“Broken Promises” is episode nine of season four of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
In the previous episode, “The Laws of Inferno Dynamics”, Eli had been stopped by Robbie, in the form of the Ghost Rider, and both of them had disappeared somewhere. Coulson thinks that Robbie may return; it seems he knows more about, or has learned more about, the Ghost Rider than is seemed previously.
A new problem has arisen with Aida. With her being revealed to Director Mace, he had insisted that Dr. Radcliffe move to S.H.I.E.L.D. to continue his work. Whilst Agent Nathanson, who Mace had sent to Radcliffe’s lab was packing things up, he discovered something. Something which resulted in Aida killing him. Although she did apologise for this.
The something was Agent May – the real Agent May. The May who had gone along on the mission with Coulson and the rest is not the genuine article, but she’s good enough to fool them all – even Coulson himself, who probably knows her better than anyone. Presumably, Aida incapacitated May when she went to Radcliffe’s lab and captured her, sending back a duplicate. Perhaps that was what Aida was working on at the end of “Deals with Our Devils”.
This episode opens with Aida changing her bullet-riddled clothing and treating her wounds before she goes and speaks to an unconscious May. Aida says that she needs to keep May captive until her substitute has served its purpose. A substitute who doesn’t seem to actually know that she isn’t the real May.
Mace is speaking to Coulson and the others, including Daisy who is now back in the fold, saying that they are going to make the Darkhold disappear, using an agent who’s capable of this. Aida will have to have her hard drive erased, because she read the Darkhold, so Radcliffe and Fitz return to the former’s lab, along with some other agents, to do so. Mack agrees, because he says that if there’s one thing films have taught us, it’s that the robots always reuse up. A theme which reoccurs several times during the episode – it appears Mack has a fixation on the robot uprising and has possibly seen every relevant film. Yoyo agrees with him. When Fitz and the others arrive at Radcliffe’s lab, Aida does not cooperate and attacks them, having apparently modified her own programming, and then escapes. Radcliffe blames the Darkhold for corrupting Aida’s programming, and it seems Aida is after the Darkhold herself. There is far more going on here though.
There’s a dream of a room exploding with a woman in it and then a man wakes up. The man is Vijay, Senator Nadeer’s brother, who Simmons helped release from his cocoon, and the dream related to the Chitauri attack in The Avengers. So what does such an anti-Inhuman person with links to the Watchdogs as the senator want with him? Well, it seems she wants to kill him for turning into a monster; they apparently made a promise to each other. Given that being Inhuman is genetic, the fact that her brother is Inhuman would certainly suggest that she is as well. It also seems she may not be the leader of the watchdogs – there is reference to an individual called ‘The Superior.’
Simmons has tracked Vijay to Nadeer and Daisy is summoned to speak to the Director. Daisy wants to go after the watchdogs, but Mace refuses, saying they only deal with facts not conspiracy theories. However, the fact he wants to go after is the Inhuman that Nadeer is holding, and Daisy is perfectly happy about dealing with this fact. So she, Mace and Simmons are going to go looking for the senator’s brother.