Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Singularity (3x18)

Yes! What a good episode. Lots of interesting stuff going on as we ramp up to the finale. I'm pretty happy.

Cons:

My only real complaints about this episode are in what we didn't see.

After last week's focus on the Secret Warriors, we drop them out of the story again. I guess Elena and Joey went back home? Off-screen somewhere? Whenever these characters are around, I really like them and everything they're doing with them. But then they just get dropped unceremoniously!

This episode was mostly about finding a way to save Daisy from Hive's mind control, and we maintained focus there for the majority of the story. But did you know that Hydra was also defeated in this episode? Yeah. Just a small detail, I guess. In an odd moment, Coulson and May watch video footage of their operatives (led by Talbot) blowing up various Hydra bases and strongholds, thanks to information fed to them by Malick before he died. Okay... I'll admit the Hydra stuff hasn't been the most compelling thing lately, and I get that Hive is our main adversary for the last few episodes, but still. This is Hydra we're talking about. For such an intense villain, we're supposed to believe they can be taken care of basically as an afterthought? And how does this work? They're not really gone, are they? Is the Marvel Movie Universe going to acknowledge this? Or are we supposed to think that Hydra was only the small strange cultish pockets led by Malick, and now it's really all over? I feel like they wrote themselves into a corner with Hydra, and had to find a way to get them out of the way so Hive could take center-stage. A little sloppy.

Pros:

First of all, let's rapid-fire the plot. Daisy meets up with Hive, and they recruit Alisha (the duplicating Inhuman) and James, the new Inhuman who Jiaying had kicked out of Afterlife. His newly unveiled power allows him to set things on fire/blow them up with his hands. Meanwhile, Coulson brings Lincoln and May out in the field to try and get Daisy back. Lincoln goes too far and nearly kills Alisha, and Coulson realizes he's too desperate to get Daisy back. He and May talk about Coulson's fatherly feelings for Daisy. Fitz, Simmons, and Mack go to talk to Holden Radcliffe, the scientist working on studies of parasites that Simmons was looking into a few weeks back. They think he might be able to help save Daisy. But just as Fitz is talking with Radcliffe, Hive and Daisy show up. Daisy confronts Fitz, while Hive confronts Simmons. Hive and Daisy warn Fitz and Simmons to stay away and leave them alone, or else they will die. Fitz and Simmons meet at the rendezvous point and finally consummate their relationship.

(Oh yeah, and I guess Hydra has been defeated. That too).

There are a lot of great things going on in these various plots. I want to start with Daisy and Hive. In this episode, we learn that Hive's controlling influence isn't total mind-control. It's like an impossibly strong addiction. Daisy, James, and Alisha, now all part of the Hive collective, retain their own personalities and memories. Daisy really doesn't want to hurt Fitz when she runs up against him at the end of the episode. Hive, still retaining memories of Will, really does seem to care for Simmons in a strange way. James remains snarky and a little bitter, while Alisha seems grateful to find a group of people who accept her. And that's really the theme here - Daisy feels accepted as an Inhuman in this new setting. It's not that Coulson and the others ostracized her for having powers, but the us vs. them dynamic is impossible to deny, in some ways. This is a much more interesting way to approach the conflict. Daisy still loves her friends, but she understands that Hive is where she belongs now. It's a belief as strong as fact for her.

Then there's Coulson's attitude about this whole thing. He's not willing to give up on Daisy, of course, and he wants to bring Lincoln along on the mission to save Daisy. This is really risky - what if Hive infects Lincoln as well? In order to mitigate this risk, Coulson makes Lincoln wear a vest with a bunch of explosives wired to it, and then he gives May the kill-switch. Does this seems extreme to you? Well, it is. And May doesn't let Coulson get away with it. She says she'll do Coulson's dirty work for him, but she's not about to let him get away with taking no responsibility. Coulson accuses May of being too trigger-happy when she asks Coulson what she's supposed to do if things with Daisy get hostile. May then points out, rightly, that Coulson seems willing to sacrifice Lincoln if he gets taken in by Hive, but Daisy is getting special treatment.

May makes a good point, but we don't blame Coulson too much for this attitude. As he tells May, Daisy is the closest thing he's ever had to a daughter. Daisy's own emotional journey in this episode, and indeed in the show as a whole, has been about finding acceptance and a place where she belongs. It's so heartbreaking to think that Coulson offered her a home and a family, in a sense, and yet now she's been lured away by a much more sinister yet powerful sense of "belonging."

Before getting in to the Fitzsimmons stuff, which is obviously the thing that excited me most about this episode, I want to mention the final confrontation between Hive and Simmons. Kudos to both of these actors, because I didn't get a whiff of Ward in this exchange. As weird as it must have been for Simmons to see a Ward-shaped super-villain talking to her, from an audience standpoint, the man Ward once was is completely gone. (This is emphasized, by the way, in an earlier scene where Daisy maintains that she's glad Ward is dead. Hive is not Ward). Hive using Will's memories and words to try and sway Simmons was really hard to watch. Her feelings for Will, while maybe a product of extreme circumstance, were nevertheless very real and very personal for Simmons. To have her dead lover's personality shoved back in her face like that, in the body of a man who has tried to kill her more than once, no less, was really brutal. But hey. At least Simmons got to shoot Ward. That was... cathartic? Hive didn't seem too bothered by it, though.

Mack deserves a mention, too, even though he didn't have a ton to do here. He goes along for backup with Fitz and Simmons. What I appreciated about Mack was his restraint. He does his job, he's a professional about it, and yet throughout it all you can sense his fear for Daisy. His partner. Tremors. These two have such a cute partnership and the idea of Mack being without her is really hard to swallow. Also, if we take into account that we know somebody is getting axed off this season, I'm starting to get mighty scared for Mack's future on the show. Don't you dare kill him!

Aaaand.... Fitzsimmons. Fitzsimmons! Yes, yes, yes! Their plot this week is to go undercover and try and get close to Radcliffe, who they believe might have research that could help free Daisy and the others from Hive's control. First of all, I love them going undercover and being great agents as well as great scientists. Their bravery and skill are always fun to see. But throughout their undercover work, they also have a few frank conversations about their relationship, and that's where the shipper in me just loses my mind.

This might seem like a strange side-note, but hold on - the title of this episode is awesome. Why? Because "The Singularity" could be referring to the idea that Hive and his minions are all a single entity, a combined force that will soon grow to consume many individual souls. But it's also called "The Singularity" because Fitz compares his and Simmons' relationship to this event. Their friendship goes along smoothly enough, but as soon as they sleep together, change will be exponential. Simmons is a little flustered that their having sex is being compared to the event horizon, but although it scares her to make this monumental change, she's also ready for that to happen. This conversation happens while they are waiting for a meeting with Radcliffe, and it's really important to note that Fitz is the one to start it. Simmons took charge last week in confronting the change in their relationship, and now it's Fitz's turn to come to terms with this big decision and get firmly on board.

Simmons was hilariously blunt, while Fitz was more circumspect, especially in their first conversation of the episode. Fitz wants to make sure that in a professional setting, their friendship and partnership remains a priority. He flounders over saying the words out loud, but he's afraid things will change when... well... and then Simmons just breaks in: "you mean after we have sex?" That was fantastic.

Then there's the ending, where the two of them forego talking and fall into each other's arms. Simmons is nervous - her hands are freezing - but Fitz says he can power through. I'm so happy that this finally happened. As we go forward into the angst-ridden final few weeks of the season, at least we'll have these two, finally together in every way, just as they always should be.

I must say, I'm not normally a fan of the "who will die? Tune in next time!" method of marketing, because it usually ends up being a letdown. Who's going to die in the finale? The soft option is Lincoln. The medium-soft option is Mack. The hardcore option is May, Fitz, or Simmons. It's not going to be Coulson and it's not going to be Daisy. Because I've already parsed out the possibilities, it won't matter who dies - I won't be surprised. This is the same sort of problem I have with The Walking Dead and its aggravating Season Six finale. But I can't fault this wonderful episode for the annoying buildup in the promotional materials. This is a situation where I'll just have to wait and see how it all plays out. And at the end of the day, Fitzsimmons finally getting their act together is more than enough for me to rate this one highly.

8.5/10