In the sixth episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D’s third season, entitled ‘4722 Hours’, questions involving Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) time on the alien planet, after being pulled into the monolith are finally answered in entirety. ‘4722 Hours’ was an entire episode dedicated to telling Jemma’s story on the alien world, with Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) being the only member of the main cast to appear in the last few minutes.
From the jump, ‘4722 Hours’ starts from the very seconds that Jemma is pulled into the Kree monolith and teleported across space, to whatever alien planet or moon she had been trapped on for months. It’s from here that we witness the next 4722 hour Jemma spends on the planet or the six months she’s been missing, since the Season 2 finale.
Within the first few hours of being stranded, Jemma believes someone will be coming to rescue her relatively shortly, assuming Fitz will find some way to get to her. However, hours turn to days on a planet with no sun and eventually Jemma must move on from her original location, in order to survive. After some exploration of the world and slowly becoming accustomed to her new environment, Jemma stumbles upon the only other known habitat of the planet, a NASA astronaut Will (Nikita’s Dillon Casey). According to Will, he was a part of a project by NASA who were trying to use the monlith as a means a traveling through space but, he was the only surviving member of his team after they all faced the mysterious force of “Death” that inhabits the planet. The two then spend the next several months trying to find a way off the planet and back to Earth. Qith Jemma as the primary driving force behind the attempt, as well as a constant source of optimism, in comparison to Will, who has in all ways given up. Eventually, Jemma believes she has found a way off the planet and back through the monolith or at least, a way to communicate with her friends. However, this attempt back to Earth fails, leading to Jemma essentially losing all hope of returning home, as well as her and Will relationship reaching its “tipping point”, as the only humans on the planet seeming to develop some very strong feelings for one another. The episode concludes with the present time and Jemma revealing everything that happened to her while she was missing, including her feelings for Will to Fitz.
‘4722 Hours’ was another strong episode for SHIELD for several reasons. It created a variety of future plot lines and character dynamics, as well as revealing a crucial part of the story since Jemma has gone missing.
It will be interesting how this new information will affect the rest of the season, in particular, Jemma, and Fitz and seeing how the rest of the team copes with this as well.
‘4722 Hours’ creates a whole new respect for Jemma as a character, as well as several key stories lines that can build from it, including her PTSD, new survival skills. As well as her new relationship with Will, whether he is used as a reoccurring character or his death is used in some fashion, to push plot or build the Jemma as a character.
Another huge plot point and probably largest one from this episode, will be Jemma and Fitz’s relationship from now on. As soon as these two characters were finally going to move forward with their relationship, it’s pulled out from under them. Jemma spent a large portion of her time on this alien world fixated on Fitz saving her and missing him, but eventually falling in love with another. While Fitz on the other hand, spent the last six months with his only mission in life to save Jemma, using his love for her to levels of almost an unhealthy delusions of saving her, only to finally be able to to accomplish this. Only to find out during her time away, she is now in love with Will. Now, whether Will will be a reoccurring member of the cast or die, or Jemma’s love is real or a variation of Stockholm syndrome is all wait and see at the moment but, it will be interesting moving forward.
Finally, the question remains to what exactly is the alien planet, as well as the secrets it holds. What is this mysterious “Death” force, as well as the objects besides the astronauts equipment, in the area that Will deemed a “no-fly zone”. One particular item that raised an eyebrow was mention of a sword. Is this sword from the other humans who have traveled through the monolith or from an alien race?
Overall, ‘4722 Hours’ was an incredible performance for Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons and a really strong building point for SHIELD to move forward in their third season. While this does add another interesting story line for the series, SHIELD does need to watch spreading itself too thin with overdoing these plots currently being addressed. These plot points need to be fleshed out and built at the proper speed, as well as timing them correctly, without getting the audience so entangled in various stories that they get lost.
It will be interesting how this new information will affect the rest of the season, in particular, Jemma and Fitz and seeing how the rest of the team copes with this as well.
Random Thoughts and Theories:
Without a whole lot to go off of as far as Easter eggs or theories, since this bottle episode focused solely on Jemma’s last six months missing, there is only one random thought I have, as far as a theory and one social media theory.
The Symbiote: With Spider-Man now entering the MCU officially, it could be possible that a monolith or means similar to the monolith is the way in which the Venom symbiote is introduced into the MCU. With Will being involved in a secret NASA project for space travel, could a similar one be used for John Jameson if they stick closely to canon? While introducing something as pivotal as Venom or the symbiote in SHIELD is extremely unlikely, someone like John Jameson or even a name drop, could easily be a backdoor origin of sorts to how we could get to Venom, as well as Carnage, on the big screen.
The planet in AoS is Ego The Living Planet? pic.twitter.com/5ThtVsv4yd
— batz11 (@batlizard11) October 28, 2015
