NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” are present in this review
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. delivered a sublime episode last week in, “Watchdogs”, and amazingly, the following episode was just as excellent in pretty much all respects! Like, “Watchdogs” from last week, “Spacetime” didn’t really have any noticeable weaknesses. It was a clever storyline with thrilling execution, and a result that was both shocking and tragic for many personalities across the series. Yet again, this series is currently standing as one of the best action-adventure shows on television right now, even with its rocky beginnings to consider, and that’s fantastic!
With Mack out of commission, and absent from this week’s episode, the storyline now primarily shifted to Daisy, who is called for on a 911 dispatch call by someone who comes into contact with a homeless man, where he sees a vision of the future that demands the presence of Daisy Johnson. After the team goes to investigate, HYDRA inevitably shows up, with the witness already having seen his fate as he’s killed in the crossfire, and the vagrant, revealed to be an Inhuman with the power to make anyone he touches foresee a death with him, is snatched by HYDRA’s Inhuman-grabbing machine. Right as he is though, Daisy manages to graze his hand, which is when she sees the all-important vision that founds the entire episode.
This created a brilliant device for an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode, as the team debates whether Daisy’s vision of the future can be changed, especially when it looks pretty grim for several members of the team. The scene of the team immediately accepting prophetic visions due to the many other weird elements of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that have already come into play is pretty funny, though Coulson does make the logical choice afterward, by preventing Daisy from leaving the base, and instead sending May on the mission to find the homeless man, since May was the only one that didn’t appear in Daisy’s visions, if we don’t count Mack.
Daisy tries her best to rehearse May, with some help from Fitz, Simmons and Lincoln, in the layout of her vision, which would theoretically give her an advantage when May infiltrates a HYDRA building, revealed to be owned by the same company that made the technology used by Fitz in the forging of Coulson’s prosthetic hand. It’s an uphill battle though, and it ends up being moot anyway, as none other than Andrew eventually stumbles into the base, desperate to see May, and to turn himself in.
While this feels like a holdover element from earlier in the season that’s simply rushing to be wrapped up long after the story has played out, it was satisfying to have May get one last moment with her husband, as they make peace with each other, and Andrew admits that he wouldn’t change a thing about meeting or marrying May. May rushes out right as Andrew changes into Lash, despite the attempt to use Simmons’ prototype Inhuman cure, and the result has Andrew seemingly permanently turned into Lash, forcing him to be confined forever. It’s a very tragic moment, and nicely complemented an effectively tragic episode.
Since May has to deal with Lash, Mack is incapacitated after the events of last week, and Bobbi and Hunter have gone, Coulson has no choice but to send Daisy on the mission, securing the future that she wishes to change, despite Fitz claiming that changing the future is impossible. This comes shortly before they hack into the security footage in the building, and get a quick glimpse of none other than Ward! Alright, we know it’s Hive simply inhabiting Ward’s body, which Fitz somehow immediately notices (you’d think that Simmons would be the one to point it out, after her time on Maveth), but still, it upped the stakes for the team, and showed them exactly what they’re up against, just in time for them to have sent Daisy and Lincoln into what appears to be certain doom.
Speaking of Hive, he had yet more standout scenes this week, as he helps Malick acquire the company behind Coulson’s prosthetic hand technology using a quite literal hostile takeover, even killing the board members after they sign over the company. Already, it feels like Hive is an even worse threat than Ward ever was, and after Coulson enters the scene to bail Daisy out of an unceremonious death, in a part of the vision where she believed that Coulson shot her, it was awesome to see how well the show portrayed the simultaneous fear and confusion for Coulson’s character, after he sees exactly what Hive can do.
Things culminate with Daisy managing to get to Malick, and nearly being killed by him, after he gets a bit of an exoskeleton boost, though the homeless man saves her life at the cost of his own, and in the process, shows Malick an unknown vision of his death in the future. As the man dies, he makes Daisy promise to look after his daughter, Robin, in another cool tease for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Secret Warriors to come, even though there isn’t anyone from Marvel Comics lore’s Secret Warriors with the name, “Robin.” Things then end with Fitz and Simmons holding hands, as Daisy saw in her vision (are they finally cutting the crap and just getting together?), and of Daisy accidentally touching the man again as he dies, seeing a vision of the same mysterious spacecraft from the future glimpsed in the midseason premiere last month, albeit now with blood, suggesting that someone (Daisy?) has died on the craft, right as it burns up in the atmosphere. Could Daisy’s days be numbered?
Regardless, “Spacetime” was a fantastic episode, and one that beautifully blended the show’s action-thriller flavouring with a distinct sense of Marvel Universe existentialism. The great strides forward with the seasonal arcs were all the better, as May finally seems to say goodbye to Andrew/Lash for good, and both Malick and Daisy seem to foresee an apparent doom for themselves. Best of all however is that Coulson has borne witness to the supposed new and improved Grant Ward, now the vessel for the monster known as Hive, and as he says, the day (and the season), is going to get a lot weirder for him now!