Stranded in 1982 after Zephyr One vanishes into the future, Mack and Deke find their own ways of coping with their new situation, but the resurgent Chronicom threat unites them once more with a common purpose.

It’s been a while now since Agents of SHIELD went full on, all out silly, but this really is the sort of episode that feels like the writers wanted to have some real fun with this last season and have run out of any concerns about anything. And it works pretty bloody well.

It’s loaded with 80s references, as you might expect, whether it’s Deke playing in a cover band (in every sense of the word) passing off famous tunes of his own, a distinctly Weird Science-ish vibe to one sub plot or the distinct noise made by an old enemy with a new face(ish). Everything is calculated to bring a warn fuzzy glow of 80s nostalgia and laughs to the audience, but what’s impressive despite all of this is just what is going on in the beating heart of the episode.

Deke has always been more of a comic character, but Jeff Ward and the writers have always brought an edge of pathos to the character too. Here, both are working overtime as Deke desperately tries to get Mack to get out of his emotional slide in the wake of his parents’ death and get back in the game. Of course, he’s doing it the only way he knows how, hence the band, the whacky assortment of compatriots he’s gathered around himself and the… distinct way in which a familiar face returns yet again.

Mack, on the other hand spends a great deal of the episode wallowing in his own misery. Henry Simmons has always been good value since he first appeared in the series, and though this isn’t his first run at brooding and despondent (indeed, those qualities feel like they have defined at least 50% of his overall character arc) here it feels a little different. We’ve seen Mack hopeless and lost before, but never actually broken as he is here. It’s hard to watch, and recognising this, the second half of the episode and Deke’s antics really work to offset that with humour, including a bunch of near fourth wall-breaking references.

But as ever with SHIELD, it’s what draws the team together that is more interesting than anything that drives them apart. Mack is convinced of Deke’s selfishness and venality, and he’s taught a hard lesson in just how wrong he has his comrade pegged, even as we the audience learn just how big Deke’s heart really is.

The framing device of the episode, with Deke debriefing May as to what has been happening to him and Mack since they last saw the rest of the gang, helps with the slight aura of unreality around everything. Deke’s loveable but he’s also an unreliable narrator at the best of times so we can’t guarantee everything we see on screen is exactly the way it happened. But that just adds to the fun as you sit and work out which bits definitely happened and which were obviously Deke exaggerations.

Verdict: I’d wager the most fun the cast and the writers have had on the show in some time, and a fitting vehicle for both Simmons and Ward to really show what they can do. Good times. 9/10

Greg D. Smith