Agents of SHIELD S05E05 Review: The Story of Fitz

Agents of SHIELD, Season 5, Episode 5: Rewind

This is an interesting episode. In the third season, one of the most memorable episodes was "4722 Hours", an episode where Simmons, displaced through space to land at another planet, has to survive and find a way to get back to her team. In this episode, "Rewind", it is Fitz that is the other member of the pair to find himself displaced -- in time instead of in space. After being abducted by actual government people, and being left behind by whoever abducted Team Coulson, Fitz is interrogated by the government while SHIELD is branded as traitors. The first act spends mostly around Fitz trying to figure out what's going on from the confines of his cell, eventually managing to contact an old ally by sending messages to a soccer magazine... namely, Lance Hunter.

Poor Lance has had his TV show, Marvel's Most Wanted, cancelled before it could air, but apparently the adventures all happened offscreen anyway. (Plus, the crew of SHIELD is currently the most wanted people thanks to the actions of LMD Daisy last season) Lance manages to break Fitz out, and the two of them try their best to figure out what's going on with their allies, as well as provide a brief analysis of Fitz's mental space -- he's haunted by the things he's done in the Framework as a Hydra supervillain. This seems to be the theme of this episode -- that even good people are capable of some darker stuff, and sometimes that darker side is necessary especially when you're working as a secret agent.

Through one way or another, Lance and Fitz meet bargain bin Uatu the mysterious alien Chronicrom anthropologist called Enoch, an alien who spends his time on Earth to watch the history of our species for the past 30 thousand years, refusing to interact with humanity beyond observation. Enoch will only observe unless an extinction-level event threatens humanity, and someone called 'the Seer' has predicted it. Enoch being this mysterious all-powerful immortal is one who has abducted Coulson's people and sent him to the future, and is implied to be the one to have supplied whatshisface in the future with all  the prophecies as well. Oh, and he's the one who's able to freeze everyone, explaining Team Coulson's disappearance.

It's a neat little tie-in to season three that Robin Hinton (who I almost forgot until Fitz recaps the episode that his dad appeared in) turns out to be the Seer, with the little child's prophetic crayon drawings being particularly spooky. After stealing a bunch of resources from the military base and regrouping with Enoch at the bottom of a lighthouse (get it, lighthouse?) and leaving behind the cryptic postcard, Fitz puts himself into cryo-sleep for 74 years, waiting for the apocalypse in the confines of Enoch's satellite. And that's presumably when Enoch wakes Fitz up and snuck him on board the future!Lighthouse to bid on Quake, Destroyer of Worlds. Enoch is a pretty interesting character due to his unwillingness to aid anyone unless it's part of 'the prophecy'. Interesting how this will happen moving forwards.

And while Fitz is now in game and we can continue the Lighthouse plot, I'm curious if the post-apocalyptic future is necessary at all -- five episodes in, and I'm genuinely already bored of the Lighthouse and I went "aww, must we come back? I liked the setting of this episode". Thankfully, it seems that the show has a bit more to offer in the present-day stuff, as Talbot's replacement, General Hale, executes the two officers in charge of Fitz's imprisonment in cold blood. She's totally going to be a future antagonist, isn't she?

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Lance Hunter returns, last seen in the third season of Agents of SHIELD, with their supposed spin-off being cancelled before it was even aired. Apparently he and Bobbi have been fighting ninjas, which may or may not be the same ninjas as the Hand. 
• Polly Hinton and Robin "Seer" Hinton last appeared in the season three episode "Spacetime", where Robin's father, Charles Hinton, was a future-seeing Inhuman that was the focus of the episode. The events of that episode are briefly mentioned by Fitz and Polly.