Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Emancipation (3x20)

This was a great episode, but it did have some small problems. Let's dive in.

Cons:

This week was the Captain America: Civil War tie-in. In a lot of ways, it worked really well. The idea of the Sokovia Accords impacting the Inhuman characters that we know is a great way to tie things together. But whenever we're reminded about the connection between this show and the larger cinematic universe, I start to get a little twitchy about the plot holes. They're making it sound like Hive could usher in an Armageddon situation, and yet nobody even once considers asking the Avengers to step in. Also, we get hints that Coulson would be Team Cap (duh) and Talbot would be team Iron Man, since he is in support of government control. But it feels a little simplistic, and I might have wanted a bit more complexity with such an interesting issue.

Along the same note of complexity, there were a few characters here that feel just a little bit one-note. Talbot was here to learn about S.H.I.E.L.D., be horrified by the disaster going on, and make a bunch of snarky comments disparaging Coulson's ability to do his job. Over on Hive's side of thing you've got James, who is decently funny on occasion but doesn't have a lot of character, and then Dr. Radcliffe, who has a few really funny lines but nothing substantive to back him up.

I actually really, really loved the main story of this episode, but there was one thing that put a strange damper on its impact. As we'll talk about in a minute, Lash confronts Hive in this episode. He doesn't manage to defeat him, but he does save Daisy from the mind control, just before being killed by James. Lincoln had this idea of everybody having a purpose. He seemed confident that Lash wouldn't hurt Daisy because it was his job to kill Hive. Then, later, everybody decides that Lash/Andrew's true purpose was to save Daisy. A few weeks back we had the discussion of predestination, and I thought it was handled with a decent amount of nuance. Here, the characters were throwing around ideas about fate and destiny as if it were a simple thing to buy into. The weird thing is that it wouldn't have changed the episode at all to leave these ideas out completely. I'm not sure why they tried to force them in there.

Pros:

I'm going to rapid-fire the plot for you. Hive uses Daisy's blood to turn some of the Watchdogs (the hate group targeting Inhumans) into Inhumans. Radcliffe's efforts go awry, and they end up as deformed, disgusting mind-controlled creatures, which Hive seems totally fine with. Meanwhile, Daisy and Lincoln have been secretly communicating, as Daisy has found a way to hack into the video feeds in his containment chamber. They plan an escape, to the horror of Talbot, who is visiting the S.H.I.E.L.D. base to try and figure out the best way to proceed. He wants the Inhumans that Coulson has on his team to be registered according to the new law. We see Lincoln escape on a Quinjet, but we then learn that the whole thing was a plan with May and Coulson. It's not Lincoln flying to Daisy and Hive's location - it's Lash. Lash shows up, tries to defeat Hive, but cannot. He does syphon away the mind control from Daisy, saving her life. James stabs and kills him, but Daisy is free. She comes home and tells everybody what she knows. Fitz and Simmons inform Coulson and Talbot that Hive might have a way of mass-distributing his new Inhuman trigger. He could ostensibly turn a significant portion of the population into the deformed Inhumans. Talbot reveals that Hive has his hand on a warhead, so he will be able to distribute. Dun dun dunnnn!!!

There's a lot to unpack here.

First of all, the Watchdogs being used for experiments and being turned into deformed Inhumans was pretty disgusting, but also pretty great to see. It's hard to know who to hate more - these soldier-type vigilantes who are taking matters into their own hands, or Hive, who is trying to mind control the world, sure, but who also seems to sincerely believe that he's doing it for the good of the human race. Both ideologies are disgusting, and I liked seeing them pitted against each other.

On a visual note, Chloe Bennett looked completely wrecked in this episode, as she continually has her blood drained for use in changing everybody into Inhumans. She looks all pale and drawn out, and you can feel the extra effort that it takes her to use her powers in the end, when she is finally freed of the mind control.

Then let's flip to the stuff with Talbot and Coulson. I mentioned that I thought Talbot's character came across as rather one-note, but I did love the way that he became something of a fresh outside view. As Lincoln is escaping with Daisy's help, we can see Talbot's incredulous horror becoming more and more substantive. How can Coulson seriously think that he has things under control, when he's now let two of his Inhuman team members get away and join Hive? But then we get the big flip, where we learn that Lincoln was working on May and Coulson's orders. What Talbot witnesses isn't the loss of another Inhuman team member; it's the rescue of the first one. That was an effective way to twist things around.

And the twist itself worked pretty well. I immediately suspected that Lincoln was talking to Daisy on orders from Coulson, but as the episode continued, I began to doubt my own conviction. It certainly seemed like the whole team was trying to stop him from getting away... and then when he attacked Mack, it seemed like maybe I had been wrong. I love the idea of Lincoln remaining loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. He loves Daisy, but when she is under mind control, he can't trust her or be with her. He knows that S.H.I.E.L.D. is his best chance of getting her back, even if he doesn't always approve of everything they do.

Even though I saw the Lincoln twist coming, I didn't get the Lash twist until late in the game. That was really cool. I figured that they had found some way of protecting Lincoln from being brainwashed, and that he was going to go pretend to join with Daisy and Hive and infiltrate from the inside. Instead, when the doors to the Quinjet opened, it was Lash that walked out. That was super bad ass. And I really don't care if it's a Deus Ex Machina that he can free Daisy from mind control. I'm cool with it. That whole final sequence with Lash was unexpected and surprisingly emotionally affecting. He saves Daisy, and later we hear Simmons assert that it wasn't Lash who did that. It was Andrew. I wasn't even expecting to see Lash again, so I was pleasantly surprised by this end to his character.

There's a subplot in this episode between Mack and Elena. Last time the two of them hung out, things were a tiny bit tense, to say the least. I felt a little annoyed that Elena's anti-S.H.I.E.L.D. stance ended up on the back burner again, but at the same time I like the idea that she can tell the difference between an authority figure like Coulson, and an authority figure like Talbot. She's not cool with being registered as an Inhuman, but she's no anarchist. She understands that Coulson might be a good person to follow. She and Mack have a really sweet and gentle bond, as they talk about the importance of faith. Towards the end, we see Elena give Mack her cross necklace - the very same one that Daisy saw in her futuristic vision of a dead agent in space! Nooo! Not Mack! Mack was one of my earliest guesses as to the identity of the dead agent, but I really want to be wrong. It would be such a waste to get rid of him now, when we've barely begun to tap the potential of his character. I'm betting that that necklace is going to end up in a lot of different hands next week, leaving us in suspense until the last moment.

One great thing this episode gave us was a concrete reason why a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent would be going into space in the first place. The stakes are really high as we move forward into the finale - Hive has a method of transforming normal people into Inhumans. He has a plan to mass-distribute this method, and he has the means to carry out that plan. Despite my annoyance that nobody is thinking of calling in an Avenger or two, I'm still excited to see how our heroes deal with this highly intense challenge to the world order. Who will die? Well, it'll gut me if it's Mack. Or May. Or Fitz. Or Simmons. I really won't mind all that much if it's Lincoln. Sorry, buddy. I guess we'll have to wait and find out next week!

8/10