History Recap / AgentsOfSHIELDS4E18NoRegrets

* PyrrhicVillainy: While Madame Hydra ''does'' succeed in killing the Patriot, beheading the S.H.I.E.L.D. rebellion and getting rid of the most powerful Inhuman hero, their methods to do so shake May's trust, causing her to not only pull a HeelFaceTurn, but also free Daisy and restore her powers, essentially granting the rebellion a new, ''even more'' powerful Inhuman hero.

* RealityEnsues:
** Simmons telling Mace and Ward that they're virtual characters in a hyper-realistic simulation gets faced with a lot of skepticism.
** Mace may be superhumanly strong and tough, but holding up a building [[note]]Somewhere in the region of 80-100 tons[[/note]] is out of his weight class, especially after a tough fight with May.

* EmbarrassingLastName: Coulson's fake HYDRA ID is Jamie Flugelman, it being the only name Ward could clear from HYDRA's database. After giving him the ID, [[NeverLiveItDown Mace proceeds to call him "Flugelman" for the rest of the episode]]. The HYDRA agent checking [=IDs=] at the Enlightenment Center also calls attention to the name. Coulson claims it's Canadian.

* UnexpectedCharacter: There was no indication that, despite being in the alternate reality of the Framework, Trip was going to come back on the show. Him being one of the captured people in HYDRA's prison camp is shocking, given his actor is on another show and was written off this show ''because'' of that show.

** The [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS2E10WhatTheyBecome first time]] Daisy underwent Terrigenesis was the same episode where Trip was killed. Here, he returns thanks to the Framework, and she goes through Terrigenesis again.

** Trip is Mace's rescue target in the HYDRA prison camp.

** Aida is somehow able to maintain her android body while her mind is in the Framework.

** HYDRA "history" books make no mention of the Trail of Tears, UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust or [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement Martin Luther King Jr.]] Simmons calls it "a complete disregard of historical and scientific facts". Maybe they are "alternative facts".

** Radcliffe won't take any of Aida's crap, no matter how badly she hurts him in return. Quickly {{subverted}} during the next scene as he indeed seems broken by his ordeal, and especially Agnes' death and screams at Aida to just kill him already.

** Ward in general, from his death to Coulson getting "Hives" from seeing him.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even HYDRA loyalist May is appalled that they fired on a building full of kids, especially since as far as she knew, there ''were'' no children at the facility; keep in mind, she believes that all kids are potentially evil thanks to what happened in Bahrain.

* INeedAFreakingDrink: Ward says as much after Simmons tells her story; he consider it wacko and delusional. Fitz's dad also chides him telling him that it was too early to drink a pint. Of course, this might have been a KickTheDog moment coming from him.

* NeverForgottenSkill: Though no attention is drawn to it, Coulson proves extremely competent with multiple types of firearms, even though his Framework self is a teacher who likely never touched a gun before.

* WhatTheHellHero: Ward calls Simmons out for regarding the Framework's reality as artificial and unimportant, as its the only reality he knows.

** HYDRA "history" books make no mention of the Trail of Tears, UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust or [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement Martin Luther King Jr.]] Simmons calls it "a complete disregard of historical and scientific facts". Maybe they are [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump "alternative facts".]]

** Simmons calling out HYDRA's history books "complete disregard for historic and scientific facts" is the second Take That! (after "We'll make our society great again" from the previous episode) against the UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump administration, often called out for precisely that.

* KirkSummation: May is under the impression that she and HYDRA are the good guys and Mace and his S.H.I.E.L.D. are thugs and terrorists. He replies (after winning their fight) that if that were true, she would be dead.

* MyGreatestSecondChance: Upon seeing the student who was taken away by HYDRA in "What If..." at the reeducation facility, Coulson laments all the times he toed the party line and allowed HYDRA to do such things, so he's going to rescue that boy.

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted; Daisy's face is a bloodied mess after she's been tortured by Fitz.

* {{Bookends}}: The [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS2E10WhatTheyBecome first time]] Daisy underwent Terrigenesis was the same episode where Trip was killed. Here, he returns thanks to the Framework, and she goes through Terrigenesis again.

** HYDRA "history" books make no mention of the Trail of Tears, UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust or [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement Martin Luther King Jr.]] Simmons calls it "a complete disregard of historical and scientific facts".

* HeelFaceTurn: May witnessing the Patriot's sacrifice to save ''one'' kid -- coupled with the revelation of what HYDRA has been doing to kids -- convinces her to turn on HYDRA, delivering a Terrigen crystal to Daisy.
* HeroicSacrifice: Mace performs one in the Framework, which leads to him being KilledOffForReal in the real world thanks to YourMindMakesItReal.

* HourOfPower: The Hyde serum only lasts for an hour. May uses it against Mace, but the flight in wastes most of her time and her strength crashes before she can finish Mace.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Madame Hydra claims that the Framework isn't a prison, despite having placed May, Coulson, Mace, Fitz, Mack, and Radcliffe in it against their wills and refusing to allow any of them the option of leaving.

* INeedAFreakingDrink: Ward after Simmons tells her story. Fitz's dad also chides him telling him that it was too early to drink a pint. Of course, this might have been a KickTheDog moment coming from him.

* KillMeNowOrForeverStayYourHand: Coulson calls out May for trying to stop them from rescuing an innocent boy, and gives her the choice to kill them or do the right thing. Thankfully, she doesn't pull the trigger. Considering the fact that the only thing protecting them all was Mace holding up the building, and her orders were to kill him, it probably was more a pragmatic decision than anything else.

* SacrificialLion: Jeffrey fulfills this role, being the first major figure on the heroes side to give his life this season.

* VirtueIsWeakness: In the Framework, Fitz's father instilled this into him. All the better that the real Fitz spent his life estranged from him.

** From an out-of-universe perspective, Trip being one of the captured people in HYDRA's prison camp.

** Aida is somehow able to maintain her android body while her mind is in the Framework. It may be that she or Radcliffe copied her mind into the framework, or her AI is able to operate both entities simultaneously.

** Android Aida checking on the state of the physical bodies of the captive S.H.I.E.L.D. agents [[PetTheDog and looking dismayed that Mace died]] -- which begs the question of how she can simultaneously maintain her android body and be Madame Hydra within the Framework at the same time. Is it really a MesACrowd situation like with [[Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron Ultron]], or is Madame Hydra a [[CloningBlues deliberate or inadvertent copy]] of Aida's consciousness [[AIIsACrapshoot who went nuts with power]]?

HYDRA develops a plan to eliminate Mace and SHIELD. A secret about Fitz comes to light.

* HopeSpot: When Jeffrey rises from the rubble, there seems to be a tiny chance for both him and the kid to make it out alive... but he's stuck under a support beam and he can't move without killing the kid and his entire team, so they have to leave him behind to die when the building finally gets the better of him.

* INeedADrink: Ward after Simmons tells her story. Fitz's dad also tells him that it was too early to drink a pint. Of course, this might have been a KickTheDog moment coming from him.

* PyrrhicVillainy: Madame HYDRA ''does'' succeed in killing the Patriot, beheading the SHIELD rebellion and getting rid of the most powerful Inhuman hero... but in the process, their methods to do so shake May's trust, causing her to not only pull a HeelFaceTurn, but also free Daisy and restore her powers, essentially granting the rebellion a new, ''even more'' powerful Inhuman hero.

* ShesBack: May uses a Terrigen crystal to activate Daisy's powers in the Framework. Daisy just smiles as the Terrigenesis cocoon surrounds her.
* ShipperOnDeck: Fitz's father openly ships his son with Madame Hydra, even telling Fitz to his face that she's the only woman right for him. [[SarcasmMode Which nobody at all deliberately programmed him to do, especially not anyone named Aida]].

** Simmons calling out HYDRA's history books "complete disregard for historic and scientific facts" is the second TakeThat (after "We'll make our society great again" from the previous episode) against the UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump administration, often called out for precisely that.
* TortureIsIneffective: Despite Daisy being beaten within an inch of her life, Fitz notes that she won't give up any information. PlayedWith in that Daisy tells him the truth the entire time, but it's not a truth he cares to hear or is even relevant to his line of questioning. She knows practically nothing about S.H.I.E.L.D. in the Framework, and what little she does know she refuses to divulge.

--> '''May''': Is it true? You're an Inhuman?\\
'''Daisy''': Yeah. [[BadassBoast Powerful enough to bring this whole place down.]]\\

* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: Coulson's fake ID is "Jamie Flugelman", that being the only name Ward could clear from HYDRA's database. When he presents it to the guard at the prison, Coulson claims it's Canadian.

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted; Daisy's face is a bloodied mess after she's been tortured by Fitz. For what it's worth, though, it could've been worse--this was the first episode of the series to be rated TV-PG in a while.

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted; Daisy's face is a bloodied mess after she's been tortured by Fitz.

* AbusiveParents: Turns out the deciding factor for Fitz's moral compass is which single-parent household he grew up in: in the real world, his father, Alistair, walked out and it was just him and his mother; in the Framework, his mother's out of the picture and his father raised him. Alistair has always been implied to have been a bit of a bastard, and this episode proves his absence in the real world was actually a blessing. He taught his son to avoid things like compassion, and all but states that he beat Leopold to toughen him up. As Framework!Fitz's approach to things shows, this worked [[GoneHorriblyRight a little too well.]]

* ArmorPiercingResponse: In the previous episodes, May was been a staunch HYDRA loyalist, doing everything to protect the world order after her greatest blunder. First, there's the Patriot's response to being called a terrorist: that if he were, she'd be dead. And when she'stold to confirm the Patriot's death and goes into the building she just fired upon, she sees children evacuating. While she displayed outright ChildHater tendencies in the previous episode, claiming children aren't innocent, seeing that she had just fired on a building housing ''children'' despite being told otherwise must have been a shock to the system. Then when she discovers Mace and the others and takes aim, Coulson points out that they're trying to save children and yells at her to "snap out of it," which seems to get to May and makes her stand down.

** Hyde's serum is refered to as the Augmented Strength Serum, which spells ASS, though this one probably wasn't on purpose.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Madame Hydra claims that the Framework isn't a prison, despite having placed May, Coulson, Mace, Fitz, Mack, and Radcliffe in against their wills and refusing to allow any of them the option of leaving.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain[=/=]VillainBall: Fitz knows the Hyde serum lasts an hour, so he gives it to May before she leaves and the flight over evidently takes nearly an hour. If he had just given her the syringe and said to take it before landing, she might have been able to overpower and kill Mace. Instead, she fails, sees him give his life to rescue children, and has a HeelFaceTurn.

* ForWantOfANail: Daisy and Radcliffe discuss this when Daisy has trouble believing that Fitz could ever be the sadist he is in the Framework. As Radcliffe explains, anyone is capable of pretty much anything under the right circumstances. A single line can change the course of a person's entire life. In the case of Fitz, back in "Hot Potato Soup", his father is noted to have abandoned him and his mother, so the Framework obviously rectified that.

* AbusiveParents: Turns out the deciding factor for Fitz's moral compass is which single-parent household he grew up in: in the real world, his father walked out and it was just him and his mother; in the Framework, his mother's out of the picture and his father raised him. Fitz Sr. has always been implied to have been a bit of a bastard, and this episode proves his absence in the real world was actually a blessing. His father taught Fitz to avoid things like compassion, and all but states that he beat Fitz to toughen him up. As Framework!Fitz's approach to things shows, this worked [[GoneHorriblyRight a little too well.]]

** During the rescue Coulson lets out [[ArmorPiercingResponse "Snap out of it May!"]], which may or may not have had an effect on her turning against HYDRA.
* AntagonistInMourning: Aida in the real world seems slightly sad about Jeffrey dying.
* ArmorPiercingResponse: In the previous episodes, May was been a staunch HYDRA loyalist, doing everything to protect the world order after her greatest blunder. First there is the Patriot's response to being called a terrorist that if he were she'd be dead. And when she is told to confirm the Patriot's death and goes into the building she just fired upon, she sees children evacuating. While she displayed outright ChildHater tendencies in the previous episode, claiming children are not innocent, seeing that she had just fired on a building housing ''children'' despite being told otherwise must have been a shock to the system. Then when she discovers Mace and the others and takes aim, Coulson points out that they're trying to save children and yells at her to "snap out of it," which seems to get to May and makes her stand down.

* BigGood: Everybody is shocked to the core by Jeffrey's sacrifice. Beforehand, Ward even mentioned that without him their fight would be lost.

** At the HYDRA security check, Coulson makes some small talk about an Inhuman he heard about with lion's paws. Garrett relayed a similar story all the way back in the first season in "Providence".

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Despite their relationship being pretty unhealthy, Fitz and his father really do seem to love each other.

* ForWantOfANail: Daisy and Radcliffe discuss this when Daisy has trouble believing that Fitz could ever be the sadist he is in the Framework. As Radcliffe explains, anyone is capable of pretty much anything under the right circumstances. A single line can change the course of a person's entire life. In the case of Fitz, back in "Hot Potato Soup" his father is noted to have abandoned him and his mother, so the Framework obviously rectified that.

* HopeSpot: When Jeffrey rises from the rubble there seems to be a tiny chance for both him and the kid to make it out alive... but he's stuck under a support beam and he can't move without killing the kid and his entire team, so they have to leave him behind to die when the building finally gets the better of him.

** Fitz's father displays a sexist streak when he says VirtueIsWeakness and calls such values "womanly", noting that Fitz got these qualities from his mother when he apologizes.

** If you still have a body and die in the Framework it means you die outside it, too, [[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS4E15SelfControl as Simmons previously surmised]].

* ShoutOut: To MCU films:

* SoftSpokenSadist: Even while torturing personally, Fitz never once raises his voice.

** Fitz says of Skye "Nevertheless, she persisted," which a couple months earlier had become a MemeticMutation against sexism and the Republican government specifically. [[note]]During the debate over installing Jeff Sessions as the attorney general, Elizabeth Warren tried to read a letter Martin Luther King's widow had written in the '80s about his racist actions. The committee refused to let her speak, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch [=McConnell=] tried to justify with "She was warned. She was given an ultimatum. Nevertheless, she persisted." The quote was promptly turned against his side with people attributing the same description to all kinds of powerful female figures.[[/note]]

* UnexpectedCharacter: There was no indication that, despite being in the alternate reality of the Framework, Trip was going to come back on the show. Him being one of the captured people in HYDRA's prison camp is shocking given his actor is on another show and was written off this show ''because'' of that show.

* WitchWithACapitalB: Radcliffe at one point calls Aida a "sadistic witch".

'''Daisy''': Yeah. Powerful enough to bring this whole place down.\\

* PyrrhicVillainy: Madame HYDRA ''does'' succeed in killing the Patriot, beheading the SHIELD rebellion in the process and getting rid of the most powerful Inhuman hero... but in the process, their methods to do so shake May's trust, causing her to not only pull a HeelFaceTurn, but also free Daisy and restore her powers, essentially granting the rebellion a new, ''even more'' powerful Inhuman hero.

--->'''Daisy:''' ''[in pained disbelief]'' What happened to you, Fitz?
--->'''Fitz:''' It's Doctor.

'''Fitz:''' It's Doctor.

* AmbiguousSituation: f