Monday, July 18, 2016

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 3.21: “Absolution”

“Every time I see his face, I want to punch something.”
- May

I’m not going to lie, most of this episode was good and really moved things forward. I couldn't’ stand Daisy’s whining the whole damn time. I wanted to smack her upside the head and tell her to shut up. Just fair warning about that before we dive in. Daisy is dreaming and she and Coulson are on the alien planet but she’s just seeing things, thinking it’s from the vision she saw. While she’s freaking out, the rest of the team is split up trying to take out Hive once and for all. Lincoln, May, Mack and Yo-Yo are on their way to a missile silo to stop Hive from launching his insta-Inuman air raid. Meanwhile, Fitz and Talbot are trying to get kill codes for said missile. I have to admit, watching Fitz put little motion capture dots all over his face (making him look like a deranged clown) was pretty damn funny.

It seems the team is going to succeed. First off, Coulson, Fitz and Talbot get the necessary kill codes and enter them in time to stop the launch. And May manages to pilot the jet underwater to sneak onto the base without triggering the radar. Hive is royally pissed about the interruption to his plan and sends Dr. Radcliffe to manually override the launch and get the missile into the air. Not being an engineer or a rocket scientist, he’s kind of clueless about what to do but he promises to fix the problem so Hive doesn’t eat him. I suppose that’s a plus.

While the team is trying to complete the mission, Daisy is beating herself up for hurting her friends and giving in to Hive’s manipulations. She refuses to accept Coulson’s offer of support and friendship, even as he digs for more information on “Absolution”. She tells him to use the memory machine on her to get what they need but they’re saving that hell for someone special. Three guesses on who it is. Like I said at the start of this episode, Daisy was a real pain in the ass trying to drag everyone down into her wallow. I really hope she gets over this next season or else it’s going to be a real drag.

Back at the silo, Mack, Yo-Yo and Lincoln manage to lure Hive into their make-shift trap and it is pretty awesome. They’ve repurposed the memory machine to totally screw with Hive’s mind and it’s brilliant. He gets really confused and flashes to all the different people we’ve seen him possess. This gives the team enough time to get the hostages free and Radcliffe comes along for the ride. Unfortunately, Hive has enough mental control to tell his lackeys to disconnect the warhead with the formula packed inside. The team still thinks they’ve won when they manage to trap Hive in a gel matrix chamber and transport him back to the base. Coulson plans to lock down the base to ensure that the swaye Inhumans can’t rescue their leader.

As the team debriefs, Lincoln says once Hive is fully taken care of he’s going to leave SHIELD and figure out his life from there. Without Daisy because Hive got in his head a little (not the worrisome way) about what Daisy needs and wants from Lincoln. I feel bad for Lincoln. He’s just trying to be with his girl and do a little go in the process and he just can’t win. Speaking of winning, FitzSimmons are having some fun. She’s planning a little romantic get away which is totally adorable and I want to see the pair of them on vacation because we need some more light and happy on this show! It’s also been kind of amusing to see the McGuffins of the cross and the SHIELD flack jacket pop up on or around various characters. Mack started out with the cross and then Fitz picked it up (and donned the jacket) to go check the gel matrix before bringing it into the base. Meanwhile, Mack goes to pay Daisy a visit and after she whines a bit and cries into his chest, she calms down a little bit. She still thinks Hive is the devil but Mack isn’t convinced. Still, she doesn’t paint a very good picture of the way he can control people.

Because this is a Whedon produced show, you know things aren’t going to go our heroes’ way in the penultimate episode of the season. Just as Fitz is checking the chamber, James triggers an explosion of the formula in the hanger, transforming one of the engineers into a swayed Primitive. And poor Fitz is stuck in there since Coulson has started locking down the base! Thanks to some quick thinking by FitzSimmons, he and another agent manage to get out of the hanger. But that leaves a bunch of Primitives locked inside with Hive and they bust him out. That’s definitely not a good thing for our team, especially since Daisy blabbed to Hive about the Zephyr and it’s high altitude capabilities. Oops, guess you guys shouldn’t have brought him along for the ride after all! Daisy can see all of this on her screen in her cell and after Mack leaves to rejoin the team, she manages to break out and bring the module up and into the Zephyr. I guess it’s kind of lucky that the team can’t see what’s happening in there because once Daisy steps out, things get really weird. Hive is still having memory glitches but he remembers what he did to her and sees that she’s in pain (aka having Hive mind withdrawal). Everyone’s been assuming she’s just suffering from the after effects and she’ll get better. But she doesn’t want that. She wants him to take her back into the fold. I have to admit, I didn’t see that coming on first watch of the episode. And it is one hell of a cliffhanger to leave us on for the final episode of the season.

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