Three seasons of “Agents of SHIELD” ago, the show gave us “4,722 Hours,” one of the best episodes of Marvel television and one of the best episodes of television by any standard. This week’s hour, “Inescapable,” goes toe to toe with that masterpiece and is easily in the top three best episodes the show has ever delivered.
Fitz and Simmons finally reunite in less than ideal circumstances, in which they are forced to work against their will to solve time travel. During this, the fan favorite couple journey through their past and discover new things that could make or break their relationship.
Reunited and It Feels So- Could You Please Give Us a Second?!!? | Mere seconds into the long awaited FitzSimmons reunion, Atarah cuts them off and reveals to them that they are trapped in a mental “Source Code”-like prison until they can solve the time travel problem, with both of their life experiences and memories accessible to the other. When Fitz asks Simmons how she got back from the apocalyptic future, she gives a new meaning to the phrase “temper tantrum” and turns into a seven and a half year old and hides in her childhood bedroom.
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This is a Lot | After reverting to an adult, Simmons is still holding back on telling Fitz how she got back from the future, but Fitz sees the truth in Simmons’s memories, namely team SHIELD grieving over his corpse. He also finds out that Coulson has died and that he and Simmons got married before he died! After this, Fitz is naturally shook and retreats into the memory of their first study session at SHIELD Academy as youngsters. And props to the makeup/effects guys for making Iain De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge look six years younger!
Inner Demons | Simmons reveals that since they’re in Fitz’s mind that the Doctor is there too and sure enough, he arrives with HYDRA soldiers to chase them. They hide in Simmons’s bedroom closet, where for some reason, a zombie Simmons arrives to also chase them. After a lengthy chase with Fitz being tortured by Zombie Simmons and the Doctor doing the same to Real Simmons, the duo end up locked in a SHIELD containment chamber with their murderous selves circling outside. They argue for a solid two minutes, but even then are unable to stay angry and admit that they love each other and can face anything together. They go out to battle their alter egos, only to find the Doctor and Zombie Simmons going at it on the floor.
Altarah arrives to motivate them to fix the problem at hand, but they refuse, saying that they’d rather be stuck in a prison together forever. At that moment, Enoch has a change of heart and knocks out Altarah and her men and frees FitzSimmons. Just as they escape, Simmons fills Fitz in on one more thing he missed: The existence of their grandson.
“Agents of SHIELD” airs Fridays on ABC.
