Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ‘Among Us Hide…’ Review

S.H.I.E.L.D. continues its hunt for the relentless killer of inhumans, Lash. Discovering his identity, however, may leave them questioning their alliances and falling victim to devastating betrayal.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Among Us Hide… opens immediately with tension and panic. S.H.I.E.L.D. has managed to rescue Dr. Garner from the explosion during the hostage situation orchestrated by Grant Ward. May implores him to recall what happened. He tells her how one of his students, whom they now know to be Werner Von Strucker (son of Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker, former head of Hydra), cornered him in the convenience store along with a team of Hydra thugs. He was saved from assassination thanks to a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent secretly tailing him and claims he was thrown clear from the building during the blast, leaving him with only minor injuries. Now knowing her next target, May reprimands Hunter for being so reckless, and insists that Coulson allow her to take over the mission, taking Bobbi along for support.

Daisy is still having trouble understanding why Lash hasn't gone after her even though she's a very active inhuman; a prime target for his rampage. Considering how he's always a step ahead, knowing exactly where S.H.I.E.L.D. goes to find the next inhuman, she suspects Lash to be Agent Banks, Rosalind Price's right hand. Hunter offers to help in their efforts, frustrated after being benched thanks to the Ward fiasco. While staking out Banks, eager to regain everyone's trust (but mostly still working through some anger), Hunter abandons stealth, walks up to Banks, and tranks him in broad daylight, much to the disapproval of Mac and Daisy. Once a blood sample is collected, they send it to Simmons to test for inhuman genetic markers. Despite negative results, it still makes sense to spy on the rendezvous point to which he was headed. Using one of Fitz's dwarves, they find a box being covertly delivered whose contents leave them horrified: it contains an inhuman, scanned and stored like a prisoner in a glass box. More surprising, however, is seeing Coulson with Rosalind Price overseeing the whole thing. Apparently, Price isn't okay with the procedure, but feels its necessary to keep the inhumans they round up contained and docile until they find a reasonable means of keeping them safe from the public and vice versa, or so she claims.

May knows the best way to get to Ward at this point is to go through Von Strucker. After narrowly escaping the explosion, Werner has sought refuge with Gideon Malick, who eagle eyed viewers might recognize as one of the council members conferring with Nick Fury in the first Avengers movie, evidently one of the secret heads of Hydra. In an effort to gain Ward's trust, Malick gives up Werner. May and Bobbi end up finding him beaten and tortured at the hands of Ward's henchmen. After dispatching them all in a thrilling display of femme fatale brutality, May holds Werner's broken body as he retells what happened during the hostage situation with Garner. With his dying breath he says, "We would've had him…if he hadn't turned into that thing!", revealing that Lash, the inhuman monster they've been frantically trying to track down, is in fact Dr. Garner!

Among Us Hide… did a great job of focusing on what was important. All the plot lines with May, Daisy, and Coulson culminated in the reveal of Garner's true purpose as Lash, finally giving everyone a common enemy, besides the usual struggle with Grant Ward. The episode was fast paced and skimped on the dull, preachy aspects that tend to slow it down.We got plenty of action and comedy, but more importantly the massive reveal could completely alter the course of the show in the best way. The Ward/Hydra plot gets old after a while. There are now bigger threats to worry about and it might be wise to let him build his plan into something more formidable while the team deals with the inhumans element.