Agents of Shield: S3 E12 "The Inside Man" 3/15/16

Coulson, his new partner Talbot, and the team head to an international conference on Inhumans. While those back at base analyze a potential game changing Inhuman vaccine. And stuff happens with Ward/Hive.

Better episode than last week IMO. The best part is the odd couple team of Coulson and Talbot; I’m really looking forward to their interaction. Talbot comes off as a bumpkin but he’s not. He might not be sophisticated but he’s no dummy. Creel could be a nice foil to the rest of the Scooby gang. Plus there’s his whole blood thing.

Lance Hunter: Buon appetito.
Bobbi Morse: I love you.
Melinda May: I don’t hate you quite as much.

And the end scene with Ward/Hive was unnecessarily gooey, but it gets the point across, I guess.

Loved the crack about Talbot’s haircut:
“No one would willingly do that to their hair”

Daisy’s extreme reaction to the possibility of a vaccine seemed pretty forced - so she now believes anyone with Inhuman genes is required to go through terragenesis? The whole scene struck me as being put in just so she and Sparky could have makeup sex.

Talbot was great though.

Did we get a clear sense for why Creel was so loyal to Talbot?

Nope. Talbot claims the things Creel did was because he was brainwashed by HYDRA and it took months to fix him. Maybe we’ll get more info in the future.

For now, one easy fanwank might be that he felt grateful to Talbot for fixing him. He as a criminal, “from the streets” as Talbot says. That doesn’t make me believe that he was a good guy before HYDRA got hold of him, but maybe he REALLY didn’t like HYDRA’s mind-redecoration, and has a chip on his shoulder about it. Talbot doesn’t strike me as the sort to give the, “I trust him with my life” kind of trust, easily.

Creel seems pretty menacing when Fitz-Simmons questioned him in the containment cell, but he was probably pissed, and we needed to believe he could be a bad man, so that scene played it up.

Talbot is becoming more than a stick-up-his-ass military stereotype, which I appreciate.

Can someone familiar with the comics tell me what Alien Ward’s powers are supposed to be?

Unclear at this time. Hive of Earth 616 is completely different from Hive of the MTVU. Think “absorption,” as shown in this episode. Those particles that Hive can send out can also be sent with great speed, making them an adequate projectile weapon.

This is my gripe too. She keeps talking about inhumans like they’re some persecuted people and she has this long-standing history with them. Bitch you’ve been inhuman for like 2 seconds quit acting like these are “your people”. I can understand wanting to protect them from being hurt because you’re the good guy, but you’re like the damn white kid in the black school arguing that the white man is trying to keep his people down.

I feel like a bad fan, but can someone give me a Cliffs Notes as to why Talbot is a thing?

The gov’ment realizes that Shield is good, so they are still in business, but why not just make them black ops? Also how is Coulson “technically you’re boss” to Talbot? What does he even do?

After Hunter presents his hidden weapons stash;

Bobbi to Hunter: “I love you.”
May to Hunter: “…I hate you less.”

Talbot is the head of the ACTU, which is for the public. POTUS put SHIELD (and Coulson) in charge of the ACTU behind the scenes.

In the comic books, Talbot was Gen. Thunderbolt Ross’s subordinate, and spent most of his time hunting the Hulk. The character was actually in the first Hulk movie (the Eric Bana one) but died. I don’t think that movie is supposed to be canon to the MCU anyway.

On the TV show, back in season 1 when SHIELD was revealed as being permeated by Hydra agents, Talbot was basically put in charge of dismantling it. That’s why he and Coulson have a history. The President now trusts SHIELD and Coulson, but can’t say anything like that since the public has no reason to trust them. The President was shown to be kind of weasely in IM3, so that’s in character. So instead, he assigned Talbot to be head of the ATCU, but covertly put the ATCU under Coulson’s SHIELD.

Awesome. Thank you both.

See, this is why I need to binge watch more shows, my godawful resume can’t keep up with these midseason breaks

I liked how Talbot described wearing a dress. What was it, things are all loosy goosy or jiggly?

Something like that.

Minor question: if Malick never had any intention of giving back Talbot’s son, why did he bring the goo-crate to the conference at all?

Also, what kind of hotel/resort has rooms that can be accessed only by the guest? Are they expected to do their own housekeeping?

my take on the deal was that Malick would deliver the crate to Talbot on successful capture of Coulson - he had to bring the crate with him to keep Talbot playing along.

So now we can replicated faces and hands, how soon until we have Life Model Decoys?

New converts are often the biggest fanatics.

What do you think the Koenigs are?

brothers.

Missing.