The episode received mostly positive reviews, with critics highlighting its action sequences, use of Ghost Rider, and character-focused moments such as those between Daisy Johnson (Bennet) and Melinda May (Wen), and between May and Coulson.

agents Phil Coulson and Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie question Joseph, who has just been woken up from a coma by the apparent ghost of Lucy.

He arrives with Daisy Johnson / Quake—a rogue agent that has only recently joined back with the team—and Robbie Reyes / Ghost Rider—a demon-like vigilante and Morrow's nephew, as well as a newly developed antidote to Lucy's influence.

Meanwhile, Mace is debating the anti-Inhuman Senator Ellen Nadeer on live television, who brings up the prison situation which he is not aware of.

The series' writers room all loved the idea of seeing Ghost Rider walking through a prison as all the inmates run back into their cells, but the situation did not fit into the episode.

[5] Whedon also encouraged the writers to have Mexican characters speak Spanish with one another,[8] which was the first time the Zuckermans had written for a language other than English.

[5] This included a poster of the Quentin Carnival in the background of the opening scene to hint at the future appearance of the character Johnny Blaze.

[11] In October 2016, Marvel confirmed that main cast members Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May, Chloe Bennet as Daisy Johnson / Quake, Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz, Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons, Henry Simmons as Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie, and John Hannah as Holden Radcliffe would be starring in the episode.

[1] Also revealed was the guest cast for the episode, including Jason O'Mara as Director Jeffrey Mace, Gabriel Luna as Robbie Reyes, Parminder Nagra as Senator Ellen Nadeer, Maximilian Osinski as Agent Davis, Patrick Cavanaugh as Burrows, José Zúñiga as Eli Morrow, Kerr Smith as Joseph Bauer, James Edson as Warden Green, Ricardo Walker as Agent Prince, Sky Soleil as corrections officer, Rolando Molina as Santino, Brandon Keener as Harlan, Jermaine Jacox as ferocious watchdog, Lilli Birdsell as Lucy Bauer, Ward Roberts as Hugo, Usman Ally as Vincent and Devin Barry as producer.

[1] O'Mara, Luna, Nagra, Osinski, Cavanaugh, Zúñiga, Smith, Walker, Birdsell, Roberts, and Ally reprise their roles from earlier in the series.

[22] The episode reveals that Mace became a public hero after the bombing of a United Nations meeting in Vienna, an event depicted in Captain America: Civil War.

Club, Alex McCown-Levy graded the episode a "B+", calling it "a fast-moving and fun adventure, the kind of race-against-time scenario that remains the series' strong suit [which] played to the show's strengths on numerous levels".

McCown-Levy also felt "the show is having the most narratively efficient season yet, effectively balancing mission-of-the-week adventures with the longer plots", but was critical of Lucy and the low stokes of the villains.

Schwartz also noted character-focused moments such as the Johnson and May heart-to-heart and the revelations about Mace, while highly criticizing the ghost effects, saying, "Maybe it's Lucy's makeup or maybe it's the downside of having a TV show budget, but the look of these affected beings takes me out of the episode whenever they appear.

[30] Kevin Fitzpatrick of ScreenCrush said the series "deserves some credit for venturing into" the prison breakout trope, and thought the action sequences were impressive, but felt that Johnson's storyline was "nowhere near as compelling as the series wants it to be" and contrived, and said that the Mace/Simmons subplot was "consistently dashing any energy or momentum built up from the prison scenes".

Hale also noted the introduction of the Darkhold, Coulson and May's interactions, and the added mystery to Mace's character as all things that make "for good viewing and has me hooked for next week.

"[33] Vulture's Scott Meslow scored the episode three stars out of 5, feeling the season was lacking a "truly compelling villain" and saying the ghost effects look "absolutely terrible".