‘FAILED EXPERIMENTS’ PLOT SUMMARY:
While Fitz-Simmons (Iain De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge) continue to work on a cure for Daisy’s (Chloe Bennet) infection, the rest of the team plans to take out Hive (Brett Dalton) before it’s too late.
While much about Hive remains a mystery, his beginnings were hinted at and touched upon a handful of times. He’s one of the first Inhumans (the MCU’s version of the proto-Mutant Apocalypse, essentially). Because of this, the flashback detailing his abduction by the Kree comes as a surprise. But besides foreshadowing events to come, the flashback also reminds us that Hive was once human, and a primitive one at that. However, unlike other Inhumans, the only thing that remains human about Hive is his consciousness, considering that he’s now a collective of parasites.
Following up on last week, Fitz-Simmons are still working on a cure for those parasites. Unfortunately for them, making one is much harder without the research they needed to acquire. Instead of waiting until to the end to discuss the outcome, let’s just get it out of the way now. It doesn’t work. Normally I would be mad at someone for pulling the same trick twice on me, but that is not the case. I didn’t expect any breakthrough to have an immediate effect, but after seeing Lincoln (Luke Mitchell) almost die to test it, I assumed there would be some progress. Nope. While I still believe they’ll figure something out, the unpredictability strengthens the episode.
Speaking of unpredictable, who would have expected the Kree to show up again? They did appear once before, but it wasn’t particularly memorable. Most viewers are likely to know the Kree from Guardians of the Galaxy, which featured Ronan the Accuser, a Kree, as its main villain. But, despite sharing the Kree, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Guardians of the Galaxy are two very different Marvel properties. The Kree look out of place in a real world setting and their make-up is not quite as good as Ronan’s in Guardians, which was not amazing either. Ultimately, their appearance this week is a mixed bag. In the past they were touted as the only thing that could defeat Hive, but he and Daisy take the Kree duo out pretty easily. Perhaps they succeed because they divide and conquer, or because Hive has grown in power. It’s probably both. Anyway, at least with that settled, a Dues Ex Machina is less likely to destroy Hive.
The Kree crashing the party honestly doesn’t serve much of a purpose, considering there’s plenty of other drama going on. No, I don’t mean Fitz-Simmons. The show hasn’t wrecked that yet, and hopefully won’t. I’m talking about Daisy. Mack (Henry Simmons) is convinced that a part of Daisy is asking for help. This leads to a heated argument between the two, which reveals just how far gone she is. Not only does she support the oppression of the human race on the genetic level and take a cheap shot at Mack’s relationship with his brother, she beats him within an inch of his life. While he doesn’t die, his likelihood of dying is rising due to his insistence of saving his partner. This could work thematically but the show will have to develop the conflict even more. It should be interesting to see how his opinion of Daisy changes.
While there’s a lot of action this week, it kind of feels like the show’s just going through the motions, discounting the Kree, of course. But even if that’s true, it’s still good. And it’s not like it doesn’t advance the plot at all. It does. Let’s just hope there’s a little more wow-factor going forward, like the Civil War sneak peek at the end.
RATING: 7 OUT OF 10 (GOOD)
================================================================================
Aaron Sarnecky is Pop-Break’s television editor and covers Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter, among other things. He is a graduate of Rowan University with a degree in television and film. He probably remembers that show you forgot existed. Follow him on Twitter: @AaronSarnecky
