MARVEL’S AGENTS OF SHIELD: “ABSOLUTION”
REVIEW
This is our review of the first of the two Agents of SHIELD episodes that aired on May 17th. Click here for our review of the second episode, “Ascension”
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
The penultimate episode of Season 3, “Absolution” had some interesting material while also including some exasperating moments.
A big problem here was Daisy feeling so awful and guilty when what she did, on a TV show level, didn’t seem to warrant it. Yes, “She betrayed and tried to kill her friends” is a big thing to say in the real world, but for her to have this level of onscreen guilt, it felt like she needed to have done something truly traumatic – like say succeed in killing at least one of her friends. Or anyone innocent, really. She killed that Kree warrior, sure, but he arguably was a threat on his own. Bottom line, her nearly soul-crushing guilt just wasn’t earned based on what happened.
That being said, I did like her big moment with Mack (their partnership and friendship has been a sweet aspect of the show). Lincoln meanwhile deciding SHIELD wasn’t for him fell flat because Lincoln himself continues to be a cipher.
Early on, SHIELD had a problem with pushing the humor too far or at times when it felt out of place, and that vibe occurred here with Fitz’s bit in the mo-cap suit. The idea is amusing, but it went so over the top that, especially given the “Hive could end all human life!” scenario, it just didn’t work. Better was Fitz nearly embracing Talbot or Radcliffe’s over-enthusiastic “Yes! Woo!” when they felt they’d won (and I’m glad John Hannah is getting some better moments as the character continues to stick around).
Hive getting zapped by Lincoln and then having trouble with who exactly he was (moving between the different people he’d absorbed) was a cool scenario, and Brett Dalton did well showing Hive losing it, in a very un-Hive like way, as we see glimpsed of Ward, Will and Malick’s brother pop up.
In the midst of this, the Inhuman “Primitives” continued to feel really goofy – even though I appreciate the attempt to do a live-action take on the Alpha Primitive concept from the comics.
The episode ended on an interesting note though, as Daisy found Hive and actually begged him to take her back. While her guilt felt overplayed, the idea that she (and everyone else under Hive) feels an addiction to the happiness he gives them has been established, so this is a nicely build up turn of events.
The Verdict
The penultimate episode of SHIELD: Season 3 had some issues, as Daisy’s overpowering guilt felt out of sync with what we’d actually seen her do under Hive’s control – in fact, the ending scene made me thing they should have simply played up the addiction aspect more as far as her wishing to be back with Hive. Still, we’re now going into the SOMEONE WILL DIE hour of the show and I must admit to being pretty curious about who that is…
