Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 3, Episode 18 Review

As Agents of SHIELD hurtles towards its third season finale, the big bad Hive puts his plans into action - now with the help of Daisy, the Aussie guy and...urm...nope, can't remember her name, sorry. If there's one thing I can praise about this over-arching narrative its that Brett Dalton is really, really good as Hive. The way he subtly alters his performance when he's accessing different people he's absorbed over the years really works. His vocal performance and posture really differs Hive from Ward, helped no doubt by his very evil-looking long coat. If I'm honest, I can't talk about the story-line itself very much, although I can't help but get X-Men vibes from it.
Chloe Bennet seems to be the only actor in the show who's able to get across Hive's influence though, and the further exploration of how he's controlling the Inhumans helps to explore a possible moral conflict between humans and Inhumans in future episodes.
This episode seemed focused on showing Fitz and Simmons' relationship - one that's been teased for a long time now - which if I'm honest didn't satisfy me as an audience member simply because I just don't find their relationship worth investing in. I don't like Simmons as a character but I like Fitz, so I can't say it grabs me to see an episode focused so much on them. Not that I hated this part of the episode, its just that it didn't appeal to me that much.
Anyway, their mission was to seek help from a bio-chemist trying to artificially create super-humans in his bar/lair/place that reminded me a lot of a scene from Pacific Rim. Where did this plot-line go? Well, Hive kidnapped the bloke and took him to a town he's bought...for reasons as of yet unknown.
Oh, and Hydra apparently got destroyed in this episode. Urm...I'm assuming its not for good, otherwise that was a bit of a naff ending to three seasons of Hydra.
And Coulson has a SHIELD shield. Awesome.
Overall, "The Singularity" was a very solid entry into this third season of Agents of SHIELD with some strong writing but little actually happening. Part of me wonders if I should reserve judgement on this episode until I've seen where this season is going with its ongoing narrative, but for now I'll give the episode an 8/10.

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