Daisy and Jemma enter the Framework to save their fellow agents and find they must deal with a familiar, yet different, simulated world.
Tropes in this episode:
- Amnesia Missed a Spot: Coulson keeps a folder of things that, unknowingly to him, reference things from his pre-Framework life, like a picture of Audrey, a calendar page that has a picture of a red Chevy Corvette (and is for the month of May), an advertisement for Tahiti, an article with "Quake" in the headline, and several sheets of paper with "It's a magical place" written on them repeatedly.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: HYDRA, now in control, persecutes Inhumans, uses the school system to brainwash all of the students, arrests anyone who speaks out against their organization, and strips the Cubs of their 2016 World Series
win. - Back from the Dead: Jemma was killed by HYDRA years ago in the Framework, so when her real self plugs in, she revives in the mass grave she'd been dumped in.
- Badass Longcoat: Jemma wears a knee-length one after entering the Framework, having lifted it from a tavern near an Inhuman checkpoint as she transitions into full Action Survivor mode.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted for Simmons this time around. Simmons looks quite dirty, having spent some Framework time buried in a mass grave still in the sweater and jeans she was wearing at the time of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy massacre. At one point a character even refers to her as a bag lady. Helped by the fact that the actress was ill in real life as she filmed the episode, but used this to her advantage.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Removing May's regret indirectly caused a great deal of damage: because she didn't kill Katya, the insane Inhuman child in the warehouse at Bahrain where she was the only witness to what had happened, the girl would grow up to have a more public meltdown later in life, triggering world-wide anti-Inhuman prejudice and giving HYDRA a means to take over.
- Berserk Button: Daisy has to talk May out of putting a bullet in Vijay's head after he throws the mess in Bahrain at her.
- Broad Strokes: In-universe: Apparently, the Chitauri invasion did happen in the Framework, just under what circumstances is not clear, given that the Avengers are nowhere to be seen.
- Brought Down to Normal: Skye had never undergone Terrigenesis in the Framework, so when Daisy logs into her counterpart's body, she's unable to access her Quake powers. Fortunately, she still has all her combat training.
- Buried in a Pile of Corpses: Following the S.H.I.E.L.D. academy massacre, the incident was reported as a laboratory accident. Jemma and the other victims were buried in a mass grave in the middle of nowhere outside Washington D.C., which Simmons digs herself out of. Still in the clothes she was wearing at the time of the incident, which have two bullet holes in the chest, she realizes something terrible had happened to her inside of the Framework.Simmons: I was murdered...
- Butterfly of Doom: The Framework lets a person experience their life without their biggest regret. Unfortunately, it's advanced enough to then extrapolate how future events may have unfolded without that defining event.
- May saved Katya during the Bahrain incident not knowing that she was the one who caused it, resulting in a sadistic Emotion Eater whose favorite meal is pain being unleashed on an unsuspecting school in Cambridge. Reportedly, the body count was quite high. This caused anti-Inhuman sentiment to skyrocket, giving HYDRA a convenient excuse to stop hiding within S.H.I.E.L.D. and start operating openly. Under the pretense of protecting humans from Inhumans, they now rule the country as Villains with Good Publicity. May, blaming herself for the Cambridge incident, is now coldly and staunchly loyal to HYDRA.
- Fitz's father apparently having stayed in his life, paired with Simmons not being his strongest relationship, would lead to a colder and more ruthless version of him.
- Never having gone into S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson lives a quiet life as a high school teacher and goes along with HYDRA's anti-Inhuman propaganda. It's also possible he was indirectly responsible for HYDRA's rise; Coulson was always a stabilizing influence on S.H.I.E.L.D. in general and for May specifically, so the Bahrain and Cambridge incidents could have gone differently if he were there.
- Due to HYDRA's takeover, the Avengers Initiative never happened, and the applicants were all most likely assassinated by a Framework version of Project Insight.
- Call-Back: Several to the first and second seasons:
- Remember when John Garrett told Fitz he would make a great HYDRA agent in Season 1, and that he could even become a commander if he wanted to? Well, here, Fitz is HYDRA's second-in-command.
- Ward tells Skye, "There are things about me you wouldn't like if you knew," unwittingly quoting himself from "The Only Light in the Darkness".
- Pinsky is still an agent of HYDRA.
- Coulson's hula dancer figurine? It's the same one Skye kept on the dashboard of her van, and later in her bunk on the Bus.
- Additionally, many of the Wham Shot items in Coulson's manila folder are this, from the photo of Audrey to all the references to TAHITI. His compulsive writing also echoes the compulsion he felt in the first half of S2 to carve the Kree city layout into any available surface.
- Daisy breaks into Coulson's car to talk to him the same way he broke into Dr. Streiten's car for a post-TAHITI reveal chat.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Real world Ward was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent secretly working for HYDRA (among many later instances of stabbing people in the back for his own purposes). Framework Ward is a HYDRA agent secretly working for the Resistance (which includes the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D.). Lampshaded by Simmons.Daisy: You're a mole?
Jemma: What a surprise. - Cold-Blooded Torture: Fitz a.k.a. "the Doctor" puts Vijay through some horrible procedure.
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: The fact that Ward is saving their lives doesn't stop Jemma's (justified) snarking about the fact that he's once again double-crossing people. Ward himself is of course totally confused by her remarks.
- Composite Character: The MCU's Madame Hydra, complete with green-tipped hair (in the world of the Framework at least), is Aida, who apparently realized what Jemma and Daisy were doing and uploaded herself into the Framework to stop them from escaping.
- Continuity Nod: The massacre at Cambridge is simply called "The Cambridge Incident" in the Framework. In the MCU's "real world", people have taken to calling the Battle of New York "The Incident," as seen in the various Netflix shows.
- The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: Jemma's cause of death, and by extension all those murdered at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, is simply listed as "contamination" in HYDRA's files.
- Crapsack World: HYDRA is in control, S.H.I.E.L.D. is all but nonexistent, anti-Inhuman prejudice and persecution is institutionalized, and most horrifying of all... no smartphones!
- The lack of smartphones is more significant than it might seem. Newspapers are instead the main source of information... HYDRA-controlled newspapers.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The visuals of the Framework are slightly desaturated, adding to the grim nature of a HYDRA-conquered world.
- The Dreaded: Fitz seems to have made quite a fearsome reputation for himself as "the Doctor", judging by how terrified Vijay was at the prospect of being brought before him.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil:
- Averted; unlike HYDRA's real-world counterpart in the modern-day, which had Inhuman members like Giyera and was even founded to worship Hive, an Inhuman, this one spreads fear and racism against Inhumans, and is implied to be the method by which they seized control to begin with, mirroring fascist dictatorships in real life.
- Played straight in a way that their agents are multi-racial and from both genders. Also, their Number Three, Melinda May, is an Asian woman.
- Everybody Knew Already: Ward tells Skye that she's a latent Inhuman, only for Daisy (who's been an active Inhuman for two years now) to say that she already knows.
- Evil Is Petty: For some reason, HYDRA stripped the Chicago Cubs of their 2016 World Series win.
- Eyes Are Unbreakable: A corpse in the grave where Jemma was buried still has its eyes intact.
- Fantastic Racism: HYDRA has cultivated a world that actively persecutes Inhumans, which is fitting, given their Nazi ties. It might have originally just been an excuse for them to grab power, but most of their employees sure take to it extremely well.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- Coulson is teaching at the Alexander Pierce High School.
- One of the articles in the Hydra Observer is a report on Carl "Crusher" Creel winning a major boxing match. (He's unlikely to have his Absorbing Man powers in the Framework, if the same page's article referencing HYDRA's control over sports is any indication.)
- Doubling as a Continuity Nod, the newspaper Coulson is clipping features glowing articles on Felix Blake and Sunil Bakshi.
- Tripled by the mention of a "doctor in Winslow" being arrested - Winslow being the Tahiti-created identity of Daisy's father Cal.
- The keychain that Coulson's student gives Jemma has a skull on it, alluding to their dealings with Ghost Rider earlier this season.
- From Bad to Worse: Because May didn't kill Katya in Bahrain, the girl caused an incident in Cambridge which left hundreds dead and sparked systemic anti-Inhuman hysteria. Since HYDRA rose to prominence, S.H.I.E.L.D. and all it stood for were wiped away, and any agents who wouldn't defect such as Jemma were killed. Skye was recruited into HYDRA, and was one of their best hackers, but her Inhuman DNA meant someone had to get close to her to protect her secret. Finally, Aida, the creator of the Framework, is now Madame Hydra, and has near complete control over it.
- Gas Leak Cover-Up: HYDRA slaughtered everyone at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy (or perhaps just those who remained loyal to SHIELD) and then wrote it off as some kind of mass contamination.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Radcliffe designed the Framework to end suffering — Aida hijacking it and turning it into a reality where HYDRA rules everything is not what he had in mind.
- Good All Along: Ward, who initially seems like the same old loyal HYDRA soldier he was in the real world, is now working as The Mole for the Resistance.
- Green and Mean: Unlike in the MCU's "real world", where it has a red and black motif, HYDRA has a green motif in the Framework, both as a Mythology Gag to the comics and foreshadowing the appearance of Madame Hydra (who always wears a signature green outfit with dyed-green hair, befitting her alternate alias "Viper").
- Heel–Face Turn: Ward's discovery that Skye is an Inhuman led to him covering it up and defecting to the Resistance to protect her. Jemma snarks at the irony that he's consistently a double agent, but this time against HYDRA.
- Honesty Is the Best Policy: When being questioned by HYDRA agents who know she's lying about her "lost ID card", Jemma tells them her real name. The fact that their computer shows (a) she's telling the truth and HYDRA photo records prove she is Jemma Simmons while (b) she died two years ago distracts them enough for her to get the drop on them.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Jemma and Daisy attempt this on all their friends as best they can. Only Coulson, who's had his memories rewritten before, is responsive, and even then it takes a while. Since May and Fitz are in HYDRA, Daisy doesn't have time to really press them on it.
- It's A Small Net After All: Jemma searches a HYDRA database for Daisy Johnson and gets zero results. Not finding the expected result is justified, since the Framework version of Daisy never discovered her birth name and still goes by Skye, but Johnson is the second most common surname in America. There must be a least a few other Daisy Johnsons out there.
- La Résistance: Apparently, after HYDRA took over, a Resistance grew against the regime from the ashes of S.H.I.E.L.D., who are referred to as 'subversives' by HYDRA propaganda.
- Let No Crisis Go to Waste: The disaster that Katya caused in Cambridge allowed HYDRA to come out of the shadows from their hiding since World War II, as they seized control by capitalizing on the public's resulting anti-Inhuman backlash. This reflects on how many real-world dictatorships come to power by targeting a scapegoat, and is related to the "Rally 'round the flag effect".
- Love Redeems: Ward defected to the Resistance when he discovered that his partner/lover Skye was a latent Inhuman.
- Madness Mantra: "It's a magical place" for Coulson; we get a glimpse of his notes where he has written at least two pages full of it.
- Mad Scientist: Fitz is apparently this in the Framework, seeing that he basically functions as "The Doctor", who does tests on Inhumans in a manner that would make Daniel Whitehall proud.
- Meta Casting: Just like in T.R.A.C.K.S., Coulson's glasses are presumably Clark Gregg's actual glasses.
- The Mole: Grant Ward, once again. This time, he's a double agent in HYDRA for the Resistance (seemingly the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D.).
- Mr. Fanservice: Was it necessary to show Brett Dalton in nothing but a pair of boxers? Not really. Is anyone complaining? Not really.
- My Greatest Failure: In this reality May's - instead of not saving Katya - is that she did save her, as the girl ended up causing a massacre. Her silent Death Glare when Vijay brings it up says it all.
- Mythology Gag:
- The episode's name is a reference to the What If? series of comic books, where Marvel would show alternate takes on established lore and characters to see what would happen if something significant changed.
- The Cambridge Incident parallels the Stanford Incident that triggered Civil War, where a mass murder instigated a fear of superpowered humans. The organization that responds to this sentiment also devolved into a fascist dystopian government.
- HYDRA's primary Color Motif in the Framework is green, much as it is in the comics and contrasted with the red and black color scheme of its counterpart in the "real world" of the MCU.
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: Despite HYDRA's insistence to the contrary, the organization is a blatant mirror of the Nazis. The state is explicitly put above the individual, whistle-blower tactics against fellow citizens are encouraged, paranoia and racism are mandatory, surveillance is constant, and the only media sources are state-approved.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Vijay sees May as this, as while she was able to save Katya during the Bahrain incident, it led to the massacre at Cambridge and all Inhumans (including himself) being persecuted.
- Daisy deducing that Vijay had a fake ID created by a HYDRA insider tips off May to the fact that there is such an insider, which happens to be Grant Ward, who is a good guy in this reality (or at least a good boyfriend).
- Oh, Crap!:
- Jemma begins to almost panic when the device she made to kick herself and Daisy out of The Framework doesn't do anything, and Daisy has one moments later when she realizes that means that someone (namely Aida) knows what they're doing.
- The look on Daisy's face when she finds out that her Framework avatar: 1) is in a relationship with Grant Ward; 2) doesn't have her Quake powers; and 3) is an agent of HYDRA.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: In the Framework, Vijay and Fitz seem to enjoy rubbing the Cambridge incident right in May's face.
- Orwellian Retcon: The official party line regarding HYDRA's relation to the Nazis is, "Nope." While it is true that the show itself established that the cult existed long before the Nazis, HYDRA suppresses everything regarding their work as the Nazi science division under Red Skull's leadership. Coulson advises a student to never say anything about it. They also appear to be hiding the fact that for all their persecution of Inhumans, they were founded to worship an Inhuman.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Technically speaking, Simmons in this world is a reanimated corpse.
- Playing with Syringes: Fitz as "The Doctor" in the Framework experiments on Inhuman captives with an apparatus of robotic arms wielding syringes that test their powers without actually activating them. The effect resembles the painful burning of Extremis injections.
- Police Brutality: Some HYDRA mooks beat up an Inhuman prisoner for no reason other than pure sadism. Even worse, it's apparently encouraged.
- Schizo Tech: While some technologies have advanced (such as anything that involves testing or torturing Inhumans), the world lags behind in others—especially information technology, which appears to have stagnated because of HYDRA's dictatorship. There are no smartphones, tablet computers look like two bricks stuck together (possibly a 90's convertible), and every computer has an OS that would've been considered out of date twenty years ago even in real life, much less compared to those that Tony Stark lent to S.H.I.E.L.D.. HYDRA use tasers instead of I.C.E.R.s, while the Dwarfs (though advanced for our world) are significantly larger than those invented by Fitz back in the show's real world. There's also a distinct lack of holograms; while obviously still impossible in the audience's real world, in the MCU, they've been a common presence for quite some time.
- Shout-Out:
- The HYDRA-ruled Framework reality parallels dystopian literary pieces 1984 (a fascist dictatorial government) and Brave New World (a world without pain and regret).
- The Framework showing what would have happened if some significant event changed is also one to the Marvel "What If" series, which would show alternate takes on established lore and characters.
- Simmons clawing her way out of the ground after returning from the dead evokes a different Whedon-series heroine. Luckily for Jemma, she was just in a shallow mass grave rather than the actual grave shown at the end of the previous episode, as she was clearly in no shape to break free from a casket.
- Special Edition Title: The show's title temporarily changes to Agents of HYDRA with this episode, with the SHIELD logo replaced by the HYDRA symbol and a sickly green tint added to the logo.
- Stab the Scorpion: Ward looks like he's about to gun down Daisy and Jemma... only to instead shoot down a pursuing HYDRA grunt before confirming that he's a part of the Resistance.
- Unholy Matrimony: As Madame Hydra, Aida is romantically involved with Fitz, with him utterly devoted to her. This puts a Murder the Hypotenuse interpretation on Jemma's death in the Framework.
- The Un-Reveal: Fitz tests Vijay for what his power would be if he underwent Terrigenesis, but the results are never revealed.
- Thought You Were Dead: After Simmons managed to get out of the mass grave with all her outer coverings intact, she finds herself in trouble due to the fact that she's legally dead, which raises flags whenever someone looks up her name, and since she looks like hell because of the whole "digging herself out of a mass grave" thing, and is ranting about the world not being real, everybody but Daisy thinks she's a crazy lady off her meds.
- Villain Override: Downplayed; Aida created the Framework, and as such can manipulate the coding to prevent Daisy and Jemma from logging out. However, she seemingly can't manipulate the world within the Framework or the minds of its people (real or otherwise), and thus is bound by the constraints of the world just as much as Daisy and Jemma are. She also refuses to allow Fitz to see Jemma's picture, as she doesn't know how it would affect him.
- Villain with Good Publicity: In the Framework, HYDRA managed to gain the public's favor for their actions following the Cambridge incident, thus allowing them to take control away from S.H.I.E.L.D. and spread anti-Inhuman rhetoric to their hearts' content.
- Villain World: The Framework is a world in which HYDRA has successfully taken over.
- Wham Line:
- Daisy tries to convince Ward that she and Jemma have nothing to do with the Resistance. Then he says, "Well, I do."
- During The Stinger, Daisy breaks into Coulson's car and tries to get him to remember. Finally, at the end, he says her name.
- Wham Shot:
- Aida is the Director of HYDRA... and she's rigged the Framework so that Daisy and Jemma can't log out. Oh, and she's Fitz's lover, apparently.
- When Jemma visits Coulson at the school, she sees Daisy's old Hawaiian dancer figurine on his shelf. He's incredulous at how she knows the words that have been haunting him, not least of which the trigger that starts it: Tahiti.
- You Have to Believe Me!:
- Jemma is quite adamant when trying to convince Coulson that he is living a false life. It only ends up getting HYDRA on her trail.
- Daisy convinces Vijay that she wants to help him escape from HYDRA's captivity, even though he was just beaten and threatened to be shot not too long before, and thus he has no reason to believe her.
