Danny Hale reviews the fifth episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 5…
‘Rewind’ brought more than one familiar face back into the mix, allowed us to finally touch base with Fitz and revealed some of the present day consequences of the events of last season, the Daisy LMD’s attempted assassination of General Talbot for one. S.H.I.E.L.D. has a lot of questions to answer and these will surely catch up with our team once they presumably return to their original time. For now though the focus is on how Fitz realises what has happened to his friends and how he comes to find himself in Kasius’ quarters in what we now know is the year 2091.
After Fitz’s welcome return last week in ‘A Life Earned’, ‘Rewind’ took us right back to the end of season 4 where our team are abducted and Fitz is left behind. Despite all the obvious questions we have as viewers what intrigues me most is how much Fitz has changed since the Framework and I am so happy to see that the writers are embracing this head-on. Fitz is visibly changed; there’s a light gone in his eyes and a tangible weight of guilt and shame that seems to have engulfed him. Out of everything the team suffered in the Framework, Fitz’s experience is arguably the most traumatising. His actions, his memories and experiences of his ‘fake’ life now intermingle with the contrasting existence he has actually led. For someone as intelligent as Fitz, this creates an interior struggle likely to result in more psychological damage. It’s going to be great to watch and even better tackled by a performer as strong as Iain De Caestecker who never fails to take his role to new places while always retaining the sympathetic nature that endeared us to Fitz in the beginning.
Hunter made a massively welcome return this week, springing Fitz out of captivity and bringing his signature wit and charm back to the screen. With the shelving of Marvel’s Most Wanted, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fans had to say goodbye to both Bobbi and Hunter so to have even one of them back was a great addition. The fallout of Fitz’s breakout coupled with his admitting to causing Jeffery Mace’s death will just be added to the Earthly problems awaiting our team in the coming months. Fitz seems resolved to pay for his crimes and after his six month imprisonment, desperately trying to deduce what happened to his friends, he did little only exhaust the patience of General Hale, a future villain in the making I’m sure.
‘Rewind’ also gave us our first proper look at Enoch, the mysterious man who orchestrated our characters transport to space. Enoch is revealed to have been sent to the Earth 30,000 years ago to observe the evolution of the human species and due to a recent vision depicting an “extinction level event” and its prevention by the hands of Coulson and co. we begin to gain a better understanding of why they were taken. A nice little surprise was the return of Robin Hinton, her father who we saw back in season 3 whose Inhuman powers allowed for some great storytelling. Robin has also inherited some precognitive abilities communicating vague but eerie prophecies through her drawings. This creates great potential for plot threads and further speculation over the child’s etchings.
Being treated to both a prison breakout and a subsequent break back in blanketed by Fitz and Hunter’s great chemistry made for a welcome shake-up to the season so far, not that I’m not eager to see what transpires now that Fitz has joined our team in space. Further, ‘Rewind’ did a great job of planting the seeds for what’s to come once our team returns to Earth, presumably setting up the future of the series. The sudden jump to space may have provided a good place for new viewers to join the series but for long-time fans there is a lot of fallout our characters still need to deal with in the coming months and I can’t wait to see what material the writers have lined up for beyond the Lighthouse.
The reveal that Fitz has to enter cryo-sleep to be awoken in 2091 in order to reach his friends was a sombre one and I felt my heart ache for Fitz even more; imagining him sleeping out the Earth’s destruction for seventy-four years feels so bleak and a really desperate attempt to reach his team. I expected Fitz to have discovered another monolith or an elaborate way to travel through time but the reality is a lot less glamorous and most startlingly, provides no sure way for our characters to return home. From Daisy’s point of view last week I assumed Fitz was here to save the day but seeing his cold, morose outlook in ‘Rewind’ it seems the impulsiveness and fearlessness of Framework Fitz is taking the driver’s seat right now and the more cautious, careful Leopold seems further and further away. His delivery of his final line, “I have it in me” was powerful, adding another layer to this shame and rage; there is a strength he never had before and a ruthlessness that may just be what saves the day. Sadly, these revelations will have to wait until the show returns in two weeks on January 5th. In the meantime, Happy Holidays everyone!
Danny Hale
