Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Will the team uncover LMD May?

Life Model Decoys have come to the MCU!

After android Aida (Mallory Jansen) killed an agent to prevent the discovery that May (Ming-Na Wen) has been replaced by an LMD, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will explore the psychological and moral repercussions of creating life. The winter premiere delves into “how free-thinking these things are and how much of their mistakes are tied to our own,” EP Jed Whedon says.

With Life Model Decoys running rampant, it’s therefore wise to question everyone you see on screen. “We’re taking the issues of trust to the next level,” EP Maurissa Tancharoen says. Below, the executive producers preview what’s next:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Where are we picking up in terms of the Life Model Decoy story?
JED WHEDON: We’re going to pick up right where we left off. We had a dramatic turn at the end there, so we don’t want to miss anything of how that plays out. So we’ll come right back on the heels of that. There should be swift repercussions to Aida’s actions.

Can you talk about expanding the world of Life Model Decoys in the back half of the season?
WHEDON: We introduced it early, exploring some of the ideas with Fitz and Radcliffe, the idea that maybe you can solve some of our problems with technology. You can see that Fitz is really focused on preventing another tragedy like the end of last year. His approach to doing it, and by extension Radcliffe’s, is there’s a tech solve for this. Now we’ve seen pretty quickly how bad that got, not that anyone saw that coming. Once you introduce technology and robots, no one thought it was going to go bad.
MAURISSA TANCHAROEN: I mean, it’s never ever happened before.
WHEDON: Right. So now we get to explore a little bit more of what it means when you take a person and replace them, the emotional repercussions of that. We’ll see how that affects May as a prisoner, and what her situation ends up being, and the android replacement of her, we’ll get a glimpse into what her psychology is and get to explore both of those things, as well as Fitz dealing with the repercussions of, “Oh no, I helped make a monster.”

Does Robo-May even know that she’s a robot?
TANCHAROEN: You’ll just have to wait and see. What we know thus far from what you’ve already seen is the psychological and emotional makeup seems to be very much in line with the real May.
WHEDON: Yes, and there’s been a leap. We saw Aida making that brain out of the quantum light stuff — whatever science word we throw at that. She could barely mimic human behavior without being detected, whereas May seems to be May through and through. Exactly how much is May, we’ll have to wait and see.

Will you get into the moral and ethical repercussions of actually creating life?
WHEDON: They’re going to have to deal with the fact that they created something in Aida. Her actions now seem to be out of line with what Radcliffe designed her to do. They’re going to have to deal with the repercussions of that and how freethinking these things are and how much of their mistakes are tied to our own.

Will the team begin to notice anything amiss in the winter premiere? Or is that further down the line?
WHEDON: We have two problems in both May and Aida. We will have to deal with them both right away.

You’ve played with May being an LMD on screen. Moving forward, should the audience question everyone we meet or see?
TANCHAROEN: There will be some questions. That’s the fun of it.
WHEDON: We’ll play with that for a little while. It’s something we’ve wanted to do for a long time, because we’re a spy show. There’s nothing better than you can’t trust the person next to you.
TANCHAROEN: Right. We’re taking the issues of trust to the next level.

With Coulson somewhat compromised, will Daisy be stepping up?
WHEDON: Well, yeah. That’s another thing we get to explore. While Daisy was gone, this new Inhuman director [Jeffrey Mace (Jason O’Mara)] was launched into the spotlight. We also saw at the end of the winter finale she unwittingly landed right smack in the middle of all those photographers and was thrust into the spotlight. Whether she would like it or not, she’s going to have to be a public figure in a way that she hasn’t before. She likes being covert, she likes her eyeliner, her dark hair, her hotel rooms, and her van.
TANCHAROEN: And her beanies.
WHEDON: And now she’s going to have to step into a role that she may not be comfortable with.

We know the director is hiding some sort of secret. Where are you picking up with that?
WHEDON: There’s a general question with him in terms of being all about trust. “The team that trusts is the team that triumphs!” A guy who is always saying that who is new and that smiley who has a secret, it’s hard to trust him. Even in episode 8, he started asking questions about the Darkhold. I don’t think it’s totally clear where he stands.
TANCHAROEN: And what his true agenda is.

What themes will you be exploring in the back half of the season?
WHEDON: Can the theme be LMD? Because that’s the subtitle!
TANCHAROEN: Once we premiere in January, this second pod, we can talk further about themes.

Are there any other new faces coming in the back half of the season?
WHEDON: Yeah, there are some new faces and some familiar faces that you’ll be happy to see.

Do you want to expand on that?
TANCHAROEN: [Laughs]
WHEDON: Uhhhhhh, no. I mean, we want to, but here we are in our little Marvel cage.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will return Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.