Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. recap: 'Fun and Games'

This week’s episode gets off to an unexpected start, but we’ve grown to expect that in this space-set season, haven’t we? This time the digression is in service of introducing a new character, Flint (Coy Stewart). We meet Flint as a lowly scavenger trying to survive in the space station housing the remnants of humanity, but he’s about to become something much more.

He’s not the only one going through changes. Upon arrival at the space station, Fitz is informed by Enoch that he’s now “Boshtok,” a space marauder of unlimited wealth and unapproachable ferocity. Those Han Solo references last week weren’t a joke; Fitz is now fully in hero mode. He swaggers enough to impress even Kasius, but Fitz really only has eyes for one person in the room. Enoch offers to introduce him to Simmons, but Fitz has no time for that. Sneaking up to Simmons from behind, he whispers a heartfelt speech that should make any FitzSimmons shipper faint. I mean, just look — even though the universe separated them once again, across space and time this time, he still managed to find his way back to her. “The universe can’t stop us,” he says. And then, to top it all off, in a moment shippers have likely been awaiting for years, Fitz even proposes to her…

…but, unfortunately, he didn’t know about Kasius’ implants that prevent his servants from hearing anything other than the voice of his master. So let’s hold off on the wedding bells for now.

In the meantime, it’s time for Flint to face his destiny. Along with a gaggle of other humans, Flint is assembled for exposure to the crystals. The mist comes up from vents beneath them, but when the mist clears, Flint is gone. One good thing about this season is that the villains are not dumb. The Kree knows Flint’s newfound Inhuman powers aren’t at work here, but isn’t sure what the actual answer is.

It is, of course, Yo-Yo. (Recap continues on page 2)

Yo-Yo sped the young Inhuman away before anyone saw, and is now helping him come to grips with his Terrigenesis. She tells the charming story of when her powers first manifested. Weeks after eating Terrigen-infected fish tacos, she ran out to buy beer, and suddenly found herself back on her couch in record time. When she went to get a bottle opener, same story. Flint’s main takeaway from this story is that he doesn’t know what “tacos” are, which really hammers home to Mack what a dystopian future this is.

Unfortunately, this story doesn’t come off quite as charming to Grill. He zaps their metrics and threatens to turn them into Kasius. He also now realizes that the sidekick he condemned to roach food probably didn’t betray him after all, but was set up by Yo-Yo’s speed. So he decides to just zap them to death himself, which is enough motivation for Flint’s powers to finally manifest. Turns out he can throw rocks! Yo-Yo tells him this is his gift and therefore his to control, but Grill shoots her with extra volts. The sequence reminded me very much of Dragon Ball Z, where seeing his friends hurt is what finally pushes Gohan to level up his power. But instead of going Super Saiyan, Flint uses his power to combine multiple smaller rocks into one gigantic rock big enough to crush Grill. And I mean, is it just me or does this power seem like it might be enough to possibly re-combine the Earth…?

But in the here and now, this episode still has some explosive twists to throw our way. After executing the Inhuman telepath for lying to him, Kasius pits Daisy against his own loyal ball-wielding warrior Sinara in order to impress his condescending older brother, who’s come to purchase “the destroyer of worlds” for their father’s army (one thing Kasius and Fitz apparently share, aside from their appreciation of Jemma’s beauty, is their demanding fathers). Now that Fitz isn’t the most intimidating buyer in the room, it’s time for Plan B. An epic battle between Daisy and Sinara ensues, and once the Inhuman gets the upper hand, Fitz and Simmons make their moves. They slash Kasius’ throat (awesome, but he appears to survive), shoot his companions, and escape with Daisy. Fitz and Simmons get their happy reunion kiss, and now it’s time for the real proposal. It’s Simmons who asks this time, and Fitz accepts — though he can’t help but insist that actually he was the one who proposed to her first. It wouldn’t be a good Science Babies moment without some banter, after all. Wild that the characters we first met as adorkable kids are now pulling off Han-and-Leia levels of cool. Awwww.

I’m glad to have the gang back together, and can’t wait to start finding out how they might get out of this impossible situation…