Going from being the biggest, most-hyped new series on ABC back in 2013, to a scrappy little underdog fighting to stay on the air, to getting an unexpected additional two seasons (with season seven being green-lit before season six had even aired), the show has gone through more ups and downs than most shows that last this long.

You jump around in time like a Christopher Nolan movie?

JW: We knew what this season was going to be at that point.

We knew that we were going to be jumping through time.

JW: It was the first time my first A.D.

MT: We really appreciate you saying that, because as the season progresses, the budget always starts to...

MT: We’re glad that you weren’t noticing the return to the dark corridors [in previous episodes].

And so we’re sad when the corridors are more than we want—you know, we’re as aware of them as you have been from time to time.

So the Zephyr jumping through time seemed like it was going to make financial sense...

JB: We shoot in Los Angeles, which we’re thrilled to do, but to go off the lot, it’s just a lot.

JW: We’re actually working on a new show called Hallways.

JW: Yeah, we have some nice corridors in them.

JW: I think we were confident we’d get him back, because if we didn’t, we’d be so mad at him.

AVC: Given how playful much of this season was, it often felt like a victory lap and a chance for you guys to cut loose and have some fun with these characters we’ve spent so much time with.

MT: And it’s not just one shark.

JW: We knew we were going to be reliving some S.H.I.E.L.D.

But, yes, the spirit of it was, “Let’s just have fun.” We’ve talked a little bit about how we thought season five was our finale.

Yes, we took some risks, but in the end, I feel like we did everything that was meant to be done.

MT: And also with the time travel, it was a way for us to tap into the nostalgia that we were feeling in making this last season together?

It’s the nostalgia that was just inherent in everything that we did throughout the process of our last season.

This is the last time we’re gonna be on the stage.” And then as we were wrapping up our stages like that, it wasn’t even in metaphor.

AVC: What was a weird story idea that you had in the back of your head that you wanted to try but never could, whether it was because of circumstances or because you were like, “That’s never going to happen”.

JW: And some of our coolest characters, I’ll say, were adjusted off of those ideas.

MT: I think some of our best storylines and character development was born out of us having to pivot and scramble.

JW: We tried never to put all of our eggs in one basket.

JW: Bell always described making TV as, you’re building a plane as it’s falling out of the sky.

JW: All dire situations.

JW: Yeah, none of them are any fun.

infiltrated and taken over by Hydra, as shown in Captain America: The Winter Soldier —Ed.] And I feel like once that reveal happened, we sort of started living in our own mythology.

But I feel like once we come to season two and it just built from there—.

MT: Or even allude to the notion of spies or a mole or anything like that.

MT: Yeah.

MT: Yeah, we were hiding that ball.

JW: But I think that the real difference was the time spent with the characters and people started to feel like they had a connection to them.

But like you’re saying, by season four, we felt like we had our feet on the ground.

But it really stems from the fact that after the first season, when it was like, “Who are these people?” Now, they’re like, “How could you do that to them?!”.

JW: I think the main goal was the feeling.

MT: And I do think the one-year jump serves to amplify that bittersweet quality, because we, as the audience, are aware that they’ve been in their new lives, separate from each other, for a year.

Why is that, and what does that mean going forward?” And then you see them at the end, you first think, “No, they came together!” But when it becomes the holograms, you see that, “Oh, they’re actually not together.” So there was a vibe we were definitely going for

JW: He was cast at the end of a season because he sounded good saying [Adopts stentorian voice] “Phillip J

MT: Yeah, as a voice, basically just a silhouette