Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 3.17: "The Team"

“Oh no, Mr. Coulson, it is a God. It’s just not ours.”
-Gideon Malick

“The Team” was a major plot turning point for the third season of “S.H.I.E.L.D.” The Secret Warriors were called together, but we learned that having an Inhuman army might be dangerous for even more reasons than the obvious. It’s the first time we’ve seen our superpowered friends work together in a mission situation, and it was a lot of fun, even if things went south quickly afterwards. The full extent of Hive’s powers becomes more clear, and his need to keep Gideon around becomes less clear. FitzSimmons seem to be happy, which is a plus in my book. Sad FitzSimmons makes me sad, so it makes sense that happy FitzSimmons would make me happy. I just hope that they stay that way, because I’ve reached the end of tolerating road blocks for them. Overall, I’m really intrigued to see where the final stretch of episodes is going to go after this one. Can the S.H.I.E.L.D. team withstand another (under duress) betrayal?

This episode begins not long after the last one left off. Daisy and Lincoln are flyng their plane to pick up the other members of the Secret Warriors – Joey and Yoyo. Joey and Yoyo are both in the middle of their regular lives (Joey on a date and Yoyo about to step on a bus) when their smart watches activate and they realize they have a S.H.I.E.L.D. mission. Daisy and Lincoln don’t have much time to brief the rest of the team before they’re all parachuting into the underground Hydra base. Meanwhile, Malick and Hive meat up with Giyera at the compound, and the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team holes up in Zephyr One. They’re trying to defend themselves against Lucio and a bunch of his Hydra goons.

The Secret Warriors arrive on the Hydra base, and Yoyo and Joey immediately head for an elevator. When the elevator doors open again, they are met by a Hydra squad that they quickly dispatch (well, it’s mostly Yoyo who does the dispatching). Daisy reunites with the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team as Lincoln blasts his way through another group of Hydra goons. He also manages to find Malick in the midst of the chaos. On the Zephyr One, FitzSimmons have rigged up a device that disburses chorine gas to further incapacitate the Hydra goons. Guyera hits Joey, but Daisy manages to knock Giyera out. Joey recovers and stabs Lucio, but not before Lucio freezes Lincoln. Joey is also pretty traumatized by having to stab Lucio. Yoyo frees the S.H.I.E.L.D. team, a still injured May heads to the Zephyr’s cockpit, and they escape. After the Zephyr leaves, Hive reassures Giyera that all is not lost – they have “one on the inside” now.

The Secret Warriors congratulate themselves on a successful first mission and nurse their wounds while Coulson tries to talk to Malick. Coulson is hoping Malick can tell him more about Hive. Malick is through covering for Hive, and he tells Coulson that Hive killed his daughter. Malick warns Coulson that much worse is coming. He says that Coulson shouldn’t put his trust in the Inhumans, because the Inhumans can easily be turned by Hive. Those who come under his influence serve Hive faithfully. Malick also suspects that one of the Secret Warriors has been infected by Hive and really serves him. In response, Coulson tells Mack to quietly put the base on lockdown.

Lincoln, meanwhile, is examining the orb that he and Daisy took from James’ cabin in the last episode. Daisy confronts him about bringing the Terrigen crystal along on that mission without telling her, although she does admit that ultimately it was the right call. Mack tries to explain a bit more about S.H.I.E.L.D. to Yoyo, including a history lesson on the S.S.R. and showing off weapons they use that aren’t designed to kill. It’s pretty clear that there’s some attraction between Mack and Yoyo. Each has made a concerted effort to learn the other’s language, and they have improved significantly since their last meeting. FitzSimmons are busy examining Lucio’s body. They notice that the body is still warm and has some trace metabolic activity, so they place it in quarantine.

Coulson tells the rest of the team (other than the Inhumans) about his conversation with Malick. Fitz is a little skeptical that they should be listening to Malick at all, but he and Simmons are willing to try and come up with a test to see which, if any, Inhumans are infected by Hive. Daisy walks in on this discussion but doesn’t hear anything about Hive being able to infect Inhumans. Coulson tells her the lockdown is because Malick is aboard, and Daisy informs Coulson that it was Joey who killed Lucio. Yoyo is especially frustrated by the lockdown, being suspicious of authority as she is. Lincoln looks for Joey, but he can’t find him. He then decides to go administer some pain medication to May, who really doesn’t want any. Daisy confesses to May that she realizes she’s being asked to lie to her team about the lockdown, and she doesn’t like it. May assures her it’s for a good reason.

Coulson goes back to interrogating Malick, encouraging him to get revenge on Hive as he (Coulson) did on Ward for killing Rosalind. Meanwhile, Mack is watching all the Secret Warriors on CCTV, and he finds himself becoming rather suspicious of all of them. He worries that he’s seeing things that aren’t there. As FitzSimmons are conducting an autopsy of Lucio, they discover his brain has turned black. When Coulson is informed about the infection, he suggests freezing all the Inhumans temporarily, but before that can be done, the lights go out. In the resulting chaos, FitzSimons find a grenade that earlier went missing. It explodes next to Malick’s corpse, so he will clearly not be doing any talking.

Coulson and some S.H.I.E.L.D. agents manage to surround all the Secret Warriors but Joey. The tension rises just as Joey reappears, and the group locks themselves in a room so S.H.I.E.L.D. can’t get to them. They all start suspecting each other, but they eventually agree to make their way to an elevator. As Daisy leads the Secret Warriors to a containment unit where Coulson happens to be waiting, Coulson comes to suspect Lincoln has been turned because the orb is among his belongings. A fight breaks out at the containment unit, and Daisy uses her powers to knock Lincoln out. The Secret Warriors are all going to be kept in containment until FitzSimmons can run some tests. Coulson wants to disband the program altogether, but Daisy promises they will be stronger next time.

FitzSimmons, in a room by themselves, express their frustration that they can’t be of more help to their Inhuman friends. Eventually, they kiss. Fitz apologizes, but Simmons says she doesn’t want to waste any more time, and they kiss again. Like I said earlier in this post, happy FitzSimmons makes me happy. In other relationship news, Daisy breaks out of containment and goes to see Lincoln. She tells Lincoln that she wants to break him out of containment so they can run away from S.H.I.E.L.D. together. Lincoln thinks that’s a bad idea, and he realizes Daisy isn’t acting like herself. In a flashback, we see that Hive has indeed infected Daisy. Daisy says she’s happy and that Hive has filled her emptiness. She’s also responsible for killing Malick. Lincoln says he wants nothing to do with Daisy’s plans, so Daisy leaves the containment unit, grabs the orb and some Terrigen crystals, and causes a massive earthquake at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ before leaving.