Tonight's Agents of SHIELD Gave Fans a Major Throwback to the Framework

The latest Agents of SHIELD episode saw the long-awaited reunion between Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), but the show didn't make it easy for the beloved couple. With the hopes of finding out how the team managed to time travel last season, the Chronicoms locked FitzSimmons in a mind prison together in order to sort through their memories. Of course, FitzSimmons had a whole lot of baggage of their own to sort through, including catching Fitz up on everything he missed last season. With all this intensity, the darkest force in their relationship was bound to make an appearance. The Doctor, the evil version of Fitz who was born in the Framework back in season four, still lives inside Fitz' mind, which means the couple had to face him once again in "Inescapable."

"Leopold is coming," Jemma warns Fitz, who didn't know about the psychotic break the other version of himself had the previous season. The Doctor resurfaced last year and caused Fitz to force Daisy's Quake powers back, which was a deeply harrowing watch. However, the evil version of lovable engineer hasn't fully resurfaced since.

In the new episode, the Doctor managed to kidnap Jemma (because she's always getting kidnapped) in the mind prison in order to exact revenge for her killing his father in the Framework. Thankfully, Jemma managed to escape when the friends in her mind came through and rescued her. (It really sounds silly on paper, but what an awesome moment in the episode.)

The return of Leopold wasn't the only throwback to the Framework, which is indisputably the series' best arc (and one of the best in all of television). The good Fitz also name-dropped AIDA, the android who created the Doctor in the first place. While attempting to repress the memories she didn't want to share with Fitz, Jemma reverted back to her child self, and Fitz got her back by threatening to reveal AIDA. While this was a great tactic and an important moment for the couple, it was mildly disappointing for fans that we didn't get a glimpse of Mallory Jansen.

However, we did get to see the Doctor one last time in the episode when he hilariously abandoned his plot of revenge in order to make-out with the evil zombie-like version of Jemma who had been causing her own terror in the mind prison.

What did you think about the return of The Doctor? Tell us in the comments!

Agents of SHIELD stars Clark Gregg (Phil Coulson/Sarge), Ming-Na Wen (Melinda May), Chloe Bennet (Daisy "Quake" Johnson), Elizabeth Henstridge (Jemma Simmons), Iain De Caestecker (Fitz), Henry Simmons (Mack), Natalia Cordova-Buckley (Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez), and Jeff Ward (Deke).

Agents of SHIELD airs Friday nights on ABC at 8/7c.