The biggest problem with the third season finale of Agents of SHIELD is that it relied on several episodes of foreshadowing of a major death, and they literally picked the one character that the majority of the audience couldn’t care less about as the inevitable victim.  It hinged on the notion that the love story between Daisy and Lincoln was compelling, and because it wasn’t (and never was), the finale tried to soar and just couldn’t overcome that fundamental flaw.

 

 

Looking beyond the issues with that relationship, it was symptomatic of the issues with the whole “Secret Warriors” concept of the latter half of the season.  There never was a cohesive team of Inhumans for Daisy to lead, especially considering that she was constantly fighting to control herself while under the influence of Hive.  Characters like Lincoln and Yo-Yo had little or no opportunity to show how they could work as a team.

 

One can understand Chloe Bennett’s frustration.  She had a lot to carry in this season of Agents of SHIELD, and as the season comes to what ought to be a huge close, the show is largely an afterthought following the success of Captain America: Civil War and the shocking news of ABC’s dismantling of Agent Carter and Marvel’s Most Wanted.  She’s acting her heart out and trying to sell a relationship on-screen, and perhaps rightfully feels like she and her co-stars are being left out to pasture.

 

 

It doesn’t help that the story relies so much on the tragedy that befalls Daisy that other story elements seem to get much less time.  Wouldn’t it have made sense for Agent May to have a bit of a reaction to Andrew’s death in the previous episode?  She’s stoic, but she’s not that emotionless; we’ve seen that she just prefers to bury her pain to function.

 

The writers predictably used the FitzSimmons relationship and its recent successful consummation to tease the audience into wondering if one of them would end up being Hive’s victim.  While that was an interesting way to play with the echoes of the first season and what Ward did to Fitz in the wake of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it felt too soon to inflict that kind of emotional pain on the audience.  The net effect is that the two were part of the action, but their emotional elements were set aside for the next season.

 

 

As a villain, Hive started off promising but has turned out to have rather conventional goals in the long run.  Not only that, but his ability amounted to mind-control, and while the pre-existing dynamic between Ward and Daisy made it compelling, it’s not altogether different from what was done far more effectively on Jessica Jones.  And Agents of SHIELD was never going to be able to compete on that playing field.  (So in that respect, Chloe Bennett might want to consider that her show is not just competing with the MCU films, but rather, the Marvel/Netflix corner of the MCU as well.)

 

The finale ended on a time jump to the next phase of the story for Coulson and Daisy (the series is basically about them, after all), and while there are hints of a darker direction, it’s hard to see what the intentions are.  Daisy decided to get hot in gothic wear and finally go underground in allegiance with her Inhuman kin, and Team Coulson is chasing her down?  That’s pretty thin as a hook, and my concern is that Agents of SHIELD simply can’t keep up with its Netflix cousins that get to play in a sandbox that affords much more freedom.