Agents of SHIELD S03E16 Review: The Death You Were Not Expecting

Agents of SHIELD, Season 3, Episode 16: Paradise Lost

Just churning these out, am I not? I'll try to catch up with SHIELD this week.

Anyway, yet another good episode, if I haven't started sounding like a broken record yet. Who expected Gideon Malick to get his secret supervillain origin this episode? Who expected Daniel Whitehall to show up in the flashback? Who expected a death this episode? Well, honestly I expected Gideon Malick to die, and for Stephanie Malick to be the Hydra figurehead that Hive can control... except it's Stephanie herself that ends up dying because Hive wants to teach Malick the meaning of loss. It's a sudden plot twist that ultimately makes sense, and subverts all the hints that Stephanie would be a far more willing ally to Hive than Gideon ever will be.

The flashbacks doesn't help to allay the foreshadowing that this episode seemed to be Gideon Malick's last episode, though maybe that's just the Tokyo Ghoul fan in me talking. We get some really great flashbacks with Gideon and his brother as children, facing the death of their father as well as the ritual to send someone through the portal as a tribute to Hive on that deathworld (any reason how Hive was able to control that particular planet, by the way?) and meeting Daniel Whitehall, who tells them that their vision of Hydra was way too narrow-minded and seeped in superstition. 

Um, yeah, poor Whitehall ended up being the narrow-minded one himself, but he does have a point, telling the Malick brothers that their father has actually been rigging the system of picking stones to select a tribute. Gideon seemed to reject this, telling his brother that they will face their destiny with pride and all that... while using the same trick that their father did. This is all played out beautifully as the flashbacks are spread out gradually over the episode, and we see how Hive throwing a rock into a pool affected Gideon Malick so much when later on the episode shows Gideon doing the same thing while fooling his brother.

It's doubtful that Gideon wanted his brother to die, and it's more of an accident and fate that the final choice came to Gideon saving himself or saving his brother, but the point is, y'know, Gideon chose himself. And didn't even tell his brother that he was planning on rigging the system. We get the revelation that Nathaniel Malick is still within the mass of memories that is Hive, and while Hive could just be remembering Nathaniel's memories and is just being a sadist, it really felt that Nathaniel's psyche retains within Hive and is let out for a moment (albeit probably twisted by being, y'know, inside Hive) just to say 'fuck you' to Gideon and unleash his vengeance. 

Meanwhile we get more Lincoln and Skye as they go around trying to find out more about Inhumans. Skye and Lincoln get into a bit of an argument about Lincoln keeping secrets, as well as his past alcoholism and temper problems, though nothing really notable came out about it. They go off to find James, a hateful Inhuman who was not granted powers by Jiaying, who's hiding out in some cowboy trailer in the middle of nowhere. Skye showed off some cool shit setting off those landmines, and Lincoln bait-and-swtich'ed James with promises of giving him a terrigen crystal. It's great that Lincoln did not actually go through with it, though, because James seemed like a crazy motherfucker. They did get a plot device, the Kree Orb, and our heroes learn something about this Hive fellow, a.k.a. Alveus, the first Inhuman.

Coulson also gets a couple of introspective moments about his decision to murder Ward in that planet there. I don't think we really needed this bit of angst, but it's a nice moment that wasn't dragged on for too long. Both Fitz and May seem to agree with me that they would kill Ward either way, so yeah. Maybe we'll give everyone from Skye to Simmons to May to Fitz a chance to murder Ward, so that would be like group therapy or something.

Not an Asari

Speaking of May, May gets into a fistfight against Giyera, which is an awesome, cool fight. Even if May wins by kicking him in the balls, Giyera's combat prowess is good enough to stand toe-to-toe with the Cavalry herself. It is a bit dumb, after Fitz talking in length about Giyera's powers, for no one to be guarding him or see the floating metal objects around his cage, so, yeah, all of you in the Zephyr totally deserve to be hijacked by Giyera. Giyera's awesome. Why hasn't he fought SHIELD more often before?

With Hive finally asserting his powers over the remaining Hydra heads and basically making Malick his bitch, and revealing his Cthulhoid true form (even if we only see it from behind), and Giyera making his move to trap the majority of SHIELD, the story is set up for Skye and Lincoln to bring in the Avengers! I mean, the Inhuman Strike Squad! I mean, the Secret Warriors!

(Speaking of which, Marvel fans have told me that the comics version of Hive, while affiliated with Hydra, has no connections to being an alien or an Inhuman, though he does originate from a Secret Warriors comic. He does have those head-tentacles, though, and this version of Hive as an ancient powerhouse with mind-controlling powers is a lot more awesome than just some Venom ripoff.)

Definitely an eventful episode, and while the focus of the episode is on Hive and the Malicks, and the exploration of this particular branch of Hydra, it's still a great episode for so many characters involved. Agents of SHIELD may be playing its hand a bit more transparently by seemingly setting up how Hive will be defeated -- Malick's set up for redeeming himself, and the Kree McGuffin is obvious... but thankfully, as someone who reviews this after seeing a good chunk of the follow-up episodes, the show knows enough to shake things up. Coulson, Giyera, May, Lincoln and Skye all get great scenes and we're set up for an explosive confrontation next episode.