revealed to have elements of two comic book characters called "Patriot", Jeff Mace and Eli Bradley.
- Continuity Nod:
- A sniper attempts to kill Mace by using bullets that drill into the target before exploding.
- Mace's Patriot serum is derived from the serum used by Daisy's father, Calvin Johnson.
- Mace references an incident during Daisy's time as a vigilante where she held up a collapsing bridge. A demolished bridge was one of the things she was blamed for in the first episode of the season.
- Simmons references her time undercover with Hydra at the start of season 2 when trying to intimidate Zaikin.
- When Talbot reveals that Mace's powers come from a serum, Simmons asks if it's from Erskine's work, a callback both to the Captain America movies and to the Centipede serum in season 1 (which was partially based on Erskine's work).
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Aida easily defeats an injured and still somewhat drugged May during her escape attempt.
- Decapitation Presentation: Aida's severed head is stuck in a cooler and dolled up to look like a real head to intimidate Zaikin. He spills everything.
- Disposable Pilot: When the Quinjet goes down, the pilot, Agent McCafferty ends up impaled on a tree branch.
- Eagleland: Talbot seems disdainful of the captured assassin because of his Russian heritage, refers to the US President as the "leader of the free world" and even has "Hail to the Chief" as his ringtone (at least when the President is calling). He later complains that he misses the Cold War because of how his hands are tied now.
- Elite Mook: The ex-HYDRA goon with the burned face puts Mack in some serious trouble and is only just barely defeated by both Mack and LMD May.
- Embarrassing Ringtone: Talbot's phone plays "Hail to the Chief" when receiving a call from the White House. The look on his face when it goes off in a meeting is priceless.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Radcliffe makes it known that he didn't approve of Aida killing Nathanson and tries to stop her from killing May after May wakes up.
- Exact Words: Radcliffe complains that Aida is taking his orders a little too literally.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: When Coulson suggested that the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. be an Enhanced individual with a good public reputation, the US Government couldn't find one because of what happened to Captain America after the Vienna bombing. So they turned Mace into an Enhanced so they would have a viable candidate for the job. He wasn't even a real hero in Vienna; he just tripped and fell near someone lying on the ground and ended up looking like he was helping her. Even so, he stepped up and did the best he could and Coulson recognizes that he brings real skills to the job in terms of politics and public relations, and has a good heart.
- Foreshadowing:
- Mace tries to assist after the sniper fails to kill him, but is warned by Burrows that he's "on the clock". This hints there's a catch to his powers before the reveal.
- Talbot says that they got "the bad stuff" out of Mr. Hyde's super-serum before using it on Mace, then mutters "mostly."
- Gone Horribly Right: Aida was programed to protect Dr. Radcliffe above all else, which is why she killed Nathanson. It was the quickest and more immediate way to make sure that Nathanson wouldn't expose him. Radcliffe notes he needs to change her programming to make her less lethal.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Talbot and Simmons play Bad Cop/Worse Cop when interrogating Zaikin, with Talbot threatening him with a hammer and Simmons extracting information out of him with psychological terror involving Aida's severed head in an icebox and an array of the usual sharp torture tools.
- Handcuffed Briefcase: Burrows wears one containing Mace's Patriot serum. Coulson notes that is basically screaming "valuable!"
- Hey, You!: As Talbot is barking out orders, he singles out the last agent as "you with the hair" to get him coffee.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Talbot instituted the new security measures used by S.H.I.E.L.D., and it's through these measures that Jemma's able to force him to spill the beans on Mace, since Jemma has access to those files and is in a position to make that information much more public than he'd like.
- Hollywood Healing: Averted for once; May still has a visible facial injury from her ‘fight’ with Aida in the previous episode, given that the LMD’s synthetic skin presumably can’t heal it.
- Hour of Power: The Patriot serum gives Mace superpowers for an unspecified time. Talbot mentions that they only give it to him when he needs to show off his powers for some reason, suggesting the serum doesn't last very long.
- Hypocrite: After a scolding from Coulson, Talbot points out that "a damn spy should understand the need to keep a secret". Coulson probably doesn't need someone like Talbot to tell him how to do his job.
- Idiot Ball: Simmons, for barely-stated reasons, doesn't want to look any further into why Aida went rogue and tried to steal the Darkhold. If she were willing, as Fitz is, they would likely discover that Aida was acting under Radcliffe's direction.
- Impeded Communication: The people who take down Mace's Quinjet have a vehicle-mounted signal jammer to prevent him from calling for help.
- Instant Sedation: May gets jabbed in the leg with a sedative and is out in two seconds.
- Just Following Orders: It wasn't Jeffrey's idea to pose as an Inhuman director, but he went along with it as he wanted to serve his country faithfully.
- Loophole Abuse: Fitz-Simmons eventually get fed up with how Talbot's running things and take advantage of Simmons technically outranking him to do things their way.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Radcliffe traps the real May in a simulation designed to keep her relaxed. It fails the first time because the tranquil environment doesn't feel real to her. After her short fight with Aida, he realizes that she thrives in conflict and redesigns it to give her an enemy to fight.
- Maintain the Lie: Mace offers to resign after his secret is exposed. Coulson tells him to stay in charge and handle the political side of things while Coulson takes back control of operations.
- The Man Behind the Man:
- After Mace is exposed as being a vanilla human on a Super Serum that requires regular doses, Coulson lets him remain as the official Director for handling PR and political matters, while Coulson takes control of operational matters.
- Talbot is revealed as the one who came up with the whole Mace-The-Patriot scheme to begin with.
- Manchurian Agent: LMD May isn't aware that she's an LMD. Her programing is designed to operate sub-consciously so that she believes herself to be the real May. Then she discovers her metallic nature at the end of the episode.
- Mook Carryover: The people who took down the Quinjet are ex-HYDRA soldiers who went mercenary after S.H.I.E.L.D., the Avengers and the US Military took down all their leadership.
- Morality Pet: Oddly enough (given that he's in charge of her), Radcliffe plays this role towards Aida, who seems a little too willing to kill people when she sees it fitting. He tries to keep her from doing lethal things.
- Mythology Gag:
- The project that enhanced Mace is called Project Patriot, a reference to his codename from the comics.
- Mace getting his abilities from the Hyde serum makes him similar to Captain America character Jack Flag.
- Him pretending to have powers naturally but really getting them from regularly injected superpower-inducing drugs is also the way the other Patriot in the comics, Eli Bradley, operated originally.
- It gets suggested that the Patriot serum was created by reactivating the Erskine project. In the original comics, Jeffrey Mace, AKA Patriot, was the third Captain America.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Downplayed example, Fitz' reaction to seeing Simmons Torture Technician act used on the assassin.Fitz: Is is weird that I found that attractive?
Simmons(smiling): Yes. - No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: May rejects the simulation meant to keep her calm because sitting in a day spa isn't her natural environment. Having an opponent to overcome is what she lives for.
- No One Could Survive That!: Mace insists on finding Burrows after the crash. Coulson points out that Burrows likely died on impact, which Mace concedes, but still insists they should at least find the body. It's apparent to everyone that it's the case he's after.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Played with, as Jeffrey is remorseful that Burrows died, but his main objective is getting his briefcase back.
- Over-the-Top Secret: The clearance spectrum gets mocked again. Talbot offers a temporary clearance upgrade to Day-Glo Pink if it will get him results.
- President Superhero: A guy in the crowd at the beginning seems to want this to happen in regards to Mace, what with his "Mace for President 2020" sign and all.
- The Resenter: Although she's compliant with Radcliffe's orders, Aida clearly resents his criticism of her performance and seems to be envious of the more "perfect" LMD May. It's like Sibling Rivalry.
- Sadistic Choice: Tired of Talbot's stonewalling, Simmons finds out her clearance gave her access to the Project Patriot files, which Talbot was trying to distract her from looking up. She then tells Talbot either he can explain, or she can read it herself, aloud and to a crowded room.
- Security Blanket: Taking a page from Daisy's book, a worried May sits in Lola while the Zephyr One flies to the crash site.
- Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Mace faked having powers... because he genuinely believed it would help, and he wants to improve human-Inhuman relationships.
- Shout-Out: Pilot gets impaled on a show Joss Whedon is involved with, you say? Sounds familiar.
- Super Serum: Director Mace isn't Inhuman. His strength and invulnerability come from regular doses of a drug produced by the Patriot project. It's a diluted version of Cal's serum. FitzSimmons are quick to mock the sheer stupidity of using it, though Talbot insists they took the bad stuff out... mostly.
- Super-Toughness: LMD May is shoved onto the exposed blade of a table saw. It penetrates her skin layer, but is bent by her tougher metal skeleton.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: Burrows walks around the Quinjet trying to get a signal, then there's an explosion and he's sucked out the now-missing door in moments.
- Take That!: When Mace paints Reyes as a terrorist for him trying to attack him and threaten to take down his entire plane, Coulson says that it "sounds a little Fox News to me".
- Tomato in the Mirror: At the end of the episode, LMD May discovers she's an android.
- Torture Technician: Jemma poses as one to get the assassin talking, and succeeds in bluffing him by presenting Aida's head as the head of a HYDRA agent unwilling to talk.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: Downplayed version with Talbot taking control of the headquarters as long as Jeffrey is missing. He means well, but as always, is a little over his head and displays his old Jerkass tendencies.
- Villain Has a Point: While Radcliffe and his LMD programme aren’t liked or trusted in-universe (and he’s a dangerous transhumanist fanatic trying to steal a book of pure evil to achieve his ends), his LMD May takes a saw blade to the back deep enough to expose her robotic skeleton – in fact, seeing how buckled the blade is afterwards, it would have been deeper if she weren’t made of metal. Given that the real May would have died taking a similar hit, the LMD programme is demonstrably achieving its main goal of saving the lives of frontline agents.
- We Need a Distraction: Mace fakes having powers to the mercs trying to steal the briefcase, hoping to bargain with them long enough for Coulson and Mack to disable the second jammer truck.
- Wham Episode: Mace is revealed as not being an Inhuman, LMD May discovers she's an android, Fitz is secretly working on figuring out what happened to Aida, and Coulson is now the unofficial director of S.H.I.E.L.D. again.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Coulson gives Talbot a scolding for ordering Jeffrey to pose an an Inhuman.
- You, Get Me Coffee: Talbot shows up at the Playground and starts giving Simmons and May orders, and then tells some other agent to get him a coffee.
