Thursday, March 29, 2018

Agents of SHIELD: “The Devil Complex”

GUTPUNCH.
When you need someone to make a superhero show trope work btetter than anyone else can do it, you turn to Agents of SHIELD.
The trope I’m taking about, of course, is the “character interacts with other character for most of the episode, only for it to be revealed later that the other character isn’t there at all and the first character is going nutso”. It’s happening on Black Lightning right now, and I’m sure Agents of SHIELD has used it once or twice before, as have Arrow and Flash.

But the revelation that Fitz has been hallucinating Evil Hydra Fitz as a way for him to justify doing the only thing that can seal the Fear Dimension breach because it’s not a nice thing at all? Damn, that worked. The only one that can compress the gravitonium is Quake, who doesn’t have her powers or want them, so Fitz has to kidnap her and remove her Kree power inhibitor by force despite the risks. Fitz can’t do that, but Hydra Fitz can. So “Hydra Fitz” does.

What makes it work especially well is the end of the show, where Fitz remains convinced he made the right choice, and Simmons agrees with him. It’s so antithetical to the way these things usually play out in these shows, AoS included. There’s usually a big moral argument and invariably someone yells “THAT’S NOT YOUR CALL TO MAKE” and then they find another way or could have found another way or trust is irrevocably broken or whatever. You know. You’ve seen it all before too. But this? This, I hadn’t seen, and I like it.

Also, Deke tells Simmons she’s his gramma and Yoyo starts getting her robot arms. But really, those are just regular plot things.

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