TV Review: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 6 Episode 6

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 6 Episode 6 “Inescapable”

Director: Jesse Bochco

Starring: Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley

Rating: TV-14

Runtime: 42 minutes

Fitz and Simmons were finally set to be in the same place at the end of last week’s episode, but just because they’re back together doesn’t mean the constant string of hardships stops for either of them.  In fact, for most of this week’s installment, things get a whole lot worse.  The Chronicoms expect S.H.I.E.L.D.’s two lead scientists to invent a method of time travel for them to use to erase the destruction of their planet.  To get them to do so Altarah has locked them both in a mental prison where any resource they think of can be dreamed up.  However, the content of this latest virtual reality is prone to the influence of Fitz and Simmons’ minds and as they try to catch up on the various wild adventures they’ve gone on while separated their anxieties and the other, darker parts of their minds are unleashed.  What follows is an exceptionally emotional hour of sci-fi couples’ counseling that makes for an all-time great S.H.I.E.L.D. installment, with Iain De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge’s predictably excellent performances elevating already strong material.

“Inescapable” demonstrates the storytelling confidence and creativity S.H.I.E.L.D. has developed after five years.  A lot of the episode is devoted to essentially filling Fitz in on the most dramatic developments of later Season 5, which occurred when he was still in cryo-sleep, but this goal is accomplished through a trippy and gripping set of set pieces and confrontations, rather than a dry info dump.  Fitz and Simmons are forced to confront both their own individual demons and some long-building resentments between one another that have developed as results of the many traumas they’ve endured together.  Arguably the most disturbing of course is Fitz’s discovery that the version of himself that was in the future and time-traveled back to the present with the rest of the team died.  The scene recreating Simmons’ memory of the arrival of that Fitz’s body is exceptionally played not just by De Caestecker and Henstridge but by most of the rest of the main cast, who are cleverly included in this and some other scenes in Fitz and Simmons’ subconsciouses.  Henry Simmons is particularly moving as Mack questions the mental health implications of Jemma going on the quest to find frozen Fitz.

But facing the fact that one of them has already died once wouldn’t be a big enough challenge for these most star-crossed of lovers.  Jemma also has to break it to Fitz that the other version of himself completely lost control of the Hydra persona created by the Framework and doing so causes the Doctor himself to materialize.  As usual, Caestecker is chilling in the villainous role but the Doctor is surprisingly not the most disturbing figure that appears in this mind-bending hour.  As it turns out Jemma was taught by her father to deeply bury all her anxieties and pain (a very English practice, as Fitz notes) and that makes her subconscious just as dangerously unpredictable as Fitz’s.  A terrifying demonic version of Simmons emerges from a memory of her childhood bedroom and attacks she and Fitz in the first of several sequences seemingly inspired by The Ring.  This season has seen S.H.I.E.L.D. experimenting with including genuine horror in some of its set-pieces and demon Simmons is just as chilling as the transformations brought on by the Shrike have been.

A lot more happens in this episode that I could get into including Enoch redeeming himself and a make-out session between the Doctor and demon Simmons, among other things.  But the main thematic point of the hour is to force Fitz and Simmons to recognize that one another aren’t perfect and reconcile the flaws in their relationship with the intense love they still have for each other. Everything culminates in a wonderfully acted argument in a containment pod where they let out all the resentments they’ve built up towards each other over the years (some amusingly petty, some deeply meaningful) before each declaring that they’re all ultimately far outweighed by the things they love about each other.  It’s a special scene, almost laugh-out-loud funny while also profoundly emotional that makes the couple worth investing in all over again, just when their constant struggles were at the risk of becoming too much.  If the creators are smart going forward they will allow both Fitz and Simmons to continue dealing with the specific issues brought up here but in a lighter, less traumatic manner.  Because this episode proves that they truly can survive anything together, even a surprise grandson (the one detail Jemma forgets to mention until the very end).