It's an explosive episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The action and suspense are cranked up as Hive pushes Dr. Radcliffe to perfect his experiment in turning humans into Inhumans. There is also another betrayal and major battle about to take place. If all that wasn't enough, we get a tie-in and connection to the events from Captain America: Civil War.
Warning: Spoilers for season 3, episode 20 of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., "Emancipation," will be discussed below.
The Sokovia Accords Arrive for S.H.I.E.L.D. Inhumans
Talbot and Coulson meet. It turns out the President is interested in enforcing the Sokovia Accords and is putting pressure on S.H.I.E.L.D. to comply. They may not know the full details about how many Inhuman agents they might have, but they're aware Coulson has some powered-agents under his command. The law now requires super-powered individuals to sign and register. This could lead to S.H.I.E.L.D. coming out of the shadows even though Coulson insists that's how they work best. The bigger question is what would the President and the other governments think about S.H.I.E.L.D. having several human-alien hybrids on the team?
Talbot Finally Visits the S.H.I.E.L.D. Base
Coulson is showing a lot of trust by bringing Talbot into their secret headquarters. He asks Talbot not to tell the President about the Inhumans. Not all Inhumans can protect themselves. He doesn't believe they should all have to register and be put on a list. To this, Talbot insists the Accords will protect everyone. The Inhumans will be put on a list, have their DNA registered, fingerprints taken, etc. When Lincoln hears, he immediately agrees to sign if it means he can be allowed to leave his current lock down situation. He's determined to find and save Daisy, despite the fact she's been swayed by Hive.
Hive Gets New "Volunteers"
Hive wasn't too happy to see Dr. Radcliffe's experiment to turn humans into Inhumans fail last episode. When it turned out they needed Kree blood, Hive summoned the Kree Reapers that created him, only to see them destroyed by S.H.I.E.L.D. Daisy agreed to give her blood for the experiment. To complete the test, Hive and James seek out and capture members of the Watchdog hate group. The result is a mixed success. The newly converted Inhumans possess incredible strength but are a bit deformed and mindless. Luckily for Radcliffe, this suits Hive's needs completely. Later, they're put to the test when a battle erupts at their location.
Lash vs. Hive -- to the Death!
Throughout the episode, Daisy had been secretly talking to Lincoln. Because she worked on the security system, she could easily hack her way into them. She works out a way for Lincoln to escape his room and get access to a quinjet that she would fly remotely. He kept asking if they could go off together, just the two of them. Daisy was misleading him by really bringing him to Hive. When the jet opens, Lash is inside instead of Lincoln. Working with May, Lincoln doesn't think Lash would hurt Daisy. He strongly believes each Inhuman serves a greater purpose, and Lash's is to kill Hive.
Hive's new Inhumans attack, but Lash easily takes them out. Daisy tries fighting against Lash, but she's too weak from having given so much of her blood for the experiment. Lash does zap her and sets her in the quinjet. Lash is then killed when James/Hellfire impales him with his charged up metal chain.
Daisy is Free
When Lash zapped Daisy, he said, "Now you're free." He was able to remove or kill off the parasites inside. When Lash was impaled, Daisy sent a quake blast at James, showing she was back to normal. She gets checked out at the base and is told she'll have some withdrawal symptoms, but is indeed free. It seems that Lash wasn't there to kill Hive, but instead was meant to save Daisy.
Thoughts
The show delivered another good episode. We knew Daisy wouldn't stay evilfor too long. As great as it was to see "Skye and Ward" back together, it just wasn't the same with Hive's evil agenda going on. They may have won a victory over Hive by rescuing Daisy, but there's still some bad news. Hive is planning on creating a shockwave that will turn a significant portion of the human race into his mindless Inhumans. This is why he obtained the nuclear warhead in Episode 14.
It seemed likely that Lash's purpose would be to face off against Hive. When he turned himself in, it felt as if there would be a final confrontation between the two in the final episode of the season. His death is unfortunate. Having a friendly Lash would be a bit silly. It's just too bad May has to suffer losing Andrew, again. At least this will give her even more incentive to try to kill Hive.
The addition of the Sokovia Accords with the Inhumans in S.H.I.E.L.D. is interesting. We'll have to see if they mention it again in these last few episodes or if it was just something used for this specific movie tie-in episode. As great as it would be for S.H.I.E.L.D. to come out of the shadows and get some recognition, it's like the President said in Episode 13, the public still isn't ready to accept them after HYDRA tore the organization apart.
We know a death is coming. There's only two episodes left. When Daisy came into contact with a certain Inhuman, she had a vision that lead to someone's death on board an exploding quinjet. With Yo-Yo giving Mack a cross at the end, things aren't looking too good for her or Mack. Hive is ready to unleash his scheme upon the world. We'll get the answers to many of our questions as next week marks the two-hour finale.