Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series, starring alongside Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Elizabeth Henstridge, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, and Jeff Ward.

After examining Yo-Yo, Jiaying comes to the conclusion that the former's problems are mental rather than physical and has May use her empath abilities to help her.

However, Kora runs away and attempts to commit suicide, only for Nathaniel Malick to find her and convince her to join him instead by using his Chronicom ally, Sibyl's, future knowledge.

aired in August 2019, showrunners Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, and Jeffrey Bell revealed that the seventh season would feature the team trying to save the world from invasion by the Chronicoms.

[11] Cordova-Buckley stated that "no one writes or knows [Yo-Yo] like" James and Sharla Oliver, highlighting their work on the Yo-Yo-focused spin-off series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Another moment that the writers spent a "decent" amount of time working out was when Yo-Yo picks up a diviner, which was shown in season two to turn humans to stone and light-up when touched by Inhumans.

The background also features coordinates, dates, and ticking clocks, which Ian Cardona from Comic Book Resources felt evoked Back to the Future (1985).

Cardona thought the entire sequence was a tribute to the film Tron (1982), and helped "emphasize the nature" of racing against the clock.

[1] With the season renewal, main cast members Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Elizabeth Henstridge, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, and Jeff Ward were confirmed to be returning from previous seasons as Melinda May, Daisy Johnson / Quake, Jemma Simmons, Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie, Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez, and Deke Shaw, respectively.

[14] Enver Gjokaj reprises his Agent Carter role of agent Daniel Sousa in "After, Before",[15][16] guest starring along with Joel Stoffer as Enoch and Thomas E. Sullivan as Nathaniel Malick,[17][16] all returning from past episodes in the season,[18] and Dichen Lachman, reprising her role as Daisy's mother Jiaying from season two.

[19][7] Also guest starring are Dianne Doan as Kora, Daisy's previously unknown sister,[17] and Byron Mann as Li.

The sequence where the Quinjet docks with the Zephyr after the latter appears in front of the former was described by visual effects supervisor Mark Kolpack as "a moment of beauty and skill for May and one to remember just how incredible of a pilot she is".

[22] The sequence was meant to be a callback to previous seasons where May had been "famously cool", and was storyboarded by Kolpack before the effects were created.

[26] He explained that her abilities are intended to be unique to her compared to other "speedster" characters, and are achieved by filming Cordova-Buckley at 120 frames per second to show her in slow motion.

However, he called Yo-Yo's path to regaining her powers "convoluted" and added that Nathaniel Malick was a "lackluster" villain, "employing a kind of casual evil that presents his personal interest as a foregone conclusion to everyone while mostly ignoring the implications for both Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D.

"[6] Syfy Wire's Trent Moore felt the time travel of the two stories in the episode were used "to maximum effect".

said the "dire stakes, imminent doom and claustrophobic nature of being cramped on a plane are very reminiscent of" the season one episode "FZZT".