First rule of Inhuman Fight Club: talk about Inhuman Fight Club, because that brings in buyers, but don’t let the Inhumans know. Second rule of Inhuman Fight Club: try not to have any Inhuman mutations that would put extra stress on the makeup or CGI departments, because budgets are a thing. With that joke out of the way, let’s see how the latest episode went.
1. Kasius and His Inhuman Collection
As last episode established, Kasius has been selling off any and all Inhumans for profit. It seems not all are aware of this, and those that are more or less have to accept it, for their family’s sake. Yet we also learn that Kasius hates his lot in life, and is trying to sell enough Inhumans to afford something better.
The scene where he interrogated Daisy and Simmons was nicely done; the way he blocked Simmons’s view of Daisy to prevent her from reading lips was clever, and they worked around it well. It seems the team has a new ally in their mind-reading Inhuman friend… Ben? I suppose they’ve stopped trying to come up with cool codenames in the post-apocalyptic space future.
2. Mack Attack
Oh man, Mack… there was some emotional drama this episode. I liked how Yo-Yo fit right in to her role as an enforcer when they needed to shake down a guy with a debt, but the real impact came when they realized the “package” Mack was threatening was a baby. After his ordeals in the Framework, where he lost the virtual representation of the daughter he also lost, well, that’s pretty crushing.
We got a nicely emotional performance from Henry Simmons, and it brings up questions over whether or not his experiences were real even in a virtual world, and if it’s okay to grieve the loss of someone who was never really there. It’s great character work, and I hope we can see it explored further.
3. Designer Babies
Mack’s situation brings us to the next point, as it’s revealed that humans aren’t born naturally anymore. Children are commodities, and it seems like Kasius is trying to increase the amount of Inhuman children so he can sell them for greater profit.
This is one of the more important world-building moments, and a nice twist. Each episode so far has had plenty of death and loss, but it makes the new lives all the more significant. Yet it also shows just how much the human population is being oppressed and treated as cattle, as they’ve been unwillingly and unwittingly sterilized.
That said, while the theory is it’s from something in their food, I would laugh rather hard if it turns out they were being sterilized via soap. Coulson’s Framework-self’s conspiracy would finally pay off.
4.Pick a Side, Deke
So really, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., what are you even trying to do with Deke? First he betrays Daisy, then it seems he’s either working with Coulson and May or leading them into a trap, then suddenly he’s all-in with the resistance. Sure, we got some more backstory for him, and it wasn’t bad as far as backstory goes, but we have yet to be given a reason to really like this guy. Perhaps this is the start of a redemption arc, but he’s just been switching sides to quickly and with too little emotional investment so far.
5. Oh Hi Fitz
The episode ended with quite the twist: Fitz is also in the future, and he’s wearing a skull-like space helmet! Also mingling with the upper echelon of space society, and apparently he wants to see Daisy fight to the death.
Of course, this raises a few questions: When did he get there? What happened to him while the rest of the team was getting taken away? Does he actually want Daisy to die fighting, or is he playing a game? I’m sure we’ll get answers to at least most of those questions soon, but that made for a nice note to end the episode on.
