How We Arrived Here
Last week’s episode dealt for the most part about what was happening on Earth with Sarge and his crew. The other storyline in space with Daisy, Jemma was put on the back burner until the end of the episode. This week it was role reversal time as the entirety of the episode centered around the teams search for Fitz. This episode had its moments of excitement with a couple of fights, but mainly it brought with it a large dose of humor. This was supplied through Enoch, and Daisy and Jemma which we will get into more detail down the line. So through all the hi-jinx, what did we learn from Fear and Loathing at the Planet Kitson?
Wanted: Fitz and Enoch
The episode starts out with a mystery person searching through personnel records until he comes upon a file with both Fitz and Enoch’s faces on it. At first glance, he appears to be some kind of bounty hunter. After seeing the file, he immediately grabs his weapon, picks up a metal circle, tosses it on the ground, steps inside it and vanishes. Everyone except the Shield folks have great entering and exiting tech. Probably because Fitz and Simmons haven’t had a chance to invent them yet. Their always so busy.
No Good Deed is Ever Left Unpunished
In spite of that sudden twist of fate, our resourceful duo attempt to change their fortune by trying to turn the one chip into enough to get off the planet. Fortunately for Fitz, he has Enoch, an advanced computer…excuse me, sentient Chronicom. They do have to be careful as artificial life forms are strictly prohibited. Despite the danger, the two decide to employ his mathematic skills to earn a large amount of cash. As they approach the Casino, Enoch proclaims that he is having what might be called, fun and that Fitz is officially, his best friend. Awwww.
A lesson in Gambling
Unfortunately, While Enoch is quite proficient at dealing with the playing chips, he is a horrible judge when it comes to people. He gets suckered in by a “agreeable companion” and doesn’t recognize a bluff. Because of this, he loses all of their chips as a result. When Fitz rules out working for the Kitson brothel to earn money, Enoch convinces Fitz to participate in one last high stakes game. What Fitz doesn’t realize is that he will be sold into slavery if he loses. Enoch did warn him that the stakes were high. Fortunately, he has Enoch to signal him with a tone only humans can hear. One tone for hold, two for hit. It “sounds” simple enough.
The Search for Fitz
Bad Little Puffies
They learn Fitz is at the casino from the goons that double-crossed him, with Daisy breaking a few fingers to get them talking. In addition, they also get some space snacks from them. Had they had access to Enoch he would have told them that the snacks in question were not agreeable to Terrans. Perhaps then they would have left them alone. Simmons and Daisy begin feeling the effects as they enter the casino.
Davis also is dealing with the hallucinogenic effects of the “puffies” back on the Zephyr. Piper realizes something is wrong and tells Davis to stay put as she tries to reach Daisy and Jemma. Due to the strange effects of the food, Davis believes he is still hallucinating when he watches the hunter escape his bindings, stretching his hand out of the restraints. Before he can react he gets knocked out and Piper finds him on the floor. She catches up to him, connected to the ships console. She asks him to step back and he does so, throwing his portal down and escaping. Simmons and Daisy begin hearing Enoch’s signals to Fitz, though they write them off as more hallucinations. At least initially…
Playing for High Stakes
Using Enoch’s system of whistles, Fitz performs well. Others were not so lucky as a man who lost was shot with an arrow and discarded in the corner of the room. As well as Fitz was doing, his fortunes changed when Enoch suddenly appeared to shut down. Soon, his body sparked and Enoch collapsed, revealing the duo’s complicity. They are imprisoned by the dealer, and ordered to go before Mr. Kitson himself. Meanwhile Enoch is still emitting an extremely loud alarm that Fitz has to reboot Enoch to stop. Enoch awakes and lets Fitz know that “he is not comfortable with this kind of intimacy. Not even from his best friend.” After realizing what had transpired, Enoch deduces that he was remotely overridden by another Chronicom. The bad news in that equation is that most Chronicoms aren’t mathematicians or anthropologists like Enoch. They’re hunters.
Just to prove his point, almost immediately a trio of hunters arrive, running full steam into a fight with the still hallucinating Daisy. She attempts to use her powers but her aim is way off. Simmons tries to help by aiming for her and it works better. Eventually Daisy gets into a fight and while she is hardly herself, she still kicks butt.
Poor Pitiful Enoch
While this is happening, Enoch has realized that he has been decommissioned. He immediately launches into a pity party that would make even Debby Downer proud.
I am useless now. I have soiled the integrity of Chronicoms. The name Enoch will be an unspeakable sound.
Fitz tries to shake him out of his doldrums telling him they need to find a way out of there or they will be skinned alive.
They can have my skin. I don’t need it anymore. It is my uniform of shame.
Fitz tries again. You’re not useless, you’re not. Now shut up and help me. He attempts to move the body of the losing player shot with the arrow but recoils from the stench. What is that smell?
It is the foul stench of the name Enoch.
Fitz implores Enoch to help him escape using the dead alien’s sulfuric blood. As depressed as he is, Enoch can’t ignore a request from his best friend. At the same time, Simmons tries to talk her way past a guard as she begins to fall deeper into the emotional pool of her food induced emotions. Just then, Enoch blows the door. Fitz steps through the smoke and reunites with Simmons. Awwwww. The moment is short-lived as the hunter from the Zephyr arrives and takes Fitz prisoner before teleporting away. Nooooo!!!
Enoch steps through, surprised to see Simmons. He tells her that she shouldn’t be here. She’s out of time. Where have we heard THAT before.
The episode ends like the previous one but in reverse order. We get our only look at Sarge as he uses his recently PEG charged tech. What it reveals is unclear. The light show it creates doesn’t appear to be destructive but more of some kind of detector field. Whatever the readings foretell, Sarge reacts to with, “Seen better, seen worse.” As to what that means, perhaps we’ll learn in the next episode. It’s probably their turn.
Conclusions
I mentioned in last week’s segment how much I enjoyed Joel Stoffer’s portrayal of Enoch. This week he gets to let loose, as much as Chronicom’s do, and he turns in the most fun portrayal of a pseudo human since Brent Spiner’s Data. He even gets a chance to “brag” about his many sexual techniques just like Data did in the Star Trek: TNG Season One Episode: The Naked Now. This was when he was asked by Tasha Yar if he was “fully functional.”
Data: In every way, of course. I am programed in multiple techniques. A broad variety of pleasuring.
Enoch when suggesting that Fitz and he seek employment in the Kitson brothels for funds.
Enoch: We are both healthy and not unattractive specimens and I am well versed in over 130…
Fortunately, Fitz cut him off from explaining what he was about to say. Brothels, are not an option. That’s good since Jemma said that if he were not found in the casino, he’d better be dead. Intimating that’s what she would do to him if she caught him there.
Daisy and Simmons
This was great chance for Chloe Bennett and Elizabeth Henstridge to showoff their comedic chops and they didn’t disappoint. As they sat at the bar and they tried to remember why they were there.
We are on a mission. What mission? Ladies Night.
They then started reminiscing about how they met. Jemma said, “You had a smelly van and you had big hair.” “Well you, “countered Daisy, “You had a big nerd face.” She then asked , “What house are you in, Griffindor?” Jemma didn’t miss a beat. “I’m a Ravenclaw Girl…Please.” Daisy then asks Jemma if she knows any spells. She breaks out a straw wand hits out an ExpectoPatronum but all she conjures in her mind is a little Fitz, dressed like a monkey, standing on her straw.
Daisy, meanwhile is talking about them as “two halves of the same cosmic being” running her fingers through her hair…until she realizes that it WASN’T Jemma. The man who had bluffed Enoch had taken Jemma’s seat at the bar. She slinks down to find Jemma under a gaming table. What follows is the crying portion of the effect of the puffies and Bennett and Henstridge nailed it.
Overall
It was a fun episode and was a nice break from all the heavy world threatening stuff going on with Sarge and company. I’m sure we’ll be back up to our neck in drama next week. But for now, other than losing Fitz again at the end. It was a 4 out of 5.
Senior Writer at GeekVibesNation – I am a 50 something child of the 70’s who admits to being a Star Trek/Star Wars/Comic Book junkie who once dove head first over a cliff (Ok, it was a small hill) to try to rescue his Fantastic Four comic from a watery grave. I am married to a lovely woman who is as crazy as I am and the proud parent of a 18 year old boy with autism. My wife and son are my real heroes.