Agents of SHIELD (7×08) After, Before Review

For our review of the last episode of Agents of SHIELD, click here.

Synopsis: With the Zephyr’s time drive malfunctioning, the team hurtles toward disaster with Yo-Yo as its only hope; Yo-Yo must enlist the help of an old adversary to regain her powers. (TV Guide)

Though it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone, the little subplots from this season so far are starting to come together just in time (sort of pun intended). This latest episode takes us back to Afterlife for a side trip that becomes something more while the others are forced to make a tough decision that wasn’t really so tough in retrospect until a cliffhanger threatens to complicate things even further for our heroes.

Before, After began with what the others were doing during last week’s episode. The time drive began to malfunction causing it to jump in increasingly shorter intervals. Once everyone was back, it was determined that the solution would call for Yo-Yo’s power which was unavailable at the time. Being in 1983, the logical solution for this problem was to go to Afterlife in enlist the aid of Daisy’s mother Jiaying. Though once May and Yo-Yo got there, things didn’t seem quite right. While they didn’t trust her, May and Yo-Yo were skeptical of Afterlife’s methods (in obvious fashion). Meanwhile, the others continued to try and fix the time drive (which was going nowhere) while devising an escape plan just in case.

It turned out that Yo-Yo’s problem was psychological and not physical (which makes sense). The key was an exploration of her emotional past (which she and May were not thrilled about). The holding hands method wasn’t working so they started to fight each other which did as she got hit with memories of her past (featuring callbacks to past seasons). Her problems seemed to stem guilt-based. Ultimately, their time was cut short when a troubled Inhuman named Kora (Dianne Doan) caused an explosion before escaping with a gun (May and Yo-Yo witnessed another escape when they got there). She couldn’t control her powers which motivated their need to help Yo-Yo so they can learn how to take away Kora’s. Kora was also Jiaying’s daughter (and Daisy’s half-sister). Meanwhile, Daisy and Coulson (with his almost complete new body) bonded (he appeared to feel emotions) while Simmons gave Sousa a prosthetic leg.

Unfortunately for Kora, Nathaniel Malick found her (Sibyl told him about Afterlife) and convinced her to join his cause as his forces stormed into Afterlife. Luckily, Jiaying escaped in time. Meanwhile, Simmons recorded a message for Fitz. The zephyr jumping continued but May and Yo-Yo managed to catch it just in time. Suddenly, Yo-Yo gained her confidence back and her powers came with that, leading her to stop the time drive. However, as Enoch tried to fix it, something wrong happened and they jumped to some unknown destination.

The final scene saw Nathaniel Malick rounding up the Inhumans on Afterlife with sinister intentions of course.

While they will have to go back to Afterlife soon, based on the preview for next week, it will be some time until that happens. Maybe Nathaniel Malick is a means for Sibyl’s endgame but who knows since the season has a few more inevitable turns left in it. Also, where’s Fitz?

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.