Anniversary episodes can be tricky, for while you want to go big, you also have to have them mean something in the large or small scale. And that’s where “The Real Deal” kind of struggled outside of the last 10 minutes.
After the detonation of the bomb last week, the monoliths apparently ripped open a hole in time (or maybe…A Wrinkle In Time…? I’ll get out…) and apparently granted access to a “Fear Dimension” that brought back past ghosts and demons of the people in the base. That’s…oddly convenient, don’t you think? Now, yes, we were teased cameos from characters who were in the previous 99 episodes…but to do it like this? Yeah, it was a stretch. And honestly, it didn’t pay off too much.
On the other hand, the more personal and emotional moments did resonate. Coulson’s condition was revealed to the team. Turns out, when he let the Ghost Rider possess him to stop Ava, it burned up all the Cree blood that was “holding him together”. Thus, he’s dying. It was a very believable twist, especially in the way they explained it in regards to tissue “that’s been dead for years”.
Naturally, the team didn’t take it very well, especially Daisy, who admitted that he was what she believed, not Shield. I wish they had taken more time to focus on this instead the “Fear Dimension”.
What’s more, the fact that they brought in Deathlock to try and “sell” Coulson on the fact that he was actually dreaming the whole series up was very weird, even for this show. Now, on one hand, he was a big part of Season 01, so it makes sense that he’d be brought back, and seeing the real Deathlock arrive was pretty cool. But, on the other hand…why not Ward? Seriously, WHERE WAS WARD???!?!?! YOU HAD ONE JOB!!!!
And we knew that Coulson wouldn’t go into the “Fear Dimension”, that would be a terrible way to go for the character, so it made it all pointless.
But, just when I was getting ready to give up on the episode truly being “landmark”…FitzSimmons got married!!! Oh, it was beautiful. They were talking to each other like only they could, and Coulson officiated the wedding and noted numerous times that they had to hurry it up before something bad would happen, it was great. Oh, and apparently, Deke is their son…WHAT?!?!?!?! Did not see that coming.
In the end, “The Real Deal” thrived when it focused on the team members that made this show last 100 episodes. But it faltered when it tried to make a serious plot out of something we knew wouldn’t affect them too much.
Todd Black
Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!
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