This episode was mostly about showing us who Gideon Malick truly is. The man has spent his entire life building influence, power, and wealth. But deep down, at his core being, Gideon Malick is a coward. It all started when we got a look at the vision he received from last week’s Inhuman. We saw Malick disintegrating at the hands of, presumably, Hive. Even Malick himself believes Hive to be his killer. Judging by the effects that we saw in the vision, I’m with Malick. Hive is definitely his killer.
But the episode played with our expectations. We spent the whole episode assuming that Hive was going to kill Malick in front of the Inner Circle in order to prove his power. Instead all we got was a behind the head look at Hive’s true form. I couldn’t help but think of Cthulhu at the look of all the tentacles. I have to wonder if we’ll get a full look at him later down the line, or if for budgetary reasons that’s all we’ll get.
It was through the flashbacks that we got a closer look at who Malick is. It all started when his father died. He and his brother, who we’ve never heard of until now. were summoned by one Daniel Whitehall. It was interesting to see Reed Diamond reprise his role, despite the faux German accent. Guess he hadn’t acclimated just yet… or discovered immortality. But through the flashbacks we began to understand that because their father was a coward, Gideon was adamant about being better than his father. As his daughter constantly told him, his mantra was “man up.”
Funny then, that under all that is the nature of a coward. Malick used the exact same method his father did in order to avoid becoming a traveler; someone sent to the Hydra planet to become a vessel for Hive. Instead, conveniently, his brother was sent. It was there we kind of understood what was going on. With all that was being said about Hive retaining the memories of his hosts, Malick’s brother had to be in there somewhere.
And lo and behold he was. That was one of the more interesting scenes of the episodes and I have to give props to Brett Dalton’s acting as I got something almost akin to warmth and sadness coming from him as he communicated with Gideon. But as Hive stated, the scales needed to be evened. A sacrifice had to be made. Malick was ready to die, but Hive still needed him. After all, Malick is the one with all the power, money and influence. So Stephanie, Malick's daughter, had to go. Thankfully we skipped right past the creepy relationship idea and straight to the part where he killed her.
On the other side of the episode, we had SHIELD digging into what was going on with Hive and an agricultural planet that they seemed to be suspiciously interested in. My assumption is that whatever research they found in that planet will eventually be used to defeat Hive. It was put there for a very specific reason, so it has to wrap around eventually.
There was also a short plot involving an Australian “Inhuman” and a Kree artifact that looks oddly like the Power Infinity Gem housing from GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. I seriously doubt that it houses a Infinity Stone of any kind, but maybe this is the weapon that can be used to defeat Hive. There are a few options at least.
And the Secret Warriors are finally coming into play! It’s nice that we’re getting to them before the finale. The situation set up by the events this week, with the capture of most of the SHIELD team, will lead to some fun action next week that I’m really looking forward to.
Written by Peter Freeman, TV & Animation Writer -- Click here to read Peter's posts
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