From hour 0 to 4722, Jemma Simmons relives her time on the desolate planet to Fitz to tell him why she wants to go back. Once in a blue moon, Agents of SHIELD accepts something that their good at and finally focuses on character. Even if they introduce a random love triangle, the emotions finally make sense. These lone episodes are the right amount of heartbreak and intrigue.
After six hours stranded on the unnamed desolate planet, Jemma is making voice memos on her phone that Fitz engineered to have a long battery life. Stick with this one, Jemma. He knows what’s important. Jemma makes observations on the landscape to send back to Fitz. So like Jemma to immediately start taking notes as soon as she’s stranded in a different solar system.
After twenty hours, it becomes blatantly obvious that this planet has no sun. A human can only survive 100 hours without water. She is lucky this planet she was teleported to was habitable. She finds water and while taking some much needed downtime, she’s attacked by something. It is gross and slimy.
At hour 111 she eats the gross slimy thing for sustenance because as it turns out, humans need that as well. She knows that Fitz would never give up on her so she can’t either. Heartwarming at first, but that will soon become a double-edged sword. Jemma hears a noise and follows it, promptly falling into a hole that seals up behind her. She is trapped in a makeshift cage when she wakes up. She comes face to face with another human who doesn’t exactly go out of his way to explain what’s happening. He just gives her food, as nice handsome strangers do.
When he comes around again, she pretends to be poisoned and knocks him out, escaping. While Jemma considers him a threat, it doesn’t seem a bad gig being given good and a safe place to stay. He’s actually protecting her from a bigger threat that happens to be able to smell blood. During her attempted escape she gets cut. He is doing his best to get her to safety and she should just accept the help from the attractive muscular man. His name is Will and he is an astronaut. Jemma has won the survivor lottery.
Will outlines his backstory. He was employed by NASA, sent to collect samples with his team until they found a way to be brought back. All was not as it seemed when they realized the planet was inhabited by some evil antagonist that makes humans crazy somehow. In a very LOST like manner, his crew got “sick” and Will was forced to defend himself against them. Even after everything Jemma has seen, she insists there is a psychological reason behind what the crew experienced. Admittedly, this is true to her character, but she shouldn’t be so doubtful. One of her best friends can literally start earthquakes with her mind.
But all is not lost. Jemma thinks that she can find a way back home. By tracking the stars she can figure out when the portal will appear again, but she has to deconstruct her iPhone, the only connection she has left to Fitz. It seems like an even trade. Jemma and Will trek across the canyon to get to where the portal will open. All of their efforts are lost and they arrive too late to reach it. Jemma realizes that she won’t be able to get home and the tension she and Will have been feeling through the entire episode has finally come to a head.