Another storyline follows recurring guest star Parminder Nagra as Senator Ellen Nadeer and Manish Dayal as her brother Vijay.

"Broken Promises" originally aired on ABC on January 10, 2017, and was watched by 4.66 million viewers within a week of its release according to Nielsen Media Research.

Fitz is able to take back control of the facility's systems before Aida can escape, and Agent Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie beheads the android with his ax.

Cordova-Buckley noted that actor Henry Simmons and herself are both minorities, and that Rodriguez is an Inhuman character, allowing the series to explore an interracial relationship "based on respect and love" that viewers can "compare to the world we're living in".

[8]: 6:50 In December 2016, Marvel confirmed that main cast members Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May, Chloe Bennet as Daisy Johnson / Quake, Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz, Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons, Henry Simmons as Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie, and John Hannah as Holden Radcliffe would be starring.

[12] The backstory of Ellen and Vijay Nadeer, introduced in this episode, revolves around their mother's death during the Chitauri invasion of New York, as seen in the film The Avengers.

A short sequence depicting the character's death during the events of the film is shown as a dream Vijay has while recovering from his time in an Inhuman cocoon.

[18] Reviewing the episode for Nerdist, Joseph McCabe said that any doubts he had about the series moving on from the Ghost Rider storyline "are more or less eliminated", feeling that the episode's take on a robotic antagonist was "Avengers: Age of Ultron done right ... where it most obviously improves on the overstuffed second Avengers film is in the humor department, with a running commentary from Mack that references most every killer android movie of the 1980s."

McCabe called the Nadeer storyline "the dark heart and soul" of the episode, and praised the series continued confidence in "mirror[ing] real world events" with the hatred shown towards Inhumans.

Club graded the episode a "B+", praising the reveal that Radcliffe was behind Aida's "sentience", which he felt was well supported by the series' development of the character.

McCown-Levy accredited the episode's success to Fletcher's writing, saying "both clumsy exposition and subtle character exchanges are handled with aplomb".

[20] Marc Buxtom of Den of Geek called the change to LMD "pretty enjoyable", feeling the series "remains the old comfy slipper of the current slate of superhero shows ...

He called the arc "your typical X-Men stand-in stock plot ... after the freshness of the Ghost Rider half of the season, this just feels like a step back.

[21] Collider's Evan Valentine gave "Broken Promises" 3 stars out of 5, indicating a good episode that "doesn't maintain the heights of [the series'] days with Ghost Rider in the driver's seat, but it does manage to remain a solid entry on the airwaves."

He felt that the opening scene, in which Aida fixes her own bullet wounds, was an interesting way to "reel" in viewers without the excitement of Ghost Rider, and said his favorite part of the episode was Mack's hatred of robots and constant pop culture references.

He felt the episode overcame cliche by mixing standard set pieces with Mack and Rodriguez's comedy, and by having "as much fun with a killer robot showdown as possible, and then reveal[ing] a more sensibly long-term threat".