Agents of SHIELD Episode 3.05 recap
We open up tonight’s episode six months ago, when Simmons is pulled into the monolith. She finds herself on a barren desert world, with no GPS signal. But there are two moons.
6 hours. She waits for extraction, pacing, making voice notes on her phone (which has been “souped up” by Fitz to have an unrealistically long battery life). 13 hours, she takes a nap. 22 hours, she wakes, finds it is still dark. There is seemingly no sun. 72 hours later, still no sun. After 79 hours, she can’t wait for Fitz there any more. She leaves markers as she goes, but she is off to find water and food. 99 hours, and instead of water, she finds a sand storm that knocks her out for two hours. When she wakes, she sees her markers have been erased, but she finds water.
Simmons spends time at the watering hole, swimming and floating. 109 hours, and something grabs her. It looks like a tentacle wrapped in torn bedsheets. She cuts herself free and lasts two more hours before eating the disgusting tentacle. At hour 492, she wades into the water with a crude tool, taunting the creature. She returns victorious, creates a fire, and proudly cooks her dinner.
Hour 752. One month. Simmons hears something and moves to investigate. She finds bamboo waving in the breeze. The earth opens up and swallows her up. She wakes at hour 761, in a crude bamboo cage. A man brings her bowls of food and water. She tries to speak to him, but he is cautious, doesn’t trust her. At hour 851, she pretends to be sick so he will open the cage, knocks him out with a bowl, and runs. “Definitely real,” he grumbles before giving chase. They make it to the surface, and Simmons cuts her leg. She would rather be killed than taken prisoner. Instead, he warns her “it” can smell blood, and drags her back to his underground lair.
Hour 853. The man, Will, claims that the whole planet is evil. We find out he was sent here in 2001 by NASA, with a trio of scientists. They were sent with enough supplies to last a year (some of that stuff looks a lot older than 2001). NASA sent them with lots of power, but it is all solar; we later learn the sun only rises for a few minutes once every 18 years. NASA thought the monolith would be an affordable way to travel through space. It was classified as to how NASA knew this planet was habitable. The rest of the team was there to collect samples; they were scientists. Will was there to keep them alive. But “it” got to them, got in their head and made them crazy. One set himself on fire; another threw himself off a cliff. The third went crazy and attacked Will with an axe; Will turned the axe on him. Simmons suggests that maybe it was just a psychological issue that caused these men to go bananas. Will is offended, and Simmons apologizes – they need to work together to get out of there.
Hour 3010. Simmons is frustrated. Will and his team mapped out what they could of the area. She wants to go to the “no fly” zone, but Will won’t allow it. That was the last place his team was before they went mad. But Gemma sneaks out and finds a sword, a bottle of wine, and a tool for measuring the stars. All things that are very old. A sand storm rolls in and she rolls down a hill and lands next to some human skeletons. Then she sees “it,” a dark, ominous cloaked figure. She runs back to Will’s lair and agrees – she saw “it.” He is mad that she went; she is mad he kept secrets. But it doesn’t matter because Simmons has figured out how to get home. “It’s in the stars.”
Hour 3032. Simmons suspects that the portal is fixed; it is the planet that moves. If they track the stars, she can figure out the rotation, and map out when and where the next portal will open. She has enough power on her SuperPhone to get the data they need from the NASA equipment. At 3183 hours, Simmons finally finds a portal that will open nearby in 18 days. It is in the no fly zone, and on the other side of a 30-meter wide canyon. She tells Will to figure it out.
Hour 3575. They start their trek. When they get to the canyon, they find it to be more like 100 meters wide – way too far for the grappling hook Will devised to work. He thinks “it” doesn’t want them to leave. Simmons wrote a note in a bottle; her plan was to toss it in the portal in case it isn’t open long enough for them to get through. Their last chance now is to shoot the bottle across the canyon and hope it makes it to the portal. Will’s aim is true, but it arrives after the portal closes; the bottle smashes. They return to Will’s lair, and Simmons loses hope. She cries, and he holds her. He used to think there was no hope on this planet – until she showed up. They kiss deeply.
Hour 4720. Simmons and Will are now living together as a couple. Their beds are pushed together and they kiss warmly and casually. They are preparing for their first sunrise, with the wine that Simmons found – Will went back for it. As they are waiting for the sun, Simmons sees a flare go up. Convinced it is Fitz, she races towards it. The sand storm kicks up again, but Simmons is determined – and desperate. She sees a “space man,” and thinks it is Will’s team, returning for him. It is not; that is “it,” and Will tells her to run. Simmons is confused and overwhelmed, but she runs towards Fitz’s voice and he drags her back home.
Now, Simmons is relaying the tale to Fitz. She doesn’t know if Will is dead or alive, but she never would have survived without him, and that is why she must go back for him. Fitz walks out without a word, and Simmons is worried she has upset Fitz or scared him off. Nope. Fitz goes to the lab, pulls up all the data he has, and promises to get Will back.
We see that Will is still alive. His gun, with one bullet, one he was saving for himself, is now empty. Maybe he shot “it?” Either way, he is alive.
Check out a promo for next week’s episode, “Among Us Hide…”
