Danny Hale reviews the twentieth episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 3…
Following the events of Captain America: Civil War ‘Emancipation’ opened this week with Coulson and May musing over the Sokovia Accords and what it could mean for their team. Meanwhile General Talbot arrived to both share his frustrations at Coulson’s secrecy and to encourage Coulson to register his super-powered friends. The writer’s handling of addressing the bigger issues occurring in the MCU felt incredibly natural and infinitely smoother than the small ties to Age of Ultron last season. It was a bonus that we got General Talbot to deliver the news as I always enjoy seeing his character return. I’m a fan of Adrian Pasdar and he continues to shine on screen coupled with Clark Gregg; their delicate alliance has always provided some laughs. While those who have seen Captain America: Civil War will have undoubtedly picked their sides it made perfect sense to see Coulson here emulate his own childhood hero, Cap himself by opposing the accords with understandable suspicion. It’s most likely that our team will be allowed to act covertly going forward but the issue needed to be raised on screen especially with this many Inhumans in play. I also greatly appreciated the small moment we got where Phil was seen reading the paper with Peggy Carter’s death as the headline again reminding us off Phil’s longstanding adoration for S.H.I.E.L.D. and its roots.
We find this week that Daisy has unsurprisingly hacked into her former team’s camera feed. She spent most of her time watching Lincoln and eventually, when Lincoln reached out, made contact in order to aid his escape. This episode did a good job of weaving through storylines, letting us only glimpse enough of Daisy and Lincoln’s exchanges leaving us as an audience unsure of either one of their true intentions. I would have been surprised if Daisy was really betraying Hive as I would also have been shocked but more importantly disappointed if Lincoln was honestly defecting from S.H.I.E.L.D. But a moment for poor Mack getting zapped in the charade; he’s still recovering from Daisy’s assault last week although this did allow for the great line, “Maybe I’m not the Inhuman whisperer.” In fact the entire Lincoln bait and switch was great; I knew something was up but sending Lash to fight Hive was awesome and a genuine surprise. In spite of being duped a part of me wishes Hive and Lash had really gone for it but the fact that Lash managed to injure Hive at all is a win for the good guys I guess. The set up and reveal were great and I wasn’t sure how Lash would deal with Daisy exactly; I didn’t know if he could sense her corruption or if he would just kill her for being between him and Hive but I was a little shocked when he completely healed her. We saw Lash spare Daisy before, back at the beginning of the season which brings his character full-circle. I just hope now that we get to learn a bit more about his motives, even if it does come posthumously or maybe it was just Andrew’s will, fighting through as a final act. Either way Lash’s death felt oddly sudden as we haven’t seen him much in recent weeks but if he truly posed that much of a threat to Hive then having him absent from the finale may make things more exciting. I personally thought we’d have Dark Daisy for the finale but considering Hive now has an unknown amount of her Kree blood in his possession her purpose at his side is no longer necessary to drive the narrative. Besides, it’ll be nice having Daisy back to kick butt for the good guys, especially with the inevitable showdown next week.
Probably the most pleasant surprise of this half of the season is James; I had figured he was just a one or two episode character. I never expected him to attain such incredible powers and to see him round up the Watchdogs this week was really fun not to mention his gruesome yet undeniably awesome killing of Lash. I love the increasing exploration of our villains; a huge part of why comic books are so popular is down to its villains just as much as its heroes. Hive represents the first real big bad this show has seen and fleshing out characters like James and Alisha creates an interesting team to counteract our own. Hive with James’ assistance brings in the five Watchdog thugs where Dr. Radcliffe makes a second attempt at turning them to the Inhuman race and to Hive’s cause. The results were . . .creepy. James reckoned they were “overcooked” but Hive seemed pleased. To me, aside from looking withered and terrifying they appeared to be strong, fast and completely under Hive’s control so a decent enough threat and especially if Dr. Radcliffe is about to create an army of them.
Heading into the two part finale we now have Hive’s endgame laid out; using the warhead he acquired back in episode 14 “Watchdogs” (I was wondering where that had gone) coupled with Dr. Radcliffe’s expertise Hive is able to widely transform and corrupt large chunks of the population. It is a strong threat that I am sure our team will stop but higher stakes should make even greater viewing. And if by some miracle you have missed the extensive yet slightly exhausting marketing, someone will die next week! It seems a little too obvious to be Mack, especially now that Elena has officially gifted him her crucifix. Will he be the one to perish on this inevitable space flight next week? After Bobbi and Hunter’s departure I’m going to find it hard to say goodbye to practically anyone but then again that’s when deaths in shows make their biggest impact.
Danny Hale
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https://youtu.be/b7Ozs5mj5ao?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published May 12, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
