This week’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. featured Hive getting creepier for every single moment as we learn about Malick’s troubled family history while S.H.I.E.L.D. tries to learn more about their former enemy now being possessed by an even bigger evil.
I’m starting to sense that I may be in the minority when it comes to Malick as an antagonist as I’m still not really feeling this guy. The episode went deep into his backstory as a young man who backstabbed his own brother, Nathaniel, in order to not get sacrificed to the Maveth which took the victims to one evil: Hive. Is it weird that I found young Gideon more compelling than the older one? I don’t know if it’s the writing or the performance that Power Boothe delivers, but he doesn’t come off to me as an interesting villain. We even get to meet his daughter Stephanie and learn a little about his family life, but that still doesn’t do anything for me. Given how much flashbacks there for Gideon, I was 100% certain that the end of the episode would conclude with Hive, after revealing that he knew what he did to his brother, taking his life.
I was almost excited to see him go and maybe see Stephanie take his place, whether it be in a villainous capacity or just a follower of Hive. But unfortunately, instead of getting rid of the lack-lusting one, Hive kills Stephanie as punishment to Gideon and we are stuck with the old man. As if last week wasn’t horrible enough due to the death of SIX female characters on different shows, it had to continue here too. I get that I’m slightly nitpicking since this was just a minor character after all, but still, we are 5-6 episodes in on the second half of the season, and Gideon is still not working for me. The one thing that was a slight geek-out moment for me was the fact that, while we didn’t see the front side, we do see Hive reveal his true self as his head shapes into what Hive looks like in the books.
While Hive is having a blast, Coulson was having the opposite of fun as Ward’s “return”, but as Hive, started to torture him big time. I know the season has featured Coulson heading down a slightly darker path, but I actually appreciated seeing how much his action in the mid-season finale haunted him and continues to do so. I don’t mind a slightly darker Coulson, but I would have a problem if we continued to see him lose himself from who he used to be, all the way back in the Marvel films. Now I am just that more excited to see what it will be like for him when Coulson comes face to face again with this man because you can feel that it will be complex.
Last, but not least, the ending that sets up what I think has to be my most anticipated episode of the whole season as Daisy and Lincoln end up on their own when the team back at the plane are attacked. While it was no fun to see May all bloody and hurt, the moment when Lincoln reminds Daisy that she has more than one team as the Secret Warriors are about to be assembled. Next week can’t get here sooner because this is what I, and I’m sure many others too, have been waiting for since Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. started this season.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs on Tuesday nights, 9/8c on ABC.
[Photo: ABC/Kelsey McNeal]
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