Originally Posted by
Cyke
I dunno, the first half of the season undoubtedly started out strong with some of the best episodes in the entire show (imo), but since the return to Afterlife the momentum of the season's really dropped for me. I just can't find Malick and Kora interesting, and Malick is more annoying than threatening. It's kind of a return to form that I thought the show had outgrown. The season opened up with colorful (and even B&W) bombast, but despite the 1980s setting here, it feels routine and paint by numbers. Set the events of this episode and the last couple in the 2020 and there wouldn't be much to set it apart -- our characters just aren't hampered or affected the way they were in previous episodes, including the Deke and Mack murderbot episode. By contrast, not only have all the other period piece episodes been great, but the mind bender that was Agents of Groundhog's Day made full use of that effect to make one of the best time hiccup episodes ever.
Ultimately I just feel like this episode moreso than the rest of this season did maybe the least to advance anything. We still know Malick has a grand scheme with Sibyl, we still know Kora is in conflict, we still know Simmons can't remember Fitz. The reveal of the Chronicom fleet was beautiful but we knew a confrontation had to come some time since they're the real big bads, so it wasn't a big surprise. SHIELD facilities getting blown up is a nice spectacle but we've seen so little of SHIELD in the 80s to care (whereas not only did we see a fully staffed Lighthouse in the 70s, the whole adventure was a hoot).