Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Devil Complex

April 4, 2018 5:28 PM - Season 5, Episode 14

Fitz and Simmons are faced with one of their greatest fears as they search for a way to seal the rift.

Fitzsimmons have hit a snag trying to squish enough Gravitonium into the ball of duct tapedimensional rift sealant. They're interrupted by the zombie astronaut from Jemma's nightmares. Mack and YoYo work on getting the repurposed robot arms set up for her. Deke tries to bond with Grandpa but gets shut up by a whack to the head, an action made slightly less sympathetic when it turns out he'd been talking to Hydra!Leopold/the Doctor the whole time. Piper gets some Intel about the General Hale's itinerary, and she, May, Coulson and some extras set up an ambush. It turns out to be a counter-ambush, as Hale has brought along the Absorbing Man, Robot Ivanov and a bomb. Coulson agrees to go off with Hale in return for everyone else's lives and Piper is presumably whisked off to HR to get put on a performance improvement plan. A power outage draws Daisy into an ambush on a lower floor as one of the robots attacks the infirmary and then knocks her out. The Doctor confronts Fitz about how he's taking care of what Fitz is too weak to do himself. The Doctor goes down and proceeds to remove Daisy's inhibitor because they will need her Plot Device Vibrations to compress the phlebotinumGravitonium. It turns out that the Doctor was not a fear apparition but a personality split on Fitz's part, which had enough foresight to blackmail his less ruthless personality into finishing the surgery anyway. As Fitz is locked up, Deke reveals that he is her grandson. She immediately hurls, either from stress, morning sickness, or sympathy with the viewers. General Hale has a conversation confirming a Hydra/Kree alliance.

posted by Karmakaze (5 comments total)

I loved it! Fitz is an unforgiveable evil psychopath! I’m tired of goody goody shield agents. I hope they drive every character into the ground. There is no way these people could survive what they’ve been through without some psychological damage and I love that the show is owning up to that. Daisy should be traumatized from this assault by fitz. Jemma should be throwing up 24/7 and depressed. Yo-yo should be more damaged and depressed than she is. And Mac should be wrecked from losing his fake daughter. Etc. Bring it on, show!

(thanks for adding this ep karmakaze.)
posted by about_time at 5:43 PM on April 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

Is Simmons literally the only character that hasn't been wholeheartedly part of some anti-Coulson faction at some point? Daisy worked with 4chan in part of season one, Fitz is now also Hydra Fitz, May was secretly working for Fury all through season 1 and also remembers being Hydra May for several years, Mac was spying for Admiral Adama's boat SHIELD along with Bobby and Hunter, even fucking Piper turned on the team... I guess Yoyo hasn't betrayed them yet that I can remember, but I think there was some grey area around her recruitment. And Simmons got a little mind controlled while she was working for Hydra undercover in season 2.

Coulson sure knows how to pick a team.
posted by fomhar at 11:09 PM on April 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm actually half serious that Simmon's nausea was supposed to be morning sickness, so we can have Deke's mother in place quickly. It's about the same level of subtlety as "I chose a ring just like my grandmother used to wear" in terms of foreshadowing.
posted by Karmakaze at 6:10 AM on April 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

My god she’s definitely pregnant. So obvious now. You have to be right.
posted by about_time at 6:56 PM on April 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

While I really like Fitz’s break, I dislike the implication that Simmons is going to fix him.
posted by greermahoney at 10:17 PM on June 9, 2019