Whedon made his directorial debut with the episode, which explores the nature of reality and identity, and features a significant action sequence that took two days to film, a first for the series.

The digital model of the building used by Industrial Light & Magic for the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier was given to the series' effects team for use in this shot.

"Self Control" originally aired on ABC on February 21, 2017, and was watched by 3.88 million viewers within a week of its release according to Nielsen Media Research.

Director Jeffrey Mace and agents Phil Coulson, Daisy Johnson, and Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie have all been replaced with android Life Model Decoys (LMDs), S.H.I.E.L.D.

The LMDs, not knowing they have been discovered, also attempt to act normally as they plan to carry out the orders of Anton Ivanov, who wants to destroy all Inhumans.

Radcliffe himself has been spending time in the Framework, leaving his LMD assistant Aida to carry out his plans in the real world alongside their benefactor and protector Ivanov.

After Ivanov was crippled in a fight with Johnson, Aida manages to keep his severed head alive while giving him a new android body to remotely control.

They find a different world due to Radcliffe changing one regret for each living person that had been uploaded to it: Johnson is in a relationship with the dead traitor Grant Ward, who is alive in the Framework; Simmons is dead; Fitz is rich; Coulson is an anti-Inhuman school teacher; Mack lives with his daughter, Hope, who is alive in the Framework; and Melinda May works for Hydra, who have replaced S.H.I.E.L.D.

In early February 2017, Marvel announced that the fifteenth episode of the fourth season was titled "Self Control", written by executive producer Jed Whedon.

"[2] When working on the season's twelfth episode, "Hot Potato Soup", Whedon had initial ideas of what this fifteenth episode would be, including a confrontation between Jemma Simmons and Leo Fitz where they know one of them is an LMD; a subsequent confrontation between Simmons and Daisy Johnson where they convince each other of their humanity; and then the final sequence where the pair enter the Framework.

On what Aida does to Anton Ivanov in the episode, decapitating him but having his still living brain remotely control an android body, Whedon would not comment on any comic connections this has, but did say that "he is his own sort of creation.

I think Aida wanted to keep his humanity intact, and that was the main impetus to her leaving his brain as the remote control".

"Their friendship is one we hang about," he continued, "We felt like they were a good pair for this" episode, and they wanted the two characters to not have been replaced by LMDs for the next storyline in the season "when they get into the Framework.

"[4] Discussing the conflict between Simmons and the LMD of Leo Fitz in the episode, and the reveal in the end that Simmons is dead in the Framework and Fitz is with someone else, Whedon referred to the pair's relationship as "forever love", saying, "I don't think anything will come between them, but that's why we constantly put things between them, because the longing for them to be together is sort of the feeling that we're addicted to as writers and hopefully the audience is addicted, too ...

"[7] Marvel confirmed in February 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.

[11] Whedon explained the thinking behind reintroducing Dalton, saying, "We figured when you get dropped into an alternate reality, what better way to show that it might not be everything you imagined than the return of one of our most loved and most hated characters.

[7] Asked if it was Whedon's choice as director to only show the character in a photograph for the episode, he explained that the decision was made for "multiple reasons—some of it is scheduling, but truthfully it more has to do with Daisy walking by [the photo] unaware.

[3] In the Framework, May is shown in an elevator of the Triskelion building, which was seen in the real world in the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

episodes "4,722 Hours" and "One Door Closes", saying that "Self Control" "splits the difference between routine and exception ... it takes the best of both of those models and combines them into a single triumphant installment."

He praised Whedon, saying that "nearly every decision made here is the right one", and highlighted the combination of Johnson and Simmons, the conclusion of the May LMD's arc, and the Framework reveals.

[27] Joseph McCabe of Nerdist praised Whedon for transforming the series' pop culture influences "into the most balls-to-the-wall action-packed episode so far this season", finding "exactly the right note of paranoia to play".

He felt that so much happened in the episode that some of the big reveals were being overshadowed, but that is "a great problem for an hour like "Self Control" to have.