As everyone prepares for the huge event that is Civil War (which reminds me that I'm going to have to do a small MCU movie marathon to prepare), these most recent episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have been brewing a civil war of their own, but on a smaller scale. And for what the show is going for (namely intolerance and fear of the Inhumans), this more intimate approach works. This is, after all, supposed to be a television series that connects with a movie "universe," thus giving it more opportunities to tell different kinds of stories that the films wouldn't have time for.

 

 

A few episodes ago, the show went about depicting the public reaction to the exposure of Inhumans and the ATCU. It was right in line with the beliefs of the Watchdogs online hate group, only amplified for the masses. Here, the focus is concentrated on the fractures that slowly build up within the S.H.I.E.L.D. team. To me, it still feels like S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't really exist anymore, at least not in the larger organizational aspects that were omnipresent before the game-changing events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. That feeling is reflected in the opening act of this episode, where Daisy enables her developing Secret Warriors Initiative, which consists of only two people. They are, of course, Yo-Yo and Joey, the two Secret Warriors Daisy has been able to recruit this season.

 

While it's rather pathetic in terms of numbers, both of them prove effective in the prolonged rescue mission they're hastily assigned to do. There is, initially, the sense that things went about a little too easily for the Secret Warriors, which was then confirmed by the stinger by Hive that the bad guys had someone "on the inside." An infiltrator in the midst of our heroes is a well the show repeatedly goes to, but this time, my initial impression was that Hive was referring to Malick. Hive essentially gave away Malick to Coulson's team in order to destroy them from the inside out. Or perhaps get information on what exactly they know about him and/or his plans for the future. That assessment was way off, and that's on me because I didn't give enough credence to the fact that Malick received a future vision of his own death. That bit, along with the callous murder of his beloved daughter Stephanie, colors his actions and speech with Coulson. He's defeated, resigned to his fate, and so the last piece of pertinent information he gives to Coulson regards Hive's growing influence on all of the Inhumans.

 

 

Hive will be regarded as a god to Inhumans, and as such, he has already influenced one of the members of the Secret Warriors, or perhaps all of them. There's no way for the original recipe team to tell who's been turned so the episode spends a lot of time isolating the Secret Warriors from their other teammates. This is a brilliant turn of plot: The paranoia over what might happen to the Inhumans has turned from being a public menace (the Watchdogs plot) to an inward conflict where none of the members of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team can trust the Secret Warriors team. Lincoln, Yo-Yo, and Joey can't believe that after saving all of them from certain death, S.H.I.E.L.D. is about to lock them up and isolate them. Captain America: Civil War hasn't been released yet, but I couldn't help but think that this will be how things play out as Iron Man and Captain America fight each other, causing a schism within the Avengers and/or the New Avengers. And since the episode largely confines everything to the S.H.I.E.L.D. base, it presents a palpable building tension and claustrophobia to what occurs. Hive can just sit back and let the good guys destroy themselves from in-fighting.

 

It's very insidious because each member of the Secret Warriors team has reason to distrust what the S.H.I.E.L.D. team is doing. The episode builds up some of the cross-bonds -- such as Elena's new admiration for how Mack is improving as an agent -- then proceeds to completely tear them down. It's really centered around Daisy, who has a hand in both teams. She still remains loyal to Coulson's cause, but is growing closer to the Secret Warriors team she herself created. Never mind her "romance" with Lincoln, an arc within the show that I never really believed in (partly because Lincoln is boring and they have zero chemistry together), but she sticks up for both Yo-Yo and Joey, and also, she rationalizes Coulson's actions due to her bond with him as a mentor. Daisy just doesn't recognize that Coulson's not in the best head space lately, what with brutally murdering Ward as revenge for his killing Rosalind.

 

 

It's a situation that spirals slowly out of control, even as Coulson tries his best to maintain order and stave off chaos. All of it brews with a nice tension and darkness that isn't altogether mired in its own misery. There are some light points: I liked how Fitz and Simmons recognize that their friends keep dying or are going dark (this show still misses Bobbi and Hunter, and what they brought to the table) in some way, and their bond is the only thing that is keeping both of them sane. The betrayal is slowly meted out until the truth is laid bare: Hive had somehow influenced Daisy to turn against everyone. Ironic, of course, that Hive would choose Daisy given that it still retains Ward's memories, and is now using that knowledge to have her subvert everyone. There's a reason why Hive still calls her "Skye," even though she hasn't answered to that name in a long time.

 

I didn't really want the episode to show what had happened for Hive to turn Daisy, perhaps for the show to keep that in its pocket for another time, but it was shown. Not showing the circumstances of her turn would have kept with the insidious nature of the episode's whole plot, and made her rampage on the base all the more impactful. There's the real possibility now that Daisy is the dead body floating in space in the flash-forward from earlier this season. Otherwise, this was a great episode that once again adds to the texture of the whole universe that's being built. This show was designed to service the films in the MCU, but many times, it seems very capable of telling its own outstanding kinds of stories separate from the films.