1. That is sad about the lab on the Bus - another blow for routine-loving Fitz - but I wonder where the new one is?
2. That “explosion” effect Fitz did — didn’t he do that once or twice last season?
EDIT: Yes
Gifs: msdevindanielle X
3. A little more fluent this week — see, Fitz, you’re getting better.
4. And wasn’t that a big long sentence there at the end of the episode? I agree, it sounded like he really wanted to get that off his chest.
5. Oh Fitz, bent almost double in the garage, YOU ARE KILLING ME. And you’re right, it isn’t just your anxiety about speech that’s holding you back.
6. Is this the first time we’ve had confirmation that Fitz has also been having motor problems? Wonder if they’ll tell us more about that in weeks ahead.
7. FITZ REMEMBERS WHAT HE SAID IN THE POD. Probably he remembers; otherwise Simmons would have had to tell him or tell someone else who told him and that doesn’t seem very probable.
8. But does he remember Jemma kissing him? Or is that completely overshadowed by her leaving?
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Jemmaginary! But really Fitz, because, of course, that's who she is: a personification of part of his mind.
First: I'm surprised I haven't seen anybody bring up the Jungian aspect of not!Jemma as Fitz's representation of his anima.
Jungian? For you youngsters, I'm talking about Carl Jung and his theory of the anima and the animus. People in actual psychiatry/ psychology talks about Jung even less they talk about Freud (which is never.) But it's an interesting lens for art and literature. A house is a symbol of the self; men have an anima and women have an animus; we all have "shadows"; then there's archetypes and all that cool stuff.
(The MBTI touches on some of Jung's work, particularly the introvert/ extrovert thing.)
1. As Fitz's brain heals, it is building a "work-around." If you think of the connections in the brain as being like roads, some of the roads in Fitz's brain have been damaged or destroyed. So his brain is building new roads and for whatever reason is personifying them in the form of a hallucination of Jemma Simmons.
Jemmaginary specifically seems to be helping him with his executive functions (planning his work) and, of course, with his word finding.
2. Jemmaginary is also Fitz's brain personifying and presenting his "corrective self-talk" to himself: his pep talks to himself, his reminders to himself of the perspective of others, his better judgment.
gif: aretsuna (x)
In cognitive therapy for depression and anxiety, patients are taught first to be aware of their self-talk and their interpretation of events, to recognize maladaptive patterns of thought and interpretation, and then to "talk back" to these maladaptive patterns. For example, when Fitz says to himself "they avoid me", another part of him immediately challenges that interpretation: they're not avoiding you, they're busy.
Fitz's brain is actively resisting the drag of depression with some DIY cognitive therapy.
gif: peetahales (x)
He is getting better. It's just going to take time and patience.
(Cognitive therapy has been demonstrated to be the gold standard for treatment of depression and anxiety. If you want to learn more about this, look up the book Feeling Good - The New Mood Therapy by David D. Burns)
3. So why Jemmaginary? Usually when you see a personification of self-talk in a movie or TV show, you're seeing it as the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other shoulder, and the angel and the devil usually look like the character in angel and devil costumes.
If you were to draw pictures of your various "selves" - Happy Self, Silly Self, Sad Self - I'm guessing you'd probably be doing a series of self-portraits, maybe changing the costumes up a bit. I know I would.
But Fitz is seeing these parts of himself not as himself but as Jemma. What's going on with that? (besides the writers coming up with a way to let us know what he's thinking and feeling even though he's not interacting much with the actually present members of the team - a way that also happens to be breaking our hearts but I suppose that's a bonus)
Well, maybe part of it's grief. People who are grieving a loss sometimes feel the "presence" of the person they've lost.
Maybe part of it is because of the brain injury. Fitz is having to adjust to a new sense of himself, and maybe his brain is portraying these changes in the form of Jemmaginary as he makes this adjustment.
Interestingly some people who have had changes in their temporal lobe report spiritual experiences and awareness they hadn't had before.
Maybe part of it is because Fitz learned so much of this with Jemma around. Homemadepestoaioli suggests
People remember things MUCH BETTER if they’re in the same environment that they learned them. This is called context-dependent learning. Fitz is used to Simmons finishing his sentences. He’s used to doing science and talking science and creating stuff when she’s around. I think she provides some level of context for him in that working environment. In his mind, he’s attempting to recreate her existence not only because it makes him feel calm, but because it helps him to simulate the context in which he knew the words, thereby making retrieval easier.
I think this is a great point. So if the work and sciency stuff have a Simmons context, how about the pep talks and better-judgment? Maybe they're benefiting from a Simmons context as well. Keep in mind that the frontal lobes of the brain (judgment and self-control) don't fully mature until the mid-twenties. Fitz was lonely and shy when he first arrived at the Academy; his maturation as a professional and as a person both happened while Jemma Simmons was a fixture in his life.
This may be shedding light on their relationship during their Academy and Sci-Ops years. How many times did Simmons talk him into coming out of his shell a little, into looking at his personal life from another perspective? ("Oh Fitz, your advisor's not ignoring you, maybe she just has her phone turned off at the moment.) Maybe his brain is so used to having good advice coming from her that it just keeps on making it happen even when she's not around. (This would also fit in with his general dislike of change, and with the fact that he needs something secure now more than ever.)
Another reason Fitz's brain might be conjuring up Jemmaginary: simple comfort. He's in a really difficult place right now, and as theclaravoyant points out, he's lonely - at a time when, recovering from a brain injury while trying to rebuild SHIELD - he needs more support, not less.
However, there's a big downside to this coping mechanism:
gifs: peetahales (x)
Simmons might not be there, but Fitz's better judgment is, and that's who he just ignored. I hope he doesn't start ignoring or discounting all the other good things his mind brings him just because his mind is presenting them through Jemmaginary. I hope we get to see him explicitly make the connection that although it's Jemmaginary he sees, it's his own self he's seeing and hearing.
Yay! Fitz is in the briefing and sitting at the table instead of hanging around outside the room!
Feeling more confident, or did someone order/ drag him in there?
(Look at May finishing Coulson's sentence for him. Isn't that cute? they are so married)
So Coulson calls on Fitz and Fitz gets stuck, which should surprise exactly nobody: Fitz hasn't had any opportunity to gather his thoughts. This is difficult for many people, not just those who've had brain injuries; I've seen good students in a class with their hands raised, ready to answer, lose their thought as soon as they're called on.
Coulson's question is also complex and open-ended. To answer it, Fitz has to go rummaging around in the library of his long-term memory, find the Donnie notebook (which is tangled up with strong and conflicting emotions about himself, the Academy, and Simmons; about sympathy and concern for Donnie; and the shock and awe of what happened on that mission), and sift out information that's going to be relevant to helping them track Donnie down.
That's difficult enough. I know if someone asked me a similar question in a meeting, I might be saying, "Let me think for a minute", and I have a reasonably good memory, good verbal facility, and no anoxic brain injury. Then once Fitz picks through and selects that information, he has to mentally organize and present it. There's a wide array of words for describing emotional states, and he's trying to find and choose the right one.
So, unsurprisingly, he starts to stall out:
(all gifs: aretsuna)
Coulson starts trying to help Fitz using his facial expressions, and that's when Mack steps in and starts offering a menu:
(I wonder if this "Go back one" is going to become a running joke. "Sleeping"? Oh Mack, you're so silly.)
Fitz grabs the word that's close to what he's trying to express...
(Interesting - As soon as he says "friendly", Trip looks back to Phil, but everyone else either looks back to Fitz or keeps looking at him - they know he's not done.)
Fitz's shoulders sink and his face drops as he finishes - we can see how difficult for him that was becoming - and I think he's the one sighing as the camera turns back to May.
And then comes that little exchange that reminded me of a testy teenager: May asks if there's anything else, Fitz gets defensive (thanks for reminding me how useless that was, Mum, why don't you ask the other person who was there, you know, the undamaged one none of us talk about but she's out there somewhere), Coulson (your snotty comeback is noted, young man, and came dangerously close to disrespecting your mother, but we're not going to dignify it with a response because you're not going to sidetrack this conversation and we're going to stay on topic although we may have to have a chat if this bad attitude persists) and finally Mack (With all due respect, Director, that's enough. Stop putting him on the spot. And is this conversation really about something else because seriously now is not the time.)
So:
Coulson, do you understand exactly what Fitz's difficulty is - that it's finding the words?
Coulson and May, take notes on how Mack does it: Don't put Fitz on the spot, and give him closed-ended questions whenever you can.
Also:
"He had trouble making friends". Ties in to...
Jemma, who's having trouble making friends, even though she's "likeable" - other people like her, her boss likes her, the security guard likes her - but apparently she hasn't been reaching out. And the only friend she's really asking about is Fitz.
Donnie - is this a hint that he didn't "make friends" with Hydra, that he was brainwashed? And does that imply that they were carrying out brainwashing at the Sandbox? Poor guy, he was trying to make friends with the guy at the restaurant....
Fitz - who sympathized with Donnie then and probably does now. But -- unlike Donnie and even Jemma -- he's made a new friend. Mack extended the hand of friendship and Fitz accepted it.
And:
We haven't had a scene with Fitz and Hunter yet, and I'll be interested to see how they get on.
It would also be interesting to see the scene where someone tells Hunter or Mack about what happened to Fitz (and about the FitzSimmons backstory.)
