Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. recap: Never take drugs in space

'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' recap: Season 6, episode 3

And now for an episode spent entirely in space! Last week we split the difference, watching May try to take on Sarge’s team on Earth while Fitz and Enoch tried to survive as spaceship stowaways. This time, there’s almost none of the former. Instead, we learn a lot about the planet Kitson that Fitz and Enoch took off for at the end of the last episode, with Simmons and Daisy close behind them.

As it turns out, Kitson is not that nice of a planet! As a space customs officer tells Daisy and Simmons, the common saying around the galaxy isn’t so much “what happens on Kitson, stays on Kitson” so much as “what happens on Kitson is contagious and burns.”

There are two main places to go on Kitson: casinos or brothels. Thankfully, everyone in this episode chooses the former. Given Enoch’s computer-like brain, he and Fitz think they can easily score some money at the card table. At first it’s working out nicely, since Enoch can count cards as easily as you or I count our fingers. But soon one of the more experienced gamblers realizes that Enoch’s great at cards, but not so great at reading people — which allows him to easily bluff Enoch and Fitz out of all their winnings.

Things only get harder from there. Desperate to find a game that relies only on mathematical computation, Enoch enters Fitz into a game where losing means being sold into slavery. Enoch’s plan is to emit tones that can only be heard by human eardrums to tell Fitz when to hit (think of it like very scary alien blackjack). That plan, uh, doesn’t work out. When it’s Fitz’s turn to play, he tries waiting for Enoch to tell him what to do, only to find the Chronicom fast asleep. Soon after, a loud alarm sounds through the casino, and all the other players clear out of the room. At least Fitz doesn’t have to worry about possible slavery anymore! But then, there’s another problem: It turns out Enoch isn’t the only Chronicom in the galaxy. There are others, and while Enoch is an “anthropologist” class, these are “hunters.” They’re coming for Fitz, and they have the power to shut down Enoch’s abilities.

Daisy and Simmons are the first to meet one of these hunters when he boards their ship looking for Fitz. According to the hunter, Fitz is ruining the universe — possibly by being alive even though he technically died on Earth a year ago. Someone should show these guys my recaps of what happened last season! But these hunters seem way more interested in shooting sci-fi weapons than they are in reading anything. Daisy and Simmons manage to take one captive, but once they get to Kitson they accidentally ingest some hallucinogenic food, which gives him an opening to escape and summon backup. But even when Daisy is woozy from psychedelics, she still packs enough Quake punch to take out a whole room of scary-looking aliens — even if she needed Simmons’ help to properly aim a few times.

Then comes the heartbreaking climax. With Enoch’s help, Fitz manages to escape the game room they were locked in just in time to make eye contact with Simmons. I started screaming, and then the screaming got louder after a hunter immediately teleported in, grabbed Fitz, and teleported away. You hate to see it! Enoch arrives too late, but upon seeing Simmons he starts to realize how much has gone wrong with the timeline.

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