Josh recaps the Season 4 premiere of Agents of SHIELD, titled The Ghost, where SHIELD has apparently undergone a lot of changes since last season, and Ghost Rider makes his debut! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
- His thoughts on the Season 4 premiere of Agents of SHIELD
- Her thoughts on Agents of SHIELD, Season 4 Episode 1: The Ghost
Recap of Agents of SHIELD, Season 4 Episode 1: The Ghost:
So, Agents of SHIELD came back last week. Fall TV is about to go full steam ahead. Oddly, Agents of SHIELD has been put into the 10pm time slot. Seems pretty late. I wonder if this is due to ratings, or perhaps more violent content?
This season seems to be subtitled “Ghost Rider”. Hopefully it is a big departure from the Nicholas Cage films, which were awful. But, speaking of the devil, the opening of the season begins with Ghost Rider and Daisy. Daisy has come to investigate some Aryans who are trying to pull off a robbery. The Aryans and Daisy get into a tussle, when a mysterious car shows up. The Aryans hit the car with an explosive, causing it to ignite, and launch into the air. But this just lights the car on fire, and it lands, continuing its driving. Daisy only gets glimpses of what is going on, but most of the men are killed, and one is taken captive. Daisy, still trying to figure out what is going on, just sees a flaming skull, before Ghost Rider takes off. Sirens are heard, so Daisy has to make her getaway.
We also learn that Mack and Coulson have been out on missions for long stretches at a time on the Quinjet. But they get a call to come in for a resupply back at HQ, so they head in.
At HQ, Agent May seems to have taken on a training role, getting agents combat ready. Apparently the workout area is right in the airplane hangar for some reason. As May is training some agents, the Quinjet pulls in, and Coulson and May have a chat. May gives Coulson his next assignment, which is to investigate some goings-on in Los Angeles, and it also just so happens that Daisy might be in the area. We also learn that Coulson might not have been doing such a diligent job attempting capturing Daisy as he could have, or Daisy has become really allusive.
Meanwhile, Mack and Yo-Yo have an awkward, semi-romantic interaction. Yo-Yo seems to be all over Mack while Mack remains the “business-man”. We also learn that Yo-Yo has signed the Sokovia Accords, so she has effectively stated she will not help unless specifically asked to, which Mack reminds her of.
It is also revealed that Fitz and Simmons have been working at HQ. Simmons has been promoted to some higher security clearance title I can’t remember, but she seems to be a lot of people’s bosses now. This seems to lead to some tension between her and Fitz—they never seem to have time anymore for each other. Simmons also seems to not be getting along with May anymore. May seems to think that Simmons has given up on the original team, siding with the new director, while Simmons tries to explain that she has tried to accrue as much power as possible to maintain what she can of the original team. Simmons also figures out that May tipped Coulson off about Daisy, and regrets it because she has to report it to the director—because Simmons undergoes daily lie detector tests. Simmons also orders May to retrieve Coulson—with force if necessary.
After work, Fitz pays a social visit to a new friend—Holden Radcliffe. They apparently are having some drinks. Suddenly Fitz is confronted by a naked woman- that appears to be “glitching out”. Holden then is forced to tell Fitz about this robot. At first Fitz is appalled that Holden is working on this, as Holden was forbidden to have any sort of experiments running without approval. But Fitz is intrigued, and Holden has the robot explain what its function is—that is to be a decoy or “Shield” for SHIELD. Fitz seems internally conflicted as to what to do, but decides that they cannot tell Jemma for now, as her lie detector tests would force Jemma to tell the director. So he tells Holden they should keep this a secret for now—until the robot is “perfect”.
Meanwhile, Daisy has decided to hang around L.A. a little more to investigate this Ghost Rider. She actually winds up meeting with Yo-Yo, who helps her out with some medicines. Daisy seems to have lost her arm-guards that reduce injury to her forearms, and now is getting mini-fractures while using her powers. Yo-Yo tells her to try to take it easy.
Daisy runs into a graffiti artist who happens to be painting a photo of Ghost Rider on a wall. She asks him where to find the vigilante, and he says he doesn’t know. Daisy does some digging, looking for some people who know cars, and a guy recommends that she check out a local shop for parts.
We then see that Ghost Rider has taken his Aryan captive to his “lair” (which turns out to be an automotive shop), and asks him the location of a deal going down. The guy gives him a location, but the guy seems to have given Ghost Rider a bum lead. Ghost Rider has a solution for this—ramming the guy to death with his car.
Ghost Rider is preparing to head out for the night, presumably to perform more vigilante acts, when Daisy rolls up. She asks about car parts and the car she’d seen the Ghost Rider driving, unaware she is speaking to the man she is looking for. But Ghost Rider soon figures out that she is looking for him, so he attacks her. The two get into a brawl, and after some back and forth, Ghost Rider gets the upper hand. We see Ghost Rider contemplate what to do with her, but he leaves her be.
Meanwhile, Coulson and Mack are working on figuring out what some gangs are up to in LA. They investigate a truck that mysteriously ended up inside a warehouse, and inside are two dead men who seemingly killed each other.
Then we learn more about the gang these people were members of. They seem to think they have discovered a tool to take down the Enhanced beings. Opening the container they have commandeered reveals not quite what they were hoping for. Some sort of spirit like thing inside causes all of the men to see others as demons or zombies, and so they wind up killing each other.
Outside, Coulson and Mack are working on figuring out a way inside, when May shows up with a strike team. They move in and take out the rest of the gang members and secure the box, which is still open. While May is checking out the area, we see one of the spirits appear, but walk away from May.
Everything begins to wrap up for the episode. May and Coulson have a nice chat aboard the Quinjet, but something is off with May—she winds up seeing Coulson as one of the demon-like things, just as the gang did when they first opened the box. She plays it off as nothing, even though Coulson noticed that May was acting a bit off.
Fitz and Simmons head home, and we can see that Fitz has his secret on his mind, which he seems to hate keeping from Jemma.
We also see that Daisy has followed Ghost Rider, and sees Robbie help out his family, which includes a brother that seems to be wheelchair-bound.
His Thoughts on Agents of SHIELD, Season 4 Episode 1: The Ghost
Overall this was a solid first episode for this season of Agents of SHIELD. The show as a whole has had a lot of ups and downs for me, and this certainly much more up than down. One thing they have going for it so far is a much better representation of Ghost Rider than the Nicholas Cage movies. Hopefully that continues forward, as currently he seems like he will be a pretty fearsome character for both criminals and Agents of SHIELD (plus Daisy) to deal with. Hopefully this isn’t watered down too much as the season progresses, as he could prove to be very interesting.
I am curious to see the dynamic between Simmons and the rest of the team, as while she has said she has taken up this supervisory role as a way to help out the team, it seems as though it could go off the rails pretty quickly, with Jemma compromising her team more and more for the sake of not getting herself into trouble.
Fitz, meanwhile, is bound to get himself into trouble with this new robot. I have a feeling more rambunctious, rampaging robots are in store for the Marvel Universe. I just can’t imagine the robot situation going well at all. Sure it is not supposed to be a weapon, but usually these artificial intelligence things never go the way you would want them to.
I also wonder how long the team will stay in this fractured state. Is this just a temporary thing, resolved in the next few episodes, or is the plan to keep the groups separated? I guess we will have to see. We will also have to see how this new director is…
Her Thoughts on Agents of SHIELD, Season 4 Episode 1: The Ghost
When it was confirmed that this season of Agents of SHIELD would feature Ghost Rider, I wasn’t particularly excited. I had never had an interest in seeing the Ghost Rider movies starring Nicholas Cage, and from what I hear, I’m not missing anything. But that didn’t mean I was anti-Ghost Rider or anything like that. On the contrary, based on Agents of SHIELD‘s track record, the show has proven itself to be pretty good lately, so I was open to having the show take this character who had pretty much failed to be accepted by the nerd public in general, and do its own take so as to give the character another chance, albeit on the small screen this time around. I have to admit, I was pretty impressed by the effects used on Ghost Rider. Sometimes with TV, they don’t have the budget to do CGI and effects properly, but I thought it turned out pretty good.
Since we kind of skip ahead in time a bit from the last time we saw the SHIELD team all together, a lot of things have changed since then. Yes, we did see “6 months later” at the end of the Season 3 finale, but we didn’t really get a sense of everything that was going on with SHIELD. Now there’s a new director, as well as color levels, and somehow Simmons ranks above May? These changes are going to take some getting used to – not just the changes themselves, but learning the ins and outs about everything that has changed thus far, because it seems like we’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg. Plus we still have yet to find out who the new Director is, though the title for the next episode suggests that we will soon find out…
Bring on Season 4!
Scenes from Agents of SHIELD, Season 4 Episode 2: Meet the New Boss
Preview of Season 4 Episode 2 of Agents of SHIELD
It seems this season is going to take a darker tone. Plus, I’m sure this season is bringing in supernatural elements to tie into Doctor Strange.