“Quiet remarkable actually, I’ve been transported to an unknown planet…in a different solar system.”-
Jemma Simmons
Episode five, 4, 722 Hours, begins exactly where season two ended, with Jemma being transported to a galaxy far, far away. Agents of Shield, hit pause on the present day espionage to tell Jemma’s survival story and explain why she “must go back.” Now how does one survive on a foreign planet? Well, according to the film, The Martian, to survive, “You do the math.” Clearly, Jemma Simmons, being a scientist in her own right understands this basic concept, considering that she heads to find water. Too bad, “the only food on this planet thinks I am food as well.” Safe to say, that Jemma knows how to handle a spear, as she fights off the sea creature and then eats it both raw and cooked. As the hours go by, Jemma’s cell phone (Fitz) takes on Wilson’s role in the film Castaway. Now I kind of wish that she got mad at the phone, threw it into the sandstorm, only to instantaneously regret the action…”Wilson!” Instead we are shown a much more intimate and mature mental breakdown as Jemma yells, “Where is the sun? I want the sun…I want to go home.”
Jemma winds up being taken prisoner by another being on this foreign planet. Her capture turns out to be a man, who feeds her…or poisons her…nope that was a distraction so she could make her escape. Such a great sequence to further support her ability to logically think her way out of practically, any situation. Too bad she discovers that, “This planet does not have rules, it has moods,” explains Will (her form captor). Remember, my previous reference to the film, The Martian, well meet Marvel’s 2001 lone survivor astronaut, Will Daniels (Dillon Casey). Back in the early 2000s, the monolith was under NASA’s possession and they decided to send a group through the portal to conduct some research, see if it’s hospitable, or if there’s a supply of resources on the foreign planet. Will was assigned to keep everyone else alive…he’s the only one still breathing. To add mystery and tension, Will’s survival monologue plays over flashbacks scenes that make us question if he didn’t go mad and kill his friends. “You have no idea what the hell is going on here,” yells Will, after Jemma voices a similar conclusion. No, Jemma is still a newcomer to this prison planet, but one thing she does understand is math.
“So, if we use up all the battery and it doesn’t work…that’s the end of Fitz and all your friends.”-Will Daniels
Jemma and Will work together, she does the math, and he rigs an apparatus that should get them across a canyon, to the portal, just in time for it to open. Oh, nothing on this planet is ever that simple, plus there are still a number of survival hours that we still need to witness. They are even unsuccessful in transporting the message in a bottle over to the other side…over to Fitz. The portal shuts, just as bottle shatters into a thousand little pieces, “This isn’t our home, this is hell…you were right, there’s no hope on this planet,” cries Jemma. She ‘s lost her hope, but at least Will’s there to comfort her…they seal their relationship with a kiss. All the Fitz/Simmons fans just began to yell at their televisions…because this sets up a love triangle between Fitz, Simmons, and Will Casey. After watching the episode and breaking it down, I appreciate how the writers handled this romantic twist. Consider Jemma’s line about her relationship with Fitz, “We’re inseparable…well…we were.” This is a very small piece of dialogue, but it perfectly depicts the real reason why Fitz and Simmons are not currently in a relationship. Jemma and Will form a bond through survival, out of necessity, by means of a shared experience. She fell for Fitz in a very similar manner, because they were “inseparable.” The prison planet has torn them a part. Now it’s just a matter of Fitz and Simmons reconnecting…finding their way back to one another.
“I’ am perfectly capable of tending to my own wounds.”-Jemma Simmons
4, 772 hours later, Fitz brings Simmons back through the portal. Not the same SHIELD Agent that he made plans with to go out to dinner. A woman whose been to hell and back. Someone, who left a part of her newfound identity back on another planet…for the time being. Next week SHIELD will return with it’s regularly scheduled espionage hi-jinks.