'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' goes out with a bang in 2017 (S05E05)
Following his grand return at the end of last week’s episode, ‘Rewind’ reveals Fitz’s journey to find the rest of the team.
‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ continues to hit its stride and its latest episode delivered on all fronts. Written and directed by Craig Titley and Jesse Bochco - the masterminds behind Season 3's critically acclaimed Simmons-centric bottle episode ‘4,722 Hours’, ‘Rewind’ followed the same formula and was equally as compelling.
SPOILER ALERT!
We open with the diner scene from the season four finale and after being left behind, Fitz is arrested by the U.S. Government. Taken into custody, he gets to work on finding the team and the U.S. Government, desperate for answers, complies with his list of demands: books, a television, his favourite football magazine, and the promise that they’ll send his monthly Letters to the Editor.
Six months have passed and Fitz has gotten nowhere. Those in charge sentence him to a life of imprisonment before Lance Hunter (Nick Blood) makes his triumphant return to the show, posing as Fitz’s attorney. Given a minute alone with his client, the pair bicker about their current predicament and viewers are reminded of the hilarious and brotherly dynamic between the two. Nevertheless, the rescue mission is a success and they make their getaway in a run-down camper van.
The pair manage to track down Enoch and he reveals that he’s been waiting for them. He shows them CCTV footage of the team being swallowed by the white monolith, as shown in the season premiere, and audiences finally get to learn a bit more about the mysterious alien. Enoch is a Chronicom anthropologist and was sent to Earth 30,000 years ago to study human behaviour. He also reveals that while the rest of the team were sent through the monolith to prevent an extinction level event, Fitz was left behind because he wasn’t a part of the seer’s prophecy.
Enoch takes them to meet the seer and it’s none other than Robin Hinton (Lexy Kolker), the daughter of an Inhuman that the team crossed paths with in season three. Like her father, Robin is an Inhuman with the power of Chrono Vision and has the ability to see the past, present and future. With Robin and her mother in tow, the three make their way to Lake Ontario and set up camp up in a lighthouse – the very same one that the rest of the team are currently trapped on in the future. Fitz decides to ask the all-knowing seer why he wasn’t sent through with the rest of the team and Robin explains that Fitz’s fate is to save them.
We soon find out that there might be a way to get Fitz to space after all as the capsule Enoch used for his voyage to Earth is still operational. The only catch is that it’s currently in a warehouse…on the same military base that Fitz escaped from. Fitz and Hunter have no choice but to break back in, under the guise of construction workers, and manage to sneak into an aircraft hangar (side note: “release the ferrets” was the episode high point and might be a new fan-favourite line) housing Enoch’s capsule and confiscated S.H.I.E.L.D. weaponry and technology.
In the middle of loading the capsule onto Zephyr One, they’re ambushed by military personnel and in a funny turn of events, Fitz is the one to hold them off while Hunter works on getting them up in the air. It’s a significant moment that proves just how far Fitz has come from the pilot episode. He’s no longer the bumbling tech expert that needs to be protected, he’s now an adept combatant and can hold his own out in the field too.
Back at the Lighthouse, Fitz gets ready to begin his space voyage and leaves a postcard with Robin (seen in the season premiere with Virgil). Without the monolith, Fitz has to go to the future the hard way and Enoch’s capsule is revealed to be a cryofreeze chamber. After doing their best Leia Organa and Han Solo impression (“I love you”, “I know”), Hunter and Fitz say goodbye to each other and our favourite engineer is put to sleep for 74 years.
In the episode’s post-credits scene, Fitz wakes up in 2091 and Enoch hands him the mask we saw him don last episode before informing him that they’re about to go up against the worst mobsters, monsters and mercenaries in the galaxy. Cut to black.
Loaded with pop culture references (“Beam me up, Scotty”) and throwbacks to previous seasons, ‘Rewind’ was the strongest instalment of the season to date and was also the most fun the writers, and viewers, have had with the show amidst the dejected and post-apocalyptic undertone of season five.
In the past, ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ has often been criticised by fans for its plot holes and failure to address the abrupt disappearances of certain characters (e.g. Vijay Nadeer and Mike Peterson) but the show is doing what it does best and is continuing to learn from its mistakes. While in transit on the camper van, Fitz catches up on the news (LMD Daisy is still on the loose and the U.S. Government is set to defund and dissolve S.H.I.E.L.D.) and it’s a brief but necessary scene that addresses some of the remaining plot threads from last season’s LMD arc.
Another narrative thread that the show addressed in ‘Rewind’ is the absence of Bobbi Morse (Adrianne Palicki). Hunter mentions that while the couple are still together, they’re just on a break at the moment. With Palicki a series regular on a competing network, it was unlikely that she would be able to return but fans still held out hope. While it was disappointing that we didn’t get to see the pair return together, at least the writers addressed her absence in a way that was true to the nature of Hunter and Bobbi’s on-again, off-again relationship.
‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ has a brilliant and well-cast ensemble of actors but there’s no doubt that Iain De Caestecker is the strongest performer on the show. Portraying a Life-Model Decoy (LMD) and a high-ranking Hydra agent, season four saw De Caestecker step up with his most impressive performances on the show to date and from what we’ve seen so far, he’s continuing to bring the same intensity into the show’s fifth season. Having already made a name for himself in the United Kingdom, one can only hope that he has a long and revered career in Hollywood once the show wraps.
Due to the holiday season, ‘Rewind’ is the last episode for the year and the next episode, ‘Fun & Games’, won’t air until January 5. Clark Gregg is set to make his directorial debut on the show and fans can expect to see the long-awaited Fitzsimmons reunion, a terrigenesis ceremony, and a fight to the death between Sinara and Daisy. Buckle up, it’s going to be one hell of an episode.
New episodes of ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ are updated weekly on Amazon Prime Video.
