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Director Mace’s secret is out on ‘Agents of SHIELD’
Ever since he first stepped on the scene, we’ve been curiously charmed by Director Mace (Jason O’Mara) — while still getting the deep feeling that he’s been hiding something big from SHIELD. Now we finally know what his secret is, and we’re kind of relieved.
As the new, Inhuman face of SHIELD, Mace was everything you’d want your PR guy to be: Good-looking, congenial, modest and a real team player. The fact that he was an Inhuman on top of it all was just some very necessary icing on top of an already awesome cake. Unfortunately, Tuesday’s (Jan. 17) episode of “Agents of SHIELD” proved that Mace is not Inhuman after all, he’s just a juiced-up fraud.
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Instead of putting an Inhuman at the forefront of SHIELD, General Talbot (Adrian Pasdar) decided to appoint an American patriot — and fake some Inhuman powers for him with a lovely little drug cocktail: They needed the next Captain America, for all intents and purposes. And as it turns out, even the patriot part is a bit of a lie — he didn’t protect anyone in Vienna, he tripped trying to find shelter and a camera went off at exactly the right time. Will the lies never end?!
All in all, Mace isn’t a bad guy. He’s a coward and a liar, but his allegiance to SHIELD is rock steady, and he’s dedicated himself to the PR side of the job — the part Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) hated anyway.
And now … the operations side of SHIELD is right back where it belongs: In Coulson’s capable hands.
We look forward to seeing how Mace integrates into the team given this new dynamic. He was never that great at calling the shots anyway, so here’s hoping for a smooth transition of power, without any villainous power struggles or protocol dust-ups.
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Meanwhile, Radcliffe (John Hannah) is proving to be a much more compelling villain than we ever imagined.
While there’s no doubt he’s up to something seriously naughty, he’s also distinctly lacking an evil mustache to twirl. He’s 100 percent against the murder of SHIELD agents, and he’s been at least trying to keep May (Ming Na Wen) calm and comfortable, which we give him the smallest sliver of credit for.
We can’t make a definite decision about how dangerous he is until we figure out whatever his endgame is concerning Aida (Mallory Janson), the Darkhold and this whole LMD May nonsense. It would be nice if he ended up having somewhat pure motives — especially since Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) can’t seem to leave well enough alone with the decapitated Aida.
“Agents of SHIELD” airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.