Welcome to the Legion!

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From failure comes success. Or, at the very least, some form of it. We learn so much from our failures (sometimes) because it shuts down avenues of possibility. It’s a “When one door closes, another opens” kind of thinking. But then there are those who have yet to experience such failure and have yet to know what could happen. Then there are those who fail to learn what good came from the experience. That’s what Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. explores this week in “Failed Experiments.”

This week’s episode visits the possibilities of failed actions and relationships, and suggests that neither end up becoming the missteps as previously thought by the characters affected. Hive is considered to be a failed Kree experiment , but only in the sense that he didn’t turn out to be the kind of warrior/soldier they wanted him to be. But when finally faced with a Kree Reaper (yes, live Kree make their debut this week), Hive gets to show how much of a success this failure can be by melting the alien’s face off. Daisy takes this type of lesson and tries to apply it to S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s failure in creating a deadly spy out of her: It created her, forced her to be something she wasn’t. From this, she wants her former teammates to go through the re-hashed Kree experiment just so she can show everyone what a successful relationship really looks like.

What Daisy fails to realize, thanks to Hive’s infectious love connection (see last week’s review), is that a truly successful relationship comes with some bumps and bruises (a.k.a. failures). In her argument with Mack, she tries to show him that nothing he believed in was really what it seemed. To her, through Hive’s reasoning, S.H.I.E.L.D. is a menace whose function breeds more war and death; there’s no room to facilitate real relationships such as family and friends. She even goes as far as bringing Bobbi and Hunter into the argument, and why they really left. Daisy also admits that she saw Mack almost as a brother, but then adds his failing to actually fulfill that role to either her or his own brother, Ruben. According to her, there was still a gap in their relationship. Of course there is. Gaps in a relationship only mean that there’s more room to grow from there, but I don’t think Daisy knows that now that she’s completely consumed by Hive’s infectious ideologies. That type of relationship might as well be the equivalent of unending success without the consequences. That in itself is the downside. No real bond is forged between Hive and his subjects, it’s manufactured. Hive doesn’t allow failure or missteps, if he can help it. With a method so rigid, something (or someone) is bound to snap.

On S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s end, Fitz-Simmons are struggling to find a cure that doesn’t kill any of Hive’s Inhuman lackeys, or at the very least, completely shut down their immune systems. So far, there’s no success partly for the fact that they need to experiment on a live Inhuman. Lincoln, shaded and upset over Daisy, impulsively injects himself with an antitoxin and nearly dies because of it, thus bringing himself even lower than he already was (physically and mentally now). His actions did not reap the desired effect, but like with Kree creating Hive, there might yet be a success in there somewhere. We just don’t know what it could be yet.

Everyone else gets their own moment in the spotlight during an assault on Hive’s recently bought town, although I thought for sure the majority of the strike team (the ones who are given names and just enough personality to set them apart from the extras) were going to be red shirts. I don’t know why I keep forgetting that May is an all-around badass spy. We’re so used to her acting as “The Cavalry” that it’s refreshing seeing her play a role such as that of a starry-eyed Hydra employee eager to meet Hive. She charms bombs the hell out of James (a.k.a. not-Gambit) just enough to find out where he’s currently holed up. As soon as May gets the info, she promptly knocks James out with a single hit to the noggin using a billiard stick. She also acts as the voice of reason when Mack’s feelings for Daisy begins to supersede the mission to take Hive out.

Mack gets his moment too when he faces Daisy, unarmed. Thankfully, the writers choose not to immediately knock him out. Instead, Mack tries to appeal to the side of Daisy who still cares for her friends at S.H.I.E.L.D. Despite knowing that she’s currently on Hive’s side (and that she’s being controlled by his parasites), Mack persists in the belief that their bond is stronger. Consequences be damned! But there’s not swaying his former partner. He quickly figures this out when Daisy nearly crushes him with her powers. Mack may have failed bringing back his friend, but their discussion does allow him enough time to disintegrate a captured Kree body, resulting in an important loss of a viable source that would have made Hive’s experiments more successful. At the same time, however, this puts Daisy even more at risk when she offers herself as tribute — Hive needs fresh Kree blood to keep his test subjects alive while transitioning, and Daisy is now the only person who can help with that.

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Failed Experiments” is the best exploration of Hive this show has given to us so far. Not only do we get a proper origin sequence, but we also get a sense of what he hopes to achieve. He clearly sees himself as a messianic figure, the harbinger of true peace. He sees his actions as necessary steps to helping the world as a whole by ultimately eliminating the divide between humans and Inhumans. His critique of established organizations such as S.H.I.E.L.D. sounds noble enough. He argues that S.H.I.E.L.D. exists to do violence. By removing such causes to endless bloodshed, one hopes to achieve world peace. But remember what happened to Maveth? There used to be life on that planet there until he came along. Sure, he may not have used the same methods he’s using on Earth now, but his destructive tactics caused the planet’s civilization to collapse on itself and die out. He may now have a seemingly endless supply of Inhumans to dip into to further his cause, but if Daisy and Mack’s resolve is any indication of the relationship between humans and (Hive-controlled) Inhumans, Earth will only meet the same end as Maveth.

FINAL THOUGHTS: 

  • Even though Daisy shows some compassion for her former teammates at S.H.I.E.L.D., this week confirms that she is all-in with Hive. In other words, she’s already a true believer who is willing to give all of herself to the cause.
  • Fitz: “You didn’t see Daisy. She acted like we were still the best of pals, all while threatening to murder me.”
    Simmons: “No you’re right, I didn’t see that. I was much too busy listening to the disgusting face of Grant Ward act like my dead boyfriend.”
    Fits: “That’s true. That does sound worse.”
    Simmons: “Right. If this was a competition, I would win. I had to shoot him three times just to shut him up.”
  • Mack: “Maybe he’s hoping to form some type of creepy-dude alliance.”
  • I very much appreciated the Raiders of the Lost Ark face-melting. The breakfast settling in my stomach did not.
  • I’m a little surprised the Kree debuted here and not in the MCU-proper, such as maybe Guardians of the Galaxy, considering they have such a huge presence in outer space. But whatevs. I’ll take it where I can get it.
  • The artifacts are actually two pieces of a beacon that calls to the Kree stationed closest to Earth. The Reapers, designed only to eliminate “mistakes,” are Kree lackeys that were kept in stasis somewhere in space. Last week, Hive said this was the only device that could kill him, believing his creators still had the strength to do him in. However, he proves this week that is no longer the case. Ruh-roh.
  • WHO ELSE IS PSYCHED FOR CIVIL WAR THIS WEEK?!

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Christina E. Janke

Christina is the co-host of “Intro to Geek” on Shauncastic and Editor-in-Chief at Agents of Geek. Her love of all things Mass Effect knows no bounds. She also carries an obsession with comic books, video games, and quirky television shows. Her heroes are Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Gail Simone. She hopes to be just like them when she grows up.