SHIELD had a small victory in the last episode, but they still need to scramble in order to save the planet. With dangers still lurking in their headquarters, it’s only a matter of time until some unwelcome guests show up. It’ll be up to Fitz to try to come up with a permanent solution for the problem their facing.
At the same time, Coulson and May move forward to try to get some answers as to why SHIELD is being hunted by deadly robots and assassins.
Warning: There will definitely be spoilers for Season 5, Episode 14 of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, “The Devil Complex,” below.
General Hale Is Captured by SHIELD
General Hale is being driven when the Zephyr-One appears in front of them, forcing them to drive inside the cargo area. Hale is taken to a holding room where Coulson talks to her. Hale says she’s just doing her job by going after them. She does apologize for one of Coulson’s agents getting their arms cut off. Coulson tries getting Hale to tell him what she’s attempting to save the world from. She tells him to go with her and she’ll show him. She wants to show him what they’re really up against.
Piper and May discover that Hale’s driver is really Creel. He shows he has bombs strapped to his chest.
The Doctor Is In
Fitz is frantic in trying to figure out how to seal the rift to the nightmare dimension. He needs to figure out how to use the Gravitonium they acquired into the device that would stabilize the rift. He’s becoming frustrated because they can’t find any notes or records on Gravitonium.
Later Fitz is working on one of the robot guards they brought to the base. Deke asks if he needs help, and Fitz knocks him out. It turns out to be the evil Doctor Fitz from the Framework.
Who Is Hale Working With?
Anton Ivanov makes his return and is working with Hale. Coulson is forced to let him on board the Zephyr-One. He wants to ensure humanity’s survival for generations to come. The reason Hale’s using robot soldiers is thanks to Ivanov. Coulson surmises the reason they’re all faceless is Anton lost the ability to make convincing LMDs when he lost AIDA.
While it seemed that Hale might be working for Ivanov, it turns out he’s not the one calling the shots. Hale has his original head in a jar.
Time For Surgery
Daisy is knocked out by the of the robot soldier Doctor Fitz was working on. She wakes up and finds herself strapped to a table. Doctor Fitz plans on performing surgery to remove the Kree device in her head that inhibits her powers. While in the Framework, he was fascinated with how Inhumans’ powers worked, he says he wants to help her to regain her abilities. Using her powers, she’d be able to compress the Gravitonium to fit inside the device to close the rift.
Fitz comes in and sees Doctor Fitz about to operate. He tries pleading with him but Doctor Fitz chastises him for being weak. Daisy asks him who he’s talking to. Jemma then walks in, and it turns out there’s only one Fitz in the room. He’s holding the scalpel. There wasn’t an anomaly. Realizing what’s going on, he says there’s no turning back. The robot soldier points a gun at Jemma, and he continues to remove the Kree implant. Daisy says she’ll never forgive him for this.
Fitz then gives Daisy a shot of adrenaline in order to kickstart her powers and walks her through compressing the Gravitonium. Once the task is complete, the robot powers down, and Fitz gets on his knees with his hands on top of his head.
Deke’s Confession
Fitz is alone in a room. Jemma talks to him and asks how long he’s been seeing Doctor Fitz. Fitz tells her he’s been hearing him for a while since they left the Framework. He only just started seeing him. Jemma tries saying it was just his injury acting up like when he used to see her. Fitz says she was his conscience so what does that make the Doctor?
Jemma tells Fitz the dark persona isn’t him, but he disagrees. She says Daisy and Mack (who was shot in the leg by a robot) will forgive him if he explains what happened. Fitz doesn’t believe he deserves forgiveness.
Jemma is later alone when Deke finds her. He talks to her and says she hasn’t lost Fitz. She knows him better than he knows himself. He goes on explaining how stubborn he is and how he always feels he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. He also mentions other tidbits, and Jemma asks him how he could know all this. Deke says it’s because his mom used to tell him about her parents all the time. She always spoke about her dad with admiration. She was the best man she ever knew. Deke knows Jemma can help Fitz. He starts saying her line about the “steps you take don’t need to be big,” and Jemma finishes, aware he’s their grandson.
Thoughts
This was an intense episode. Iain De Caestecker always gives a powerful performance when given the spotlight. It was pretty nuts finding out Doctor Fitz wasn’t an apparition. It’s going to be hard for Daisy and Mack to forgive him for the lengths he went to, even though he seems to have solved the rift problem. It’s also great that the writers didn’t drag on the Deke’s secret for too long. Simmons now knows Deke is her grandson. We’ll have to see if they decide to tell Fitz right away.
The end segment showed Hale talking to someone in a dark room. Giant Kree letters were seen behind her. I tried deciphering what they spelled out, but because they kept changing, I couldn’t make any sense of what it said. With Coulson, she now has the final piece they needed. She is told she’ll have to drink some Kree Odium if she fails. The voice wishes her good fortune and closes with “Hail HYDRA.” Looks like we haven’t seen the last of them.
What the Heck is going on?!? 
Accessibility note: Just letting you know as one of the 30+% of people with astigmatism, I can’t read light text on dark background and therefore won’t frequent this site. Bye!
Sorry you feel that way. No one’s ever commented on it. It’s something I can easily change. I always thought people felt this was “cooler” or didn’t like reading sites with so much “white” shining at them. I’m happy to change it but not sure you’ll ever know.