How the Framework Exists in Agents of SHIELD S5

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Agents of SHIELD Sets the Stage For Grant Ward's Return - Again!

By Meagan Damore

Published Dec 2, 2017

In the Agents of SHIELD Season 5 premiere, Daisy discovered that a new character had repurposed the Framework.

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major "Orientation," the Season 5 premiere of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The Framework is back in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The computer-generated alternate reality has resurfaced in the bleak future Director Phil Coulson and his team found themselves, where the Earth has been destroyed and the last members of the human race live in a spaceship under the rule of the Kree. During a fact-finding mission, Daisy discovered Deke using the Framework like "an opium den of fantasy," where humans could experience a world outside the Lighthouse.

"So this is your racket? You're pimping out the Framework?" Daisy demanded when she stumbled across him in the Framework.

"I never called it that, but yeah. That's the technology the hardware interface is based on. I had to rebuild the software from scratch because Kasius had the historical archives erased, but I was able to get my hands on the servers," Deke explained. "I gathered bits of data here and there, and the rest is guesswork... I'm selling escape. The only way out of here is the final exit."

He also revealed that the Kree are aware of his little business. "Of course they know about it. They're crazy about it, because I'm improving people's lives. I'm giving them something other than just hour after hour of endless grind," he said.

Daisy wasn't very impressed. "They condone it because it keeps them placid. I have seen the Framework in action before. Pretend that wishes are coming true so that the real hope dies," she retorted, sparking another argument.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fans will remember the Framework, which was created by Holden Radcliffe and run by his Life Model Decoy Aida, from Season 4. In the "Agents of Hydra" storyline, Aida trapped Coulson and his team inside the Framework, where they found themselves in a world run by Hydra. Because the Framework presented an alternate reality, several S.H.I.E.L.D. characters were able to come back from the dead, including Grant Ward and Antoine "Trip" Triplett. Since the Framework continues to exist in Season 5, the show has opened the door to bringing back these characters and more.

Airing Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 5 stars Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Henry Simmons, Ian De Caestecker, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, Elizabeth Henstridge, Nick Blood, Jeff Ward, Eve Harlow, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Coy Stewart.