Discussing the conflict between Simmons and the LMD of Leo Fitz in the episode, and the reveal in the end that Simmons is dead in the Framework and Fitz is with someone else, Whedon referred to the pair's relationship as "forever love", saying, "I don't think anything will come between them, but that's why we constantly put things between them, because the longing for them to be together is sort of the feeling that we're addicted to as writers and hopefully the audience is addicted, too ... It's the greatest representation of the price of being a spy is the things that are torn away from you, and there's no better relationship [in the series] to represent that than them." Casting Marvel also confirmed in February that main cast members Gregg as Coulson, Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May, Chloe Bennet as Daisy Johnson / Quake, Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz, Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons, Henry Simmons as Mack, and John Hannah as Holden Radcliffe would be starring. The guest cast for the episode includes Natalia Cordova-Buckley as Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez, Jason O'Mara as Director Jeffrey Mace, Mallory Jansen as Aida 2.0, Briana Venskus as Agent Piper, Maximilian Osinki as Agent Davis, Zach McGowan as The Superior, Ricardo Walker as Agent Prince and Cantrell Harris as Agent Fisher. Cordova-Buckley, O'Mara, Jansen, Venskus, Osinki, McGowan, and Walker all reprise their roles from earlier in the series. The end of the episode reveals that Johnson's boyfriend inside the Framework is Grant Ward, who was portrayed by original series regular Brett Dalton until he left the show at the end of the third season, which killed off the character. Though Dalton himself is not shown in the episode, he is seen as Ward in a photograph for the revelation, and was confirmed by Marvel after the airing of the episode to be returning to the show. Whedon explained the thinking behind reintroducing Dalton, saying, "We figured when you get dropped into an alternate reality, what better way to show that it might not be everything you imagined than the return of one of our most loved and most hated characters. Also, we wanted to have Brett back. We missed him." They made this decision when first developing the three main story arcs for the season. Asked if it was Whedon's choice as director to only show the character in a photograph for