Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 4, Episode 13 Review

Everything goes "BOOM" in this week's Agents of SHIELD, as the series continues to build on the "LMD" arc to mixed success. Introducing a real-life person in the form of Agnes, who served as the inspiration for Aida's physical appearance is an interesting idea, but given how little actual character focus the series delivers, its unlikely this will ever be explored to its full potential. The actress Mallory Jansen was very good at playing both Aida and Agnes as two very distinct characters, although sadly she wasn't given enough of a dynamic in her Agnes form with Radcliffe. She felt like she had a role to play in this episode, but only in this episode, which I found particularly disappointing. Important plot-points in long-running narrative arcs shouldn't just last an episode all the time, and despite no real reason for this, Agents of SHIELD makes this mistake in "BOOM". I think there was something interesting between Coulson and Agnes, and while the sudden development of a romance between Coulson and May feels a little forced - given how much I appreciated the series not making their relationship anything other than a strong friendship prior to this - I think it worked in the episode's favour. Agnes is an interesting character, and far more interesting than the episode seems to give itself credit for. It's a small mistake really, but it's such a missed opportunity in a series that's had to split itself in three to ensure there isn't any padding.
Meanwhile, one of the Watchdogs, cunningly named Shockley, tried to out Nadeer as an Inhuman - accidentally revealing himself as one in the process. Now given explosive abilities, Shockley spends most of the episode just wandering around without much purpose, only to be thwarted in the end by a machine that came out of nowhere. Despite the episode setting Daisy up to defeat him, it copped out last minute and went for a simpler, albeit random resolution. The fact that Shockley has become the very thing he swore to attack is an interesting idea, but barely touched in terms of character development. Once again, he still comes across as another stock Watchdog villain as opposed to a proper character. Nadeer's death is surprisingly underplayed, as was Mace's capture at the hands of the "superior". I'm sure the latter will be explored in next week's installment, mind.
Overall, "BOOM" is fine as an episode of the series. It's a bit stock, and once again the series is tackling so much it can't always actually go anywhere. It's two episodes stuck together, with Daisy's arc set-up and dropped, Mace's arc barely touched and interesting story ideas left almost half-baked. It's certainly not bad, but it didn't really do an awful lot. Hopefully this season will pick up again soon, though.

Also: May wasn't really in this episode. Surprisingly though, I didn't really notice too much until the end.