AoS Episode Showdown -- FZZT
This episode is so damn good I was almost late to work because I wanted to keep watching. Even though I’ve seen it at least 10 times. There’s a lot to say.
In this episode, 1x06, Skye says that FitzSimmons is psychically linked. Fitz scoffs at that and then looks on horrified as Simmons does a Ward impression almost exactly like his. In 2x06, that psychic link is completely subverted. Any sort of attempt Simmons gives to finish Fitz’s train of thought is immediately squashed by him. In 5x06, the psychic link is well intact when they both propose to each other at the first opportunity. And then, of course, 6x06 literally has Fitz and Simmons psychically linked.
Fitz tells Skye she “made the rounds” and apologized to all of them. I love the idea of her going up to May, Ward, Fitz, and Simmons individually and apologizing to each of them. Although, my guess is FitzSimmons is in the same room when she approaches them.
FitzSimmons both imitate Ward with their hands on their hips. When the team arrives on the campsite, Ward has his hands on his hips.
When Coulson, Ward, and Skye are talking about Adam Cross, Ward says that “everyone looks clean on their first go-round.” While, yes, this is a clear foreshadow about Ward, this also applies to the show as a whole. Up until 1x17, the team and the audience were both lulled into a sense of trusting that everyone had good intentions. Over the years, both the team and the audience have learned to trust. no. one. I love it.
In 1x06, Simmons tells Fitz that as a scientist she “has to dissect something.” In 6x06, Id Jemma literally cuts into Fitz, claiming, “I like dissection.”
In 1x06, FitzSimmons has the dynamic of a bickering married couple. In 2x06, Hunter and Bobbi take on that persona, while Fitz and Simmons maintain a dynamic far less friendly. In 5x06, Fitz and Jemma have a brief married couple spat involving who proposed first at the very end of the episode. In 6x06, they are literally a bickering married couple.
Tony Diaz’s death is heartbreaking. His realization when he repeats his friends’ names and thinks about what happened to them...
In 1x06, when Tony asks Coulson about what death was like for him, Coulson says, “It’s beautiful.” In 6x06, when Jemma is pleading with Fitz, she says that there was “a lot of death, yes, but there was beauty too.” I just really like that word used when coupled with death.
When May tells Coulson he did everything he could for the fireman, Coulson gives a little nod that breaks my heart. He’d like to believe that she’s right, but he knows he could’ve done more.
In 2x06, even though we don’t see Imaginary Jemma in the outfit first shown in 1x06, there’s a scene where Fitz is turned away, caressing his shoulder and murmuring to himself before the real Jemma arrives.
1x06: “Oh, Fitz. It’s the most perfect opportunity to see the world. We’d be fools to pass this one up.” 6x06: “Chin up, Fitz. There’s nothing to be afraid of.” I’m sure these were both said during the same conversation. Both show Jemma’s insistence that they join and Fitz’s reluctance. And in 1x06, Fitz does not disguise his blame, and Jemma does not disguise her guilt.
“You’ve been beside me the whole damn time.”
When Jemma requests that Coulson tell her dad first, he says they’re not there yet, and he refuses to listen. You can tell he’s still harboring guilt for what happened to Tony and will be damned if it happens to Simmons. But then Jemma emits a little please, and Coulson gives the second devastating nod of the episode. He’s already so attached to her, and his helplessness is killing him.
Ophelia describes Fitz’s true nature as being a romantic, and she’s right. The moment Jemma’s life is threatened, Fitz barrels through the lab doors, risking viral infection, and then prepares to jump out of a plane. Without question.
But there’s something else about that too. From episodes 1-5, Fitz has a crush on Skye. In this episode, his feelings shift dramatically, and I’m one of the herd that believes that that last shot of Fitz was him discovering his feelings for Jemma. Even if Iain didn’t play it that way, I think the script does. That doesn’t mean the last shot isn’t layered and nuanced, and there are more things about that last look that can be discussed. His affection for Jemma does not waver until the end of “Self Control” when his memories are displaced, and he’s devoted to Ophelia. Once he’s out of the Framework, he’s all in with Jemma again. There is not a single episode where Fitz is not romantically into someone. I wonder if part of that, the desire to be with someone, has to do with the lack of affection from his father that he endured as a child.
When Fitz is struggling with the parachute straps, Ward appears with a thump, so I think he jumped from the top stair of the spiral staircase, and I gotta give him props.
Skye hugging Simmons is everything. Even though Fitz is Jemma’s person, and Coulson is Skye’s, Skye and Simmons care a lot about each other, and their relationship subtly grows into something beautiful. And when you think that in the prior episode, Skye was betraying her team to save her boyfriend, it’s a nice touch to see how much Skye cares for Simmons despite everything she’s done.
Also, aesthetically, in 1x06, Skye hugs Simmons after Ward and Simmons lightheartedly talk about Ward saving her. Ward is off to the side, allowing Skye and Simmons to have their moment. In 2x06, the three of them have another short scene. But this time, Jemma steps in front of Skye, cutting off contact between the two, and tells him the next time she sees him, she’ll kill him. Oh, the times... they are a’changing.
In 1x06, when May asks Coulson how Simmons is doing, Coulson answers that she’s “amazingly resilient. You’d never know she almost died.” I have to give the writers all the props with this because what Coulson says displays the main way Jemma handles trauma from here on out. And not only is that seen time and time again, It’s discussed and addressed as incredibly unhealthy in 6x06.
“Don’t let anyone know. That’s the whole idea.”
In 1x06, May intuits that the traumatic experiences both Simmons and Coulson endured have affected them in a big way, whether they acknowledge it or not. In 3x06, May has a similar discussion with Bobbi about her traumatic experience with Ward. May is the quickest to catch on to these changes in mood and action for incredibly obvious reasons.
In 1x06, Fitz laments that he couldn’t have done “the whole James Bond in mid-air type of thing.” In 5x06, Fitz leaps from the balcony, shoots the laser barrier control in mid-air, and lands on the platform.
In 1x06, when Jemma says, “you’re the hero,” Fitz gives her a little yeah. The last shot of him shows how much he doesn’t believe her. I think this is a gorgeous last scene.
Not only is the FitzSimmons storyline incredible with phenomenal acting, but the rest of the team have nice character moments too. And if that wasn’t enough, the monster-of-the-week plot is incredibly engaging, and the actor playing Tony Diaz gives such a beautiful performance. In many ways, this episode is a game changer, I’m not going to even play coy about ranking it:
FZZT
Eye Spy
Pilot
Girl in the Flower Dress
The Asset
0-8-4
