Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Hot Potato Soup

"Hot Potato Soup" is the twelfth episode of season four of the action television series Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and the seventy-eighth episode of the series overall. It was directed by Nina Lopez-Corrado with a script written by Craig Titley. It first aired on ABC on Tuesday, January 31st, 2017 at 10:00 pm.

Notes & Trivia

 * Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is based on the comic books created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The television series was developed by Joss Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon.


 * "Hot Potato Soup", "AOS: Hot Potato Soup", and "Agents of SHIELD: Hot Potato Soup" all redirect to this page.


 * This episode is rated TV-14.


 * This episode is production code number 412.


 * This episode had a viewership of 2.152 million people upon its initial broadcast, which is up by .15 from the previous episode. It rated 0.6& in the 18-49 viewing demographic.


 * This is the fourth episode of the "LMD" storyline from season four.


 * There are a total of fifteen credited cast members in this episode, but eighteen characters (not including background extras), as Patton Oswalt plays three different characters in this episode, and John Hannah plays Holden Radcliffe, as well as the Radcliffe LMD. There are five female characters in this episode, and thirteen male characters.


 * Two characters in this episode are Inhumans (or possess the potential for Terrigenesis), and three characters are robots. The rest are all humans.


 * This is the first episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. directed by Nina Lopez-Corrado.


 * This is the seventh episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. written by Craig Titley. It is his second episode from season four of the series. He previously wrote "Uprising".


 * This is the first appearance of Thurston Koenig, who is the fifth Koenig sibling, and the fourth of a set of quadruplets. He is the only member of the family shown to date who is not a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.


 * This is the first appearance of L.T. Koenig, who is the sixth Koenig sibling, and the first member of the family shown who is female. It is implied that she is older than the other Koenigs, and is not part of the quadruplet set.


 * This is the first appearance of Anton Ivanov, who serves as a secondary antagonist for the "LMD" storyline. He makes seven appearances in the series in total. He appears next in "BOOM".


 * The Melinda May that appears in this episode is the LMD version of May only. The actual Melinda May does not make an appearance.


 * This is the ninth appearance of Mallory Jansen as Aida. This is the final appearance of Aida 1.0. All further appearances are of the second LMD model, or Aida 2.0.

Allusions

 * The title of this episode refers to the party game "Hot Potato", which involves multiple people sitting in a circle of chairs tossing a ball to each other as music plays. The object of the game is to get rid of the ball as quickly as possible before the music stops. Once the music stops, whoever is left holding the ball is out of the game. The title relates to this episode in that the location of the Darkhold is an ever-present mystery, and seems to be bouncing around various members of the Koenig family.


 * Reference is made to Red Dawn in this episode, which is an action movie released in 1984 directed by John Milius. One of the stars of the film is Jennifer Grey, who plays a character named Toni Mason. Jennifer Gray is the wife of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. star Clark Gregg. Red Dawn was remade in 2012 where Jennifer Grey's counterpart, Toni Walsh, was played by Adrianne Palicki. Palicki formerly played Bobbi Morse on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in season three.


 * Reference is made to Star Trek in this episode. Star Trek was a popular science fiction television series that aired for three seasons from 1966 to 1969. It went on to spawn several sequel programs, and numerous film projects.


 * Reference is made to Back to the Future in this episode, which is a 1985 science fiction comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd.


 * Reference is made to Star Wars in this episode. Star Wars is a 1977 science fiction/fantasy film written and directed by George Lucas. Like Star Trek, it has become a massive pop culture phenomena spawning numerous film and television projects, as well as merchandising. An image of Darth Vader's helmet can be seen during Koenig's torture scene.


 * Reference is made to The Lord of the Rings in this episode. The Lord of the Rings is an epic high-fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J.R.R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 fantasy novel The Hobbit, but eventually developed into a much larger work. Tolkien himself appeared as a character on another comic book television series, DC's Legends of Tomorrow. He appeared in the aptly named "Fellowship of the Spear" where he was played by actor Jack Turner.


 * Reference is made to Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, in this episode. Sam Koenig tells Daisy Johnson about all of the online fanction that exists with Daisy shipping with Black Widow.

Quotes

 * Tucker Shockley: The one who comes in this room next won't be me. The man who comes in here will do things to you that I can't even watch. He will break you.
 * Billy Koenig: Yeah, well, Koenigs don't break. All right? We're programmed to take pain, so bring it on! Bring it on! [Man leaves] Oh, my God. I'm in so much pain. I don't think I can take this. That guy hits really hard.

....
 * Billy Koenig: I don't care what this is or what you guys do. I'm not gonna talk.
 * Holden Radcliffe: You won't have to. That's the beauty of it. This machine will allow me access to his mind. We'll get all the information we need without laying a hand on him
 * Billy Koenig: Well, you're not gonna get anything out of me. Because my mind is a steel trap inside of a sealed box surrounded by quicksand and - [Puts the machine on his head] Oh, is that a puppy?

....
 * Tucker Shockley: You two will want to get acquainted. You're the last one the other's gonna see alive.
 * Billy Koenig: Yeah, well, we're ready to die!
 * Holden Radcliffe: No! No. No, no, no, no. I'm extremely not ready to die.

....
 * Leo Fitz: I've never seen anything like it. Every time I keep trying to alter it, it kicks me right back to the...
 * Holden Radcliffe LMD: Amicitiae nostrae memoriam spero sempiternam fore.
 * Alphonso Mackenzie: Uh, Fitz...
 * Holden Radcliffe LMD: Vir sapit qui pauca loquitur. Alea iacta est.
 * Leo Fitz: [Fitz powers down his computer. Radcliffe android returns to normal]
 * Alphonso Mackenzie: The only thing worse than a robot is a possessed one.
 * Holden Radcliffe LMD: I agree. That was no fun.

....
 * Daisy Johnson: So, what was it like growing up with four of them?
 * L.T. Koenig: There was a lot of crying.
 * Daisy Johnson: They picked on you?
 * L.T. Koenig: I picked on them. It was fun. The laundry was disgusting. Enough DNA to make a clone army.

Crew

 * Chris Cheramie - Producer
 * Nora Zuckerman - Supervising producer
 * Lilla Zuckerman - Supervising producer
 * Craig Titley - Co-executive producer
 * Drew Z. Greenberg - Co-executive producer
 * Garry A. Brown - Co-executive producer
 * Brent Fletcher - Executive producer
 * Paul Zbyszewski - Executive producer
 * Alan Fine - Executive producer
 * Stan Lee - Executive producer
 * Joe Quesada - Executive producer


 * Jim Chory - Executive producer
 * Jeph Loeb - Executive producer
 * Jeffrey Bell - Executive producer
 * Maurissa Tancharoen - Executive producer
 * Jed Whedon - Executive producer
 * Joss Whedon - Executive producer
 * Robert Parigi - Co-producer
 * Megan Thomas Bradner - Co-producer
 * Emma Fleischer - Co-producer
 * Bob Kozicki - Co-producer
 * Matt Owens - Story editor