I feel a little frustrated with this episode. I liked a lot of the stuff that happened, but I wasn't left with an over-all amazing impression when it was over. Let's just dive in.
Cons:
A lot of stuff happened in this episode, but I felt like the pacing dragged. There was a lot of great action towards the end, but both before and after the climactic moments, we had a lot of standing around and talking. That would be fine in theory, but it was the sort of standing around and talking that doesn't add much. Fitz and Simmons are looking for a cure to the mind control. Radcliffe is trying to help Hive with his plan to turn everybody Inhuman, but there's problem. Former Hydra agents are going to become Hive's test subjects. Hell, we even get Hive's backstory of how he was found by the Kree and experimented on, making him one of the first generation of Inhumans. This wasn't really a back story I needed to see. It could have been a quick line of dialogue while doing something else. There were lots of issues like this, where I felt like we all had to stand around and listen to them talking about the stuff that they were going to be doing later. Just get to it!
So, the main plot is pretty straightforward. Hive, along with Daisy, Alicia, James, and their new friend Dr. Radcliffe are trying to turn humans into Inhumans, but they need live Kree blood to do it, so Hive summons some Kree Reapers so they can extract blood. Meanwhile, Coulson and the team are on a mission to take out Hive. It all ends up with Mack destroying an incapacitated Kree to prevent Hive from going through with his plan. Daisy, furious, beats up Mack and comes to the point of killing him. May shoots Daisy, and she and the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team escape, leaving Daisy and Hive behind without a viable living Kree to use for their mission.
Basically, the plot is great, but there were weird elements. First of all, we had some weird extra S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on the mission. It bothers me how inconsistent they are with the number of agents Coulson has under his command. These two agents were awkwardly shoved in there, and given Whedonesque dialogue to try and force personalities onto them in a jiffy. It didn't really work. Particularly cringe-worthy was when one of the agents acts all surprised and scared that the Kree aliens have landed on Earth. You work for S.H.I.E.L.D., lady. Catch up.
Over on Hive's side of things, I already mentioned that I didn't like the brief backstory we got for Hive. I also didn't like the plotty, techno-babble nature of this plot thread. In order to turn people into Inhumans, they need live Kree blood. Okay, got it. So I guess it's a good thing that Hive got those weird Kree orbs from Daisy and from James, because that's how he can summon the Kree reapers. I'm with you so far. Then we learn that Kree reapers aren't from their home world, but have been in stasis around our planet for a long time, waiting to be awoken. Okay... why? What does that add? And to make matters even more frustrating, the bad guys don't even manage to snag a Kree, so the whole thing was a pointless detour.
Pros:
I already gave a brief plot summary, so let's just dive in to some things I really enjoyed about the plot.
Coulson has clearly learned from his mistake of going too easy on Daisy. Of course he still wants to find a way to save her, but he's not counting on that anymore. His mission is to take out Hive, and he acts accordingly. If Daisy gets in the way, that's too bad. This might seem like a cold way to proceed, but I rather like the switch we're seeing here. Coulson has figured out that Daisy is as good as dead. If they find a way to save her, then that's great. A miracle. But they can't proceed under the assumption that there's going to be a way to fix this. It's just not reasonable.
Mack is a whole different story. He blames himself for not noticing that Daisy had been taken over by Hive. I'm not entirely sure what he could have done about it if he had noticed, but that's not the point. The point is that he feels really guilty. The scene where Mack and Daisy come face to face is the most heartbreaking part of the episode for sure. Daisy wants Mack to join her and allow himself to become Inhuman. Mack just keeps trying to appeal to Daisy's reason. Daisy is cruel to Mack, saying that she almost found the family connection she needed from him, but it was never enough. She even takes a jab at Mack's relationship with his brother Ruben, saying that if he can't handle being a brother to his actual flesh and blood, he never could have been a true brother to Daisy either. Ouch.
Mack never gives up on the possibility of saving Daisy, even when he goes against her and destroys the Kree, thus halting Hive's plans to use Kree blood to turn humans into Inhumans. Even as Daisy attacks him, Mack does not raise a hand to defend himself. I mentioned last week how interesting it is to see that Daisy is still essentially herself, in many ways. She actually does care for Mack and the others, and wants them to join her in this new place of belonging that she has found. It's much more compelling, and heartbreaking, than if she were just suddenly evil.
James and May had a fun scene. May gets information about where Hive is hiding by posing as a Inhuman groupie and hanging out with James, who is all too willing to spill vital information to the interested woman. James borders on obnoxious a lot of the time, and I'm still not quite sure what to make of his character. But this scene did a lot to make me appreciate his presence.
On a larger plot level, I like the stuff with Dr. Radcliffe and the plan to make new Inhumans. I complained about some of the techno-babble and the dragging nature of the pacing, but as a plot device in and of itself, it works really well. It elevates the threat to a whole new level that legitimately threatens the whole world.
Finally, we've got the subplot, featuring Lincoln, Fitz, and Simmons. The two scientists are working on a potential antitoxin that might be able to cure Daisy. The only trouble is, they have no way of testing it. Lincoln volunteers to test the potential cure, but Coulson forbids him, saying it's too great a risk. Lincoln does it anyway, and he nearly dies. In the end, it was all for naught - the antitoxin didn't work. Fitz and Simmons had disagreed about the advisability of giving the drug to Lincoln. Fitz thought they should, as long as Lincoln was offering, while Simmons maintained that Daisy wouldn't want him to take such a risk. Coulson's decision and Lincoln's later insubordinate action made their opinions on the matter moot, but the argument was important. They talked later about how they shouldn't let work disagreements affect their personal relationship, and they still seem to be in a good place as the episode ends.
This subplot, as opposed to the main plot in the episode, was very well-paced. It used a small amount of time to get across a lot of information. We checked in with Lincoln, and saw how his grief has manifested itself into a desperation to act. He doesn't care how reckless or disobedient he is. He just wants to find a way to help Daisy. Still, he doesn't cross any major lines, such as leaving the base and following the others into action. His reckless decision to inject himself with the antitoxin is made all the more tragic by the fact that it didn't even work.
Then we've got Fitzsimmons. Of course I wanted more couple-y behavior from these two, but in some ways I appreciate the fact that they're behaving quite normally. They are professionals, after all. Their banter about Simmons' ex-boyfriend from college was quite hilarious. It seems like they're back to the good ol' days of their friendship, with the added bonus of being a couple. Just the way I like it.
I really admire the way we're upping the ante here, as Hive's new plan to turn people into Inhumans poses a legitimate threat to the entire world order. Daisy ends this episode by offering her own blood, which is mixed with Kree blood from when Coulson saved her back in Season One. With this live Kree blood, Hive's plan can go ahead full force. It looks like Daisy isn't going to be able to recruit her former team members to her side, nor can they find a way to bring her back from the edge. At this point, is there anything that can stop Hive? Despite my issues with this episode, I'm excited to find out what's going to happen. Just two weeks left!
7.5/10
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