We’re racing toward the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season four finale and what better way to build up some momentum than to have our primary antagonist achieve her goals and lose some of our main cast along the way?

Farewell, Cruel World! sees the end of the Framework arc, and while it’s been immensely enjoyable to watch, we needed to get back to the real world eventually and we finally get going on that plan. Daisy, Coulson, May, Simmons and Mack head off in search of Radcliffe’s backdoor (phrasing) and have to deal with a lot of emotional turmoil along the way.

But first, since this may well be the last time we get BJ Britt, we have some hilarious moments with him that really drives home that we’re missing a hilarious and sincere character in the main cast. Trip has some fantastic scenes with Daisy and Mack and is taking the whole idea of the world being wrong in stride, though he is disappointed that his other-world counterpart apparently has no game whatsoever.

It’s good to see there’s still something between Coulson and May as he encourages her to take a leap of faith and is rewarded on the other side with May admitting he’s cute. Awwww!

Less cute is Mack’s… departure? Is that what you’d class this as? It’s certainly emotional and understandable and while Mack staying in the Framework with his daughter is unsurprising, it’s a little hokey from a logistical standpoint. I mean, how long does he expect them to just leave him in there? Does he really think Yo-Yo is just going to let him stay there? Who would look after him and keep the Framework going? I guess they’ll explain it in the following episodes but Henry Simmon’s supposed final appearance is bittersweet to say the least.

As usual, Iain De Caestecker is killing it as both a cold-hearted HYDRA head and as the repentant real-world Fitz. This guy can act rings around everyone! Without Simmons there to support him, and Coulson not being that effective, his fragile mental state is easy prey for the now human AIDA/Ophelia who tearful reunites with him and TELEPORTS AWAY. The fuck!? When? How? What? Is her new body Inhuman? Is that tech-based? WHAT.

Questions need answers and we can only hope we get them when we return next week with… The Return.

Oh boy, I don’t know how much of All The Madame’s Men subtext was conceived as a response to the current socio-political climate but it’s hard not to draw comparisons. We even have our own Bill O’Reilly (topical!) in the form of Sunil Bakshi! Simon Kassianides makes his first appearance in the show since his real-world death in The Dirty Half Dozen two seasons ago! If nothing else, this arc is great for bringing back long dead characters who have amazing screen presence.

Speaking of; Trip continues to be awesome and supportive and why did they kill him off again? Same with Brett Dalton, who is killing it as a kind and compassionate Grant Ward and despite how inherently wrong that feels, he makes me root for him. If only there was some kind of magical McGuffey that could make all these digital avatars of dead cool guys into flesh and blood…

Wait a minute! Project: Looking Glass! From what I can gleam from the explanation in the episode, the machine is designed to make machines human but I imagine it’s more along the lines of implanting archived memories and personalities into flesh and blood bodies. In a clever bit of  narrative sleight of hand, we discover that while Fitz has been finalising the design in the Framework, the Superior is constructing the actual one in the real world.

All of which could mean we’ll see not only Mace return but also Good-Ward and Trip! Hell, even Radcliffe and Agnes! Or even Hope, Mack’s fictional daughter! The possibilities are endless.

The episode opened with a cool gunfight, culminating in Madame Hydra getting quaked out of a window! That momentum carries us through the episode as the body cam footage May had is used to undermine the HYDRA regime and ends with Coulson declaring himself an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

This entire arc has been really interesting and very entertaining but all goof things must come to an end so join us next week when Madame Hydra’s plan goes into action, the team scramble to stop her and we say Farewell, Cruel World!

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. continues to be amazing at both giving what the audience wants but dicking with them along the way. Last week we had Fitz go full HYDRA and this week we have a Trip-le bill of shocking developments!

First up, we see why Fitz is the way he is. Like Radcliffe says, it only takes a sentence to change someone’s world but what if there was a whole other person there? Having Fitz be raised by his father instead of his dear old mum has a huge impact as we see them share time. David O’Hara, an accomplished actor who is so Scottish it looks like it hurts him, plays a harsh Alistair Fitz; a man who subscribes to that BS mentality that men should be taught respect through beatings and Fitz is visibly uncomfortable around him. Despite the new reality shaping his personality, even he can see that the way he was raised was wrong on some level.

But in some ways, it’s so, so right because here come dat boi; oh shit, it’s Antoine Triplet! Hashtag Trip Lives! It’s truly astonishing to see BJ Britt return to the show after such a long absence and this kinda shoots my theory that this world won’t last long because you can’t bring back Trip and then go back to the real world next episode! That’s not fair!

What’s also not fair is while one cast member returns, one leaves us as Jeffrey Mace goes out like a big damn hero! At the very least, we got a beast of a fight scene between a temporarily super-powered May and Mace before he sacrifices himself to save the team, Coulson’s students and even May herself. It’s bittersweet to see Jason O’Mara leave the show but he got a badass out, even with the switch to reality as AIDA switches off his life support.

In the wake of Mace’s sacrifice and the revelation that HYDRA authorised a building full of children to be demolished, May turns face and gives Daisy exactly what she needs to escape and bring the Triskelion down on her way out. It’s good to see the two friends reunite in what promises to be a knock-down drag-out fight to survive next episode!

No Regrets offers exactly that with an emotionally engaging and high action episode that ramps up the momentum as we head towards the season finale but for now, we’ll see next week how Madame Hydra deals with this betrayal as she calls All The Madame’s Men.

This alternate universe is boned and I kind of want the show to stay here. It’s really interesting but I bet we’re only going to get two more episodes before we’re back to the real world.

But for now we get to enjoy the family dynamic of the Mackenzie family! Ol’ Mack-Daddy is everything I imagined it would be. He has a fantastic arc this episode, when he reluctantly sells out Daisy to HYDRA-May and turns to the resistance to help. Now, I might be projecting a bit here but does Hope, Mack daughter, remind anyone of the Inhuman super-genius Moon Girl? Maybe it’s just the hair and technical prowess but that’d be an interesting way of including the character!

Speaking of Inhumans, we get to see more of the Nazi-esque checking of papers and see the cramped conditions that the rescued Inhumans suffer in the Resistance base, led by Mace! I have to wonder if Mace is actually Inhuman in this world and if there are other active Inhumans. They need some serious firepower if they’re going to take on HYDRA.

In the HYDRA camp, the almost mind-rapey manipulation by Madame Hydra continues as we see the depths of her infatuation with Fitz. It’s so cringe-worthy, having shades of Hive-Ward controlling Daisy. It’s like she made this bizarre fan fiction world just to be with Fitz and she’s probably treating him the worst out of everyone.

Then again, Jemma always gets a kick to the quad when Fitz proves her entire emotional speech to Ward wrong by straight up murdering Holden Radcliffe’s ex-girlfriend. It’s a horrible scene to see Fitz go dark but even worse when you think about what that’ll mean when he’s freed from the Framework. In the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. comic book, Fitz is actually a HYDRA double-agent so maybe this is the first step towards having him turn heel!

With the stage still being set, we can only wonder what this wicked world will reveal next and we’ll just have to wait until next week and hope we have No Regrets.

Man, it feels like an ice age since I last covered this show… So much so that I actually needed that recap to remind me where we were with the current arc. Hell, I even forgot who Vijay Nadeer was until I looked it up after the show finished.

But yeah! It’s a brand new world where HYDRA rules and Inhumans are persona non gratis and all the character we know and love are assholes! Yaaaaay! The episode title What If… comes from a series of Marvel books that explore alternate Earths where the stories you know didn’t turn out like the should, hence we have this alternate Earth where HYDRA revealed itself early and became the world’s security task force. Should make for some interesting scenarios!

Did I say interesting? I meant awkward as fuck! Brett Dalton returns as Grant Ward and I hate his stupid, handsome face already because in a total reverse of the real world, this Ward is the GOOD GUY! Still, at least Daisy’s awkward love life isn’t as bad as Jemma being buried alive! Tough break, Simmons.

Hell, Simmons probably gets it the worst this episode. She has to dig herself out of her own grave, is on the run from HYDRA, fails at persuading Coulson he’s in a simulation and, while not currently aware of it, lost Fitz to Madame Hydra aka AIDA! The girl just can’t catch a break.

While we don’t see everyone, we do get the majority and some interesting lore about this world, like the Cambridge Incident, where the Inhuman girl May saved killed a bunch of people and lead to the rise of HYDRA. I wonder what this Alt-Earth’s version of the Avengers is like…

We end the episode with Daisy confronting Coulson and breaking through the programming enough that Coulson knows her name. That’s a good start to a really interesting plot line and we’ll be seeing more next time when we analyze Identity and Change.

(Quick note to Flash Facts readers; the review for Abra Kadabra will be up later this week, don’t worry!)