Leopold Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) vanished during Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s season 6 finale - but where did he go? As most of their fellow Agents battled Izel (Karolina Wydra) and Sarge (Clark Gregg) in South America, Fitz and Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) faced down an invasion of the Lighthouse by the Chronicom Hunters, whom they encountered in outer space earlier this season. And by the end of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 6, yet another curveball was thrown at the star-crossed Agents' beleaguered romance, as Fitz and Simmons are once again separated by time as well as space.
Despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that FitzSimmons is Marvel's best love story, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s writers have made keeping Jemma and Leo apart an art form, which is as frustrating for their shippers as it is for the characters. Season 6 began with Simmons, Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet), and a S.H.I.E.L.D. team in outer space looking for Fitz. Once reunited, FitzSimmons actually spent the back half of season 6 together and their little family was made complete by the addition of their grandson Deke Shaw (Jeff Ward), whom Fitz surprisingly took a liking to. But FitzSimmons was forced apart once again by the machinations of the story, which will now bring time travel back into play big time in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 7.
In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s season 7 finale, "New Life", FitzSimmons realized that they were the cause of the Chronicom Hunters' invasion; the alien automatons raided all of their knowledge about S.H.I.E.L.D. when they held FitzSimmons in a mind prison. The Chronicoms now seek to transform Earth into their new homeworld, Chronyca-3, and they're attacking S.H.I.E.L.D. at key points in the agency's past. Luckily, Fitz's "best friend" Enoch (Joel Stoffer) has a plan to stop the Chronicoms but it required FitzSimmons to "alter the course of their natural lives." Knowing that meant another separation but used to be being split apart, FitzSimmons agreed because they're heroes who must save the world - and now Fitz has vanished once again.
This certainly isn't the first time Fitz has gone missing, but at least on this occasion, it's by choice. Simmons point-blank told Daisy, Mack (Henry Simmons), and Yo-Yo (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) that she doesn't know where Fitz is, and this seems to be part of their arrangement. Because their memories were compromised in the mind prison and the Chronicoms know every move they would make as a unit, FitzSimmons are a liability if they're together. So while Simmons and Enoch returned to S.H.I.E.L.D., armed with a time-traveling Zephyr-One and Phil Coulson resurrected as a Life Model Decoy with his memories and personalities intact, Fitz is in parts unknown. At least, however, Fitz remains in contact with Simmons and S.H.I.E.L.D. so their separation is only physical.
So where did Fitz go? He is definitely not at the Lighthouse because the Chronicoms destroyed it. Judging from the advanced tech Simmons arrived with, it's likely he is somewhere in the future. After all, Simmons says they had "plenty of time" to outfit Z-1 with a perfected ShawDrive to achieve time travel. This being the Marvel Universe, possible locations where Fitz could have set up shop thanks to Enoch include the Blue Area of the Moon (which would, in turn, make Fitz Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s version of the Watcher). He might have also returned to the planet Kitson or, with Enoch, FitzSimmons might have managed to take control of a starship that once belonged to the Confederacy. It's also possible Fitz rebuilt the Framework and he's hiding within its virtual reality.
With one last season to save the world, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 7 looks like it will delve into the secret organization's own past and possibly bring back some familiar faces. Fans can only hope that when it's all over, FitzSimmons will reunite for good and can finally get the happy ending they've long deserved.
Marvel's Agents of SHIELD season 7 returns summer 2020 on ABC.