Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD Recap And Review – “Paradise Lost”
We last left our Agents of SHIELD compatriots reeling–and that’s not even from the Grant-Ward-is-still-alive reveal. Where does this week take us? Well, let’s see!
Not-So-Short Summary: It’s 1970 and we’re seeing Gideon and Nathaniel Malick after their father’s death, attempting to ignore Daniel Whitehall’s beckoning. They meet him in his SHIELD cell and he tries to convert them to his ways of Hydra.
He tells them to look for Paradise Lost in their father’s study. Turns out their father rigged the drawings for the traveler lottery to the mystery planet so he was never chosen. The Malick brothers throw the stone away.
Flash to now as Malick returns to his homestead to greet his daughter…and Hive. Who is calling the inner circle together. Part of me hopes there’s carry-over between this inner circle and the one on Marvel’s Agent Carter, but there’s sixty years between the two.
It turns out Malick saw his own death in that last episode. His killer was Hive. Wait, did I guess that? I did! I suppose we’ll have to see just how it unfolds. Malick’s daughter Stephanie tries to tell him that he can change Hive’s mind, remind Hive how important Malick is, but that’s not really a thing you can do. Hive does believe that Malick’s daughter is very central to the future.
The inner circle gathers and doesn’t believe Hive is who he says… because he looks like Grant Ward. “You’ll all get what you deserve,” he says ominously. Then he reveals himself, tentacles and all.
He gives Stephanie a copy of Paradise Lost that shakes Malick to his core. As it turns out, Malick kept their father’s stone and ended up sacrificing his brother to the lottery. Of course Hive has those memories and he and Malick have a conversation. It’s neat to see Brett Dalton turn on the innocent child-side and play off of Malick’s guilt and cowardice.
Hive still needs a Malick by his side. He kisses Stephanie and we think it’s the end for Malick–but it’s Stephanie who gets the short end of the stick. Hey, I kind of called that, too!
Meanwhile, Coulson is ticked that Ward is alive. FitzSimmons is studying one of the corpses Hive decimated, fully understanding that the Ward they saw onscreen was It from the other planet. They discover the tiny organisms Hive sends out to “burn” the corpses, and Simmons wonders whether or not it could reanimate dead flesh. She also discovers that he doesn’t control the organisms they found on the corpse; he is the organisms.
SHIELD is doing their thing and dividing their efforts: Daisy and Lincoln are hunting down an old Inhuman friend from Afterlife. His name is James, he has a Wolverine vibe going for him, and he has land minds planted all around his property, one of which Daisy steps on.
They get to talking and James unloads a ton of information on the Inhumans’ history, most of which I couldn’t type fast enough. He mentions the first Inhuman who was so powerful that Inhumans banded together with regular humans to ban him from the earth. He gives them some sort of Kree artifact he stole from Jiaying, and they take off before giving him a Terrigen Crystal. Too bad he doesn’t know about the fish oils, I guess.
Daisy and Lincoln open up to each other (more way down below), and Daisy gets to take a weight off her shoulders. “I don’t know when, but someone on our team is going to die,” she tells him.
The other half of SHIELD heads to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (WOOOOO!!!) to see what they can find and what links this GMO farm to Transia from last episode. Giyera arrives and they lock him in an empty room with May. What follows is the usual May badass-ness that happens at least once per episode. She ends up kicking him in a not-so-nice place before knocking him out and taking him into custody.
Naturally, Giyera escapes and beats everyone up because he’s a low-budget Jean Grey. He takes control of the plane, but not before May gets an SOS to Daisy and Lincoln. Daisy freaks out because their whole team is on that plane. Lincoln points out it’s not their whole team…
They’re calling in the Secret Warriors. ABOUT TIME!
Post-Credits Stinger: Back at Malick’s homestead, Hive gives the good news about the SHIELD plane, but Malick doesn’t care. He just lost his daughter.
Badass Moment of the Week: Daisy using her quakes to explode all of the land mines on James’ property.
Best One-Liner: “So Hydra’s in the oil business now? It’s like they’re not even trying to avoid the bad guy cliches,” Coulson says.
For those who are curious, Nathaniel Malick was played by Joel Courtney, the main kid (Joe) from Super 8, which is a movie I absolutely love. It took me a minute to recognize him since Super 8 was 2011 and he’s obviously aged.
I still don’t care about Daisy/Lincoln, and I wasn’t a fan of her ultimatum, but it was nice to see Lincoln open up about his past… even if it involves heavy drinking, fighting, and pretty much killing his old girlfriend until Gordon poofed in to save her (and him, too).
Next week’s Agents of SHIELD gives us our first look at the Secret Warriors assembled together, but it might not be as awesome as it seems. You will also probably have a guest writer as I will be missing my second-ever Agents of SHIELD recap to attend Game Four of the Detroit Red Wings versus the Tampa Bay Lightning.