Agents of SHIELD this week sees Holden Radcliffe (John Hannah) fail in his first attempt to recreate the Kree experiment that Hive relates as part of his own backstory. Mack tries to rescue his friend and partner Tremors (Daisy) and fails. Melinda May and her abbreviated team of agents try to kill Hive and also fail.
Lincoln disregards all the warnings about the antitoxin that Fitz-Simmons made and injects himself in a bid to find a cure for Hive’s infection of Daisy. Coulson spends an obsessive amount of time searching for Daisy via facial recognition software and finally spots her outside a building in “Hive Town.”
Mack is obsessed with his failure to see that Daisy was infected by Hive and May gets annoyed.
“Why is everyone making this about themselves? “
Daisy’s old partner believes that she is fighting for control and not completely taken over by the creature. In a way Mack is right. Hive/Ward wants to destroy all of SHIELD and Daisy wants to transform them using the treatment developed by Radcliffe.
When the first metamorphosis fails; a pretty gross “meltdown” where one (due to budget only one poor volunteer turned into a puddle of runny toffee-like goo) man screams and melts. Hive’s reaction to the failure may give a clue as to what his downfall may be.
Hubris.
Radcliffe tells his new boss that the problem was, in fact, down to Hive providing the wrong materials. Old “dead” Kree blood versus the more potent “live” stuff. Hive is not amused and threatens to kill Radcliffe and do the next experiment himself. The expression on the creature’s face and his attitude suggests that Hive believes himself to be infallible.
James, the most recent Aussie inhuman recruit (played by Axel Whitehouse) proves that he is not the sharpest tool in the Hydra shed by giving up where Hive is to Melinda May.
The Kree reapers are summoned.
These big blue aliens begin killing “filthy inhumans” and one of the first to die is Alisha (Alicia Vela-Bailey). The blue duo split up and one head for Hive and other to the shed that Radcliffe and Daisy are in.
Daisy incapacitates one and Hive kills the other. After the last blue alien is taken care of, May and her team unload on Hive and it barely slows him down. The group of agents run.
Mack tries to talk Daisy down and when that fails he destroys the Kree blood bank that Radcliffe has been draining and she goes full Tremors on him. It looks as though she will beat him to death when the other agents, led by May, arrive and one shoots Daisy.
The team evacuate the injured Mack and Hive goes to Daisy. Once again that attitude makes an appearance and Hive professes his disappointment in his newest recruit. Daisy then volunteers her blood after revealing that Coulson used Kree blood to revive her after almost dying before.
Hive is pleased at this news.
At the end of the episode Hive’s concern about being destroyed by his creators (who called him a failed experiment) turns out to have been misguided and Daisy professes her loyalty to Hive and her intention to destroy her old friends at SHIELD.
Despite Daisy’s attack on Mack and her decision to turn her back on Coulson and SHIELD it does feel like she is playing both sides here. The fact that Hive took on the appearance and memories of Grant Ward (Brett Dalton) may have something to do with her ability to resist complete domination.
As to those memories of Ward, Hive is not perfect as he/it forgot about the Kree transfusion until Daisy reminded him. So much for being all powerful.
The whole Kree storyline ended quite abruptly, after the implication that they would make mincemeat out of Hive when they arrived. With their failure to destroy the failed experiment one wonders if more will be on their way.
Lincoln, after risking his life to test the antitoxin learns the only effect was that the stuff destroyed his immune system. It did not “cure” him.
The next time Agents of SHIELD airs the events of Captain America: Civil War will have changed the Marvel-verse and the paths of Coulson and his team will be altered once more.
Agents of SHIELD airs Tuesdays on ABC.
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