Agents of SHIELD season 6, episode 3 review: Fear and Loathing on the Planet of Kitson

What’s the the latest space adventure of the Agents of SHIELD? Try “Fear and Loathing on the Planet of Kitson.”

The Agents of SHIELD are back with a high-stakes mission in “Fear and Loathing on the Planet of Kitson,” a reference to the famous Hunter S. Thompson novel.

Last week in “Window of Opportunity,” Sarge (Clark Gregg) and his followers raided a convenience store and a jewelry store in their quest to obtain quartz, which somehow powers their technology.

New recruit Dr. Marcus Benson (Barry Shabaka Henley) is still trying to find his footing within SHIELD, and Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) tried to give Yo-Yo Rodriguez (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) advice on balancing workplace and romantic entanglements, which Yo-Yo ignored.

In space, Leo Fitz (Iain De Caesticker) and Enoch (Joel Stoffer) used misdirection to avoid death by asphyxiation as stowaways on a cargo frieghter, killing their boss and saving their co-workers.

Their ship nearly crossed paths with the Quinjet, where Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet), Davis (Maximilian Osinski) and Piper (Briana Venskus) have been looking for them for the past year.

Welcome to Space Vegas

“They say what happens on Kitson-” “Stays on Kitson?” “No. It’s contagious.”

Fitz and Enoch find themselves sold out with one credit chip as payment for saving their crewmates on the grungy planet of Kitson so, out of options, they elect to risk it at the casino as a way to make some fast cash.

This goes well for a time, until the other players in the poker game realize that while Enoch is brilliant at cards, he’s not so great on people skills (which makes sense, as he’s a Chromicon, though as he keeps emphatically declaring, NOT a robot).

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The mysterious bounty hunter

“…a more wretched hive of scum and villainy has never been seen.” Wait, different set of spacelanes.

Anyway, throughout the episode a mysterious bounty hunter, who is possibly also a Chromicon, terrorized the crew of the Zephyr One, causing lots of havoc and making Davis shoot out a fuse box.

He tried to contact someone before vanishing, using a personal portal (similar to Dr Strange’s sling ring) the size of a frisbee. (Being a glowy shade of red, it might be Asgardian tech.)

Rescue team….eh, they’ll get there somehow

Many of the laughs from this episode came from Daisy’s and Simmons’s attempt to rescue Fitz and Enoch, once they figured out their destination, evaded the fussy and overzealous customs inspector and the mysterious bounty hunter. Along the way, they ate the space equivalent of weed brownies, so they were high most of the episode.

Davis also ate the candy, which caused headaches for Piper back on the Zephyr.

Bennet and Henstridge clearly had a ball filming those scenes, but their characters manage to stumble their way through unscrupulous men at the bar, reminisce over easier times in the past, and fight through severe nausea and hallucinations to triumph in the inevitable fight against a squad of bounty hunters.

Where things currently stand

Simmons also made friends with a kindly security guard at the same time Enoch was in a deep depression over being decommissioned, until Fitz pulled him out of it by reminding him of their friendship.

Just as FitzSimmons are reunited once again, the bounty hunter apparates and kidnaps Fitz before disappearing just as quickly.  Enoch gravely tells Simmons that she ought not to be in a place such as Kitson.

Meanwhile back on Earth, Sarge and Jaco use a satellite to gain information on some kind of treasure.

SHIELD shrapnel

• There are going to be so many quotable lines from this episode. Among the best, Simmons’ “I think my parents are mice.”
• “Are you trying to say that you’re having fun?” Fitz asks Enoch. “Yes, I believe that is the function that my receptors would label as in accordance with your human customs.”
• What’s Fitz wanted for, anyway? “Tampering with the universe.”
• When the security guard asks Simmons why she needs the door opened: “Because my husband – er, my future husband, is behind that door.” “And how do you know that?” “The dolphin sent a secret message that only I could hear!”
• We already knew Simmons was a Ravenclaw, but it’s nice to have confirmation.
• What was the cast’s reaction during the table read at the description “Fitz dances while dressed in a monkey costume”?
• Interesting note about the structure, about 80 percent of this episode was made up of two extremely long scenes crosscutting across each other.
• Showrunner Maurissa Tancharoen, no stranger to acting in Whedonverse projects, will get in front of the camera for the first time on this show next week, playing a social media influencer named Sequoia.

Episode four, titled “Code Yellow,” will air on ABC on Friday, May 31 at 8 p.m. ET. According to the trailer that played over tonight’s credits, Sarge is after Deke Shaw (Jeff Ward), likely because he disrupted the timeline.