EPISODE REVIEW: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S5 Ep 13 "Principia"

A Floating cargo ship in the sky…Oh My!

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Airdate March 16, 2018, ABC Fridays 9pm
Created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen
Production Company ABC Studios & Marvel Television

What You Should Know:
Previously on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the team battled their own fears when a rift to a “Fear Dimension” was opened. Phil Coulson is dying from complications of almost being killed by Loki in The Avengers, Deathlok dropped in to help fight the phantasms coming from the Fear Dimension and Fitz and Jemma said their wedding vows (absent someone who could legally marry them) and Deke Shaw was revealed to be their grandson!

(SPOILERS AHEAD!)

Alex Braun is in a counseling session with a psychiatrist. He rattles off some personal information about the doctor then stabs the doctor’s hand with a pen before being carted off by orderlies.

Jemma, Mack, and Phil are visiting with Elena. Mack and Phil leave and meet up with Fitz who tells them they’ve only managed to put a temporary patch on the rift to the Fear Dimension. They need more Gravitonium. The three men connect with Daisy and May. “Cybertek” Daisy says, “the last time anyone saw Gravitonium in this timeline was at Cybertek Labs which also happens to be the same company that built Deathlok’s leg”. But Cybertek is dissolved and the Gravitonium is MIA. In fact, all of the Cybertek scientists have turned up dead over the last two years, their death certificates signed by one man: Murray Jacobson. The Agents smell a cover-up and think the scientists may all still be alive. So the mission is to find Jacobson who may be able to help locate a Dr. Getty, the last person they know of working with Gravitonium. To do so means they need to leave the safety of the Lighthouse and venture outside where everyone is looking for them.

Alex wakes up in a bed in an empty room with a pile of clothes on the floor. He dresses and locates the cafeteria and grabs something to eat…and a knife. In waltzes Ruby who pays no attention to him.

The Agents find Jacobson (Jake Busey) in a parking garage. Mack recognizes him, they roomed together their first year at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy. Jacobson, whose real name is Anthony Caine, is asked where to find Dr. Joseph Getty. Caine mentions Project Paperclip, a secret program to recruit Nazi scientists after World War II and which was revived by Hydra.

Back at the Lighthouse, Fitz, in an effort to get Deke off his back, agrees to play a little catch when a monitor screen beeps warning of another anomaly flare. Fitz warns of seeing things that don’t belong there and to shoot them on sight. Jemma goes to Elena’s room and finds Elena on the floor. Elena says she woke up and forgot she didn’t have arms. She says what she saw, what she heard in the future is all happening. There’s no future but the one they came from.

Caine is admiring Mack’s ax-rifle but wonders what made the peaceful man he used to know go all dark. Alphonso Mackenzie used to hate violence. But now Mack says he’s seen too much darkness in the world and he does what he needs to protect the people he loves. We learn that Caine had the job of giving new identities to the scientists of Cybertek.

Daisy and May are hoping if they find the scientists maybe, besides the Gravitonium and Elena’s arms, they may be able to help Coulson as well. But Phil says he’s already had on unnatural life extension, he doesn’t want another. But Daisy and May have other ideas.

Alex Braun walks into a room where Ruby is working out. He asks where they are. She tells him “A safe house”. Alex is apparently already acquainted with Ruby. He brings up a scar on her head that she got when Alex was supposed to be watching her. He says his father beat him in front of her and her mother. Then he suddenly grabs Ruby and holds a knife to her throat. He wants to see Ruby’s mom. Now.

Caine and Mack meet up with Dr. Getty lunching at a lake.They tell the scientist they’re looking for Gravitonium. Getty says he put it on a ship, the Principia, to be taken to a facility in the Pacific but the ship sank during a thunderstorm.

Leopold and Jemma run a scan to find the Principia but it turns up nothing. Fitz gets fed up with Deke’s annoyance and sends him away. Leopold and Jemma consider hyphenating their last names to Simmons-Fitz.

General Hale and the robo-guards enter and tell Alex to put the knife down. Hale tells Alex — who is actually Werner von Strucker — she saved him from being lobotomized. He tells her his name is Alex Braun and he wants nothing to do with his father, his name or Hydra. General Hale wants to know how much Alex remembers after S.H.I.E.L.D. zapped his brain with a memory enhancer. General Hale says Hydra was a “boys club” and she wants to build something new and she wants him to help her build a better future. He tells her to go to hell. Hales says she doesn’t want to kill Alex. That he’s free to go. After he is escorted out of the room, Hale tells her daughter to do what she has to do to gain Alex’s trust and get inside his head.

Deke discovers Twinkies! And when he turns around he sees…his mother! She tries to tell Deke to walk away from everything. Then she is stabbed by a Kree and dissolves into smoke. Deke takes out the Kree who also dissolves away. Jemma comes in to talk to Deke who feels put down by Fitz. Then Deke gets the bright idea that maybe when the lightning hit the ship carrying the Gravitonium it charged the Gravitonium sending it upwards to the sky rather than sinking into the ocean.

The gang jumps in the Zephyr and takes to the sky and lo and behold they find a floating ship!

Alex is being tormented by nightmares. Ruby enters his room and awakens him. He says he remembers the pain of every beating he’s ever taken. Ruby coyly tells Alex that her mother is a tyrant and keeps her locked up making her do things she doesn’t want to do. Like using her to get to Alex…the grand seduction of Werner von Strucker. Ruby proposes turning the tables on her mother.

Coulson and his team begin to search the ship while Davis (the dude who popped up last episode with Deathlok and the reinforcements and stayed for the wedding) keeps the Zephyr hovering above. They come upon the dead crew. As they pass, what appears to be one of the robo guards lifts its head.

Coulson discovers someone has been there before them and taken most of the Gravitonium except a small softball sized piece that’s keeping the ship afloat. Deke tells them to get the Gravitonium into a plastic box without touching it. They’ll have about 90 seconds before the gravity field dissipates and the ship falls out of the sky. Two robo guards stand in their way.

General Hale is informed that some of the “Sleeper Mechs” came back online from the Principia. The General deduces it was S.H.I.E.L.D. The Agents part with Caine who says he’ll work on finding the people involved with the Deathlok program.

Jemma checks up on Elena who notices what looks like it could be a shard of a Monolith on the table. Jemma says she’s keeping it in case of emergency. Lurking at the door, Deke stares at Jemma strangely. A few moments later he gives Fitz the same look. He’s figured out they’re his grandparents. Mack gives Elena a present. He drops one of the Mechs on the floor and says “arms”.

Epilogue: Ruby discovers Alex has decided to stay. In another room, Crusher Creel is weight lifting. General Hale asks her daughter how she got Alex to stay.
“I told him the truth”.

What This Means For The Future:

The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. inch closer to a confrontation with General Hale’s team which so far includes Ruby, Alex, and The Absorbing Man. Does Fitz have enough Gravitonium to seal the rift for good or will it continue to grow and become the reason the Earth is destroyed and not Quake?

Final Thought: It doesn’t feel like they are going to bother to explain the contradictions in Deke’s coming back to the past. Elena is going to have to get some kind of bionic arms or we’ll have another contradiction in that we know she had arms on the Zephyr when it was escaping the destruction of the Earth. The creator’s aversion to superpowers means Quake still can’t use her powers and now Yo-Yo really can’t use hers either. Hale’s team is shaping up to be rather unimpressive as I was afraid of. The obtaining of the Gravitonium doesn’t look like it’s going to work as the previews show the team fighting more phantasms next week. The story arc looks like it’s going to go through to the end of the season and even then may not get wrapped up according to some shady answers from a producer on the show. Compared to last season, this season continues to be a letdown. And is it just me or does Deke look like he’s on drugs?

Speaking of Deke, why all of a sudden has he figured out Jemma and Leopold are his grandparents? I didn’t see anything in the brief scene with his mom that might have tipped him off.
S.H.I.E.L.D. has barely been a legit organization for five seasons now. Mostly it’s been either in disarray or supposed to not exist anymore. This really needs to change. The title is “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”, not “Fugitive Agents of Non-S.H.I.E.L.D.” They need to re-establish a functioning, recognized organization and have the Agents as heroes of the agency again. The heroic fugitives angle has worn itself out.

Rating: 6.5/10