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

The way ABC was marketing this evening’s Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD made it sound like our mystery agent was exploding in space tonight. Alas, two more episodes before we get to that particular one.

Not-So-Short Summary: SHIELD is recovering from Daisy’s destruction, which doesn’t seem to be horribly damaged after all of those quakes. But Coulson suffered a broken leg and Daisy jammed the hanger doors shut. Coulson gives a pep talk about how Daisy is still part of their team, not working under her own free will.

FitzSimmons sciences the crap out of this situation: Hive’s parasite pumps Inhuman brains with dopamine that makes them feel invincible and they are almost invincible, aka they can’t knock Daisy out with icers. FitzSimmons find someone who might have a cure, so they and Mack are headed to Bucharest, Romania to a black market on up and coming technologies.

It’s fun to see FitzSimmons dressed up for once. And Fitz looks fantastic in those glasses. Just saying. They take some time to finish their conversation from the prior night…in a super science-y way. Basically Fitz thinks that if they sleep together, things will get exponentially messy. So they decide to stop thinking about it and go for it… before they get whisked away to see the Doctor.

They have to implant their cybernetic eye in a live human before they can even see the Doctor. It’s okay, because it’s the Doctor with an avian eye and Simmons doesn’t fall for the trick. Their cover is blown anyway and while Simmons gets taken away, Fitz fights his way into staying to get the Doctor to work on a cure for Hive’s parasites.

And then Daisy and Hive show up. More on that in a bit.

On the other SHIELD-front, Coulson believes Hive and Daisy will be after Alicia, our multiple Inhuman person. (Five bucks says it’s one of her doubles on that spaceship.) Lincoln tags along, but under one caveat: he has to wear a murder vest that May will detonate if Hive infects him. He does it, but I also side with May’s anger about the situation and the double-standard of being willing to take down Lincoln but unwilling to take out Daisy.

Lincoln tries to talk to Alicia first, but Hive and Daisy were already there and after some fun fighting with May, she willingly sacrifices two of her clones to Hive’s greater cause–because the main Alicia is with Hive and Daisy.

Daisy meets up with Hive at one of her old hangouts. She also corrects her name (and trust me, it’s tough to type Daisy and Hive instead of Skye and Ward) and they weirdly bond over whatever they are now. It’s just a weird thing in general.

Daisy and Hive head to James’s place in the middle of nowhere because the Kree artifact he gave them is missing its companion. He’s chatting too much, so they smash a Terrigen crystal to turn him and his transformation is explosive. Anything he touch surges with power and then explodes, and for a brief moment, I was extremely excited in thinking he was Gambit. Then I remembered mutants can’t exist in this cinematic universe.

He gives them the other half of the Kree artifact, which was buried under his house. What is it, you ask? “The only thing that can destroy me,” Hive utters.

Coulson and SHIELD track major seismic activity in South Dakota, only to have their own Captain America: The Winter Soldier moment where they cower underground while the building around them explodes. Coulson even pulls out his own Captain America shield that comes straight out of his hand. Seriously, it has the SHIELD logo and…just look at it:

Back on the FitzSimmons SHIELD front, Skye takes the Doctor, then has a talk with Fitz. She says to stop trying to save her, she finally has a family, and the next time they interfere, she’ll snap his neck. Simmons encounters Hive, who channels his inner Will (it’s creepy and all props to Brett Dalton). Simmons shoots him three times in the gut. “I always said I’d shoot Ward,” she tells Mack when they’re back at their rendezvous point.

And when Mack is unloading equipment back at the quinjet, FitzSimmons takes the plunge! Hooray FitzSimmons! It’s appropriate that it’s on a mission with Mack, since he dealt with the whole Bobbi/Hunter relationship.

“We’re about to take down Hydra’s infrastructure. Wanna watch?” Coulson asks May. They watch multiple streams of Talbot and others taking down all of the rest of the heads of Hydra, thanks to Malick’s intel. It should be a good day

Post-Credits Stinger: Dr. Radcliffe is bonding with his new Inhuman companions when Hive says that this is where it all begins, where he will redefine humanity, permanently. He bought them a hotel with Malick’s fortune!

Badass Moment of the Week: May’s fight with one of Alicia’s clones, specifically the part where

Best One Liner: “Are you drunk?” Daisy asks James when she tracks him down again.
“Well, I’m Australian, so…yes,” he replies.

It took me until the post-credits stinger to realize who Dr. Radcliffe was–it’s Jonathan from all of The Mummy movies! It bugged me the whole episode.

Okay, I’m not all for Lincoln desperately needing to find Daisy and get her back, but that was a really cool effect, the electricity running through him. The lasso effect when he’s fighting is also a good addition and makes for a more dynamic power, rather than just a lot of arm-stretching and hand-pointing and hoping the effects look good.

Part of me wonders just how doomed FitzSimmons is now that they’ve finally become a thing. It’s a Whedon show (well, it’s in the family). These things usually don’t end well. They’ve done so much to them already, why can’t they just leave them alone?

Next week’s Agents of SHIELD episode looks to be even more intense. And it looks like we’re getting legit Kree?! Now that’s something I want to see!