Wednesday, May 4, 2016

The Geekcap: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "Failed Experiments"

Years ago, Kree soldiers captured a hunter-gatherer in the wild. They experimented on him by injecting their own blood into his system until he eventually underwent the first form of Terrigenesis as an Inhuman. In the present, the Inhuman became Hive, and he explains his origins to Daisy. In addition, he gathers remaining descendants of Hydra members who escaped the downfall of the organization. With these members, he plans to follow through on their dedication.

Back at the base, Lincoln asks May about any news regarding Daisy. May is less privy to talk about it to Lincoln since he was so willing to hurt Alicia to find Daisy. Lincoln insists that he wanted to find Daisy, but May reminds him that they’ve all known Daisy longer and didn’t fall apart like he did. Since they can’t trust him in the field swayed or not, he has to remains in the base. In the lab, Fitz and Simmons continue to experiment on possibly finding a cure for the parasite following their awkward encounters with Hive-swayed Daisy and Ward speaking as Will. Unfortunately, they find that any sample they would try on human DNA would result in death with no idea how it would affect someone like Daisy fighting back. The only way to truly test a vaccine would be to have an Inhuman to test it, leading to Lincoln volunteering himself.

Simmons: You’re right; I only had to listen to the disgusting face of Grant Ward pretend to be my dead boyfriend.

Fitz: Yep, yours is worse.

In the meantime, Coulson scans security footage until he finds Daisy in a small South Wyoming town now occupied by the military after the water was poisoned. Mack believes that if Daisy was caught on surveillance, she must actually want SHIELD to find her. Coulson, however, believes she’s leading them to a trap since she helped design the system to track people in the first place. Nevertheless, Mack retains some hope that, despite Hive’s influence, the real Daisy somewhere is still on their side.

Hive questions Daisy’s original partnership with SHIELD though Daisy says that SHIELD is there to protect people. Hive disagrees since SHIELD only creates weapons of war, something Daisy reminds him was the Kree’s intentions with them. She states that sometimes the greatest miracles happen by accident. He then explains that he was sealed by the Kree due to the connection he created among Inhumans which sparked fear of those with powers. In this world, only billionaires can create metal suits, and only the military can create super soldiers. Now, with Radcliffe’s experimentation, he can make everyone the same. Sadly, when Radcliffe fires the experiment, the remaining test subjects liquidate under the tampering.

Mack and May gather a team of agents to the location in order to take out Hive and possibly rescue Daisy. Mack informs the group that since they don’t know what they’re facing with Hive or the Inhumans, everyone, including May, will be equipped with some form of weapon to fight. May believes that Mack is taking the mission purposefully, an accusation Mack agrees with surprisingly. He believes that with Lincoln distracted with being accused, Coulson distracted with Malick, and him distracted with the absence of Bobbi and Hunter, there was no one to keep an eye out for Daisy after she changed. Now he plans to do something about it.


At the lab, Lincoln tries to convince Coulson, Fitz, and Simmons to experiment on him for a cure. Simmons is less willing to go through with it since if the experiment fails, his immune system may shut down killing him. Lincoln emphasizes that if there is a chance he should take since he understands the risks as a doctor. Coulson then forbids Lincoln from following through on the trial but first asks Fitz for his opinion. Despite agreeing with Simmons on the risks, Fitz believes that Lincoln should do what it takes. Simmons reminds him that Daisy would not want someone acting cavalier for her sake, but Fitz says Daisy has no choice in this.

Back in the town, Daisy hangs with James at a bar. She asks what made him leave off in a trailer, and he admits that he didn’t feel connected with the people in society. He then wonders what Daisy came from since SHIELD is out to stop them. Eventually, they’d come to stop her. Daisy replies that if the people at SHIELD will go through Hive’s plan, they will all be on one side. Neither of them would have to fight.

Meanwhile, Hive rebukes Radcliffe for the failed trials. Radcliffe admits that the blood he gave him was from the dead host rather than an Inhuman, so the trial couldn’t work. He reveals that the only way the experiment could work is if they had Kree blood, the same that created Hive. Hive suggests he could just kill Radcliffe and take over his body for his brains, but Radcliffe persists that he can make the experiment work if they had the blood. Hive then unveils the Kree artifacts placed together to form a machine. He tells Radcliffe that he will have what he needs soon.

Aboard the Zephyr One, the team prepare to examine the town. Although Coulson cannot be there in person, he will monitor the attack from their helmet cameras. Mack asks the director what they should do if their weapons should fail against Hive to which the director responds that they should run very fast. Back at the base, Fitz and Simmons meet over coffee. Fitz apologizes for taking a different position from Simmons. Simmons, however, states that if she was going to stay with someone who never disagreed with her, she would have stayed with her old boyfriend Milton. She then reminds him that their disagreements in work doesn’t have to affect their relationship outside of work. Before they continue, they spot Lincoln in the lab injecting the experimental cure into his system. Too late to stop him, the vaccine courses through his system, causing him to convulse and send the lab to a power blowout. Simmons offers to inject him with a counter-solution, but Lincoln refuses. He believes the cure will work.

Coulson: I suggest running…very fast…away.

May and Mack spot James entering a bar, recognizing him as the Inhuman in South Dakota, and decide that he would be the best place to start. May enters the bar posing as a Hydra worker questioning about the new developments. James reveals to her his powers and offers to discuss more with her, not without a little flirting.

Hive then meets with Daisy to evaluate her priorities. While she’s proven loyal to him, she was also made by SHIELD, and he wonders what she would do should SHIELD attack them. Daisy offers that if the experiments work, they wouldn’t have to fight, but Hive persists. Daisy then replies that she would rip their hearts out should they come after him.

Fitz and Simmons take Lincoln to the hospital bed and examine his vitals. Lincoln tries to appeal to Fitz, but Fitz throws back that Coulson ordered him not to try this. They are not on the same side here. Simmons then arrives to drill Lincoln’s brain for a sample. In order to find out if the cure worked, she needs to examine a tissue sample from his brain, something he would have known if he asked questions instead of acted rashly.

Back at the bar, May continues to talk to James about his abilities. James admits that he didn’t change as a person after transforming, but he claims that May could find out for herself. He reveals that Hive’s plan is to turn humans into Inhumans. He believes that the creature is now in the old mining facility outside town. With all she needs, May proceeds to knock James out and returns to Mack with the news.
Unfortunately, Hive introduces another wrinkle to the plan. He invited the ones who created him to the planet: the Kree. The team finds the Kree devices providing a radio transmission to call the aliens who destroy the facility immediately. These soldiers are not regular Kree but reapers, members of the race which abandoned their world and has been circling this solar system ever since. Daisy questions why he would do that since the Kree are the one thing that could destroy him. Hive understands, but this was the one way to ensure his plan could work. Also, he plans to face the ones who created him and, should it come down to it, rip their hearts out as she suggested. In the meantime, he entrusts her to gather the Kree blood needed for the experiment.

The Kree arrive and begin killing off the Inhuman guards, including Alisha. Mack and May stay behind, questioning what to make of these new players while the other SHIELD agents try to process aliens landing on Earth. In the long run, they realize, the Kree reapers might do the work for them. One of the reapers finally approaches the garage housing Radcliffe only for Daisy to fight back. She takes him on physically at first, then uses her powers to incapacitate him. Finally, she breaks his spine and orders Radcliffe to drain the creature of its blood. Hive faces the other reaper, his creator, elsewhere.

Agent Piper: Fricking aliens just landed. We're not gonna take a moment to let that soak in?

As Radcliffe begins draining the Kree, Daisy is confronted by Mack who says he came to help her while Daisy says she can help him by turning him into an Inhuman. Daisy insists that she doesn’t need help from SHIELD anymore, but Mack reminds her that they care about her, just like he does. Daisy then remarks that SHIELD only took them in because it could turn them, a hacker or a mechanic, into soldiers, and Bobbi and Hunter already left SHIELD because there was nothing worth coming back. For his best interests, he has to leave if he doesn’t agree. Mack instead removes his weapon and refuses to leave since he cares too much about her. Daisy finally states that while she cared about Mack like a brother, he could barely take care of the brother he had, touching a nerve. Still, Mack wants to help Daisy and decides the best way to do so is throwing a splinter bomb, destroying the Kree reaper. Distraught at the loss of the experiment, Daisy attacks Mack.

At the same time, Hive attacks the other Kree reaper. He matches the creature blow for blow, taunting that he is no longer the weak sample they tortured years ago. The reaper fires back that he’s just a failed experiment, a mistake, but Hive responds that sometimes the greatest miracles come from mistakes, echoing Daisy’s words.  He then uses his powers to kill the reaper. The team take this time to fire at the Inhuman, only to be shocked that their weapons prove useless. They are forced to run.
Daisy continues attacking Mack, using her powers to beat him as well. Mack refuses to fight his friend, but Daisy is proving ruthless. She mourns that they could have had a connection, but Mack persists that it isn’t real. She doesn’t want to do this. She then begins to rupture his chest, only to be shot at by SHIELD. The team take Mack back on an emergency pod, leaving Daisy in the hands of Hive.

The team recuperate at the base tending to Mack’s wounds. Simmons is shocked that Daisy would cause them, leading Mack to believe that they were right. Daisy is too far gone. Fitz then reiterates that Hive wants to turn humans into Inhumans despite the genetic markers preventing certain people from changing. They have no idea how he could accomplish this or how they could stop him. Meanwhile, Simmons also tends to Lincoln in a pod and informs him that the team arrived an hour earlier. Lincoln wants to talk to them, but Simmons reminds him that his immune system has shut down, leaving him vulnerable to every little infection. Now, he must remain on the base. Lincoln then asks Simmons to inform Coulson on the vaccine, but Simmons says she can’t since the vaccine proved useless. They have no cure for Daisy.


In the town, Hive reveals to Daisy the heart of the Kree reaper he killed, as they discussed earlier. He is less impressed that she let SHIELD get away instead of killing them, proving that her connection with them may be stronger than they thought. Daisy instead claims that she’s done with SHIELD since they attacked back but provides valuable information. He requires Kree blood for the experiment, and she has it: the GH-325 the team injected in her after she was shot. She offers herself to be drained as part of the experiment. 

S.H.I.E.L.D. Notes

  • “Only a billionaire can build iron suits, only a military can make super soldiers, which can only lead to a war of its own.” Looks like Hive was predicting Civil War this whole time!
  • Daisy references the GH-325 in her system. The drug was originally introduced and used in season one's episode "T.A.H.I.T.I." where it's revealed Coulson has the same drug in his body as well. Could there be a connection?
  • Briana Venskus who plays Agent Piper should look familiar this year. She also played an agent of the DEO in Supergirl!
  • Looks like May has officially taken the Calvary name as her own!

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