Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD went into midseason hiatus on the cliffhanger reveal that Agent Melinda May had been replaced by a life model decoy (LMD). The reveal led into the second half of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD subtitled “LMD,” and tonight’s episode, “Wake Up,” revealed that SHIELD’s LMD problem may be bigger than previously believed.
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SPOILERS for Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, “Wake Up,” follow.
In the first half of the fourth season of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, Dr. Holden Radcliffe created Aida, the first LMD. The midseason finale revealed that Aida had kidnapped Agent Melinda May and replaced her with an identical LMD who has all of May’s memories uploaded into it.
Viewers were led to believe that reading the Darkhold had turned Aida evil, thus the kidnapping and the replacing of May. It turns out this was misdirection. The Darkhold, as far we can tell, did not change Aida. Aida was operating based on instructions from Radcliffe, who desires the Darkhold for himself. When Mack decapitated the original Aida it was revealed that Radcliffe had already created a newer, upgraded Aida model LMD.
Up until tonight’s episode, these were all of the LMDs that fans were aware of, but early in “Wake Up” Radcliffe notes that there is an additional LMD in play.
SHIELD goes on a mission to investigate Senator Nadeer, but Nadeer somehow knows that they’re coming and lays a trap. It is also apparent that Nadeer knew exactly which agents, Coulson and Yo-Yo, would be breaking into her office, suggesting a leak from within SHIELD.
Coulson accuses General Talbot of tipping off Nadeer, but Talbot denies. Agent Simmons realizes that Fitz must have turned the decapitated Aida head back on and that Nadeer must have been monitoring SHIELD through Aida’s Deathlok-tech eyes. Fitz notes that the Aida head wasn’t anywhere near their mission briefings. This leads the May LMD to realize that she was the one feeding information Radcliffe.
SHIELD storms Radcliffe’s home and takes him into custody. Fitz visits Radcliffe in his containment cell, telling him how disappointed he is in his actions. Radcliffe tries to appeal to Fitz’s sense of kinship, but Fitz doesn’t fall for it. Instead, he has a moment of realization. Fitz takes a gun from a guard outside the containment unit and shoots Radcliffe in the head with it, revealing that Radcliffe is an LMD.
It is then revealed that Radcliffe built an LMD of himself because he knew that, after Aida failed to retrieve the Darkhold, it would only be a matter of time until SHIELD discovered his secret. He then allied himself with Senator Nadeer, explaining the leak in SHIELD.
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Radcliffe creating an LMD of himself means the LMD conspiracies are reaching Nick Fury levels of paranoia. It also means that Radcliffe can produce new LMDs with different appearances at an alarming rate. That, plus the return of the Agents Koenig and the promise that Agents of SHIELD will reveal the Koenig family secret in next week’s episode, means things may be getting out of hand very soon.
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.
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