Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 4, Episode 9 Review

Here we are onto the second third of Agents of SHIELD's fourth (and rumoured penultimate) season, subtitled 'LMD'. With the threat already established in the previous episodes, it looks like this section of the season can crack on with telling its story.
'Broken Promises' opens with Aida seemingly have been given full "life" by the Darkhold, which, as Mack states, was always going to happen when a mad scientist creates such a lifelike robot. Actually, Mack's probably the best thing about this episode, saying the things that, let's be honest, we were all thinking of. I also really liked how Yo-Yo was the only one who agreed with him, saying "we need to get Radcliffe to watch all of 'The Terminator' movies". I guess I miss a bit of humour in this series, and having little self-aware comments like that show the characters to not be complete idiots. Aida is a genuinely interesting threat, at least until the episode ends with Radcliffe revealing he was behind everything, including an Aida attack on SHIELD HQ - and has another Aida ready and waiting. Radcliffe being the true villain seems a little self-contradictory on a character front. The series has taken its time to build up Radcliffe as a protagonist, and while I understand its a twist, its basically giving him an arc for the first nine episodes with the intention of going back on it all for a twist's sake. It comes across as a bit lazy if anything, especially given how much of a threat Aida was for the team. It devalues her as a villain, and stops her from becoming her own character. I don't know, maybe the series will tackle this better later on.
We also had a sub-plot focusing on Senator Nadeer - a character the series hasn't seemed to know how tackle thus far. She's a bit odd, and I feel like while the series might be trying to explore an Inhuman prejudice idea, constantly introducing villainous characters to be the focal point of these ideas just makes it all seem a bit pointless. There's no complexity to the conflict when the conflict is made so black-and-white for us. The episode tried to explore an idea with Nadeer's brother being the Inhuman Simmons visited, but not much really happens with this sub-plot. It is a real shame from the antagonists' front but also the protagonists', as Mace and Daisy finally get to strike an interesting rapport and...don't, because they don't get much screen-time. Simmons is also there, but the episode forgets to give her much to do either.
I guess 'Broken Promises' comes across as wasted potential. None of the ideas feel fully-explored, and while I'm sure some will see stronger resolution later on, as a standalone episode it just doesn't completely work for me. It's certainly not bad, but really does feel underdeveloped as its own episode.