Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Rewind (5x05)

What an amazing episode! Best of the season! I've really missed Leopold Fitz.

Cons:

In fact, I've missed him so much that it's kind of highlighting for me the structural weaknesses with this season so far. The stakes in the future world just don't feel as serious. Whenever we're dealing with time travel, or alternate realities, the whole concept has this sense of unreality to it. I think that might be the issue I'm responding to here. This one hour with Fitz and Hunter felt more like this show I know and love than the other four episodes have.

I will admit that when we meet Enoch, the ancient alien who has been studying humanity throughout the centuries, I rolled my eyes just a tiny bit. I felt like Fitz took this guy seriously a bit too quickly. Obviously I don't know what the plan is for this character moving forward, but I feel as if within this episode, there could have been a way for all of this to shake out without introducing Enoch.

Pros:

Where to even start? I know I've said this before in my reviews, but Iain de Caestecker is a phenomenal actor. It's not that the other people in this show are bad, but he just elevates the whole thing to another level. The first ten minutes of this episode show Fitz being kept at a secret government base. The people running it seem to think he knows where his friends went, despite Fitz telling them again and again that he has no idea. He wants to find them as badly as anybody, to make sure they're okay. He manages to get a message out using letters to soccer magazines, and Lance Hunter shows up, posing as Fitz's lawyer. This whole opening sequence showed Fitz concocting plans while slowly losing his grip on reality. The stuff with the soccer was the perfect example of this - it was all part of his plan to contact the outside world, but it was also something that he started to take too seriously, and he begins to unravel a bit. Great acting. You really felt his pain and fear at being separated from his friends.

And then Lance Hunter. Man I missed that guy. He brought this energy and levity to the episode that was just so needed. I loved him and Fitz bickering about soccer and then sharing a big hug. Fitz is clearly starved for physical affection, so it was really cute to see them share that embrace, and then Fitz holds on just a little bit too long... so sweet. The two spend most of the episode in a semi-serious buddy-action routine. There's lots of shenanigans, like their escape via a rusty old trailer, using ferrets to distract guards, etc., but the levity never overpowered the more serious underpinnings of the episode either. Great balancing of the tone.

Fitz learns from Enoch what has happened to Jemma and the rest of the gang, and he's desperate to help them. So what does he do? He decides to FREEZE HIMSELF FOR OVER SEVENTY YEARS because he's a darling who would do anything for the people he loves. I was not expecting that to be the solution to the problem, and now that I realize what Fitz was willing to do to help his people, I love him even more. Which is not a thing I thought was possible.

To top off all of this amazingness, Fitz and Hunter share another hug, and then as Fitz is about to be cryogenically frozen, Hunter says "I love you," and Fitz says "I know." It worked SO WELL because we had just seen Hunter give Fitz another heartfelt hug, and although he's clearly evoking Star Wars so as to leave Fitz with a moment of levity, you can also tell that he means it. I'm in love with how much Hunter and Fitz care about each other. This episode did such a phenomenal job of telegraphing their closeness with not very much time to do so.

Robin Hinton's return was unexpected. It was cool to see the carved robin figurine again, as that was a very clever shorthand to remind everybody watching of who exactly this girl is. Her poor life is such a tragedy, but she was able to help Fitz out so he could learn his place in the destiny of the future.

I think that's all I've got to say... this was such a lovely, amazing episode. So much more than I even hoped for, honestly. I love Fitz. I love Hunter. This was the absolute best way to bring Hunter back for an installment. I hope we can see him and Bobbi some more in the future... fingers crossed!

9/10