Agents of SHIELD, Season 5, Episode 14: The Devil Complex
Oh, wow, this episode is actually good. Having members of a pre-established cast of heroes fight each other can be banal and repetitive and even not make much sense if the show doesn't develop the time or bite the bullet to really build up the conflict between the characters. Just look at season six of Arrow and its poor attempt at an internal 'civil war'. Here, the episode ends with a definite "things won't ever be the same between these characters again" feel ,and you know what? I actually believe it. The things that Fitz does in this episode is so horrific, yet Fitz truly believes that he's in the right... but at the same time, he doesn't actually begin the process of betraying Daisy on his own. Not really.
The second season of Agents of SHIELD started off with a brain-damaged Fitz constantly interacting with Simmons when Simmons isn't actually there, with the huge reveal at the end of one of its earliest episodes showing that the "Simmons" is actually a hallucination.... but that twist arguably didn't really manage to serve any huge purpose other than to punch the audience in the emotional gut. Here, the whole presence of the Fear Dimension and the reappearance of older foes trying to trick our heroes into doing some horrible things makes the audience (and Fitz himself) easily accept that the Doctor, Fitz's evil Hydra persona from the Framework, is another in a series of returning characters that are given temporary life via the Fear Dimension. Add that to Fitz's season-long angst about how he's finding it easier and easier to act the villain due to experiencing a lifetime of being a supervillain while in the Framework, and it is definitely a natural progression that made the huge twist really a huge punch to the gut.
Throughout the episode, everyone is fighting against what they thought to be the Doctor, attacking them in their own base. A robot sent to attack Mack, Elena and Simmons; camera blacking out in a sub-level; the Doctor whacking Deke in the head; and best of all, the argument between Fitz and the Doctor that happens halfway through the episode. The Doctor keeps telling Fitz that he will do what "needs to be done", which, upon a repeat of that conversation with the final revelation, makes a lot of neat fun Fight Club-style "ooooh" moments.
Because the Doctor never really manifested from the fear dimension, and everything that the Doctor has been doing is done by Fitz himself as his subconsciousness manifests himself as the Doctor, desperate to restore Daisy's Quake powers inn order to get her to close the Fear Dimension, despite everyone else being pretty afraid of the whole time loop scenario where Quake breaks the world. And even then, while the Doctor straps Daisy down to a painful-looking operating table and begins to dig out her power inhibitor without anesthesia, the revelation that, no, there aren't two Fitzes -- there's only the real Fitz, and he's been arguing with himself Gollum-style all episode long -- is pretty awesome.
And what makes the huge "shattered team" story work well is that Fitz continues to proceed on the path that the Doctor had laid out for him out of his own free will anyway, ripping out Daisy's power inhibitor with full knowledge of the pain that he's causing one of his oldest friends (although in the same vein I kind of wished we had more Daisy and Fitz actually interacting in any of the recent episodes), and also surrendering himself immediately after the crisis of the fear dimension is dealt with. Fitz notes that, yes, what he did is probably unforgiveable... but at the same time, he acknowledges that he does everything by his own free will. Perhaps one of the better moments is when Fitz is in his cell, full of self-loathing, a neat mirror of his state in episode four of this season when he notes that his being left behind is because of his crimes in the Framework. Fitz even notes that it was his own doing that has caused the rift between him and Simmons this time around. "Just like you don't deserve me?" Simmons asks, and Fitz in all his guilt and self-loathing can't muster a proper answer. He's trapped in this state where he isn't even sure that he's even still a good guy anymore. Iain de Castecker has been impressing me with every successive season, and while Agents of SHIELD doesn't have a shortage of strong actors, this episode probably solidifies Castecker as easily the show's MVP from an acting standpoint.
It's at this moment of broken vulnerability and confusion that Simmons learns from Deke of his parentage, probably the best way the writers could've inserted this revelation... and that fact -- that if the time loop is maintained, Simmons and Fitz will survive and be married long enough to have a daughter on board the Lighthouse, is enough of a beacon of hope to poor Simmons. It's an interesting bit where characters like Elena and Simmons are actively trying to prevent the 'bad future', but at the same time their survival in the bad future also is what keeps them going.
Oh, and this being a very jam-packed episode of Agents of SHIELD (thank god for the previous episode being in a lighter pace, huh?), there's actually a fair amount of things going on with the rest of the cast too. Hale's new Hydra finally makes its proper move against Coulson, with Hale letting herself be kidnapped so that she can contact two members of her new supervillain team -- Carl Creel/Absorbing Man and Anton Ivanov/The Superior -- to free her in order to get some proper negotiations with Coulson. It's a pretty neat and tense stand-off as both Creel and Ivanov threaten to blow up the Zephyr, since both of them can survive the blast with their powers (Creel can turn into metal, Ivanov has additional bodies). This ends up with Coulson going along with Hale as her prisoner, although to be fair, Hale's mission statement about "fuck Hydra" and that what they're going to discuss is about the safeguarding of Earth itself against a common threat is actually quite convincing, and might actually even be the truth.
Overall, one of the best episodes in the series, I have to say.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- The fear dimension manifestation in this episode is the possessed-astronaut form of Hive that we first saw him in in season three. The Doctor, Fitz's Hydra persona in season four, also makes its first proper return after being foreshadowed all season long.
- Dr. Franklin Hall, the inventor of Gravitonium and the "villain of the week" in episode one, is finally mentioned by name.
- Anton Ivanov returns from the previous season, and has a brief callback to Coulson's mockery about him about his "cool origin story".
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