HENRY SIMMONS
Hello and welcome back to my weekly coverage of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.! Be sure to catch up on previous weeks here.
A lot of big moments came this week with a visit by a pair of ancient Kree warriors who were the ones that made Hive what he is today. We delved deeper into what it means for Daisy to be on Hive’s side of this conflict. As well, we saw Lincoln show some more dissent from Coulson’s wishes, this time trying to do the noble thing by potentially risking his life to gain abilities that can hurt Hive.
We finally found out what that ancient Kree artifact was meant to do; as Hive explained, it shot a signal into space summoning a sect of Kree warriors that never returned to their home planet. They were destined to roam around in space, waiting for the call to return to Earth. They sure got it, but not in the way I was expecting. The mere existence of the device shouted “last ditch effort” for the S.H.I.E.L.D. team to use in order to defeat Hive. That would have been dreadfully cliche so I’m glad it was Hive himself summoning the only beings that could destroy him. Brett Dalton did a good job of demonstrating the fear he has for the Kree while also exerting the control and confidence necessary to challenge them openly. It was nice to see Hive get physically involved in the conflict, holding his own against the lone Kree he faced, but I do have some questions about that. Is Hive simply using Grant Ward’s abilities in hand-to-hand combat or are these Hive’s personal skills? If it is indeed Hive fighting as himself, I would have liked to see the Kree deliver him to a more desperate point. While the makeup work was top-notch and they had a visually intimidating presence, the actual fighting seemed kind of lackluster. We all knew Hive was going to make it through this, but could we at least see him having a hard time of surviving in combat? With the Kree warriors dispatched now, there aren’t too many individuals left on Earth who can challenge Hive, outside of Daisy and the other Inhumans of course.
Since Daisy is fully on board with Hive’s plan now, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team is in a bit of hot water in terms of figuring out a plan that can succeed. What I really liked here in Daisy’s storyline is that we weren’t fed this extended sequence of is she or is she not savable. The script took a definitive stance when Daisy fought Mack. If not for Agent May, Daisy was ready to kill Mack by ripping out his heart. Unlike how Mack believed, Daisy is not being brainwashed by Hive. Yes, Hive did “possess” her, but not in the mind control do what I say from now on type of way. Daisy truly believes now that Hive’s way of life is what needs to become the status quo and if this episode showed anything to me, it was that Daisy is not coming back from this little trip from Hive because she decides to “fight” his advantage on her own consciousness. Daisy is on Hive’s side now and I think it is something we need to get used to. Her request at the end to offer her own body and blood to complete Hive’s own Kree experiments proves her allegiance. I think this is a great angle for this show to explore. It creates the shaded similarities to Captain America: Civil War, and as well we now get to see the S.H.I.E.L.D. team have to fight against the odds not only without their star player, but against her. That is scary. As an antagonist, Daisy is no longer concerned with restraining her abilities. She intends to use the full extent of her powers and quite honestly, I think that will end up killing her. It’s a long shot guess at this point, but I have a hunch that Daisy is the one to bite it this season and that it happens by her own hand somehow.
Back at the S.H.I.E.L.D. base, Fitz, Simmons, Coulson and Lincoln are left to debate the validity of this chemical compound that Simmons has created. If they inject it into Lincoln and it works, it could give him the type of power that would help him beat Hive, and if it doesn’t work, it has a high chance of killing him. Fitz and Simmons had a key disagreement here with Simmons saying it is too risky and Fitz saying that it’s worth a shot regardless of the risk. I said it last week and I’ll say it again, the writers are handling this developed relationship really well. Instead of using this disagreement as fuel for an argument that would bleed into their personal lives, they allowed Fitz and Simmons to be two unique individuals without having to devalue either character. Great stuff here. The result of the debate ended with Coulson saying he agreed with Simmons and ordering everyone not to move forward with that plan. Naturally, Lincoln went behind everyone’s back and took the compound anyway. Low and behold, it nearly killed him. It didn’t kill him, but it still didn’t work, the compound didn’t mix with his body to get the result they wanted. Back to the drawing board then. What is interesting here is that Lincoln continues to show that he can’t follow orders, regardless with whether he agrees with those orders or not. It is a bold move for the character and it affords him some individuality, but ultimately I think it will end with him getting the boot from S.H.I.E.L.D. We’ll see though.
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