S03.E05: 4,722 Hours

[nottopbravo]

Through the whole episode I kept thinking, "For fourteen years, Will sure has a short beard"

 

I know he could keep it short with scissors, but why bother?  In case someone shows up? 

Edited October 28, 2015 by nottopbravo

[Traveller519]

Kudos to Agents of Shield for doing this kind of episode. Completely focused on one of your secondary characters, with absolutely no involvement of your big 3 (outside of an iPhone video of a Birthday Cake). No "Previously On" save the flashback, and character development without clunky exposition.

 

I am wondering if midway through the episode they decided to change the timeline around. Will's Tech looked to be from 1988-1994 vintage (and possibly earlier if you considered that in its HeyDey of exploration, NASA would have been at the forefront of technological advancement. Then I think they went to 2001 for "the Space Odyssey angle" and to not get into Interstellar-esque additional issues in dealing with aging in different parts of the Cosmos. Though, as mentioned, Will was still pretty young looking for a 2001 adventure.

 

I liked that Jemma was resourceful and survival inclined on her own through the first part of the episode and that it was upon meeting Will that they were able to pool their resources and areas of expertise to work towards getting off the planet, and only in the hopelessness that followed that they found their solace in one another.

[wmdekooning]

Ha! Who were those other astronauts Will (Robinson?) mentioned? Austin, Col. Steve (Lee Majors; Six Million Dollar Man), Brubaker, (James Brolin in Capricorn One), and Taylor, Col. George (Charlton Heston; Planet of the Apes).

 

The son-of-a-gun Keyser Soze'd her!!!

My head just exploded all over the place with that one...

[Jack Kerouac]

From my friend (who also watches the show but doesn't post):

 

 

They broke my heart with lazy writing. I haven't seen anything this bad in the show since the Pilot and that was horrible. Hopefully they just blacklist whoever wrote this from ever working on AoS ever again and move on.

 

On the bright side, we got all sorts of cool things after weathering through the initial Pilot+lame MCU tie in+monsters of the week episodes, so whatever they have planned for here on out should be awesome. I mean, at the very worst and the rest of the season is a wash and it's all mediocre, it will be miles above what I just watched and probably seem great.

[rubyred]

Even though I told Gemma not to kiss him, quite loudly, from my sofa, she went ahead and did it. But a second later "Love the One You're With" came into my head, thanks for the earworm Stephen Stills. I don't think that Will is necessarily Gemma's TL, things would of course be different on Earth, and Will is fully aware of how much Gemma loves Fitz.

I thought that was a pretty engaging and entertaining hour of tv, even though I got damn sick of that blue filter. I'm really appreciating that despite its comic-book origins, AoS is finding ways to demonstrate that people can have more than one emotion at the same time. Fitz can love Gemma and be hurt, but still have the decency to share her urgency in rescuing Will. Gemma can bond with Will and still love Fitz deeply.

We don't know yet how far any nascent romantic feelings towards Fitz had developed, we just know that she agreed to dinner/be open to it. It might have been a Cordelia/Wesley situation where all the lust in the world fizzled once they acted on it (so awesome, thanks BtVS).

[Tarasme]

That aside, I really liked this episode.  Jemma's been one of my favorite characters since the pilot, and having an all-Simmons episode was great.   Listening to her talk to herself was adorable, and I loved that she was able to figure out how the portal worked on her own even if she wasn't able to use that information to get home...  

Totally enjoyed EH's performance. She was awesome.

I also wanted to say I really liked the character of Will. I have no idea how he stayed sane for 14 years!

This...

 

In any case, did Will even really save her?  Sure, sharing his equipment and knowledge of the planet was helpful,...   Jemma was impressively capable on her own, so I didn't see Will's intervention as "saving" so much as companionship.

and this...

 

Ha! Who were those other astronauts Will (Robinson?) mentioned? Austin, Col. Steve (Lee Majors; Six Million Dollar Man), Brubaker, (James Brolin in Capricorn One), and Taylor, Col. George (Charlton Heston; Planet of the Apes).

 

The son-of-a-gun Keyser Soze'd her!!!

and definitely this...

 

It appears like after Jemma met Will, they lived a decent enough life in their bunker. They had furniture, technology, companionship, food, everything you would need/want when you're stranded on a strange planet. ... So why does Jemma wake up with a shiv after first being rescued? I think there's something more to this than Jemma just happened to stumble across a stranded astronaut (who doesn't understand astronomy?) with all the supplies needed to survive.

and...

 

This backstory does not match up with the traumatized, near catatonic Simmons that was rescued. ...

(I would speculate that Simmon's version of events was not what actually happened. But when TPTB cut back to Will on the planet, dropping the gun and walking off, it pretty much confirmed the story as reality. That could not have been a memory from Simmons.)

 

And why is Simmon's space boyfriend her shameful secret? People love rescuing NASA astronauts from other planets!  Did they not see 'The Martian'? Why is Simmons skulking around tying to figure out out to get back? Why tell only Fitz? Why include the sex part? Just say "There is an American astronaut still trapped on that planet as a result of a NASA mission from 2001."  People would want to help. Really.

 

As others have said, what's up the the idea of a 'not science-y' astronaut ? And for what reason did Will build a very large holding cell out of bamboo? (Did he whip that together just for Simmons? ) 

Just... this really

 

Although the story leads to many a question, the individual ep was very compelling and EH carried it very very well.  I like Will (although I did wonder why and how he kept his facial hair oh-so-neat-n-tidy when he's been there by himself for 14 years).

 

because all the evidence piles up...

... I think it would be interesting she killed him or if never actually existed.

People definitely on the same wavelength as me... mostly... for sure.. though I'm worried I'll look stupid for positing the theory...

 

... My problems with the episode mostly rest on:

 

1. The only other person she meets on the planet is a 30-something hot dude. Did this guy become an astronaut when he was 16?

    

2. Said dude still looks awesome; he even has a shaved beard!

    

3. Simmons spends the first 15 minutes being badass and then falls into the arms of the dude (said astronaut) who saved her...
4.  
5. A 'non-sciency' astronaut. That's got to be the stupidest thing of all. If it was NASA, he would be sciency, an Engineer at MINIMUM, probably with multiple degrees.

 

 

I really think Will is a delusion brought on by a brain taxed by desperation, deprivation, and boredom to its limit. ONLY the last scene dissuades me from this hypothesis. (If I'm wrong, I'll feel like an imbecile for even throwing it out there but please, are we supposed to believe that Will had *really* good face cream and soothing eye treatments to keep him looking so good? I can't believe positive effects of no sun or caffeine or booze to cause skin damage can stretch that far)

 

As to Fitz and Jemma's conversation: Is there evidence that Jemma told Fitz everything- every detail- that the audience was shown? I didn't get the feeling that she unloaded everything to him- maybe she alluded to their intimacy (I'm sticking to my story that Will was a mirage), but I don't think she ran down every sordid detail.

 

I'd like to think the no-fly zone monster is a similar delusion but that there's some kind of ill-will (hah!) presence there. Could be that the presence majicked the delusions into Jemma's fragility. Could be that the presence isn't even necessarily hostile or ill-willed (hah!) and yet still majicked the delusions- maybe there was a reason said presence wanted to keep Jemma away from that particular part of the planet. Scylla and Charybdis style myth working by said presence.  

 

It'll be interesting to see what the return trip reveals.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Tarasme

[Dagny]

My guilty pleasure is Naked and Afraid, don't hate. After watching a bunch of those episodes, you understand how critical food, fire and water are to one's survival.  Within an hour of her chatting to herself (without water), Simmons would have done the inner monologue.  Depending on when she ate lunch, she'd start looking for food within 6 hours. Definitely stumbling, crawling and hallucinations within 36 -48 hours without food or water.

 

It was nice that the water she stumbled upon wasn't stagnant and didn't have bugs that ripped her insides to shreds. It also have something that she could eat that wasn't poisonous to her.

 

Other than that and the blue filter, I had fun.

[benteen]

The only time I've seen "non-sciencey" astronauts was on the Twilight Zone, especially that episode where they crashed on what they thought was an asteroid(with breathable air) but it turned out to be like 40 miles from Reno, Nevada!

 

I Shot An Arrow in the Air.  Heheh, yeah, Rod Serling was a great writer but his grasp of science was dubious.  Still a good episode though.

[FurryFury]

Holy shit, that stinger with Will broke my heart.

 

A great episode. 

 

Props to Fitz for understanding Gemma's situation and helping her. I'm not a fan of that romance, but it's nice to see they're still friends (hopefully).

 

I wasn't a fan of Dillon Casey on Nikita (mostly because the writers had no idea what to do with his character), but I really liked him here.

Edited October 28, 2015 by FurryFury

[VCRTracking]

I Shot An Arrow in the Air.  Heheh, yeah, Rod Serling was a great writer but his grasp of science was dubious.  Still a good episode though.

 

I read that he got the idea for the episode from a woman at a party and paid her 500 dollars on the spot for it.

 

Will seems to fit the old idea of an astronaut from the 60s. Guys who were like test pilots and from the military.

[txwatcher]

Great job by Ms. Hentsridge, Bravo! I believe Will is connected to It and when he get back to Earth It will come along for the ride. Also, trauma based relationships never last. So keep hope alive FitzSimmons fans. And Andrrw IS Not dead.(I hope) Peace

[blackwing]

I think "shipping" is overrated.  Not sure when exactly this term originated, but I liked it better in the 80s when we watched characters and just liked the two of them together (like Michael Kuzak and Grace Van Owen) without calling it "shipping".  Not to mention those cloying smushed together names like Laisy or MayWard or the like.

 

I enjoyed this episode.  Maybe it was the fact that it was so dim on the planet and cave, but am I the only one who thought that Will kind of resembled Grant Ward?  Tall, dark hair, etc.

 

So she wants to go back and save him.  But the portal only stays open for like 30 seconds.  Will has no idea where and when the portals will open since she was doing all the calculations.  So are she and Fitz going to have to go back to the planet, bring a new power source to run the computer, and then wait for it to open again?

[Lyndy]

I liked this episode a whole lot. Also, I'm going to reserve judgement about the "triangle" thing. This is a Whedon show. Okay, Joss isn't directly involved but it's a well established rule of the Whedonverse that when the world (or your world) is ending, a person must have sex. It might not be any more than that. I like the character. I'd be okay if he turned up again.  

[Raja]

So she wants to go back and save him. But the portal only stays open for like 30 seconds. Will has no idea where and when the portals will open since she was doing all the calculations. So are she and Fitz going to have to go back to the planet, bring a new power source to run the computer, and then wait for it to open again?

It's like Stargate, Daisy has the frequency to open the portal and Simmons has the formula of where the portal will open. Just program the app into the super batteryed genius phone and once Will is scooped up you move to the next rendezvous time and point.

[ohjoy]

While I would very much like this to be an "It was all a drreeeaaammm!!!!" situation with Gemma's version of the events not quite syncing up with reality, I think that's a very slim chance, for the simple fact that AoS would be taking their "ground-breaking" hour of television and an episode or two later going, "Yeah, that episode's pretty much pointless because Simmon's just imagined most/all of it and that guy wasn't even there (or was dead long before she left)."

 

That just doesn't seem likely to happen.

 

That being said, EH did a wonderful job in the episode, and Fitz broke my heart in the 20 seconds he was on screen. It's just too bad that they couldn't have written a story arc that actually coincided with the weapon-bearing PTSD-struck Simmons we saw when they first got her back. I was really looking forward to that story.

[that one guy]

I'm not sure why Jemma didn't alert everyone to Will's existence as soon as she returned, as saving a person trapped alone on a planet for 14 years should become SHIELD's (and NASA's and the US government's) highest priority.  I would assume that the Feds would be grateful that SHIELD was able to let them know about Will's survival.

 

This bothered me. How long has she been back? What's she going to say if they rescue him, "sorry it took so long, but I just couldn't be bothered to mention to anyone that you were trapped here for three weeks, dreadfully busy, you know?"

 

Having said that, I don't find anything unusual about her PTSD. While she was on the planet conditions were desperate, and she held it together like a boss and got through it. Of course she's going to break down once she gets home. That's how it works.

[DeepPoet117]

This is a Whedon show. 

 

And that means no one can ever be happy.

[MDKNIGHT]

Sometimes a person falls in love with someone who doesn't love them back. What would be so weird if Simmons only feels brotherly love for Fitz? Is it a crime? I would like to think that Simmons has the right to not love Fitz back. It bothers me when the idea that the princess OWES the prince who rescued her, her love, is re-enforced. Come to think of it part of what showed Ward was crazy is that he kind of always made it sound like Skye HAD to love him back because he had either helped her or not killed her when he had the chance. I hope they don't have Fitz go down that road of crazy with Simmons.

I would go back for a 90 year old homeless person of the inappropriate (for me) gender, if they had saved my life. Sexual desire would have NOTHING to do with it. Who the hell leaves people behind on a desolate planet by themselves especially when they helped you? Do we as a society actually need to be having a sexual relationship with someone to help them out of a life or death situation? What does that say about us? I will be surprised however if the guy isn't dead when they get back. To have had company and then lost it...he'll probably have suicided. I for one do NOT want that to be the writer's way of giving Fitz an opening.

Just had a terrible thought. Anybody remember Babylon 5? The Billy Mumy character loved Delen and he momentarily sabatoges her husband's rescue because he thought if her husband were dead, he could have her. Hope Fitz doesn't go there.

[kitlee625]

I think "shipping" is overrated.  Not sure when exactly this term originated, but I liked it better in the 80s when we watched characters and just liked the two of them together (like Michael Kuzak and Grace Van Owen) without calling it "shipping".  Not to mention those cloying smushed together names like Laisy or MayWard or the like.

 

I enjoyed this episode.  Maybe it was the fact that it was so dim on the planet and cave, but am I the only one who thought that Will kind of resembled Grant Ward?  Tall, dark hair, etc.

 

So she wants to go back and save him.  But the portal only stays open for like 30 seconds.  Will has no idea where and when the portals will open since she was doing all the calculations.  So are she and Fitz going to have to go back to the planet, bring a new power source to run the computer, and then wait for it to open again?

Well she managed to figure out some way to open and stabilize the portal when she was on the planet, because that was her message in a bottle that they tried to send across to Fitz.

 

Personally I thought he looked like a young Jeremy Sisto for some reason. May have been the blue light.

Edited October 28, 2015 by kitlee625

[Minneapple]

Will is Kurt Russell from original Stargate movie

Will is a grandson of Dr. Zola

I thought of Stargate -- the show, though. The monolith is like the Stargate. And if you send through a team, it makes sense that team members would have different strengths. Science, military, etc.

[kennyab]

Regarding Will's age, it's possible that time dilation caused time to pass slower on the planet relative to earth, so he may not have actually aged 14 years. He said that he last track of time and didn't know how much time had passed. All we know is that he left earth in 2001 (earth time) and Jemma arrived in 2015 (earth time).

 

And while I haven't had time to go back and watch the episode to find out exactly what Will said about his background, Christa McAuliffe didn't have multiple degrees. NASA can decide to send someone on a mission who hasn't gone through the usual channels. I believe someone mentioned that he was a marine, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was maybe special forces. He didn't have to know anything about how spacecraft work, as they weren't using spacecraft. He wasn't a mission specialist. He was there for one reason -- to be the muscle and protector on an alien world. This was a pioneering mission, so they went out of the SOP for putting the team together. If you go back and look at the original astronauts, they were all test pilots, and not all of them would look like modern astronauts. That's where they were at with the monolith mission, they needed a survivalist and bodyguard.

Edited October 28, 2015 by kennyab

[blueray]

Will is Kurt Russell from original Stargate movie

Will is a grandson of Dr. Zola

I would have went with Jack O'Neill from Sg-1. Has little science knowledge (well some but no degrees in it) but travels into space.

Edited October 28, 2015 by blueray

[maczero]

Through the whole episode I kept thinking, "For fourteen years, Will sure has a short beard"

 

I know he could keep it short with scissors, but why bother?   

Shaving it gives him something to do.  Also, I find a long beard can get pretty nasty.  Sweat, dust, food crumbs and a whole lot of other stuff can get trapped in it.

 

I really think Will is a delusion brought on by a brain taxed by desperation, deprivation, and boredom to its limit. ONLY the last scene dissuades me from this hypothesis. (If I'm wrong, I'll feel like an imbecile for even throwing it out there but please, are we supposed to believe that Will had *really* good face cream and soothing eye treatments to keep him looking so good? I can't believe positive effects of no sun or caffeine or booze to cause skin damage can stretch that far)

I think the stinger at the end of the episode proves that Will was real or at least Jemma had interacted with someone/something during her time on the planet.

 

Anyway, I enjoyed this.  

[blueray]

The  thought of him not being real came to me too, I really hope they do not go that direction, I hate stories like that. I suppose Jemma or Fitz could search to see if he was a real person that worked for Nasa.

[Sakura12]

I think Will is real, it's whether or not he was friend or foe that can be up in the air for me. 

 

While I'd hate for them to change the story, I'd like to think there was more to it. At least to explain her sleeping with a shiv. Because her sleeping arrangements in the cave seemed relatively calm. I could see her maybe being afraid of strong winds or storms but nothing that would require a weapon. Plus there was what she said at the end of the last ep. "Something happened to me over there".  That's why I want there to be me more the death storm creature then she told Fitz or more to her and Will. 

[patchwork]

As soon as the person keeping Jemma prisoner was revealed to be good looking and age appropriate I knew where the story was going to go. Not that the cliché was badly written or acted but I really wish Will had been an alien to link in with the GOTG franchise or even a crotchety old human who Jemma didn't get on with particularly well. 

 

As others have said; the flashback doesn't match Jemma's behaviour when she got back. She'd been living in quite a nice cave, no need to have a shiv or for her to jerk awake frightened out of her mind. 

 

I'm hoping that when she and Fitz go back to the planet there's a twist to the story. Will and the nice cave might be what she remembers now but that's only because the demon/alien wants to draw her back. 

[justcris]

I really enjoyed this! It definitely kept me entertained throughout, and I love that they are willing to do this kind of episode that's so different from the "regular" episodes. 

Jemma + Will didn't bother me, it worked within the story, and I didn't think it became the focus of it at any point.

 

I do agree that the Jemma we've been seeing since she came back doesn't make a ton of sense given what we now know happened, but I'm on board to see how they handle this going forward.

[xqueenfrostine]

For me it's still Fitz was on Earth at his home with all the comforts and could leave whenever he wanted. Jemma was on an ALIEN PLANET and met a guy that's been trapped there for 14 YEARS. Giving up after she used the only battery in existence to try to find a portal that she couldn't reach is completely understandable. Interplanetary travel is also something Shield does not have access to or done before. Most people would've given up even Fitz if the odds kept going against him. He was ready to give up and believe she was gone until he found the sand.

Jemma isn't some prize that Fitz deserves because he loves her so much. If Jemma doesn't feel the same she shouldn't have to be forced to love him just because he never gives up on her. They even had Jemma say that she didn't feel the same way, I still believe that's true. She loves Fitz but is not in love with him. The fact they were making her try to date him was I think taking away her agency. To me it seemed like she agreed to the date because he's so into her and she didn't want to lose him from her life.

I agree with all of this completely. I think it's incredibly unfair and unrealistic to compare Jemma's ability to keep hope alive that Fitz would rescue her and Fitz's ability to keep hope alive that he could save Simmons. Keeping a positive outlook is not something we should be able to expect of someone who is barely able to feed herself and who is almost certainly suffering from sort of vitamin/mineral deficiency (which is something that can really mess up both your mind and your mood!). Fitz had a ton of resources at his disposal, plenty of food and a safe place to sleep, natural earth gravity and atmospheric conditions that didn't wear on his mind and body, and at least one teammate (Bobbi) who was able to offer some support in his quest to find Simmons. Those are circumstances under which is it is much easier to maintain focus and a positive outlook. Simmons did what she had to do to keep going, and I don't think it would have been emotionally healthy for her to not make the best with what could have been her new permanent home and the person she might have ended up spending the rest of her life with.

And I agree that Jemma accepting the date in the first place felt to me more like Jemma was trying not to lose Fitz than it was about realizing she was attracted to him after all. Their friendship took a beating last season largely because of Fitz's unrequited feelings. It seemed to me that she was trying to repair their bond and reconnect with him the only way she knew how.

A lot of fans are making this episode centered around Jemma about a man, and that man is Fitz. He's was noble and selfless in the final scene but the main thing that should be taken away is what Jemma went through.

Couldn't agree more!

Which brings on another rant: Simmons was able to determine when the portal would open again, and said it was based on the moons orbiting Planet Blue Filter. Moons don't randomly orbit, therefore the portal opened in some sort of pattern. It's beyond belief that NASA (then SHIELD) would have possession of this thing for years and wouldn't be measuring the time intervals between openings. Especially NASA, since they already knew it was a portal to another planet and not just some randomly melting lava-lamp. Simmons had the advantage of being able to see the moons, but even without them, it should be occurring in a recognizable pattern.

Do we know how much data they actually had on the monolith though? If their logs only cover a short period of time (say since Fitz and Simmons started studying it), the pattern may not have emerged yet. Anything can look random until the data starts to repeat itself. The blue planet had multiple moons, probably orbiting at different speeds, so the data from lunar tides might take months or years to show an obvious pattern.

And obviously, yes, NASA would have logged more data than 6 months worth of data if they were sending manned missions through the portal, but given that NASA was never mentioned before this episode and that no one at SHIELD knew it was a portal for most of the time Simmons was missing, I think it's safe to say that they didn't have NASA's records. We also don't know how long SHIELD had the monolith. They didn't appear to have been studying it during the period it was on Gonzales's aircraft carrier, so this thing could have sat in SHIELD storage for quite some time.

And as for NASA, for all we know they did try to go back and rescue Will at some point but were unable to find him due to the portal moving every time it opens. For all we know, the planet is littered with dead astronauts that Will never encountered because of the distance between their landing sites.

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

 

Agents of SHIELD Goes Blue
It's kind of like The Martian, but with a dash of Lost.

[Lantern7]

I was okay with the episode, clichés and all. I'm also thinking Jemma and Will were on Ego the Living Planet. Unless they're saving that for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. And when I heard "Brubaker," I thought of the comic writer.

[mac123x]

Another "that's not how planets work" rant:  Jemma and Will went to watch the sunrise, which she stated would be brief and wouldn't recur for another 18 years.  Her justification was that they were near one of the poles. 

 

What?  I can buy the 18 Earth-years of darkness due to the planet having a long orbital period around its sun and them being near a pole during local "winter". E.g., Jupiter has a 12-year long "year"  But once the sun started to rise, the days would get longer as the planet continued around its sun until they had full sunlight for the entire day.

 

I guess the portal could have dropped them in an uninhabited part of Westeros during the Long Night, but that would be a really weird crossover.

[staphdude]

So this means Fitz can move on to Bobbi once she is freed up?

[HistoryGirl]

I'm surprised that no one here has picked up on the tells that the episode gave!!! After I got over my rage, I started to think about it and realized a few (important) details.

1. Jemma loses her necklace because she leaves it as a pathway for Fitz. But then when she meets "Will" she's wearing it again and they have a scene where he puts it on her neck.  Then later on at their sunrise date, she's still wearing it, but then the flare happens.  She runs toward the flare and as soon as Fitz calls her name... Necklace is gone!  You definitely can't see the necklace on her when she calls out to Fitz, but when she's with Will-- necklace.  When she's pulled out of the rubble, she has no necklace on. 

 

2. Jemma on the plane awoke with a start holding a shiv. Why?  From what she told Fitz she wasn't living in fear.  In fact she was making the best of things with Will.  Only twice did she ever really see the figure and then there was the time she was Will's prisoner. But nothing that would suggest she couldn't sleep right and had to sleep with one eye open. 

 

3. When she's rescued by Fitz, she tells no one about Will.  Why not?  She doesn't have to say that she fell in love, but at the very least the guy who (supposedly) sacrificed himself for her should warrant an immediate mention from Jemma in those first few minutes/hours.  Even just a "Will.... Where's Will...." is enough.  But no. Nothing.  The only details she gives are that the planet had flora/no fauna and that she was "chased."  Why omit Will?  She had no reason to hide that there'd been another human on the planet.  Yes, hiding she'd fallen in love with him. But not that he existed. Yet she does.  And she doesn't start to actively recall him until the dinner with Fitz (when, interestingly enough they are about to drink wine-- the same thing Will and Jemma were doing before she was rescued).

 

4. Will won't let her go to certain places.  He says it's because of the Thing.  But Jemma only ever sees the Thing when Will is not happy with where she's going/gone. She found the sextant and wine in the graveyard, and the sextant is what started her almost successfully getting home (shall we also mention the mysteriously widened canyon?) 

 

5. Then there's the age of Will.  The actor (Dillon Casey) is 31.  If we assume Will is approximately 31, then 14 years ago he'd be a teenager. If we up the character's age he'd have to be 40+ for the timeline to work (working at NASA, being recruited, trained, etc.)

 

6. Why doesn't Will make a run for the portal with Jemma?  Instead he notably hangs back when she goes for Fitz. The Thing was closest to Jemma. If it was going to get someone, it'd be Jemma yet she bypasses.  If Will is who he says he is, he could've made a run for it with her toward Fitz.  And if TPTB wanted a sweeping romantic moment with FitzSimmons, they could've hand Will just miss the portal, but they didn't. He never left the spot she'd left him at. 

 

My thoughts?  There's a Thing and it's inhabited the body of the late Will Daniels.  I think Jemma lived one (real) existence (ShivJemma, who lived in fear of her life) and one (fake) existence (Bachelorette on Planet X Jemma).  I think the Thing was slowly breaking her down, but it took longer because she was clinging to her reality which was Fitz.  When the phone dies that's when she's thrown into Will's arms AND she starts to forget Fitz (note that she's very wistful on the sunrise date and says Will reminds her of someone as if she can't remember who).  Once the battery dies, she doesn't talk about Fitz anymore.  It's not until she sees the flare that it clicks back in and even then she flits back and forth and it's Fitz calling her name that compels her to the portal. 

 

ETA: Also earlier in the season Coulson/Mack/Hunter said that Rosalind worked at NASA at one point. I wonder if Rosalind's and Will's stories line up?!

Edited October 29, 2015 by HistoryGirl

[tennisgurl]

I have...mixed feelings about this one.

 

On the one hand, the atmosphere, and the look of the episode was great, and very unique. I love Jemma to bits and pieces, so seeing her survive and struggle and persevere was wonderful to see. EH was amazing. I thought the whole first part of the episode, when it was just Jemma vs. Nature, were wonderful. And then things took a turn.

 

Space boyfriend was ok as a character. Nice enough guy, but not super interesting. But...he is Jemma`s freaking space space boyfriend. Its pretty lame. Like, the second that guy showed up, I knew it was coming, but I hoped and prayed I was wrong. I was not. I wanted an episode that was just Jemma being awesome, but then they had to shoe horn the romance in. Which brings me to my next point.

 

I love FittSimmons, I love them together or separately, platonic or romantic. So, show, could you just get them back on the same page, just for a bit? Either have Fitz and Simmons have a romance, or have Fitz get over her, and they go back to being BFFs. Just pick one or the either. The never ending angst is killing me.

[Jack Kerouac]

My thoughts?  There's a Thing and it's inhabited the body of the late Will Daniels.  I think Jemma lived one (real) existence (ShivJemma, who lived in fear of her life) and one (fake) existence (Bachelorette on Planet X Jemma).  I think the Thing was slowly breaking her down, but it took longer because she was clinging to her reality which was Fitz.  When the phone dies that's when she's thrown into Will's arms AND she starts to forget Fitz (note that she's very wistful on the sunrise date and says Will reminds her of someone as if she can't remember who).  Once the battery dies, she doesn't talk about Fitz anymore.  It's not until she sees the flare that it clicks back in and even then she flits back and forth and it's Fitz calling her name that compels her to the portal. 

 

Unfortunately (for the writers but not for you), I think you are smarter than the writers. I think all of what you just described can be explained with two words: lazy writing.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think your idea is much better than what the writers probably have planned (boring love triangle, angst, etc., ad nauseum), but I just don't think they are that good.

[kieyra]

Unfortunately (for the writers but not for you), I think you are smarter than the writers. I think all of what you just described can be explained with two words: lazy writing.

Don't get me wrong, I think your idea is much better than what the writers probably have planned (boring love triangle, angst, etc., ad nauseum), but I just don't think they are that good.

Yep. Some very interesting catches and inconsistencies. I liked the episode in itself and found it somewhat wrenching, but I keep my expectations low for this show so I'd already forgotten how weird Jemma's post-portal behavior seems in this light.

But as much as I liked the episode, historygirl's version is way more epic.

ETA: I just realized the show setup is vaguely similar to Groo showing up later via a portal from Pylea to play love triangle in Angel. Although I like Will better.

Edited October 29, 2015 by kieyra

[tennisgurl]

Also I still don't think Andrew is dead, despite what the promo monkeys say. Many MCU characters have a rather tenuous grasp on mortality. 

Edited October 29, 2015 by tennisgurl

[benteen]

I read that he got the idea for the episode from a woman at a party and paid her 500 dollars on the spot for it.

 

Will seems to fit the old idea of an astronaut from the 60s. Guys who were like test pilots and from the military.

 

Yep.  Paid $500 on the spot for the idea and never did that again.

[ChelseaNH]

I don't find anything unusual about her PTSD. While she was on the planet conditions were desperate, and she held it together like a boss and got through it.

 

People who are able to act effectively in a horrible situation are less likely to experience PTSD afterward.

[Texasmom1970]

I too am hoping Will is secretly bad in some way. I hope they don't go rescue him from an alien planet just so he can date Jemima and Fitz can be hurt and jealous. It would be much more interesting.

[xqueenfrostine]

My thoughts?  There's a Thing and it's inhabited the body of the late Will Daniels.  I think Jemma lived one (real) existence (ShivJemma, who lived in fear of her life) and one (fake) existence (Bachelorette on Planet X Jemma).  I think the Thing was slowly breaking her down, but it took longer because she was clinging to her reality which was Fitz.  When the phone dies that's when she's thrown into Will's arms AND she starts to forget Fitz (note that she's very wistful on the sunrise date and says Will reminds her of someone as if she can't remember who).  Once the battery dies, she doesn't talk about Fitz anymore.  It's not until she sees the flare that it clicks back in and even then she flits back and forth and it's Fitz calling her name that compels her to the portal. 

 

 

 

That's a very interesting theory, though it wouldn't explain why we still see Will as Will even after Jemma left the planet, or why they made a point of showing us the gun that no longer has his last bullet it in.    If Will was the Thing, he wouldn't need to keep up pretenses once Jemma was gone.  It also wouldn't explain why The Thing would have let Jemma get away.  If Jemma could have be delayed even a minute from reaching the portal, Fitz wouldn't have been able to get to her before Daisy let the portal close.  Surely the Thing could have introduced even the illusion of obstacles if it was set on keeping Simmons.

[TVSpectator]

There's some speculation about what this planet might be and the main idea is a real trippy concept from Marvel in the 60s.

 

I've been watching this show on and off for a while. I have seen all of season 1 and parts of season 2, plus this episode. There is something called Xanth or sometimes called/connected to Planet X, in comics. Although, I don't think that the planet Simmons was on is anything from the comics. 

[APSimpson]

Honestly, I didn't like this episode. It started out with promise but then turned into a female romance fantasy. Nothing wrong with that, just not my cup of tea.

Still, it bugs me that Simmons didn't immediately tell Coulson that there was a NASA astronaut stranded back on that planet and they needed to try to get him back. He may have shot the idea down, and I wouldn't blame him considering the risk involved, but still. Maybe that's why she kept it a secret, but I do think bringing him back is the right and moral thing to do, and it would be best if Coulson knew.

[Collinwood]

I'm old so my mind went to the movie Forbidden Planet when Will started talking about the other astronauts dying. In the movie (starring Leslie Nielson among others)a scientist is on the Planet Altair 4 studying the alien culture there (the Krel). There is something attacking everyone who visits the planet. At the end we learn that it is the scientist's id that is attacking and the ids of the Krel are what destroyed the planet's inhabitants. The Thing that Jemma saw at the end was in an astronaut suit and holding something similar to what Will was holding when Jemma first spoke to him.

ETA: the site won't let me bold or italisize anything, hope my post is still readable.

Edited October 29, 2015 by Collinwood

[ChelseaNH]

Barren planet produces firewood and bamboo poles.  Who needs science?

Edited October 29, 2015 by ChelseaNH

[Agent Dark]

I though it totally had the feel of a classic Stargate: SG1 episode, which is great because that kind of Science Fiction show doesn't seem to be around anymore.  The now cancelled Defiance is probably the only show I can think of in recent years that had that same sort of feel.  Unfortunately I think they kinda fumbled a bit in the execution by not focusing enough on the mystery of the planet, and lent too strongly on the romantic entanglements with both Space Boyfriend and Fitz. 

 

Also, this episode should have totally been the season opener.  Alot of the tension was lost because we 'knew' Simmons was going to be OK (I mean other than her lead character status) and we 'knew' space boyfriend didn't make it back through.  Also because, in retrospect, Simmons PTSD doesn't fit at all.  Why wasn't she all 'holy shit you guys, we have to go back like right now to rescue this NASA pilot dude!' the moment she was rescued? 

[KatWay]

So I haven't watched the show in ages, but decided to try this episode because Simmons is probably my favourite character, and there was no Coulson or DaisySueSkye to bug me.

 

Elizabeth Henstridge is awesome and deserves much more than the writers usually give her, but I still thought the episode was pretty crap. A love triangle, really? Boring. I kind of want to see what happens with that planet and that monster on it, but I have zero interest in seeing people mope around with relationship angst, so I feel no inclination to watch the next eps.

 

Like people here said, she would have gone back even if she hadn't slept with Will, so that development was utterly redundant and just serves to have Fitz shooting angsty pining looks in Simmons' direction longer. Because that wasn't annoying enough already. Either have Simmons not be interested and Fitz move on or get them together, they get little enough focus that their romance would be low-key. 

 

Also: I see this going two ways - they rescue Will, he and Simmons keep hooking up until at some point he realises that she really loves Fitz and graciously lets him have her (i.e. moves away never to be seen or heard from again).

 

OR (the more interesting variety?): they think they bring back Will, but it's really that monster either having irreversibly affected him or pretending to be him. 

[HistoryGirl]

That's a very interesting theory, though it wouldn't explain why we still see Will as Will even after Jemma left the planet, or why they made a point of showing us the gun that no longer has his last bullet it in.    If Will was the Thing, he wouldn't need to keep up pretenses once Jemma was gone.  It also wouldn't explain why The Thing would have let Jemma get away.  If Jemma could have be delayed even a minute from reaching the portal, Fitz wouldn't have been able to get to her before Daisy let the portal close.  Surely the Thing could have introduced even the illusion of obstacles if it was set on keeping Simmons.

That's a part I can't really explain except to say that maybe oldWill is fighting newWill.  Like there's a part of him that is still there.  But who knows?  I do think that the episode would've been better served if we didn't see him in that final tag giving him even more of an air of mystery even if he was just a man. 

[Jack Kerouac]

I'm really not looking forward to the angsty crap, yet again. Like we haven't had enough of that over the past two seasons.

 

Plus, it seem very unrealistic that that the there was a NASA mission through the obelisk in 2001 and no one in SHIELD had any clue about it. Despite months of Fitz doing research - it is baffling. They had no information about a ritual sacrifice from a secretive organization who held the obelisk before SHIELD. Fair enough. Three scientists and a pilot, all on the US government's payroll, going through the portal without SHIELD finding out? Lame.

[Jodithgrace]

Yeah..I do think it would be way cooler for them to find a way to get back, only to find four astronaut graves, rather than three.