EPISODE REVIEW: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S5 Ep 12 "The Real Deal"

The 100th Episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.!

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Air Date March 9, 2018, ABC Fridays 9pm
Created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen
Production Company ABC Studios & Marvel Television

What You Should Know:

The Agents have returned to the present and set about preventing the future they’ve just returned from happening. General Hale is hot on their heels. The General’s daughter, Ruby, sets a trap for the team and slices off Yo-Yo’s arms. Deke Shaw somehow materializes in the present and the team meets a new Chronicom, Noah.

What You’ll Find Out:

(SPOILERS AHEAD!) A dwarf is sent to scan the area of the bunker where the beacon exploded last week, destroying the Chronicom Noah who sacrificed himself to save Daisy and Fitz. The last image the dwarf sees before being destroyed is Lash. Fitz surmises that when the beacon exploded and blew up the three Monoliths in the room it ripped a hole in space-time. A rift has opened up to another dimension!

In another room, Elena is recuperating. The stumps of her arms have been bandaged by Jemma. Mack, grief-stricken by what has happened to the woman he loves, comes in to comfort Elena. In the supply pantry, Daisy and Deke are searching for medicines for Elena when they are attacked by a Kree. When Daisy shoots the alien, the Kree dissolves away is a wisp of smoke as though he were never there.

Fitz tells the group “It’s our fears come to life”. He believes when the Monoliths exploded they tore open something he describes as a “Fear Dimension”. It can take their deepest fears and manifest them physically. Fitz thinks he may be able to fix the breach but it will require one of them to sacrifice themselves. He wants to use Deke’s belt, which creates a gravity field using gravitonium and modify it to create a perpetual force that can stitch together the tear in space-time.But someone will have to carry the device to the tear and they may possibly get sucked into the Fear Dimension or get killed by one of the fear manifestations.

Naturally, Coulson volunteers. Daisy argues with him but Coulson says she is needed for the future to make sure S.H.I.E.L.D. continues. Then Phil suddenly passes out. Later, after coming to, Coulson sends Deke out to River’s End with a list of items he wants Deke to get.

Jemma reveals to the team the results of her examination of Coulson. It’s not good. Necrotic tissue is spreading out from Coulson’s heart and lungs where Loki skewered him. It’s been progressing for several years. Since it’s dead tissue nothing can be done. Phil is dying. Phil has known about it since the encounter with Ghost Rider. It was the result of Ghost Rider merging with Coulson. Daisy is angry Coulson didn’t tell them. They had a solution when they were with the Kree. Now that’s gone. At some point, his heart will just stop beating. Daisy tells Coulson she can’t do what he wants of her. She breaks down. “There’s no S.H.I.E.L.D. without you!”

Elena awakens from a bad dream. Jemma tells her Mack has suffered enough. “We’ve all suffered enough!” then Jemma smothers Elena with a pillow. Mack rushes in and belts Jemma across the face and her face falls off. Jemma is a Fembot! I mean, Jemma is an LMD. The real Jemma enters and shoots her L.M.D doppelganger and it dissolves away in a whiff of smoke just like the Kree did.

Deke, disguised in sunglasses, enters the town of River’s End only to find it crawling with the military. General Hale is questioning the sheriff about Daisy Johnson who bailed out Deke in the last episode. Deke goes to a pay phone and without putting any money in makes a call. Getting a recording he hangs up.

May and Coulson are having a conversation. Phil seems uncharacteristically giving up. He says he’s come to terms with dying. He goes and meets Fitz and picks up the gravitonium device that was made from Deke’s belt buckle. Coulson is told not to get too close to the rift or he’ll be crushed by gravity or sucked into the other dimension.

As the others watch Coulson on the monitors, Daisy asks if he can hear her. He replies “Five by five” — a phrase that Faith the Vampire Slayer used to say on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Coulson enters the basement and the monitors lose contact. As Phil makes his way to the rift he runs into Mike Peterson. Mike tells Phil he has to face the facts.

Mike tells Phil he has never been to Tahiti…or Malta or the Framework or the future. Right now he’s on the table…Code Blue.The doctors are desperately trying to bring him back after Loki ran a scepter through his heart. Everything Phil thinks he has experienced — S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, the flying car — is just the random impulses from the electricity stimulating his brain. He’s reliving mementos of his life mixed with dreams of things he wishes had come true.

Sirens go off in the communications room to alert of an incoming aircraft. It’s Deke calling from the Zephyr. He lands the ship. He’s brought backup…including Deathlok!

Back at the rift, Mike Peterson tries to get Coulson to walk into the light (the rift). But Coulson just isn’t buying it. So Mike lets go of the charade and tries to force Phil into the rift. But before he can he’s blown to smoke by…himself, Deathlok.

Then Lash steps in to take on Deathlok while Coulson has his hands full when Vrellnexians come crawling in. Next, it’s Hive stepping out of the shadows.

Coulson manages to toss Fitz’s gizmo into the rift finally closing it and taking the phantasms with it.

Deke, having accomplished his true errand, accompanies Coulson and Fitz to Level 27 where a beautiful, grassy knoll with trees and a waterfall and their teammates has yet to disappear with the rest of the Fear Dimension. Leopold joins Jemma adorned in her wedding dress (Deke’s true errand) and the two exchange rings (also Deke). Leopold and Jemma say their vows to one another and Phil says “By the power invested in me by the two of you I am so happy to pronounce the two of you husband and wife”.

Back at the River’s End jail, General Hale decides to pack things up. Unable to find any trace of the existence of Deke Shaw and wondering if he is actually an LMD, the General’s assistant has had a genetic profile run on Deke to see if he is biologically linked to anyone. It came up with not one but two matches:

What This Means For The Future:

First, everybody needs to scoot out of Level 27 before it vanishes with the rest of the rift. Then there’ll be photos, wedding cake, bouquet tossing, dancing, the usual wedding stuff. It seems Mr. and Mrs. Fitz have a ready-made family with their grandson Deke.

Final Thought: As far as milestone 100th episodes go, this one wasn’t too spectacular but, for the most part, it wasn’t that bad of one either. After saying in my previous reviews I would love to see Deathlok return I sort of got my wish. However, most of Deathlok’s screen time is his pre-Deathlok persona of Mike Peterson and that wasn’t even Mike but rather a phantasm from the Fear Dimension. Deathlok himself had a brief action scene and a cute exchange with Deke Shaw. And we’re told he won’t be sticking around as he prefers to run solo. The rest of the Fear Phantasms — Lash, Hive, an LMD — lasted only seconds. Though he gets mentioned but doesn’t appear, the Ghost Rider would have made an excellent guest star and the plot certainly would have warranted it. A spectral cameo by Ward would have been good instead of the Kree guy since we just came out of a lengthy Kree arc. But they had a lot to cram into 42 minutes, not the least of which was the pseudo wedding of Jemma Simmons and Leopold Fitz. They are not actually married when the episode ends because a couple cannot legally just grant someone the power to marry them. I certainly hope they take care of this next week or it’s going to bug the hell out of me! Seeing as they are fugitives though…
And Jemma and Leopold are — what? Deke’s grandparents? Deke tells Deathlok that the ring he picked out at the pawn shop for Fitz to give Jemma reminded him of his mother’s ring which his mom got from her mother (Jemma?). This means when S.H.I.E.L.D. finally stops the end of the world plot Deke may quite likely cease to exist or at best be returned to the future.

Rating: 8.5/10