Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD season 5 episode 14 review: The Devil Complex

In a mind-twisting episode, Agents of SHIELD shows both sides of the coin. What’s real and what’s reality? And how many more people will get shot?

This week’s Agents of SHIELD honestly hurts so much emotionally. You guys better prepare yourselves for this.

Not-So-Short Summary

FitzSimmons, Daisy and Deke try to figure out how to fix the fear dimension rift. We get to see Deke be a giddy school kid, trying to be chill around FitzSimmons and failing miserably. He’s not going to make it much longer keeping his secret, is he?

Fitz also starts to show his frazzled ends. He hasn’t managed to sleep since forever ago, and then he has to face off against the Hydra version of himself. Honestly, it’s just a heck of a lot of fun to watch Iain DeCaestecker act against himself.

Hydra Fitz is after the Inhumans on their team. He restores Daisy’s powers by taking out Kasius’ device. The scene of him taking it out is hard to watch, not just because of the bit of gore, but of Daisy pleading. Chloe Bennet has been on fire these last few episodes with her acting.

And then it’s a twist. Hydra Fitz isn’t there! It’s been Fitz this whole time. It’s a fun Jekyll and Hyde twist to the episode. Did anyone else also think that when he went to finish taking the inhibitor out of Daisy that Deke was going to blurt out “Grandpa!” just as a distraction?

But Deke does get a fun heart-to-heart with his grandmother, Simmons. You know, the one where he spills everything he knows about Fitz from his parents. It feels so much more natural that he would tell Simmons … even if she does throw up immediately afterward.

SHIELD manages to capture General Hale and we get to see Coulson go head-to-head with Hale in an interrogation room. It has been a long time since Agents of SHIELD has given us Coulson firing on all cylinders. Of course he’s already a step behind her and she brought Carl Creel with her rigged with C-4.

Ivanov also makes his return as one of his various LMDs and Coulson breaks away from the team to see what Hale really has.

Post-Credits Stinger

Hale meets with the head of the Confederacy…or Hydra. Because it still exists?

Badass Moment of the Week

Daisy handling the gravitonium was really cool despite the circumstances.

Best One-Liner

“You know, somehow this is only the second-worst party invitation I’ve gotten,” Coulson says to Ivanov before they take off.

Should I complain again about TV logic and Elena’s prosthetic arms? In real life, she wouldn’t have anything on those arms for months. Her arms also shouldn’t look like that already. How long has it been? Maybe a week? Not even? Seriously, it was nearly four months before my dad could put on a temporary prosthetic leg for a few hours a day…

Well, after this episode, it sure feels like our team is still stuck in the same time loop as before. But maybe Deke is right; maybe they just need to be steps forward.

Next: What we hope to see in season 3 of Jessica Jones

Next week’s Agents of SHIELD shows the return of Hydra and the incoming alien invasion. A Secret Invasion, if you will! (Probably not actually…)