Next pod is gonna be Stranger Things meet the Matrix, I’m fairly sure there’s a greater power than Aida pulling the strings here…
Now let me rewind things a bit and make a quick analysis about what happened in those last 5 minutes because it raises a lot of questions. (Needless to say: SPOILERS)
The episode ended with a glimpse of what The Framework looks like. This, to me, isn’t entirely unexpected as to date we hadn’t had a full look at what it looks like, only the scene where Agnes puts her Degas on the stand. Even the scene where May doesn’t end up killing Katya was still a prototype of the full Framework.
The main point, it looks like and also reading what the show runners have to say, is to show what could have been if certain events in the characters lives had not damaged them in some way. That’s why they introduced the bit about Fitz’s father, or Mack losing a child. In essence, the Framework is a virtual alternate reality, very much like the Matrix but constructed with the Darkhold’s power and Aida’s relentless desire to feel human emotions. She’s not Ultron and his misguided directive to save the planet by eradicating humanity. She’s more like a twisted version of Data (which if you know Star Trek TNG comes in the form of his brother Lore)
So this alternate reality has some serious twists in them as we’ve seen.
First Jemma is, in this virtual world, dead. But of course she isn’t, which means as she enters the Framework she’ll be the wildcard that grounds her to reality as she’s not even supposed to be there. There are many scenarios where she could have died in this “reality” but given that Fitz’s paternal issues were removed thus allowing him to rise up to Fame, it’s possible she might not have even made it out of S.H.I.E.L.D. academy and the team at all (or she succumbed to the alien virus from FZZT, or … you get the idea, the date of her death is partially covered, all we see is “November”).
Fitz, is now some Tony Stark equivalent and they leave you hanging on who the woman with him is, which means she’s either important or it’s only dramatic effect before the reveal of Jemma’s tomb.
Mack never lost his child, and really that’s all we know, he may not even be an agent in this world.
Coulson is turned into an anti-inhuman advocate teaching kids how to fear them. Your guess is as good as mine to figure out what could have led him to this point.
And then Daisy as she enters the Matrix Framework, realises her “boyfriend” is alive in there and believes it to be Lincoln (Luke Mitchell currently stars in a lead role in Blindspot and needs a big bushy beard, so I wasn’t expecting him to be back) and then we realise the boyfriend is actually Ward. This plays into the narrative of the events within the Framework to keep it consistent but will not sit well with Daisy.
Because as we see when the scene pans out of May staring out of one of the windows of the still-standing Triskelion, the most important change is the fact that in that world, Hydra won and overtook S.H.I.E.L.D. which means Captain America is likely dead as well as a whole host of other characters. This begs the question, why build a “perfect world” dominated by the most evil organisation of the Marvel Universe?
So as I first mentioned in this post, I think there are greater forces at work here, the question then becomes: how is Hydra tied in to the Darkhold?
Rewatch the final Framework scene here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjdN2SiQxCs (I would have done this as a separate post but the thumbnail for this video gives away a HUGE spoiler)