Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD Recap And Review – “The Inside Man”

The Inhuman action slows in this week’s episode of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, but that doesn’t mean there’s a lack of action. Plus we get a very terrifying look at Hive part of its powers. Forward!

Not-So-Short Summary: Back on Simmons’ mystery planet, we see Coulson kill Ward once more, only to find the raw version of Hive sweeping over Ward’s body with its tentacles. Flash to now where Hive is reminiscing through Ward’s fading memories before Malick’s cohorts bring in the Medusa Inhuman.

Said Inhuman freezes everyone in the room, including Hive, but it’s only some of him. It freaks out Medusa Inhuman and Hive’s parasites envelop him.

Unfortunately, Ward’s body isn’t getting any better, so Malick offers him anyone else. Hive reveals that he cannot inhabit Inhumans; Grant Ward will serve his needs until they’re ready. He also needs five humans. Alive. Sounds a little creepy, but let’s see where it goes.

“They will serve the greater good,” Hive utters before smothering them all with parasites. Are we dealing with Gellert Grindlewald here or Apocalypse? Either way, it seems evil and pretty darn fun. More on that in a bit…

Almost everyone in SHIELD is headed to a political symposium in Taiwan regarding the Inhuman outbreak. Coulson wants to know if any of the countries involved are harboring Inhumans and to find out which of the other dignitaries is in Malick’s pocket.

As Coulson and Talbot try to get friendly with each other, Carl Creel shows up. The Absorbing Man is back! He’s tailing Coulson and Talbot. Lincoln and May come in to take him down, but Talbot freaks out: Creel is there to protect him! Hunter’s not a fan, having watched Creel kill two of his friends in front of him; however, there’s no way around keeping Creel in their custody because Talbot won’t go with him.

Plus since Creel is a science experiment and not an Inhuman, they’re not technically breaking any of the symposium’s rules. Coulson and Talbot head to the symposium where Coulson gets the handprints of all the dignitaries to break into their locked rooms. It’s kind of a sneaky move; he has his right arm in a sling so that everyone is

Coulson gives a grandiose speech about Inhumans, defining how they define themselves to the outside world. It’s interesting to see the different perspectives of what dignitaries see when they see Inhumans: Yakimura says it’s an arms race, Petrov wants them all in one place in his country, and King doesn’t like the idea of the Inhumans all in one place. It all ends up leading to a vote on whether Russia will have a sanctuary for the Inhumans in its backyard.

Of course, Hunter has left his post and discovered Talbot’s son in an Inhuman tank, calling out that it’s a trap too late in the game. Creel knocks out Hunter, Talbot gives up Coulson, and Malick waltzes into the summit, proclaiming Coulson as the head of Hydra. It turns out Talbot was the inside man the whole time thanks to some nice blackmail.

Malick spins the entire situation into Coulson doing experiments on Inhumans, claiming to want them all in one place, basically everything Malick actually wants. Now the entire consulate is on his side and he has both Talbot and Coulson imprisoned and about to be killed.

That’s when Creel shows up and takes down the guards. Coulson and Talbot make a run for it, meet up with everyone else, and make a plan to find Talbot’s son…only to have May pull up in the truck that has him in the back.

Back on the Bus, Coulson has a feeling that Malick’s still reporting to someone higher than him…

That’s when we go back to Hive, who has taken the lives of those five humans to repair Ward’s body. Terrifying.

Post-Credits Stinger: Malick is meeting with Petrov to set up the Inhuman sanctuary, but below, stowed in the cargo bay, are Bobbi and Hunter.

Badass Moment of the Week: That baton throw, table slide, and double-kick to the torso by Bobbi all in one nice swift motion.

Best One-Liner: “You don’t get to kill people in cold blood, but we do have a good retirement plan,” Coulson says in an attempt to persuade Malick’s hired goons into working for SHIELD.

Runner-up goes to “Call me Glenn. …Occasionally.”

I still don’t care about Daisy and Lincoln. I mean, seriously. Does anyone? However, with the big discovery that Creel’s blood can potentially put an end to Terrigenesis (only to those pre-transformation, not to those already transformed), we see Daisy and Lincoln on opposite sides of the debate.

Lincoln is for the vaccine, Daisy against. Both bring up good points, but I personally am more inclined to side with Lincoln in this. He might be a hothead in other situations, but he did live the majority of his life surrounded by Inhumans waiting to be chosen and not just thrown into the mix, unaware.

And then they shove Daisy/Lincoln down our throats again. Oh well, I suppose I should be used to it by now.

We do get a quick moment between May and Hunter where she says they aren’t actually friends (not surprising, they don’t have a lot of one-on-one time). For a moment, it felt like a set-up for that Bobbi and Hunter spin-off that’s in the works, and it might still be, but it looks like future episodes hold more weight for that setup.

Next week’s Agents of SHIELD looks more intense than usual, with more Inhuman action, and promises of more strife and emotional warfare. Bring it on!