“Failed Experiments” is episode nineteen of season three of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
In the previous episode, “The Singularity”, whilst Coulson was trying to find Daisy, General Talbot was taking down HYDRA. Something he had wanted Coulson to be more active about. It seems that Gideon Malick had actually given S.H.I.E.L.D. the information about HYDRA before Daisy killed him in “The Team”. They hadn’t got all of Malick’s assets – they didn’t know that Hive had access to almost a billion dollars of them first. Which he used to buy a town (although it’s surprising how quickly doing something like that would burn through money). Hive probably doesn’t care about HYDRA any longer anyway – they did what he wanted, brought him back.
This episode opens with a primitive hunter running through some jungle, when he sees something that scares him. He runs away, but is caught by two large blue men. The hunter was Hive, and the hunters are Kree Reapers. Hive is narrating what happened to him when the Kree captured him to three, presumably important, people from HYDRA, survivors of what happened to the organisation following Malick’s sharing of information.
Hive wants to recreate the Kree experiment that created him. Doctor Radcliffe, despite being kidnapped in the previous episode, is a willing helper, because this is just what he always wanted to do. Hive plans to create Inhumans from normal humans, something that has not been possible so far. And, indeed, still hasn’t worked – the experiment fails, messily – one of the several experiments that fail in this episode. Radcliffe says that he needs DNA from a living Kree. In the process Hive reveals why the Kree artefacts that James had could destroy him.
Fitz and Simmons are working on an antitoxin that will hopefully be able to help Daisy, and the other turned Inhumans. However, to test it they need an Inhuman. So Lincoln, who is getting desperate to help in some way to get Daisy back, volunteers. Given the dangers of the experiment, Coulson vetoes the idea. So Lincoln, naturally enough, injects himself with the antitoxin anyway.
Daisy has been spotted in the south Wyoming town that Hive purchased on security cameras. Coulson believes it’s a trap, because Daisy is a trained spy and knows just how the system works. Mack thinks it’s deliberate on Daisy’s part; that inside her, a part of her still wants to be rescued. Coulson disagrees, but he’s sending a team to the town anyway. Their mission isn’t to try and rescue Daisy, but to attempt to kill Hive. If they can.
No clip following the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo at the end of this episode. A first?