Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD season 5 episode 13 review: Principia
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD searches high and low in this week’s episode to find the gravitonium from season one. But it’s not where they expect it.
This week’s Agents of SHIELD gives us a fair amount of exposition. However, that doesn’t mean it’s boring at all. In fact, we get a lot of fun character beats!
Not-So-Short Summary & Analysis
“Mack, seriously, if I had arms, I would strangle you right now,” Elena says, welcoming us into this episode. You can’t blame him for being overly helpful in the wake of what’s happened.
Our SHIELD team is on the hunt for gravitonium. Apparently Mack knows the guy they’re after, which is oddly convenient — Tony “Candyman” Caine. As it turns out, it was his job to give old Hydra operatives from Cybertek new lives.
The gravitonium was put on a ship, the Principia, and sent to an island in the Pacific, but it never made it. It sank in a storm. Deke’s brainstorm of the ship actually being in the air is a brilliant idea and pays off when the crew finds it. Can you tell he’s related to FitzSimmons?
Not all of the gravitonium is aboard, but they find enough of it. Deke’s smart thinking of putting it in a box comes as he’s standing exactly like Fitz, too.
Of course, they’re not alone on the ship and get surrounded with less than a minute to get out before it plummets back to the surface. Of course, they’re stationed there by Hale.
Mack also brings back one of the guards he knocks out as arms for Elena, but let me complain about television logic. She had her arms cut off like two or three days ago at most. You can’t put prosthetics on that early! It takes months! Just suddenly having replacement, functioning limbs is not realistic. These are the moments where I don’t enjoy TV logic.
The other half of the episode involves the return of Werner Von Strucker. In case you don’t remember, he ended up being tortured by Ward and his thugs after failing his first mission and running to Gideon Malick. Man, that was forever ago, wasn’t it?
He finds himself in the same “safe house” as Ruby. Apparently they knew each other as kids since Hale visited Strucker so frequently. Hale wants Werner’s memories and knowledge, but he wants nothing to do with her grand scheme.
Post-Credits Stinger
Werner/Alex sticks around thanks to Ruby’s very angry, passionate speech. They’re going to try to overthrow Hale when the time comes. Their other team members? Mr. Creel from last week’s post-credits stinger!
Badass Moment of the Week
Deke trying a Twinkie for the first time. Pretty sure we would all feel that same way.
Best One Liner
“You guys see stuff like that all the time?” Caine asks, met with resounding “uh huh,” “yeah,” “pretty much” as a reply. And all of the comments about MC Hammer, too.
Deke gets shunted to the side a lot this episode. His interaction with his mother’s fear ghost was a really touching moment. You really see how much he’s still a kid. How often and consistently he gets shooed away by Fitz also hurts. He’s your grandson, for goodness sake!
The moment he heard Simmons say the phrase his mother always said really hits you in the feels. Plus how he just stares at Fitz and Simmons afterward when he realizes they are his grandparents makes you laugh.
Next: The new Avengers: Infinity War trailer has us excited (but also a little worried)
Next week’s Agents of SHIELD brings back Ivanov and Hydra Fitz and it looks like a lot of demons will be exposed!