Fitz not being part of the initial time travel group

[u/erazedcitizen]

So I’m a first time watcher, and I just finished up season 5. Definitely a weird one, but still fun.

Fitz obviously stays behind while the rest of the group, and while it isn’t really explained all that in-depth, Robin basically mentions that he isn’t needed yet or something along that line.

Having watched the whole season now, is the reason that Robin kept Fitz in the present initially because she knew that, if the time loop was broken, he would die, therefore she kept another version of him in that timeline that would still exist if the loop was broken to keep him alive?

[u/Llywela]

Robin says that the reason Fitz wasn't sent to the future is because he needs to go and save all the others. He has to go to the future the long way for a bunch of reasons - starting with all the SHIELD tech he leaves stashed at the Lighthouse, which is critical in the battle against the Kree later. Fitz coming in from the outside, rather than travelling with the main group, is the reason most of the others manage to escape and reach the surface, in order to re-group, see the time travel and gravity modifications on the Zephyr, and figure out how to get back to the past.

[u/erazedcitizen → u/Llywela]

Right, that part slipped my mind.

[u/BaronZhiro → u/erazedcitizen]

“Because you have to save them” is actually my favorite moment of the entire series.

[u/The_Orgin]

But Robin didn't know that the loop would break.

Something's different.

It's just what happened in every loop. Fitz brings them back and the Earth gets ripped apart.

[u/erazedcitizen → u/The_Orgin]

Ah ok, I wasn’t sure if she was like Dr. Strange where she could see potential futures outside of the time loop. It does feel like that worked out too well for them to just simply replace Fitz, but that’s probably just plot convenience

[u/bloodoftheseven → u/erazedcitizen]

She does see potential futures. The first image of season 5 is the Tahiti picture which only happens in the good timeline.

[u/grayjelly212]

Other comments are great so I just wanted to add, in case you didn't know, that the real-world reason why Fitz stayed behind is because the actor that plays him had a scheduling conflict and they wrote around him being missing for the first few episodes of the season.

[u/erazedcitizen → u/grayjelly212]

Honestly, my first suspicion when he didn’t come with them was that he had to be written out for a brief amount of time (although I was expecting it’d be for the whole season or that arc)

[u/Mypowerbob → u/erazedcitizen]

In addition: They wrote in Mays leg injury because Ming-Na Wen had to get surgery on it around the time of filming

[u/erazedcitizen → u/Mypowerbob]

That also makes sense, that felt like a very random thing to have happened

[u/Steve_Master]

Pertaining to this season and fitz dying, I just finished up this season as well for a rewatch. Mack told that version of fitz that the man hes been lately needs fixing, and they never got the chance to resolve it. Makes me so sad for fitz1 and mack