Agents of SHIELD: Rewind review S5 E5

Rewind kept Agents of SHIELD’s momentum rolling and was a reminder of one of the series’ biggest goofs. After last week’s cliffhanger, this episode focused on how Fitz arrived in the future after getting left behind.

But first he had to deal with the fallout of SHIELD’s last mission. When the others were taken, Fitz was left behind to deal with military agents happy to arrest him. After earning the trust of his captors, Fitz was able to study their disappearance and watch a little soccer in the process. There was something really relatable about Fitz getting agitated watching his team playing. Or is that just me watching 49ers games?

Fitz was working on something namely a hidden message in letters he was mailing to his favorite soccer fanzine. It took six months, but the message finally got through to Fitz’s ace in the hole — Lance Hunter. I really wasn’t a fan of Hunter and Bobbi leaving the show for a presumed spin-off. They had proven great additions to the main squad thanks to their skill set and personalities. AOS has managed without just fine without them, but I missed their perspectives during crazy SHIELD missions.

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Hunter helped spring Fitz from the military compound. Hunter and Fitz wasn’t a common pairing in Hunter’s two seasons so Rewind had a classic, but fresh feel. Watching these two was a lot of fun. I’m glad the writers explained Bobbi’s absence as yet another bump in the road for their roller coaster romance. Besides, Hunter was always better away from Bobbi anyway.

Fitz and Hunter track down the alien who sent the others to 2091. This wasn’t quite the action packed confrontation I was expecting as Enoch (Joel Stoffer) was happy to explain his role and reason for leaving Fitz behind. The seer didn’t have him on the list. In another nice call back from earlier in the series, the mysterious seer was Robin, the daughter of the future seeing Inhuman who caused so much confusion back in Season 3.

We did get a cool alien power moment as Fitz’s captors had them surrounded only to be frozen in time and released a half hour later. That’s a pretty useful tool. Robin doesn’t waste too much time telling Fitz the reason he wasn’t taken was because he has to save the team.

Enoch briefly covers his somewhat Superman style origin and how his space pod can help Fitz get to the future. All they need is the pod, which is back at the same facility Hunter broke Fitz out of earlier. I loved that their big weapon was ferrets to trigger the alarm systems. Rewind had one more throwback as Hunter and Fitz found one more surprise in the base — a Quinjet. I liked seeing Fitz more involved in the getaway sequence. If he’s got to rescue the team on his own, he can’t shy away from combat.

General Hale killing Lt. Evans and Lt. Lucas over a lack of trust seemed odd. Evans and Lucas had a bit too much screen time to be disposed of so quickly. Maybe this is a teaser to the potential second act of the season?

The Empire Strikes Back nod with Hunter and Fitz was a nice touch. Hopefully this won’t be the last time we see Hunter this season. For now, Fitz takes a brief cryogenic chamber nap and awakens 74 years later. Enoch’s got a plan and it’s the only way Fitz can save his friends.

Rewind was a very fun episode that continued the series’ overall strong work with self-contained solo features. Now let’s see what Fitz is going to do now that he’s reunited with his teammates.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Photo Credit: ABC