Titles for Upcoming Episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Tease Jeffrey Mace Becoming the Patriot

It's finally time for the winter hiatus of television to conclude and everyone's favorite superhero television series to return to the air: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. We're only a day away from the mid-season premiere of Season 4 and it's already looking to be one action packed episode. Episode 9, "Broken Promises" will start off the next half of Season 4 and will explore Aida's plan to use the Darkhold for her own maniacal purposes.

Aida's change in motives and newfound purpose were due to her conversing with the Darkhold, becoming a sentient life-form at the same time. When Aida read through the Darkhold, she inadvertently infected herself with what can only be describes as a virus which resulted in Aida taking Agent May hostage and the use of an L.M.D. (Life-Model Decoy) as a stand-in for Agent May. Aida's plans are unknown at the moment but it looks like she's become somewhat like Ultron, is it possible Aida is becoming a version of Iocasta?

Titles for Upcoming Episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Tease Jeffrey Mace Becoming the Patriot

Regardless of what takes place when Aida begins assembling her L.M.D. army, it looks like one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top agents is going to put a stop to Aida's plans before they even begin.

According to the episode titles for the second half of Season 4, the next few episodes of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. will focus on what happened to Aida but, once Aida's intentions are made known, the Patriot is going to join the fight.

The Patriot, or as we now know him on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., Shield Director Jeffrey Mace, suited up for the first time in the mid-season finale as he took the fight to Eli Morrow and his gang of goons. The scene played out like a one-time event but when we look at the upcoming episode titles for Season 4, it looks like Jeffrey Mace is embracing his position as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent to become the superhero known as The Patriot.

Here are the episode titles for Episodes 9 - 14

• Episode 9 "Broken Promises"
• Episode 10 "The Patriot"
• Episode 11 "Wake Up
• Episode 12 "Hot Potato Soup"
• Episode 13 "BOOM"
• Episode 14 "The Man Behind The Shield"

As you can see from the upcoming episode titles, it looks like Jeffrey Mace is once again being called into the field of battle, and this time he'll be The Patriot.

Since Jeffrey Mace (Jason O'Mara) was confirmed to be playing Jeffrey Mace in Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., fans have been waiting for the moment that Mace becomes like his comicbook counterpart, the Patriot.

Will Jeffrey Mace Carry a Shield, and Will It Be Cap's Old Shield?

The Patriot is Mace's superhero alias and just from looking at the episode title for Episode 10 being titled "The Patriot", it's fairly reasonable to conclude that Mace is going to become much more like his superhero alter ego, The Patriot when Season 4 resumes. That being said, we still need to see tomorrow's episode before we jump to any conclusions of Jeffrey Mace fully becoming the Patriot. However, the titles for Episode 14 "The Man Behind The Shield" could also implicate Jeffrey Mace in even more superhero duties.

If we look at the title for Episode 14 and attempt to decipher it's meaning, the phrase "the man behind the shield" sounds awfully familiar to something said about Captain America and his shield in Captain America: The First Avenger but Steve Rogers is still a fugitive and unable to show up but someone else could be carrying Cap's shield and that person could be Jeffrey Mace.

Jeffrey Mace's comicbook counterpart is also known for taking on the mantle of Captain America at one point in the comics and even carried Cap's shield. Keeping that in mind, the episode title for Episode 14 "The Man Behind The Shield" could be another sign hinting towards Jeffrey Mace becoming more like his comicbook counterpart.

Is Jeffrey Mace Becoming The Patriot A Step Towards Actually Becoming The New Captain America?

So, in the scenario of Jeffrey Mace becoming The Patriot, he may find the world's perception of another enhanced individual to be critical, merely due to the inherent nature of the enhanced and what they are capable of. If that issue comes up, Jeffrey Mace could see some benefit in using the title of Captain America rather than The Patriot so as to instill trust in the public's eye. And what better way to show the world you're the new Captain America than to brandish the symbol most commonly associated with Cap, his shield? That being said, it would be logical for Jeffrey Mace to become the new Captain America for two reasons.

For one, Jeffrey Mace begun his transition into a full-fledged superhero during the mid-season finale of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. and two, the newly revealed episode titles tease a heavy emphasis on Jeffrey Mace becoming The Patriot in the next half of Season 4 so it's only logical that Mace fulfill the destiny predicted for him in the comics when we take all these factors into consideration.

Still, we won't know if Jeffrey Mace has a future as Captain America until Episode 10 "The Patriot" airs and we find out what Mace intends to do now that Aida is running amok. Mace is still the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. after all, so he's going to need to address Aida causing mayhem with her L.M.D. slaves but will Jeffrey Mace to take on the problem himself? We'll just have to wait until the mid-season premiere begins to find out the answers to all these pertinent questions.