With Hive’s plan to create new Inhumans underway, he needs a key ingredient that’s not of this world. Meanwhile, S.H.I.E.L.D. works to save Daisy from Hive’s control, with minimal results.
1. For science?
We begin with the Kree abducting a stereotypical, generic Native American hunter, and conducting experiments on him. This, of course, is Hive before he was Hive. Apparently all the gene tinkering the Kree really needed to do was “Insert lots of pointy bits, add Kree blood, then apply generous amounts of Terrigen.” And that’s how you make an Inhuman.
So of course, those horrific, painful experiments are exactly what Hive wants to reproduce, on a worldwide scale. His own blood, he figures, will be a sufficient substitute for Kree blood.
Although it’s technically Ward’s blood, with lots of Hive infections in it. So of course the corpse blood doesn’t work, and since the experiments skipped straight ahead to human trials, we get to see a few faces melting.
In hindsight, Hive probably should have thought that through a little better. So it’s time to make a delivery call for what he really needs.
2. Return of the Kree
Remember that Kree artifact, described as “the only thing that can kill Hive?” Well, we assumed it was a weapon, but that’s not quite right. It’s a beacon for calling in a pair of Kree, referred to as Reapers (presumably because the Kree scientists blew all their budget on abduction technology, and couldn’t pay the extra money to hire an Accuser), who have been chilling in space for a thousand years just in case someone pressed the “Experiment’s gone wrong, wipe out the Inhumans” button.
So Hive presses the button, and the Reapers arrive. They’re built up as killing machines, more dangerous than your average Kree, and Daisy isn’t even sure she can take one on. A single one quickly breaks through Hydra troops, and continues to make use of the disposable clones that we’ve seen killed about five different times by now.
Then Daisy takes out one’s spine, and Hive melts the other’s face. (Again with the face melting, did the writers watch Raiders of the Lost Arc before working on the script?) Admittedly, it almost looked for a moment like the Reaper might actually succeed in killing Hive, but let’s be honest, that would be too anti-climactic for us to believe it would happen for a second.
3. Blame For Everyone
Daisy’s betrayal has left the team pretty shaken, and we’re seeing it affect everyone. Last episode delved into Coulson and his fatherly affection towards Daisy, this episode was more about Lincoln and Mac each feeling responsible, as her boyfriend and partner, respectively.
Mac thinks he should have seen the change before it was too late (even though by then there was nothing he could have done) and is trying to find any hope that she’s still in there somewhere, that he can bring her back. It… doesn’t exactly work.
Meanwhile, Lincoln is wracked by his own guilt, and is willing to do something incredibly stupid to try and make amends. In this case, it means being an Inhuman guinea pig for the anti-toxin Fitz-Simmons created, which might provide protection from Hive’s control. Simmons even rightly calls him out on it being a “foolish grand gesture,” but that doesn’t stop him from taking it. It doesn’t work, in spite of the vast amounts of pain it puts him through, so in the end, all Lincoln did was fry his own immune system. Nice going, buddy.
And May rightfully questions why everyone is trying to make it about themselves.
4. Okay, we get it “Civil War” is approaching.
I liked the little nods and foreshadowing to the approaching “Civil War” movie in previous episodes, but by this episode it started to get a little too on-the-nose.
Hive reflects on his banishment to a far-off planet, noting that the Kree feared him. “Fear led to paranoia, which led to civil war.” Interesting way to put it, though it might have been more accurate to say “Fear led to paranoia, which led to them tossing me as far away from Earth as possible.”
But it became even more blatant when Hive stated “Not everyone can build iron suits, and only the military can create super soldiers, which leads to a war of its own.” Yes, we get it, Iron Man vs Captain America, “Civil War” is in theaters this Friday. I’m fairy certain the audience is already hyped for the movie, maybe save the references for a direct tie-in after it’s in theaters?
Continued belowAfter all, even though the events in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. don’t impact the Marvel cinematic universe in any way, the movies tend to influence the show, so we’d all like to see how S.H.I.E.L.D. reacts to The Sokovia Accords, and how it impacts the Inhuman situation. Until then, just giving the audience a wink and a nod isn’t going to cut it.
5. Daisy off the Deep End
Last but not least, we still have Daisy, who’s still addicted to Hive, and it’s not getting any better. It’s not as though she’s completely discarded all her friends at S.H.I.E.L.D., she just wants to turn them all Inhuman too, and have Hive possess them. Which, from her perspective, is perfectly reasonable, but to everyone else… not so much.
But Daisy continues to slip further and further as the episode goes on, revealing resentment towards S.H.I.E.L.D. for turning her into a soldier, among many other repressed issues.
This culminates in her beating Mac half to death, and nearly killing him by unleashing an earthquake blast on his chest. Sure, she did warn Fitz in the previous episode that she’d snap his neck, but who hasn’t said that to him at least once? At this point, we know she’s long gone.
And just to solidify her mad obsession with Hive, she offers up her own blood to him. The Kree that Hive called down were killed before they could get enough blood, but Daisy has a fair amount of Kree blood coursing through her own veins, between her being an Inhuman and the injection of the Kree-derived GH.325 she received way back in season 1 (remember T.A.H.I.T.I?). Perhaps, she assumes, that’s enough Kree DNA to complete the experiment.
And if it doesn’t work, and she gives up all her blood for nothing, at least it’s a noble sacrifice in her eyes.
