The rock band Rise Against once said that, “How we survive is what makes who we are”. It may put as through hell at the time but reaching the end of blood in your veins and air in your lungs can change you a lot. It’s a long standing principle of the comic hero genre. A character goes through a crucible and comes out all the stronger from it. During the off-season, Gemma Simmons faced her own battle for survival on an alien world. This week, we learn just what happened there, how she survived and how it’s come to change her.
4722 Hours – After promising to tell Fitz everything, we follow the abridged version of Simmons’ 6 months on the alien planet. A tale of survival, battling against hopelessness, and ultimately the reasons why she wants to get back there as we learn she was not alone there.
While the title is a play on Danny Boyle’s excellent 127 Hours, there are also a few good riffs from The Martian in this off standard episode as Simmons gets her science on. It’s a dangerous setup as it relies so heavily on Elizabeth Henstridge to deliver but thankfully, she absolutely nails it. From her first hour to the last, she shines on screen in her playful efforts to keep herself sane in isolation. In the absence of a blood-stained volleyball, we see her talking to an imaginary Fitz, which is like much of her story this season is a great reversal of the Fitz/Simmons dynamic of last season. You can’t help feel for her as wishes his phone picture goodnight or debates about what to wear when they go for dinner (suddenly their actual dinner date in episode 3 takes on a whole new context as we finally understand her tears). Especially in the first act, there are some wonderful moments of struggle and desperation as the necessity for water increases. Although it’s the Waterworld style self-bait hunting that steals the episode. Well-spoken characters like Simmons always work well with an unexpected dirty tongue. So as she celebrates her kill of the weird killer plant thing/naughty tentacle with a, “You’re dinner bee-atch! Woooo!” it’s an almost euphoric triumph. In the same way, the narrow failure of her message in a bottle attempt becomes a real heartbreaking defeat.
There’s a wonderful feel of mystery to this episode as it plays on our existing speculations concerning this unknown world. It even surprisingly turns into a three pronged attack. The first part is over just where this planet is and what its significance is. From its initial appearance a few episodes back, there was some speculation over it being “Hel” a known location in the Marvel Universe that plays a key part in the story of Thor Ragnarok. This episode spits some more fuel on that fire in a couple of places, including Simmons some apparent direct referencing like, “This isn’t our home, this is hell!”. While the idea of Agents tying into 2017's Asgardian three-quel so heavily still feels like a long shot, but given the existing Inhumans elements, it could still happen. Next, there’s the revelation over the existing Government awareness of both this strange world and the monolith’s portal abilities via marooned astronaut Will. Writer Craig Titley should be applauded for his geeky references with Will’s character. When you click that Will is “Lost In Space”, a certain robot voice and flailing arms immediately fly into your head. Then he notes that his mission (a space odyssey involving a monolith) was launched in 2001 with love to Kubrick’s masterpiece. Geeking out aside, this is both a great build on our existing story knowledge of historical awareness of the monolith’s powers by secret organisations, but the idea of expanding that to government and NASA level is just awesome! It creates the great possibilities of tying this story into the hidden intentions of the ATCU in just how they knew another world was on the other side.
Finally, we have the unknown shadowy extreme weather causing figure. While their initial black robbed appearance could spark a ludicrously farfetched theory about Marvel’s personification of Death figure; it’s much safer to assume this is some form of Inhuman or at least a figure connected to their society. Immediate thoughts go back to the monolith’s first appearance last season when it was labelled as a doomsday weapon for the Inhuman species. So could this unknown figure be some form of Inhuman exterminator? A Kree failsafe over Inhuman overpopulation? Will remarks the planet was “once a paradise” so could it have been a previous Inhuman colony now wiped out? This suddenly throws last week’s revelations about Lash’s mass killings being “necessary” into a new light. Could Lash actually be reducing the population of Inhumans in fear of this otherworldly death figure coming to earth and cleansing the whole planet, killing human and Inhuman inhabitants alike? This has the potential to become one hell of a story!
4722 Hours is a fantastic episode in the way it delivers so much from so little. It justifies Simmons’s needs to Stargate her ass back to that planet and Fitz’s to help her do it (even if it might result in a rival for his affections). It’s an episode that very subtly raises a lot of questions and wonderful possibilities about the directions this season will take. Simmons may not have had to cut off her own arm to get away (though Coulson may enjoyed the solidarity) but this story of her survival is still Agents best episode of this season to date.