By The Nerdling

Sarge and his team pull a jewel heist. SHIELD investigates an alarming Sarge/Coulson link. Fitz looks to atone for past sins.

Spoilers!

Remember Kids, Space Slugs are Tasty

In flashbacks, we find out Enoch woke Fitz before their ship was destroyed and got him to safety. Thinking they are being chased, Enoch taught Fitz an alien language, helped him change the color of his eyes to disguise his humanness, and got him a job on a slug transport.

Fitz is discovered to be human when he makes the mistake of calling the slugs, a much sought-after space delicacy, gross and slimy. The Captain wants to jettison Fitz and Enoch when the two help him to realize they are the reason the ship is running so well. Thinking two slaves are better than a paid crew, the Captain puts the other engineers in the airlock.

Fitz refuses to let the innocent crew die for him to live. He knows he will never be able to look Jemma in the face again. Fitz rigs the airlock to send the Captain and his muscle out into space, not the engineers. The group travels to the planet where cryo-chambers are manufactured (as Jemma predicted), but the crew would be executed as mutineers if they land. Fitz puts his mission to the future (he and Enoch do not know the world ending event has been averted) on hold for a while so he can find the crew a safe place to work.

As they leave the planet, they just miss the arrival of Jemma, Daisy, Davis, and Piper.

Heist

On Earth, Benson investigates possible links between the arrival of Sarge and SHIELD’s past cases. He tests Sarge’s DNA found at a gas station robbery and discovers his and Coulson’s DNA are exact matches. Benson also discovers a video on Tinker (the concrete wall man) from another world where Sarge and the team use a big gun to destroy the place.

Sarge and the others regroup at a shipping yard, keeping their truck hidden. (Sarge and Jaco are spotted by a security guard who calls in the disturbance. SHIELD goes to investigate but finds nothing.) Sarge, Jaco, and Snowflake (the woman I previously thought was called Butterfly) think this world will be easy to destroy since we still use combustion technology. But the team is missing a key component.

Tinker liked to carry PEGs with him for luck. A PEG is a piezoelectric gem, like quartz. They are naturally polarized and can generate an electric charge when under applied mechanical pressure. PEGs power their world-destroying weapon. Lucky for the team the gems are plenty here. Sarge, Snowflake, and Pax hold up a jewelry store, catching the attention of SHIELD when a clerk sounds the alarm.

Arriving at the scene, SHIELD finds Sarge and his team have locked themselves in a vault with the store clerk. May knows Coulson wouldn’t back himself into a corner with no way out. She reasons his doppelganger wouldn’t either. With the heat sensor, SHIELD detects a fifth person. Realizing they have some kind of portal gun, May travels back to the shipping yard and finds the hidden truck.

In a beautifully shot close-quarters fight, May frees the clerk and delays the team from using the world-destroying gun. She comes face-to-face with Sarge, calling him Coulson. Hearing the name gives Sarge pause. Jaco and Snowflake push May out of the truck, thru the portal to the jewelry store, and close it just as SHIELD breaks into the vault. Jaco asks Sarge about Coulson. Sarge admits the name “sounds familiar.”

Thoughts

Sarge having Phil Coulson’s DNA (or is it really the other way around) was a hell of a shocker for not only poor May, but for us as well. This could be a confirmation the world destroying team are from another dimension, not another world in this universe. There is obviously going to be a connection to the appearance of Sarge and a past SHIELD mission. The question is which mission and what is the connection?

More information about Sarge’s team is revealed. Why they have destroyed other worlds and want to obliterate Earth has not. Their truck is outfitted with possibly the same tech SHIELD uses to camouflage. Jaco has worked for Sarge longest, nine years. Despite the years of loyalty, Jaco knows little to nothing about Sarge’s past. Tinker was the team’s technical expert. His botched “Crossing” could have been intentional. If it was sabotage, who did it? Sarge and Jaco? Or Pax, the one member of the team who is in no hurry to destroy Earth and move on?

Everyone on the team doesn’t come from the same place. Sarge recruits as he goes. With their technical expert dead and Pax making noise about not liking the lifestyle anymore, Sarge tells Jaco to keep an eye out. They may want to enlist someone new while they are here.

While I’m ready for the FitzSimmons reunion, Fitz’s current predicament serves as a much-needed redemption arc for his actions as The Doctor in the framework. The Fitz who made it thru to the future made a choice to embrace his dark alter ego. He rationalized the cold calculating version of himself was needed to save the Earth. This Fitz is willing to delay getting to the future and Jemma so he can again be the man worthy of her.

I love the writers giving Fitz a chance to forgive himself. While I understood why Fitz had to make peace with and become more like his framework self, it was too heart-breaking to watch a beloved character torture himself over his decisions. Fitz is in dire need of “redemption.” Keeping him separate from Jemma is a little much. But the writers love to keep these two apart so we can have all the feels when they are reunited.

See you next week!

---

The Nerdling was born in the majestic land known as Texas and currently resides there after several years of journeying through Middle Earth in a failed attempt to steal the one Ring from that annoying hobbit, serving the Galactic Empire for a time, and then a short stint as a crew member on the Serenity. Since moving back to her homeland, Nerdling flirted with a hero reputation. Saving children from the dangers of adoring domineering, sparkly vampires (champions with souls are the only vampires worth loving) and teaching normals the value of nerdom, all while rooting for her beloved Dallas Stars. Then came the Sokovia Accords and her short spell of saving others came to an end. With Darth Vader’s reputation rightfully returning to badass status, Nerdling is making her way back to the Empire. They do have cookies, you know. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram.