Agents of SHIELD S03E21 Review: Playing It Like Pokemon

Agents of SHIELD, Season 3, Episode 21: Absolution

Well, let's talk about Agents of SHIELD. After ranting a fair bit about how Legends of Tomorrow and The Flash handled their respective finales, Agents of SHIELD soared from a great series of winner episodes into an awesome two-parter finale. Which I'll cover separately so I can give each episode the time it deserves. Granted, it's not entirely unproblematic, since a good chunk of this episode and the next was spun around the fact that Skye spends so much of it in a guilt-induced self-loathing, and so much of the tension spun on who's holding Elena's cross necklace of doom as it is passed from one person to the next. To have an in medias res scene to foreshadow an important death is one thing, but to have it be a game of hot potatoes is nothing short of irritating.

Those are relatively minor quibbles, though. We did foreshadow some side-effects and withdrawal, and while we don't see Skye actively killing or maiming anyone -- despite the painful-sounding crack of his ribs, Mack is entirely fine here -- she did just betray all her friends and tried to kill them, and gave all their information to Hive. And considering how Hive's mind control is more of an amplification of one's basest desires, it certainly would probably fee like Skye is in control and not in control at the same time. Skye got some pretty nice moments, her strained conversations with Simmons and Coulson showing that despite all parties knowing full well that Skye was mind-controlled, things probably won't be the same ever. And Mack going in and giving Skye a shoulder to cry on is a very awesome and emotional moment in a way that, hey, didn't have to involve shipping!

Meanwhile, Lincoln decides that he wants to leave SHIELD after this one last rodeo, which honestly fell really flat. Lincoln's big moment last episode really didn't work to flesh his character out, and so far all we had from him are just a couple of lines of backstory. Yes, Coulson acknowledges that he would make a good agent, but honestly other than having Electricity Dude on their side, who cares? Not me, that's who. I'm sorry, I just can't bring myself to care for Lincoln.

As far as the episode's plot to take down Hive and stop him from launching a nuke (not all to dissimilar from his all-caps namesake over in Arrow), it's pretty standard, exciting stuff. We did get a random fake-out of Skye and Coulson on the planet Maveth which seemed to be a flash-forward or something like that, but apparently it's a nightmare. Okaaaay, was that entirely necessary? We get a couple of fun moments with Fitz and Talbot entering an unlikely partnership as they try to get their hands on the activation codes with some motion-capture hijinks.

There was definitely a tense bit as Elena and Lincoln (Joey's absent throughout all this) donned suicide bomb neck-rings, and as the hit squad of Elena, Lincoln, Mack and May infiltrate and shut down Hive's electronics, when Hive decides to spread out and unleash his vengeance there definitely was a palpable sense of danger. But no, everyone turned out to get out okay in the end, and Lincoln manages to channel his lightning powers into a contraption built by Mack and Elena and fry Hive's brain. Again, it's not like Lincoln doesn't get shafted entirely, but it's that he's more of a plot device than a character. Not even Hive-Ward trying to taunt him by bringing up the fact that he's an inadequate provider of love and care for Skye really meant anything for him, really.

We get a pretty awesome sequence as Hive moves between the different people we know he's consumed over the years from Grant Ward to Nathaniel Malick to Will, and it's a nice series of callbacks to a lot of great Ward scenes from the past, and just what Hive will do when Giyera and Hellfire catch up to him is tense in itself as he's just muttering about quotes gone by.

Meanwhile, dr Radcliffe is still comedy gold as he begs Hive to understand that, hey, a biogenetic engineer isn't the same as a rocket scientist, and he just brightens up every scene he is in. From trying to interact and beg for the Primitives to help him out, to him just going 'oh are you SHIELD thank god save me' when May shows up is comedy gold. And him just going 'woo!' as SHIELD's giant gel-cage comes down and traps Hive like a Pokemon.

It's a great show for all members of SHIELD involved, a great series of moments for and, Hive and Radcliffe, and while the Primitives still look like cosplayers of X-Men Origins' stitch-mouth Deadpool, the presence of Hive himself is scary enough, especially for the more disposable Inhumans, that the characters still feel pretty threatened.

There's a bit of a wind-down, We did get a couple of moments of fun scenes with Radcliffe having all sorts of respect for Talbot's mustache and that short, sweet moment of Fitz and Simmons planning a holiday!

Of course, it's obvious that since this isn't the final episode and it's too late in the game to introduce a new main villain, Hive won't go down that easily. After a bit of a harrowing moment where Hive unleashed the Inhuman gas and transformed a bunch of Z-lister SHIELD agents (O'Brien apparently showed up a fair amount of times before!), Fitz managed to hold his own, panic considering, and escape the gas zombie apocalypse. Hive is still loose, though.

The weakest point of the episode, I think, is probably Skye breaking loose from her prison easily, finding Hive and... begging him to take her back, only for Hive to discover that, hey, he can't, thanks to... reasons. Lash reasons. It's a bit eyeball-rolling, but the addiction to Hive's control has been foreshadowed, and it's a bit of a nice (if dark) subversion to the expected development of Skye just wanting to go 1v1 with Hive. Which will still happen regardless. I just wished they went with addiction or guilt and stick with one or the other instead of flip-flopping for no real good reason.

Overall it's a great buildup to the finale, or rather, the first part of the finale, as the stakes are high and everyone is facing off against Hive or the Primitives. Oh well. Will see you guys in the next review.