Jemma has been kidnapped by Malick; the rest of the team must stop him from carrying out his plans.
Tropes:
- Alternate Timeline: Kora confirms that all the time travelling has created a new timeline, and the fact that Mack and Daisy still have memories of the original timeline proves this. Daisy quietly muses that the fact that she still exists proves it. Later, Daisy wonders if the original timeline still exists. (It should, according to Avengers: Endgame's time travel rules.)
- And This Is for...: Villainous example, as Nathaniel injures Deke with a powerful quake for killing his old man.
- Armor-Piercing Question: While it may have been part of the plan all along, Kora becomes more agitated and aggressive when May asks if she enjoys killing.
- Atrocious Alias: Sousa has a good laugh after learning Daisy's superhero name is Quake, later affectionately teasing her about it.
- Bad Boss:
- After chastising an underling for calling him "sir", lecturing him on how such power structures will have no place in his new world order, Nathaniel later kills the same underling on the spot when he calls him "sir" again, visibly terrifying his other underlings and showing that he doesn't even understand the power structure he's building around himself.
- Kora is no better, killing off Durant to make a point about creating a better future.
- Blunt "Yes": From Coulson, in response to Yo-Yo asking if he was some kind of computer genius now.
- The Bus Came Back: Fitz finally appears for the first time this season, though only in flashbacks. Enoch also returns via flashback for the first time since his death earlier this season.
- Call-Back:
- Kora brings up May's past with the Inhuman girl in Bahrain, seeing the girl's situation as similar to her own. She also brings up Ward's culpability in the deaths of Rosalind (who was killed by Ward personally), Andrew, and Lincoln (who both died because of Hive, who occupied Ward's dead body because Ward went to Maveth) to sell the team on her suggestion of killing people to better the new timeline.
- Coulson tells Kora how he saw a world where Grant Ward was good. "Where he was put on the right path by the right person," namely Victoria Hand.
- Coulson compares Sibyl's current state to his own after the destruction of the Chronicom ship, sarcastically asking Sibyl if she's thirsty (how he had described his own experience of existing as code). She responds that all she feels now is hunger.
- Captain Obvious: After there is discussion of "blood work" between Fitz and Jemma in Jemma's flashback, Nathaniel comments "Ominous." He is more sardonic than a typical Captain Obvious.
- Continuity Nod:
- Sibyl taking over the Lighthouse's systems shows red code similar to when the Chronicoms took over the Lighthouse in "New Life".
- While watching the Chronicoms attack, Garrett says "I always wanted to be a part of something bigger." He is correctly remembering Nick Fury's "one man" speech.
- The Triskelion is shown just before it's destroyed by the Chronicoms' orbital attack.
- The Corrupter: Played with in regards to Garrett. When Kora suggests killing Grant Ward for what he will do, Coulson points out that the man who makes him a bad person is currently in Nathaniel's employ. She simply says that, without Garrett's influence, he'll be even worse. Coulson however retorts that they also knew a timeline where he turned out good.
- "Die Hard" on an X: Deke compares his situation on the Zephyr to Nakatomi Plaza. Then he's caught by Garrett five seconds later whose new power allows him to sense Deke sneaking around without needing to see him.
- EMP: Kora uses her powers to generate a pulse that knocks out the Lighthouse. When it boots back up, Sybil is able to slip in before the firewalls can be restored.
- "Eureka!" Moment: After May brings up the possibility, Coulson realizes that he can, in fact, read Cool Code of Source, and Chronicom code at that.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- Kora is genuinely interested in being on the same side as Daisy (who doesn't return the sentiment), is heartbroken over Jiaying's death, and ultimately refuses to turn on Nathaniel out of loyalty to and affection for him.
- Despite previously claiming to have had little reaction to his father's death, Nathaniel cares enough about the late Wilfred Malick to assault Deke for killing him.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Kora is disgusted that May killed Katya Belyakov, seeing the girl as an innocent who couldn't control her powers. She's fine with killing future villains like Grant Ward while they're still children, though.
- Everyone Has Standards: Even Coulson, the man who killed the adult Ward, refuses to consider the idea of killing him as a child. He writes off Kora's whole proposal as just Project Insight made to look nice.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Kora seems genuinely unable to understand why S.H.I.E.L.D., whom she has judged to be killers with no qualms about murdering children, would balk at her suggestion of preemptively taking the lives of future threats.
- Evil Is Petty:
- Nathaniel slaps Jemma for mocking his failure to extract Fitz's location. When his efforts fail one last time, he offers her and Deke front-row seats to "the greatest show on Earth": the Chronicoms' massacre of S.H.I.E.L.D. and subsequent invasion.
- When Coulson points out that the people Nathaniel is saving aren't would-be heroes or innocent victims, Kora burns a hole through Durant's chest just to make a point.
- Nathaniel kills one of his men for calling him "sir" one too many times while he's in a bad mood.
- Exact Words: Kora claims that every future Sybil saw had Daisy not leaving her sister to fight alone. She is right... but Daisy sees Jemma as her true sister.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Nathaniel views Jemma's memories set during "New Life" and Jemma has bangs again.
- Fake Shemp: Jiaying's corpse is played by a body double instead of Dichen Lachman. The scenes are filmed and edited to avoid showing her face.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: May seemingly finally gets through to Kora by showing her her mother's corpse and telling her the truth about Nathaniel, but after some hesitation, Kora nevertheless sides with him as he gave her her freedom.
- Hollywood Hacking: After realizing he can read code, Coulson rapidly learns how to counter-hack Sybil as if by instinct. Some Rapid-Fire Typing is involved.
- Hypocrite:
- Kora gives May hell for killing Katya Belyakov, but later suggests that the team should kill Grant Ward (who is even younger than Katya at this point, and unlike her, hasn't hurt anyone yet).
- Nathaniel, for all his rants about chaos, gets violent whenever people don't do as he says, striking Jemma when she refuses to give up Fitz's location and killing one of his henchmen for calling him "sir". Also, he feels justified in abusing Deke as payback for killing his father, when last episode he killed Daisy's mother.
- I Did What I Had to Do: How May justifies killing Katya Belyakov when Kora brings up the mission in Bahrain.
- If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: While he acts as a Shipper on Deck for them, Mack makes it very clear that not only he himself, but the entire team will come after Sousa if he ever hurts Daisy.
- I Owe You My Life: Even after learning he killed Jiaying, Kora can't bring herself to betray Nathaniel because he prevented her suicide.
- It's All My Fault: Daisy blames herself for not killing Nathaniel when she had the chance.
- I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Nathaniel has Deke beaten up in front of Jemma to make her comply. When that doesn't work, he instead starts quaking Jemma's brain to make Deke talk, but he then discovers her implant on his own.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Li, posthumously; when Kora rants about Li regarding her as dangerous and uncontrollable, May replies that, having seen Kora at Afterlife, he was right.
- Kick the Dog: When Coulson comments about the damage to the timeline needing to be repaired, Kora kills Durant and remarks that, by Coulson's logic, Sousa should be next.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: A radio voice from the Hub says he thought the Lighthouse had been decommissioned before getting abruptly cut off.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: When Nathaniel tries to brute-force his way past the memory block on Fitz's location, the implant responds by completely blocking Jemma's memories of Fitz.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Once again, the show's imminent conclusion is brought up during a dialogue between Mack and Daisy.
- Loving a Shadow: Kora's interpretation of Jiaying's love for her; in her mind, Jiaying loved who her daughter was before Terrigenesis, and never understood the person she is now.
- Moral Myopia: Kora has a bad case of it; she sees May killing Katya (who was malicious and actively dangerous) as sickening, while championing the notion of killing people who will be dangerous in the future to better the world. She also considers S.H.I.E.L.D. to be nothing but killers, seeing her proposal as no different than their typical methods, and describing it (and herself) as "saving lives".
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Kora's suggestion for making a better future in the altered timeline is to kill people who will cause harm in the future.
- Neck Lift: When Daisy sees her sister, her first action is nailing her against the wall with a quake and choking her. Mack has to order her to stand down.
- No, Except Yes: Daisy's answer when Mack catches her trying to steal the Quinjet.
- Oh, Crap!: Coulson, when he realizes Nathaniel didn't go to space to hide, but to bombard S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Orbital Bombardment: The Chronicoms do this to every S.H.I.E.L.D. installation (except the Lighthouse, which would be able to withstand it) using their starships. The Triskelion in particular is shown blowing up.
- Pet the Dog: Kora offers sympathy for the deaths of Mack's parents, saying that they didn't deserve to die, as well as expressing regret that Daisy didn't get to grow up with a happy family. Daisy, for her part, is unmoved, as she sees Kora as having thrown away exactly what Daisy spent her entire childhood craving.
- Please Wake Up: Kora tries to feed her energy to Jiaying in an ultimately futile attempt to help her heal.
- Punch Catch: May is at first caught by surprise when Kora starts hitting her, but then she catches her fist without even looking to show she's getting serious.
- The Reveal:
- While we still don't know what happened to Fitz, this episode reinforces the idea that he may be dead, as Jemma's memories hint at a condition of some kind that doesn't sound curable. Jemma evidently suppressed her own memories of it because knowing the truth would cause her too much pain when she needed to stay focused on the mission.
- DIANA is an acronym that means Digital Implanted Axon Neurotransmission Attenuator.
- Shipper on Deck: Mack is really adamant about trying to bring Sousa and Daisy together.
- Shout-Out: During his bit of "Die Hard" on an X, Deke says it's "Just like Nakatomi Plaza."
- Tantrum Throwing: After being told that the implant extraction device won't work unless Jemma herself uses it, Nathaniel throws it through a window, then remarks that he did that because he's used to getting whatever he wants.
- Teleportation Rescue: Garrett does this for Kora when she's fighting May.
- Torso with a View: Kora blasts a hole through Durant's torso with her powers.
- Torture Is Ineffective: Brutalising Deke physically does nothing to make either him or Jemma crack. Whether Nathaniel's threat to quake her into a coma would have done any better is rendered moot when he notices the implant.
- Trojan Prisoner: Kora was sent to the Lighthouse so she could use her powers to create an EMP, creating an opening for Sybil to infiltrate its systems when they rebooted. From there, Sybil is able to download the location of every other S.H.I.E.L.D. installation and transmit them to the Chronicom fleet, allowing them to target the locations from orbit.
- Unholy Matrimony: Nathaniel and Kora are shown to be in a relationship.
- Villainous Breakdown: Nathaniel has one throughout the entire episode, getting increasingly more frustrated about not finding out where Fitz is, to the point where he just randomly kills off an underling for daring to call him "Sir" one too many times when he can't bypass the implant protecting the information.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Kora seems sincere in her will to make a better future... by killing dozens of people she deems bad.
- Wham Line: Jemma, after coming out of the memory machine:Jemma: Who's Fitz?
- Would Hit a Girl: Nathaniel slaps Jemma for defying him, then threatens to quake her into a coma to coerce Deke.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- Kora assumes this of S.H.I.E.L.D., judging from May's killing of Katya Belyakov.
- Despite showing disgust for May killing Katya, Kora is fine with potentially killing future threats while they're still children, explicitly mentioning Grant Ward (who would barely be two or three years old at this point) as one such.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Despite Kora's assumptions to the contrary, Coulson shoots down the idea of killing a young Ward.
