'Agents of SHIELD' S03E12 Recap: Marvel Trades Inhumans for Mutants & Centers on Hive : MStarsNews

The first Marvel Cinematic Universe series, Agents of SHIELD, has been greatly focused on Inhumans since last year, delving deeper into a little-known studio property and they're turning them into the new mutants, taking some of the X-Men's ongoing issues with society. Also in this week's S03E12, Hive's powers are explained further and they're terrifying, as shown in this spoiler-filled recap.

By the beginning of the episode, we see the new head of the ATCU, returning character General Talbot (Adrian Pasdar) having a heated discussion with his wife, Carla (Raquel Gardner) over their son, though we don't hear much at that point as it's shown from afar. This happens at an airport, where the team has been monitoring Talbot because he won't answer to calls; eventually, Director Coulson (Clark Gregg) catches up with him and briefs him about an international symposium in Taiwan to discuss Inhumans, and their intel shows current HYDRA head Malick (Powers Boothe) will have an inside man there.

At this point, Creel (Brian Patrick Wade), the guy who's not actually an Inhuman yet absorbs the qualities of every material he touches. The team fights him off and Lincoln (Luke Mitchell) nearly electrocutes him to death, though ultimately we find out that he works with Talbot now as a security guard, though nobody on the team trusts him, especially Hunter (Nick Blood).

Still, they bring Creel in to the base, as they want to examine his blood since he's the only known human who has survived Terrigenesis.

via GIPHY

In any case, Coulson and Talbot head off to Taiwan, with Coulson in disguise as SHIELD is still something of a black ops organization. Because the world representatives want to be in a safe environment, there are no guns allowed and no aliens, either, so Daisy (Chloe Bennet) and Lincoln stay behind, though Creel comes along for the ride as well as the rest of the team.

Once undercover Coulson and Talbot reach the venue, the general is suspicious of everyone, while the relationship between the two gets increasingly hilarious.

The world delegates are pretty terrified regarding Inhumans, a new brand of people they don't understand, and keep referring to them as "aliens." During the symposium, Coulson, who's posing as a CDC expert on out-of-Earth genetics, explains the correct term is "Inhumans," as they're more human than anything else and only have a distant relation to aliens, but it's clear what Marvel's doing: the X-Men conflict has been passed on.

In the X-Men comics and films, it's always been shown that there's a lot of tension between humans and mutants, as some members of the government (and different groups of people in general) see them as a threat to society. Seeing as the cinematic rights to X-Men are in fact owned by Fox, Marvel has traded this attitude towards the stranger for a new brand of powered people: the Inhumans, now everywhere after the events of season 2. Also, just as it happens with mutants, some while some Inhumans are proud of their heritage, others have turned to self-loathing for it.

One of the self-hating Inhumans in SHIELD is Lincoln, who gets into a big discussion with Daisy, who's very "Inhuman and proud" as opposed to his more fearful approach. When Fitz-Simmons (Iain De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge) look into Creel's blood and add it to Daisy's, they discover it could contain the key to an Inhuman vaccine, an idea Daisy is totally opposed to, seeing her powers as a blessing instead of a curse, and she and Lincoln get into a big discussion over how people should have the chance to choose whether or not they want to go through Terrigenesis.

Ultimately, they agree to disagree.

via GIPHY

Back in the symposium, the Russian representative says he's up for the creation of a new haven for Inhumans, where they can all be together, something that strikes Coulson and Talbot as dangerous as it would give Malick too much access to them, as he's still recruiting.

In the middle of the vote for this Inhuman zone, Malick himself turns up, says Coulson is in fact the director of HYDRA and has him arrested: it turns out Talbot had been the inside man all along. The general wasn't turned, however: HYDRA has his son in custody and could kill him with the touch of a button, so he had to go through this without saying anything.

The team finds out Talbot's son was under custody and that had to affect his judgment right before Malick showed up, but they were unable to get through to Coulson. Unsurprisingly, Malick, being the head of HYDRA and all, stabs Talbot in the back and sends his minions to kill him and Coulson, but Creel shows up to save the day.

They recover Talbot's son and has Malick followed by Hunter and Bobbi (Adrianne Palicki), who end the episode on a plane to Russia, spying on the head of HYDRA, wherever he's going ... maybe to find Hive? In any case, this might be the first set up for the planned spinoff Marvel's Most Wanted.

Wherever HYDRA has Hive (the creepy Inhuman from Maveth, played by Brett Dalton), the fact is that, after weeks of recovery, his body isn't getting better: the walking corpse of Grant Ward is weak and filled with marks, including that of Coulson's mechanical hand in his chest. Before heading off to Taiwan, Malick tells Hive that they could find another fitting body for him, such as one of an Inhuman; it turns out he cannot use the body of one of his own. Still, he sends out his new minions, the first Inhumans of his army, to get him five healthy humans and, on what might be the most disturbing scene since Agents of SHIELD began, he begins spreading his powers around and terrifying screams are heard right outside the room where Hive's staying.

When we get back to this powerful Inhuman, his health is fully restored and there are five bloody skeletons around him: somehow, Hive sucked the life out of these people, destroying them as he did with the civilizations of Maveth.