Danny Hale reviews the sixteenth episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 3…
Going into Paradise Lost this week after the post-credits scene in Spacetime I felt Powers Boothe’s performance as Malick coming to an end. We had his daughter Stephanie introduced a few weeks ago, ripe to take his place and another ominous vision this week of Malick apparently suffering a painful death but Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. pulled a clever trick in having Hive murder Stephanie instead. It was the best kind of twist; it was genuinely surprising, made me fear Hive more and added weight to Gideon’s character, forever changing the dynamic between him and his long sought after “God”.
We started to see the fallout of Ward’s reveal to our team last week too; having Ward back, even if it is just his body starts to have an effect on Coulson. Phil is feeling the guilt of his actions and it was great that this opened the floor to Fitz who could voice his own opinion on the matter. It has been no secret on this show that Fitz has no love for Grant Ward alive or dead. Fitz makes the point that Ward deserved death and is better off gone. Unfortunately for Coulson that matters little as his guilt stems from the knowledge that he murdered Ward in an act of vengeance. This did offer May the chance to deliver the great line “maybe I’ll get a chance to kill him too.” Me too May, me too. Speaking of May, she finally got another 1v1 fight scene this week. The choreography was great as usual but more importantly this fight put Giyera back on the map as a threatening villain. He stood up against May and nearly won but even that didn’t stop May subduing him and taking him captive.
Daisy and Lincoln meanwhile head on an assignment to help further understand Hive. Someone Lincoln knows from his past, a potential Inhuman, is their target. His name is James and he was banished from Afterlife for stealing which Lincoln claims is a result of his bitterness at not getting powers. James doesn’t play around and littered the earth around his trailer with landmines. Cue an awesome use of Daisy’s powers to detonate them all with one shockwave. Along with handing over a Kree artefact directly connected to Hive James also gave us more of an insight into Lincoln. We start to hear about him before he had powers and we witness James’ shock at Lincoln having acquired abilities at all. This week in general was great for Lincoln; I get that the writers obviously want to address fan’s criticisms that Lincoln is ‘boring’ but I’m glad they are doing it gradually and letting his character develop naturally while occasionally getting a glimpse into his past. He’s earning his spot on the show and not being hastily wedged in and this week definitely endeared me to him. It was a bold move offering a terrigen crystal to James in exchange for the Kree artefact and I did feel that Lincoln was about to trick his old acquaintance. It was unfair to take the artefact while withholding the crystal and an added insult for Lincoln to keep James at bay with powers that James desired so badly. But, it was necessary and as Lincoln then stated, “not everyone deserves to have powers”. This deception does prompt James to reveal that Lincoln nearly killed his ex-girlfriend in a drunken driving accident, all in front of Daisy. It was a good moment because it now attaches a massive amount of guilt to Lincoln and helps us understand what motivates him while also enforcing his rage issues and his past with substance abuse.
Malick returns to what he believes will be the peace and safety of his home but when he steps through the door his daughter Stephanie tells him that Hive has arrived. Malick’s concern and disquiet are etched on his face. He tells his daughter about his vision (when Charles touched him last week) and how it details his death at the hands of Hive. I was glad we got to see what Gideon saw and wasn’t overly surprised at the result but Powers Boothe did a great job of a man faced with his own mortality yet he never tried to run, in fact he even understood Hive’s motivations in doing so but all the while visibly shaken. Soon the Malick household is host to a group of believers, an audience for Hive’s reveal. They doubt him at first but they soon see his true face while we get a tease. From behind at least the creature more or less resembles Hive from the comics which is nice considering most of his screen time is as Brett Dalton. Interspersed throughout the episode were flashbacks of Gideon’s youth and his relationship with his brother Nathaniel. We learn that worshiping Hive and attempting to return him to Earth was more of a Malick desire and not necessarily HYDRA as a whole. Also Gideon and his brother learn that their father was using a marked stone to ensure he was never selected as the traveller to the blue planet. In a surprising turn of events it seems Gideon is guilty of exactly the same dishonesty as his father before him and in a particularly harsh scene we see him all but condemn his brother to drawing a black stone and being sent to Hive. The proof of Gideon and Nathaniel’s father’s deception was contained in a copy of Paradise Lost so when Hive gifts Stephanie with a similar copy, it rings alarm bells for Gideon. This all set up Malick’s death perfectly and I truly believed Stephanie stood to replace him and to possibly become a paramour of Hive’s. Thus when Hive then turned and murdered Stephanie in front of her father after shaming him it hit all the harder. I actually felt a moment of pity for Malick as a father but soon realised how this makes him far more compelling; he has spent his entire life worshipping and searching for Hive but now this creature has murdered his daughter. For the first time we will see Malick truly conflicted and coupled with that Gideon’s vision still stands; what he saw has to come to pass.
One of the best things this episode did was create momentum for next week; in the final moments Giyera escaped and with startling speed forced the team’s aircraft to land in enemy territory. This prompted Daisy to call in her Secret Warriors, Joey and Elena. I feel like I’ve been waiting for this since this season began so hopefully next week will deliver. All in all it was another strong week; we got some more character work done on Lincoln while Gideon and Hive have been pushed into an unexpected dynamic. It was great to see Reed Diamond reprise his role as Whitehall again even if just for a few moments, it helps make all the seasons feel more interwoven and sheds light on the different facets and personalities of HYDRA. Now, onto the Secret Warriors!
Danny Hale
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https://youtu.be/b7Ozs5mj5ao?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
