Who Is AIDA?

Finally, the parting gesture of this season is a rather fascinating tease at a new character. Holden Radcliffe, still apparently working with (though not for) S.H.I.E.L.D., is working on a version of some old S.H.I.E.L.D. technology. The technology in question is revealed on his computer monitor as ‘L.M.D.’ For those of you acquainted with the larger Marvel universe, you’ll of course recognize those as the initials for ‘life model decoys.’ For the uninitiated, life model decoys are essentially android copies of a person that serve a number of uses (Nick Fury has dozens of these things lying around to protect himself from assassination attempts), and they often cause all sorts of problems. Here, though, I think it’s going to serve a different function, and the key for what they’re doing here lies in a couple things. First off, the L.M.D. being ‘birthed’ is named AIDA. In the comics, A.I.D.A. is a computer program that exists in the alternate universe home of the Squadron Supreme (don’t ask), but I don’t think that has any bearing on what’s going on here. Instead, let’s look at the funny book history of Holden Radcliffe. Dr. Radcliffe, in the comics, is connected with an artificial intelligence called A.D.A.M. (Autonomously Decisive Automated Mechanism) that is eventually uploaded into an android body where he goes about life thinking he’s a regular teenager. So, yeah, I’m pretty confident at this point that AIDA is a gender-swapped version of Machine Teen (yes, really).

Between the AIDA tease and the glimpse at S.H.I.E.L.D.’s new dynamic, there’s a lot of compelling stuff crammed into the last few minutes of the episode, but I’m not sure I’m even gonna bother showing up next season to see it. ‘Fool me once…’  and all that, and I’ve allowed Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to fool me for three seasons now. Maybe, suddenly, after nearly 70 hours of television this show will actually find a way to be good, but I somehow doubt it. For now, though, this show has proven that it has no interest in being anything more than disposable junk food, and I’d rather spend my time on something more worthwhile.