Agents of SHIELD, Season 3, Episode 19: Failed Experiments
A bunch of great scenes happen in this episode, from Hive's backstory being explored, to the Kree finally returning to the show all Prometheus-style, to the Kree fighting against the Inhumans, to Mack confronting Skye with the hopes that she's just faking her loyalty to Hive, to a strike team just not messing around and wanting to blow Hive up, this is a very eventful episode.
From the beginning where Hive's Inhuman posse is just hanging around playing pool and pinball, there's a sense of fun before the shit hits the fan, though the dueling lab scenes between Radcliffe and FitzSimmons was a bit slow and ultimately kind of pointless. May's infiltration scene and quasi-flirting with James without being overtly sexual is a great scene, and hilarious to boot.
The Kree being behind the Inhumans has been hanging over the show's head since season two, and finally after the rather disappointing Vin-Tak last season, two Kree Reapers show up in this episode, summoned by Hive himself. After a failed experiment where the remaining Hydra leaders (whoops, nameless dudes, you guys just died, further nailing the fact that Hydra is no more) were melted quite gruesomely, Hive finally makes use of the artifact that he claimed was his 'one downfall' to wake up the Kree Reapers that are apparently just hanging around near our solar system (no, really) and summon them in a bid to obtain Kree blood.
Meanwhile we get to see Hive's own backstory as he, an ancient human, was captured by the very same Kree Reapers and transformed into the Inhuman that he is now. There is definitely a sense of a cosmic sci-fi story as the creation rises up against the super-advanced creators. Granted, I wished the Kree looked more like Ronan the Accuser with the face-paint instead of dudes painted like Papa Smurf, but hey.
It's exciting to see the Kree Reapers landing and just doing battle against Hive's forces. Alisha (or two of her copies, it's hard to tell) bites the dust against one of the Reapers, and while one of them engage Hive, the other battled Skye. Skye, surprisingly fares far better against the Kree, using her Quake powers to essentially cripple the dude so that dr. Radcliffe can drain him dry. Meanwhile, Hive's fight is far more brutal and physical, with that whole theme of a creation fighting against his creator.
All the while, May and a strike team of SHIELD agents are just lying in wait waiting for whoever wins to kill the other -- though bazookas and high-tech gear did jack shit against Hive. I am honestly surprised that entire team (including Agent O'Brien, who showed up last episode in May's Bahrain flashbacks) survived and no random redshirt got eaten by Hive.
Meanwhile, Skye is confronted by Mack, who is certain that Skye is actually asking to be rescued and is subconsciously or otherwise trying to tell SHIELD where she is... when in reality, Skye did just fuck up. Whoops. It's a very tense conversation between the two, with Mack believing in his partner being very believable, and, well, four or five episodes ago I didn't even care about Mack! That episode with his brother and his constant claims that Skye is on their side in this episode certainly helps to make him more likable. But no, Skye is fully believing in the Inhuman cause, and Skye even tries to recruit Mack to her side, noting that all they had to do is to 'see'. Skye still evidently cares for her SHIELD teammates, noting that all they had to do is to make them 'see'. Except, y'know, that's not going to happen, and when Mack blows up the crippled Kree, Skye was so angry that she very nearly earthquaked Mack's chest to death.
I honestly would buy it if Mack died this episode, and fully expected it to be a big dramatic thing that happened, but May showed up to rescue Mack, and Hive showed up to pull Skye out of the line of fire. That was a fucking scary moment, though, nonetheless. Skye's rantings about how SHIELD takes normal folk and turning them into soldiers, about how everyone keeps trying to save her, really would make you believe that they are coming from Skye, the character we've known over three seasons, and if she wasn't actually brainwashed it would be even more tragic.
Lincoln, meanwhile, has a subplot about forcibly injecting himself with the antibody vaccine thingamagig thing that Fitz and Simmons are developing without waiting for them to perfect the drug, and, well, like all things scientific you don't just test drugs randomly and they don't work simply because of burning determination. Lincoln is dumb, and his whole subplot didn't amount to anything other than to highlight that he's dumb. They probably need to give Lincoln an episode to himself to make me care for him -- that worked for Mack -- but the downside would be, y'know, giving Lincoln and episode to himself.
Oh, and while SHIELD might think they have won by blowing up the Kree bodies, apparently two years is still enough time for Kree blood to hang around in Skye's body (despite, y'know, the spleen destroying blood cells and whatever every couple of months) enough for her to be enough of a plot device to further Hive and Radcliffe's plans. It also segues in nicely for Skye to show her devotion to the Inhumanization plot.
Yeah, still a great quality episode, despite the slow way that it begun. Not really buying that Evil Skye will continue to be a thing over the next few episodes, but this one is certainly convincing with some great acting skills. It's a big episode where everything that SHIELD does -- the grand 'wait for them to duke it out and shoot the loser', 'save our brainwashed teammate', and even Lincoln's stupid desperation plot -- all fail. Great plot development, great scenes and overall a great episode. Three more episodes to go, and it definitely is a great buildup!
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