The team needs Yo-Yo's abilities to help them repair the malfunctioning Zephyr. Since they are in the early 1980s, Daisy suggests they ask her mother.
Tropes:
- Abandon Ship: Mack orders this when it appears that Elena won't be able to stop the time drive, but she comes to an epiphany and regains her powers, negating the need.
- All-Loving Hero: Jiaying, although certainly cautious, is welcoming and compassionate towards everyone she meets here, proving the truth of Cal's claim that she had a good heart before her horrific encounter with Whitehall.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Nathaniel takes over Afterlife.
- And I Must Scream: Coulson describes his circumstances from the previous episode as being thirsty for over a year and a half, but with no way to relieve the feeling.
- Antagonistic Offspring: Kora becomes this to Jiaying after joining Nathaniel.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Li fulfills the image to the hilt.
- Artificial Limbs:
- Elena's prosthetic arms prove a minor issue when she grabs the Diviner with no reaction. May has to point out the need for skin contact to her, so she touches it to her face.
- Simmons provides Sousa with a new artificial leg that functions much like a real one. He's briefly shown adjusting to it at the end of the episode.
- Bait-and-Switch: Jiaying is concerned about how an Inhuman's powers could be neutralized and is very interested in figuring out how this happened to Elena. It sounds like she's concerned it could be weaponized against them, only for her to reveal later that she wanted a way to neutralize Kora's powers so she'd no longer be a danger to herself and others.
- Beyond Redemption: Li claims Kora to be this and tries to kill her.
- Call-Back:
- Elena is tested with a Diviner to make sure she's Inhuman.
- During Elena and May's discussion about the former's greatest regrets, Ruby's death is counted among them.
- Sousa asks Simmons if she's ever jumped out of a plane before. Simmons replies that she has, twice; and she didn't have a parachute for the first.
- The Tragic Keepsake necklace that Elena grabbed that lead to her uncle's death was the same necklace that kept getting passed around in season 3 that Lincoln took to his death.
- Cliffhanger: The time drives acts up again, and the Zephyr disappears in a flash, leaving the fate of all aboard unknown.
- The Corrupter: Nathaniel convinces Kora that her powers set her above the rules of Afterlife and gets her to throw in with him.
- Cut the Juice: Deke suggests this in technical terms as a solution to the malfunctioning time drive, but the same malfunction causing the accelerating skips is causing the drive to cycle continuously, thereby destroying anything that gets near it. Since the power cell is on the device, only Yo-Yo has the speed to remove it.
- A Day in the Limelight: The second consecutive episode with this focus, this time for May and Yo-Yo.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Malick calls Afterlife's traditions "an ancient set of ancient practices".
- Divide by Zero: The malfunctioning time drive is jumping at an exponential rate. Eventually, the time between jumps will become so short that the drive will activate in the middle of another jump. Simmons has no idea what that even means, but doubts anything good will come of it.
- Driven to Suicide: Kora tries to kill herself because she can't control her gift. Nathaniel instead talks her into embracing it and joining him.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Elena realizes that her malfunctioning powers can be overcome when she mentions not being able to bounce back.
- Eye Scream: Li gets a face full of Kora's Hand Blast when he tries to stop her, giving him some burns around his eyes.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: Li brings out the Diviner, and gives a dramatic monologue about how deadly it is, only for Elena to grab it, knowing exactly what it is. Which then gets subverted because everyone's surprised that there's no response from the Diviner to the contact. May has to point out that it requires skin contact, and Elena's hands are prosthetics.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Nathaniel Malick seems to have gone from a sacrifice to Hive in the original timeline to the MCU's version of Mister Sinister, who believed in cultivating and redistributing powers from mutants to those deemed worthy. They even share the same first name.
- Grandfather Paradox: Given a nod when concern is expressed that going to Jiayang for help might end up preventing Daisy's birth, if not intentionally then through the ripple effect at the very least. Daisy is fine with the risk given the alternative is the Zephyr destroying itself.
- Hand Blast: Kora's ability causes her to continuously generate energy that she can release as destructive blasts from her hands.
- Hate Sink: Li is clearly made to be repugnant compared to the rest of the cast, he's even played by the turncoat General Ripper Tian Zhao; it's quite cathartic to see Kora Eye Scream him with her Hand Blast.
- He Knows Too Much: Li tells Jiaying that they cannot let May and Elena go, as they know too much about Afterlife.
- Internal Reveal: Sousa is surprised to hear that Elena has powers as well.
- It Won't Turn Off: At the end of the episode, the time drive reactivates even after its power core was removed.
- Jerkass: Li is abrasive and hostile to a fault, which ends up causing more problems than it solves.
- Literal-Minded: Sousa insists he's not a Neanderthal when Deke patronizingly points out that being electrocuted is bad. Enoch agrees; having personally spent time with actual Neanderthals, he notes that Sousa lacks the characteristic brow ridges.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Li's attitude towards Kora; he feels that she should be killed to prevent any threat she poses to Afterlife.
- My Greatest Failure: While several traumatic events in Elena's life are shown, like killing Ruby, being responsible for her uncle's death is ultimately the memory that haunts her the most.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: As a child, Elena tried to save her grandmother's necklace from being taken by someone her father owed money to. The man noticed and figured out her location, causing her uncle to jump to her defense. Following a Gun Struggle, her uncle was shot.
- Obviously Evil: Nathaniel reappears dressed in an all-black Hive-esque outfit, talking about power setting people above the rules and bringing chaos. Kora's vulnerable emotional state is likely the only reason that alarm bells don't go off the minute she sees him.
- Once More, with Clarity: The episode begins with The Stinger from "Adapt or Die" from the perspective of those still aboard the Zephyr, including Jemma's frantic warning to Deke to get back on the ship. This shows us the time drive acting up, somewhat explaining the Zephyr's unexpected departure.
- Outliving One's Offspring: In the original timeline, Kora committed suicide, with Jiaying outliving her daughter by 30 years. Nathaniel's intervention keeps that from being the case here. Having lost a child could well have served as a Cynicism Catalyst for Jiaying even before she Came Back Wrong.
- Power Incontinence:
- May can now feel people's emotions without even touching them, which obviously drives her crazy.
- Kora can't stop generating energy and can't store a limitless amount of it, so she can't help but occasionally destroy things when the overflow becomes too much to handle.
- Power Perversion Potential: May's empathic powers gave her an... interesting perspective on Elena and Mack's "reunion". Despite Elena's embarrassment, May admits with a smirk that it's not all bad.
- Psychological Projection:
- A lot of Nathaniel's lines about Afterlife and the people there (that it's a cult, that those in charge did nothing to deserve their powers, and that ancient rules are the only thing governing it), although not entirely off the mark, hint that he's projecting issues he has with his old HYDRA ties onto the place.
- Kora's belief that Jiaying is afraid of her and would have let Li kill her seems to stem from her own fear of her powers; Jiaying shows nothing but a desire to help her, and made every effort to avoid Kora's death.
- The Reveal:
- Elena's Power Incontinence is the result of mental trauma, not physical. The Shrike was merely the catalyst for a number of traumatic memories she had suppressed.
- The reason Jiaying is so concerned with Kora's safety and well-being...Jiaying: I can't leave my people behind to die; my daughter (Kora) is still out there.
- Daisy isn't the first child Jiaying has had, which makes sense given her longevity.
- Sarcasm-Blind: After hearing Sousa say "do I look like a Neanderthal?", Enoch replies that he's spent time with actual Neanderthals, and Sousa doesn't look much like them.
- Screw Destiny: Nathaniel's new anarchic beliefs revolve around averting what fate had been previously laid out; having avoided his own death (by Hive's assimilation), he intervenes to prevent Kora's, and he voices an intention of "redistributing wealth" from Inhumans who he feels did nothing to deserve their power.
- Sequel Hook: Before she and Elena take off for the Zephyr, May hands Jiaying a synchronization watch and tells her they will send coordinates when they're ready to meet again.
- Ship Tease: Sousa continues to show concern for Daisy, resuming his vigil over her at the end of the episode. When talking to Coulson, Daisy says that she's glad Sousa joined the team, to Coulson's approval.
- Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Li's power allows him to generate knives out of thin air, which he is very eager to use.
- Spotting the Thread: Jiaying deduces that May has empathic abilities based on May's ability to read people, having seen Inhumans with similar powers.
- Talking Down the Suicidal: Nathaniel convinces Kora to join him instead of taking herself out.
- The Stinger: Having taken over Afterlife, Nathaniel hints at plans to redistribute powers and cause anarchy.
- Timeshifted Actor: A young Gordon appears in this episode, played by Fin Argus.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- May's empathic abilities have evolved to allow her to feel emotions over short distances, though skin contact is still the most effective method.
- Yo-Yo realizes that she doesn't need to bounce back every time she uses her powers, and can now remain where she speeds to.
- Villainous version: Nathaniel Malick has control over his Quake powers and is able to use them without breaking his own bones, making him nearly as dangerous as Daisy herself. Of course, he's had years to practice, longer than even Daisy has had.
- Warrior Therapist: May and Elena find meditative therapy using May's empath powers embarrassing, so they switch to sparring for better results.
- Wham Line: While Jiaying is trying to talk Kora down, she refers to her as "sweetheart" and talks about how she used to read her to sleep, making it clear that Kora is her daughter, which makes her Daisy's elder (half-)sister. In the next scene she calls her "my daughter" outright, but by then it was already obvious.
- Wham Shot: Kora tries to kill herself, only for the distinctive sound of a quake blast to vibrate her gun apart. It's Nathaniel, who now has a firm grasp on his stolen powers.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: Thanks to the accelerating jumps, the time between the first jump that left Deke and Mack behind and the last jump where they rendezvous with Elena and May is no more than thirty minutes, whereas outside roughly two years pass. Elena has to remind May of this when she thinks Simmons might have come up with an alternate solution in the time they were gone. This has also allowed Nathaniel to operate with relative impunity, as the team is stuck bouncing around time while he grows stronger with Sibyl's help.
