Okay. It’s always darkest before the two-part series finale, right? Is that how the saying goes?

If you say “Quake” enough times, it stops sounding like a real word. Much less a name.

Things I loved from this episode: everything to do with Daisy and Sousa. All of their scenes, and Mack reacting to them, were delightful. We needed those smiles this week, since everything else was falling apart even worse than last week. Mack being Daisy’s older brother and discussing her with Sousa was basically perfect. Plus, it’s fun that Sousa gets to provide an “outsider” perspective on the whole superhero nickname thing. For the record, I’d be down with Daisy having a Q on her utility belt!

Speaking of Daisy, I adored her comment about Sibyl’s prediction. “I already have a sister to save. Her name is Jemma Simmons.” Yesssssss! Daisy + Jemma forever.

I also loved Deke and his Die Hard references. It’s too bad he probably didn’t get to see it in theaters, since it came out in 1988, but I’m not at all surprised he loved it. Also, now I want to see some kind of crossover where Deke meets Jake Peralta from Brooklyn Nine-Nine. At very least, they could bond over that movie!

Coulson embracing his computer “superpower” was a fun twist. Glad that he continues to discover benefits of his LMD-ness, which hopefully balance out the crushing fear that he will outlive everyone he loves at least a little bit. Also, every scene with Coulson and May together this week was fantastic. No idea where everyone’s going to end up at the end of this season, but I still want those two to have some happiness together if at all possible.

We saw Fitz this week! For real! Sure, it was only as memories in Jemma’s head, but there was new footage of him! I love him. And that better not be all we see in these final episodes. More on that later.

Daisy and Mack’s conversation about the impending end of the team was very well done. It was also heartbreaking to watch, especially as we head toward that time when we all have to say goodbye to this group of lovely people. Sure, as Mack said, they might all stay in contact, but it won’t be the same. (As Daisy said.) We’ll never have that same team together as agents of SHIELD on screen again – unless Marvel wants to bring them back in any form in the future, of course!

Fiiiitz! Gosh, I’ve missed “that little wizard”.

Things I didn’t like: first of all, Kora. Is she meant to be thoroughly unlikable and not compelling? Because that’s sure how she’s coming across. (I don’t think it’s the actress’s fault – she seems fine.) So far she’s been another Ruby: a young woman who’s the secondary villain, and is supposed to engender sympathy because of her life difficulties, but only succeeds sometimes. Oh, and has no chemistry with the male villain, and then dies. I’m just guessing Kora’s going to die, of course. I suppose they could surprise me with how Kora finishes her arc, but I’m not betting on it. Anyway, at least no one at SHIELD bought her “I just want to help” garbage.

And finally, Simmons. It’s actually very in-character for her and Fitz to have set things up so that any invasive attempts to find him in her memory would lead to her forgetting everything about him. That doesn’t mean I don’t hate it. Amnesia as a trope coming between two people in a couple is one of my least favorite things in TV. But there are still two episodes left for them to fix this, so I’ll try not to get too angry too soon. Also, what was that mention about bloodwork? Jemma wasn’t pregnant back then, was she? Is Deke’s mom already running around with Fitz somewhere/when?

Are you ready for the two-hour series finale next week?