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.

Director Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie and Agent Deke Shaw convince Wilfred "Freddy" Malick to let them protect him from the Chronicoms while he delivers the package he received so they can maintain history.

Koenig helps direct the team to Malick's delivery location, learning of S.H.I.E.L.D., robotics, and time travel in the process.

Once they are within communication range, Johnson tries to tell Shaw to kill Malick to prevent Hydra's rise in the future, but Mack orders him not to.

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.

[9] Shaw has to directly deal with the dilemma of killing the character Malick to prevent Hydra from forming, or letting him live to ensure that S.H.I.E.L.D.

Coincidentally, actor Jeff Ward was studying the "Baby Hitler conundrum" in an online Yale University course about morality at the same time as he was working on the episode.

[12]: 8:46  Regarding the erratic nature of Melinda May, Titley said the writers knew she would be hypersensitive to emotions as revealed later in the season but they "didn't want to come out of the gate with that" and make it a process, so she is shown in her "adjustment phase", having a colder personality than usual.

[12]: 16:24 With the season renewal, main cast members Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Elizabeth Henstridge, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, and Jeff Ward 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.

When Malick survives the episode and successfully delivers the vial to Hydra, the events of the film are able to take place unaltered in the timeline.

These included Simmons finding some of the super soldier serum on the Hydra agent's shoe, and Johnson telling Shaw to kill Malick which McLevy felt was out of character for her.

On that point, he concluded that "the whole moral dilemma of whether to protect Malick or take him down felt forced and clunky, with one side the obvious right choice.

"[23] Michael Ahr at Den of Geek gave the episode 3.5 out of 5 stars, also feeling that Johnson's choice was out of character but praising the MCU connections, action sequences, and time travel elements.

[24] Both McLevy and Ahr noted that the scenes with May and Yo-Yo appeared to be setting up future stories for them and hoped that those would not be dragged out much longer.

"[25] Michal Schick of Hypable thought the episode was fun, particularly highlighting the period costumes, but said it was "pretty rough around the edges".

Schick criticized the lack of explanation for the team having to time travel at the end of the episode, and found the conclusion to the Malick dilemma disappointing.