Agents of SHIELD S05E12 Review: Fear Dimension

Agents of SHIELD, Season 5, Episode 12: The Real Deal 

This episode is the 100th episode of Agents of SHIELD, although I certainly didn't know it at the time of watching. And even as a standalone episode or an episode taken as part of a whole season, it still works really well, as much as it feels like a weird distraction or a side-quest from the main "stop Quake from cracking the world" time loop storyline. The bomb that General Hale sneaked into SHIELD and killed Noah also ended up causing the creation of a weird portal to a strange dimension that serves as an excuse for the show staff to crack out their CGI villains for some cameos that don't require them to hire additional guest star actors some of the worst villains the team has faced in the past.

It's a pretty great episode as we get to see a lot of fun faces from the past. Deathlok, Lash, Hive... the action scenes are pretty fun, too, although the main focus of this show is clearly Phil Coulson, the character who ends up causing the whole spinoff series to exist in the first place. Coulson ends up revealing to the group that his deal with the Ghost Rider is a simple one -- the Ghost Rider has burned out all of the alien blood that has been keeping Coulson alive, which is why he's slowly dying from the wounds he suffered on board the Lighthouse. And while May and Daisy perhaps rightly call out that Coulson made the wrong deal, and that he's being needlessly reckless due to his "I am dispensable" mentality, it still manages to be a touching scene when Daisy confronts Coulson. She doesn't want or care that Coulson is ready to hand over SHIELD to her, she doesn't want her father figure to die.

The climax of the episode, with Coulson facing off against the fake Mike Peterson who challenges COulson about the fact that everything from the beginning of the first season isn't real, that it's all a hallucination that Coulson has been making while on the deathbed after Loki stabbed him -- with fake Mike Peterson lampshading the increasing absurdity of Agents of SHIELD's premises and how it seems to be fulfilling all of the 'holes' Coulson had in his life, making him out to be a hero and a member of a close-knit family... it's a very fun and interesting bit. Sure, the audience and the rest of the character knows it isn't the case -- no show has ever pulled off "by the way it's all a dream" -- but will Coulson, the character, buy it? After all, faced with his mortality, he could definitely be swayed by this. Of course, he's not, although the show makes a really fun little moment that made me think that they're going to write Coulson out of the show... the real Deathlok shows up to assist Coulson in helping to throw Fitz's device into the fear dimension.

Deathlok's arrival (also agent Davis, but I genuinely forgot he exists) herald that SHIELD isn't just going to be our half-dozen people. Deathlok isn't going to stick around because he apparently has his own missions (buh-wha?) but it's definitely an interesting nod to the allies that Coulson and SHIELD has made over the years. They don't actually do much with the actual character of Deathlok in this episode, though.

The other big event of this episode is, of course, the marriage of Fitz and Simmons, which was the whole mission that they sent Deke out to the real world to do. It's something that's been a long time coming and honestly feels more cathartic than anything. I do really like the fact that Coulson lampshades that they need to get this wedding over with before some huge catastrophe (i.e. the writers) decide to rip these two star-crossed lovers apart once more, which is hilarious and also had me holding my breath throughout the wedding for something to happen.

Oh, speaking of which, we get the huge revelation that Deke is Fitz and Simmons's grandson from the future, which he realizes when he bought a ring that reminded him of his mother's ring, and when he hears Simmons say something that his mother says. It's definitely an interesting wrinkle and sort of makes me care more about Deke as a plot device, I guess? I dunno. Deke isn't a particularly endearing character, but at least the writers seem to have an idea what to do with him that (maybe) justifies the huge amount of screentime the character has gotten since his introduction.

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Returning characters from past seasons that are brought into reality by the 'fear dimension' include the Inhuman Lash (from season 2), Hive in his true form (season 3's main villain), L.M.D. Simmons (from season 4) a bunch of Vrellnexians and Kree warriors from this season. Oh, and Deathlok returns both in the flesh and as a hallucination. The title card is a combination of every single variation of the title card that the show has had over its five-season run. 
• Agent Davis, last seen as one of the agents who got brutalized by Aida during the climax of season four, is revealed to be rescued by Deathlok off-screen. 
• We get a lot of callbacks to Coulson's revival, the running plotline of the first season. We get flashbacks to Coulson's operation in TAHITI as well, and a callback to Coulson's death in Avengers and name-drops of Tony Stark and Nick Fury.