With Captain America: Civil War coming out in a few short days, there is a sense that Agents of SHIELD is holding its breath, waiting for the moment to delve into that film’s broader implications.  Many of the characters take a moment to consider their choices and motivations in this episode, sometimes against their own best interests.  It’s hardly a new position for our regulars to be in, but it does have the potential to be eclipsed rather readily by the massive events about to unfold.

 

 

The episode itself is chock full of references to Civil War, from the observation that humans have a bad habit of turning on each other, comments about certain avenging folks, and an actual civil ear back in the earliest days of the Inhumans.  Hive has some issues with the Kree as well, which is only part of the long litany of self-serving thoughts that Hive happens to share.

 

Hive has apparently been watching The Incredibles because his plan is essentially similar to that film’s villain Syndrome: giving everyone powers and abilities, thus eliminating the fear that powered individuals generate in the mundane populace.  This is thematically meaningful to the overall concept of Civil War, and has been echoed in plenty of other MCU productions of late (Daredevil’s second season, for example).

 

 

Of course, it just so happens that if everyone who survives Hive’s plan has powers thanks to being Inhuman, and guess who has the ability to control Inhumans?  It’s an obvious ploy, especially since just the possession of powers does not magically create equality; some powers are far more useful than others, and Hive trumps all of them.  And because Daisy is under his control and riding high on the notion of peace-via-Inhumanism, she’s willing to go all in to make it happen.

 

Daisy’s current arc is particularly creepy and soul-crushing because she has spent the entire series to date gaining control over her own identity and agency, only to have it slowly but surely stripped away by degrees under Hive’s influence.  Unless she has been playing Hive all this time, she’s ready to die to give Hive access to the Kree blood that he needs.  I doubt this is where Daisy’s story will end, but it’s hard to see her in this current state.

 

 

Hive and Daisy are hardly the only ones making questionable decisions.  Lincoln injected himself with an antitoxin that he knew might kill him just to have a slight chance of saving Daisy.  Sorry, Lincoln we haven’t had three seasons to see your relationship with Daisy develop, so it just doesn’t have the intended impact.  Mack’s foolish attempt to save Daisy was no less ill-advised, and yet it felt more earned than anything Lincoln might have done.

 

And then there’s FitzSimmons.  It figures that they would have a bad argument right after coming together as lovers, but they pulled it through to remain the solid counterpoint to everyone else’s doubts and fears.  I suppose, even having seen them as a destined couple all this time, I still managed to underestimate their ability to stand as one, even when they disagree.