For seven seasons, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD has taken viewers to the farthest corners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. On their journey, Agent Coulson's team has met and joined with many interesting characters from the comics, as well as original characters. One example of an original character is Deke Shaw, a man from the year 2091. At first, he seems like yet another space scavenger, but he eventually finds his place and becomes a hero in his own right, but how did he survive his ultimate sacrifice and return to the present day in Season 5?
Following the conclusion of Season 4, Coulson's team enjoy a brief moment of relaxation before being taken by a group of men and sent to the future, only to awaken on a spacecraft. In 2091, the last of Earth's humans live in a facility regulated by the Kree and are forced to live in terrible conditions. Deke Shaw is also introduced as a scavenger and the farthest thing from an ally. A survivor over anything else, Deke initially attempts to sell out the team for his own benefit, but his morality gets the better of him, and he instead chooses to help them get back to the future. However, his choices seemingly spell doom for him and his companion, Enoch.
A robotic being known as a Chronicom, Enoch helped Deke perfect a plan to activate an ancient time monolith to send the team home. To do this, the team had to stand next to the monolith while Deke sent an energy surge through a shard, sending Coulson and the others home. However, it's revealed that to power it, Enoch would have to sacrifice himself, and in turn, Deke as well. Although he accepted his fate, Deke is next shown in River's End, New York, sometime in the past.
While in this new time, Deke has issues acclimating to his new environment. Since the present-day heavily resembles his Framework -- a projection of life on Earth Deke developed, Deke chooses to indulge in the food and alcohol of the time, getting drunk and arrested as a result. Eventually, he makes it back to the agents, but the circumstances of his time traveling become a random lucky shot that no one could have expected.
Before accepting his fate, Enoch explains that when he activated the monolith, Enoch's battery would explode and atomize Deke completely. However, because of where he was standing when the device was activated, the shard of the monolith in front of him hit Deke. The result of the happenstance event sends him to the present, where he is next seen. Since the monolith is also in River's End, it explains why Deke also returned in such close proximity to the other agents.
While in the future, Deke shows that he is far from perfect. As a scavenger and pragmatist, Deke has shown that he will do anything to survive, even sell out the people he's helping. However, by sacrificing himself to send the others to the future, he shows that he can make the hard choices for the greater good. Whether by luck or fate, Deke is granted a second chance to continue doing the right thing and be the hero that he ultimately turned out to be.