Agents of Southward.H.I.E.L.D. Recap: The Secret Warriors

LUKE MITCHELL, CLARK GREGG, JUAN PABLO RABA, NATALIA CORDOVA-BUCKLEY

Luke Mitchell as Lincoln, Clark Gregg as Coulson, Juan Pablo Raba as Joey, Natalia Cordova-Buckley as Yo-Yo. Photograph: Kelsey McNeal/ABC

[Requisite spoiler alarm: This recap discusses "The Team" at length.]

With the Avengers busy punching the crap out of each other (and the rights to the X-Men securely locked up by 20th Century Play a trick on), it'south no surprise that information technology took Agents of Southward.H.I.East.L.D. then long to assemble its very own team of superpowered heroes. As last week'due south episode promised, "The Team" gives us our get-go real glimpse of Daisy's pet projection: A team of Inhumans who call themselves the Secret Warriors.

As the episode begins, Daisy and Lincoln pick upward Joey Gutierrez (Juan Pablo Raba) and Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) on their way to rescue all the non-superpowered S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, who are being held captive in a secret Hydra base nether an oil field. Agents of S.H.I.E.50.D. doesn't waste the opportunity to prove us the Hush-hush Warriors working in tandem. Joey uses his metal-controlling powers to melt the bullets in mid-air, as Yo-Yo boomerangs around to take downward their adversaries. It's a quick, thrilling activity sequence that speaks to a theory Lincoln raised several episodes ago: Could the Inhumans' varying powers accept been engineered, on some m catholic level, to complement one another? By the terminate of the sequence, they haven't just saved the convict South.H.I.East.L.D. agents — they've also captured Gideon Malick.

The rescue mission could easily have provided enough provender for an unabridged episode, merely "The Squad" brings the Hush-hush Warriors' superheroic debut to a swift and decisive end then it can tell a story on a much murkier battlefield. In the safety of a S.H.I.Due east.L.D. interrogation room, Coulson interrogates Malick, who reveals that Hive has almost certainly infected at least one Due south.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Facing no option simply to investigate, Coulson orders a lockdown. When Malick is murdered shortly thereafter, his worst fears are confirmed, and he races to observe the villain/victim before Hive can utilize its new puppet to wreak fifty-fifty more havoc from the inside.

It's a archetype scenario straight out of The Thing: With the mere suggestion that someone has been infected past the deadly new villain's listen control, our heroes aren't simply threatened by Hive. They're threatened past the possibility that their own distrust might tear them apart. "Everyone is suspicious if you look at them long enough," Mack warns. As South.H.I.E.Fifty.D. devolves into increasingly paranoid factions, every grapheme gets the chance to be both accuser and accused.

The offset major schism comes when the regular Southward.H.I.E.50.D. agents try to quarantine the Underground Warriors. It'due south a businesslike approach to the problem; the Secret Warriors ran point on the rescue mission, so they were the most probable to terminate upwardly infected along the style. For a group of people already subject field to the paranoia of about outsiders — and who were literally faced with internment in a Russian gulag just a few episodes ago — the targeted quarantine is a long-harbored fear come to life.

But in their efforts to escape S.H.I.East.50.D., the Secret Warriors quickly realize that they can't even trust each other. Daisy notes that Joey was nowhere to exist found around the fourth dimension Malick was killed. Lincoln recalls that Yo-Yo was wounded by Hive during the fight at the Hydra base. Most damning of all, Mack discovers that Lincoln's bag contains the mysterious Kree antiquity he discovered in last calendar week'southward episode. Cornered, he gets gear up to draw upon his electricity powers — but earlier he can practise any harm, Daisy takes him out. It's a devastating blow to both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Cloak-and-dagger Warriors, which Coulson temporarily disbands while the Inhumans remain in quarantine.

And and so the inevitable twist arrives. As Lincoln cools off in a quarantine cell, Daisy approaches. Around the time Lincoln was arresting Gideon Malick back at the Hydra base, Daisy was confronted and infected past Hive, and with his parasite firmly burrowed into her brain, she'southward a truthful believer. "I'm happier than I've ever been. I've found the respond, and it'south beautiful," she tells Lincoln, urging him to join her as she leaves Due south.H.I.E.L.D. behind for a new life every bit 1 of Hive'southward minions.

Of course, this twist likewise ways Daisy killed Malick and framed Lincoln, then he quite understandably turns her downwards. "Nosotros could have all of it together," she shrugs. "Yous'll understand someday." And so she walks out of the base with the Kree artifact and a heap of Terrigen crystals, using her earthquake powers to plummet the base of operations around her.

What will be the long-term consequences for Daisy's mind-controlled betrayal? Given Hive'southward power to describe upon the memories of its hosts, I'm hoping for a scene that direct draws upon Daisy and Ward'due south long, fraught history while they're both in the creature's thrall, but we'll have to expect and see.

Wherever the story goes from here, this is the dramatic twist Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. needed to propel its third flavor into its endgame. Hydra, as we knew it, is headless. Southward.H.I.East.L.D. is in ruins. Our principal heroine is under the control of a mind-decision-making Lovecraftian tentacle monster. And there's notwithstanding the matter of that ominous, apparently inescapable vision of a future in which at least one of our heroes ends upwardly dead. The stakes are as high as they've ever been, and it'southward hard to imagine a version of this story that won't end without plenty of blood and tears being shed.

Stray Bullets:

  • R.I.P., Gideon Malick. Powers Boothe made you more interesting and sympathetic than you had whatever correct to exist.
  • Joey and Yo-Yo may not exist regular cast members, but information technology's still refreshing to see Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. use the Secret Warriors to diversify the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When was the terminal fourth dimension a superhero movie or Tv set testify featured two heroes speaking to each other in a language other than English? Or even hinted at the thought that a man might invite another man to spend the night with him?
  • I know that Agents of S.H.I.E.Fifty.D. requires us to append disbelief over the idea that none of these missions are important enough to merit the Avengers — but given that Hive is, y'all know, the manifestation of the devil on Earth, that's becoming an increasingly hard sell.
  • Information technology's not like I thought that the bear witness would kill Daisy off, simply I'thousand surprised that "The Team" killed the suspense of her infection by revealing that Hive'south brain parasites tin exist removed without any permanent damage to the host. Why non force our heroes to grapple with the possibility that they'll need to impale Daisy to finish her?
  • "I've met gods. Gods bleed," Coulson says to Malick, in a (presumably unintentional) repeat of the money line from the Batman v Superman teaser trailer.
  • Afterwards so much stress in the front end half of the season, it'southward a relief to see Fitz and Simmons goofing around in the lab again. "Nosotros tin't waste any more time," Simmons says, after they hold hands and buss. Co-sign!
  • Next calendar week : As Daisy runs around with her evil new alien buddy, Fitz and Simmons piece of work on a long-shot theory to stop Hive for good.
Agents of Southward.H.I.E.Fifty.D. Recap: Secret Warriors