Patton Oswalt is back and the Superior is revealed.
Lots of big developments in "Hot Potato Soup," from the Koenigs finally making their triumphant return to May and Coulson finally sharing their much-shipped first kiss. But as Agents of SHIELD gets into the meat of its L.M.D. arc, it feels like it's intentionally trying to obfuscate things in this new episode.
Is anything as it appears to be? The characters on the show must be wondering the same thing, as they finally discovered the L.M.D. version of May. In true TV drama fashion, this reveal came right after she and Coulson kissed, though in Agents of SHIELD's defense, Coulson's "betrayal" over this reveal was appropriately muted. It's not the L.M.D.'s fault he was manipulated; it's Radcliffe's.
Meanwhile back at home base, Fitz continued his examination of the L.M.D. version of Radcliffe to discover it had a brain, and that it's connected to the other brains in the other L.M.D.s. That led Simmons to the realization that May was the other L.M.D., but in doing so the show never really explored the significance of the brains vs. code to begin with beyond the fact this is the brain Aida had created with the help of the Darkhold. The focus was more on this emotional impact on Fitz as Fake Radcliffe tried to manipulate him with stories of his father, with the show falling back on the humanity debate it's been having with L.M.D.s all season.
The episode also introduced Zack McGowan as The Superior, a reveal which was somewhat undercut by how much else was going on with the other characters. His motivations weren't truly revealed until the kicker at the end of the episode, when we find out he's after Coulson as part of his plan to kill Inhumans, but the show is still being intentionally vague about just how the Darkhold plays into that. Yes it can apparently destroy all Inhumans, and yes the Superior has generic Evil Reasons as to why they need to be destroyed, but the show hasn't really sold him as a Big Bad.
This episode was trying to do a lot, and because of that the balancing act between all the storylines was a bit off. Patton Oswalt made his triumphant return as the Koenigs here, and while it was certainly fun to have Oswalt back and his return lent itself to a lighter episode (+1 for the Quake/Black Widow fan fiction line), tonally it was a departure from the darker edge of this season so far. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but the lightness of the Koenig storyline didn't match the much more serious reveal of the Superior and the threat he serves. And if this episode was supposed to clear up whether or not the Koenigs are L.M.D.s, it had a very roundabout way of doing it.
Maybe that's because Agents of SHIELD is trying to keep us in the dark. Given all the mystery and confusion about the L.M.D.s, I'm still not convinced we know who all of them are. I also am suspicious of all these emotional reveals with Mack and Fitz, and I don't think it's a coincidence that they are coming clean about dark, personal details in rapid succession. If Simmons spills a sad anecdote from her past in next week's episode, then three's a trend and something is definitely off.
The Verdict
While it was welcome to have a lighter episode with Patton Oswalt back in the mix (and the Koenigs have definitely been missed), it tonally didn't match with the rest of the darker L.M.D. arc. There were some great and much anticipated moments, but this episode was maybe trying to do too much, undercutting some of the impact in the process.
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