The island mission was pretty interesting. The goal here was to stop Hive and his goal to turn the entire world into primitive Inhumans. The team included half of the Secret Warriors, which was kind of fun. I always thought the idea of the suicide vests was a dark one, and they didn’t really shy away from it this time. No one got blown up, but it was nice to see that the other agents weren’t afraid of the possibility.
Most of what was going on there was pretty standard up until we realized what was going on with the memory machine. Daisy thinks it’s for her, and I thought it might have been too, because they wanted to gain as much information from her as possible. But no, instead it was given a really creative use. They used it to hit Hive with a blast of “memory radiation” or something. Either way, it was used to make Hive experience all of his memories at once. All of the personas he’s ever taken on and consumed were coming to the front, competing for space. This was such a great way to combat Hive and something I never even thought of.
One of the other things that this finale was all about was the game of hot potato it played with the cross necklace and the SHIELD jacket. Naturally Mac had the cross in the beginning. But it would have been too obvious if he kept it the whole time and then wound up being the dead one. So it had to get passed around.
For a while I thought it might have been Fitz. I actually enjoyed that choice quite a bit. His relationship with Simmons was just hitting a good place, they were looking for a place to go on vacation. It would have made sense. It would have been tragic, and it would have meant something. The same can’t exactly said for what actually happened.
We’ll get to that later though. There’s more ground to cover. The island mission does end with the capture of Hive. Because he’s all disoriented, he’s fighting at half capacity. This allows SHIELD to get the upper hand capturing him in a gel capsule stasis chamber. Along with Dr. Radcliffe, SHIELD brings them all back to roost.
Lo and behold though, plans go awry. Coulson locks down the base in order to prevent anyone from getting inside. But as it turns out, Hive had a backup plan. They didn’t do a very good job of explaining how exactly the plan worked, or how Hive knew the specifics (Daisy says that she told him everything, but that’s super vague). Either way, it was great to see the explosion of gas turn all those agents into primitives.
It was during this scene that I thought Fitz would meet his end. It didn’t really seem plausible, but he seemed to be very stuck in the hanger bay. Thanks to some random school memory pulled from Simmons, she was able to open the door and get him out of there. Naturally, this left the primitives with plenty of time to get Hive out of his stasis chamber.
Once freed, we realized Hive’s backup plan: he wanted the Zephyr in order to bring the missile into space. Even though he doesn’t have all of his memories sorted out yet, he’s regained a great deal of his power in the meantime. This led to a really good scene between him and Daisy when she escapes her cell to try and stop Hive. But instead of trying to fight him at first, she bows to him and begs him to take her back. Chloe Bennet did a really good job as Daisy in this scene. You could tell that she wasn’t trying to trick Hive. She really wanted to come back to his side and feel that connection again.
But apparently Lash cured her and vaccinated her against Hive’s infection. This led to a good fight scene between the two where Daisy made full use of her powers. She even managed to get in a few good hits, stabbing Hive with a knife several times. Too bad it doesn’t do much! Which brought me to my next question: how do they defeat Hive? He’s practically invincible.
The rest of the episode continued passing the cross and jacket back and forth. At first only half the team boarded the Zephyr, but it wasn’t soon before the rest of the cast joined the fight. Now everyone was fair game. Everyone could put on the jacket and sacrifice themselves. Of course there were only a few options that really made sense. Fitz was one, due to the nature of his relationship with Simmons. Daisy was another, because maybe her story had come to a close. Mac hasn’t really done much that I could totally see it. Then there was Lincoln, the weakest link in the entire cast.
In between all this was one of the show’s best scenes (one of two, in fact). When Hive confronts Coulson on the jet and reveals his true form. The effects were so good, he looked like something that could have been in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. It gave a real weight to Hive as a villain and it was definitely the most exciting moment of the entire finale.
Lincoln has been the show’s black sheep for a long time now. Always whining, always making poor choices, the list is endless. So it makes sense that he was the one to go by sacrificing himself in order to take down Hive and get rid of the missile that would turn the whole world into Inhumans.
This led us to the other “best scene” in the finale. Despite not really liking Lincoln as a character, the scene between him and Hive on the jet was amazing. As they floated into space, waiting for the missile to explode, they buried the hatchet so to speak. They didn’t fight, or try to kill each other as they were already dying, instead they had a conversation. Hive actually seemed more sympathetic as you realized that all he wanted was to make the world a better place for his people… to “feel a connection.” The mark of a great villain is one who knows that he’s doing the right thing. He doesn’t hate those he’s fighting against, it’s simply a difference of opinion.
And then we fast forward six months. Things are different. Daisy is on the run. Coulson is no longer Director of SHIELD. Radcliffe is working with Fitz and Simmons. And Life Model Decoys!
All exciting new stuff for us to look forward to in Season 4. Expect an article on the potential future of the show in the coming weeks!
Written by Peter Freeman, TV & Animation Beat Writer -- Click to read Peter's posts
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