Agents of SHIELD: Failed Experiments Review

This Agents of SHIELD review contains spoilers.

Agents of SHIELD Season 3 Episode 18

The plot of this week’s episode of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD is very simple. A bunch of very loyal comrades try to save Daisy from Hive, and get really fucked up doing so. It makes one realize that Daisy is a very popular lady within SHIELD because just about every character goes through hell to free the quake causing Inhuman agent. And they all fail.

Of course, over the past few weeks, the series has focused on Daisy joining with Ward Hive and trying to rekindle the Inhuman race of Earth. This week, things get pretty darn big as Hive and his HYDRA minions try to implant terrigen directly into some willing HYDRA drones. The experiment fails, the HYDRA goons melt, and Ward goes to plan B, summoning some Kree badasses from space in order to use their blood for the experiment.

So a couple of extras from Guardians of the Galaxy come down to Earth and don’t appreciate the summons and start going after Hive’s men- and Hive himself. But let’s back up here because this week’s episode also reveals the origin of Hive. You see, long ago the being that would become Hive was a simple native in what looked like Mesoamerica. The Kree came down and turned the poor guy into one of the first Inhumans- Hive. That poor indigenous hunter guy is still in Ward Hive and has a mad on for all things Kree. So Hive gets quite the catharsis this week as he kicks some Kree warrior ass black and bluer in order to get the blood he needs for his experiments.

And I’ve said it before, when Agents of SHIELD connects to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, magic happens. There is some Guardians of the Galaxy DNA in this week’s episode as the Kree gives the show a vibe of importance. There is something bigger going on than the constant HYDRA versus SHIELD chess game, something that touches pieces of the grander MU. I dig that. I dig that synergy. I dig that even a film that is universally, both literally and tonally, separated from Agents of SHIELD like Guardians can still have an impact on the lives of our agents.

His week, that agent in question is Daisy as none of the agents want to believe that she has made the complete heel turn.  Coulson remains pragmatic and stays on mission, but both Lincoln and Mack both defy Coulson and try to save Daisy. Lincoln injects a dangerous formula into himself in order to produce a Hive cure. He almost dies, much to the horror of FitzSimmons, but he still fails to create what Daisy needs.

Mack tries a different tactic and goes off mission to beg Daisy to resist Hive. Daisy kicks his every loving ass and almost kills her would be savior. Only the timely intervention of May saves Mack, but Daisy is still in thrall to Hive.

But the question is- is this Daisy in control? Is she sick of being SHIELD’s pawn, a toy soldier in a game that has cost her the lives of her friends? Is she just like Hive, an experiment of a heartless group of experimenters trying to bend her to their will? That’s the conflict in Daisy’s mind, but in reality, we can see by the love of Lincoln and Mack, that is just not the case.

So the question remains, is Hive just praying off Daisy’s self-doubts or is there something more going on in her mind? Whatever the case, SHIELD better get their S together quickly, because Hive has the blood he needs to go through with his experiments. He failed to get all the pure Kree blood he needs, but remember, Daisy has Kree blood in her veins thanks to Coulson’s actions from a few seasons back. Now, we can see the awakening of new Inhumans as Hive builds his army.

The origin of Hive is pretty intense as it makes it seem like he was once a victim of the Krees’ genetic tampering. This certainly adheres with the Kree fans know form the comics, as since their introduction so long ago, other than a few heroic examples, the Kree have always been portrayed as arrogant, imperialistic, cosmic puppet masters. The Kree seen in Guardians of the Galaxy were kind of alien cannon fodder, so this is a welcome connection to Marvel comic history.

This is a fun episode but it kind of plods along at times with the same beats being hit over and over again. Other than Mack and Lincoln, we don’t get much play with the other agents this week. May kicks that newly created Aussie Inhuman thief guy’s butt, which is fun, but this episode narrowly focuses on Daisy and the quest to bring her back to the side of the angels.

But as we are left with Daisy offering her blood to Hive, that just seems more impossible than ever.

Marvel moments

The episode provides a mention of a man in iron armor clashing with a super solder in a kind of premonition of the Civil War (Friday, ya’ll!) It’s about time Civil War was alluded to on Agents of SHIELD. We haven’t gotten much going into the epic conflict, but I best see some fallout on Marvel TV.

Like I said, it was cool seeing the Kree again, but I kind of wish they would be shown wearing those classic fin headed uniforms, you know, the ones from the Silver Age Captain Marvel. The giant Smurf Mad Max thing just isn’t doing it for me.

One of the SHIELD agents that accompanied Mack and May to take out Hive is named O’Brien. Could he be Michael or Kevin O’Brien, the two brothers who in the comics took on the identity of the armored Guardsman? Both Guardsmen have a history with SHIELD both before and after they donned their armor. Guardsman has always been used as a kind of prison guard to super villains and has played second fiddle in books like Iron Man for years. Am I stretching here? Probably, but I love to take any opportunity to show off my nerd-fu.