Would “Don’t you forget about me” be a hit without Breakfast Club?
I actually wondered if they were going to Max Headroom Coulson, was pleased they did.
Robots are a little Johnny 5.
Brian
And Cylon
As a child of the 80’s, that was a lot of fun. Surprising amount of emotion, too. I missed the rest of the team, but it was really well done.
I won’t spoil anything specific from next week’s preview, since I know some people don’t like to watch the previews, but wow… that’s something I didn’t expect to see, for sure. Looking forward to it!
Well that was ridiculous fun.
Though Mack’s house did look like Marty McFly’s, and was clearly a deliberate reference to BTTF, it wasn’t actually the one. I guess it was from a couple of streets over.
Did Deke change the lyrics at all? There were a few points where I thought, “That doesn’t sound right.” But I don’t know the song that well.
…wtf was that? Homages to Cylons and Daleks and Chopping Malls, Max Headroom and making me not only like Deke, but love the man??? Easily one of my favourite episodes of Agents of SHIELD ever, I did not expect that! I had a smile on my face from start to finish.
He replaced one of the “babies” in the lyrics to “Daisy” 
An adlib from the actor Jeff Ward.
Holy shit. Did Deke just go full Bukaroo Bonzai with the Deke squad?
I have mostly hated his character (fake ass Fitz) but now now I’m starting to wonder if he’s been underutilized this whole time?
I think Jeff Ward should get some serious props for what he’s done with the character. Yes, he’s mostly comic relief, but he manages to make him believable through it all, even when he’s acting unbelievably silly. And when he hits the heartfelt stuff, he really shines through. (Notable showcases of this: His reveal to Jemma that he’s her grandson, his speech about not getting any respect before he jumps to Izel’s temple with the “Shaw Drive”, his defense of Jemma to Sousa a few eps ago, and now his support of Mack… all excellent.)
And Terminator. The music when they invaded the bunker was right out of the movie.
And they were emulating an 80s slasher horror with the graphic kills.
That was the best part. Especially the throwback practical effects.
That was wonderful. All the tributes, including the A-Team font when Deke was introducing the members of his team. “Her English isn’t great, but she speaks the universal language of…demolitions.”
I read elsewhere that Agent Roxanne Glass’s name was a tribute to the recently deceased Ron Glass, who played Coulson’s doctor back in season 1 (along with many other excellent roles).
I’m going to assume that having Deke and the Changs wait for the robot to kill them instead of walking up the stairs behind them was a tribute to the pitiful behavior of slasher film victims.
I’m sure they would have done the Cylon tribute anyway, complete with the sound effect when the eye moves, but the fact that Bear McCreary writes the music for the show made it extra-meta.
ETA: I’m assuming that the season will end right around the time of the very first episode, complete with a cameo from Grant Ward.
…specifically this one apparently Just look at the robot designs!
I would be very disappointed if we don’t get a Ward cameo this season. It would be great if all the time-travel shenanigans end up preventing Ward from joining Hydra in the first place. I’m sure if Bill Paxton was alive they would’ve brought him back on to come full circle.
I was very surprised that there were only four robots. Although it’s possible that the small one left alive at the end was Number Five.
Mack said he was 10 in 1982 - making him 4 or 5 at the Bicentennial.
FWIW, I was 8 at the Bicentennial, and I still vividly remember what my family did that day. It was a huge deal, and I’m sure many families talked about it a lot in the years ahead, keeping it fresh in little kids’ minds.
Decent episode, with some interesting twists. Much like the episode where they left Enoch behind, I really wish the quoted times were less artificially short. We’re really meant to believe the Zephyr crew only had 20 minutes to try to find a solution to the time drive problem, prepare for evacuation by parachute, rebuild Coulson, record a message for Fitz, and still crack wise and have character moments, but no one seems to be rushing or really even stressing out? It’s the Rise of Skywalker problem again. They could have just changed the dialogue to make it something reasonable like 10 hours or something, or otherwise everything should have seemed a lot more rushed that it did.
I also didn’t feel like Yoyo’s cure was explained well. She confronted her impulsiveness and guilt over the consequences thereof and that didn’t work. But then she just decided not to “bounce back” and that worked? I get that they were going for a psychological exploration of a character that hasn’t always had much focus, but I don’t get the resolution.
Nitpicking maybe, but I’d really love this season to be flawless.
Hands up who thinks YoYo is going to end up in 1992 and will save her Uncle?
If it were earlier in the season, I’d say yes. But we have what, 5 episodes left? and next week looks like a standalone bottle episode I don’t think there’s much more time to spend two weeks per decade on period piece adventures like they had been. Also, would that really be saving her uncle, or just another timeline’s version of him? Could help her catharsis, but would he be alive back in her present? They still haven’t really confirmed what the death of Mack’s parents did to Mack’s memories of them.