Agents of SHIELD, Meet Ghost Rider

By: Tyler Miller

SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON 4 PREMIERE FOLLOW!

Agents of SHIELD is back and they’ve brought the heat! Yes that pun was definitely intended. We got a real good episode to bring us back into the progressively darker world of SHIELD and start the season off on a high note. 

Things kicked off in L.A with a couple of heavily armed thugs getting chased by someone when Daisy intervenes and stops their truck. As she’s engaging them, Ghost Rider pulls up behind them. He drives right at them when one of the thugs fires an RPG at his car, sending it flying into the air. Since this is Ghost Rider though, his car transforms mid air and lands on all four wheels, and proceeds to ram into the truck head on. As some gas had leaked out of the truck, Ghost Rider’s car lights up the gas, separating him from Daisy with a wall of flames. She watches as he kills one of the guys, tosses another one in his trunk, and then drives off into the night. As the cops arrive, Daisy escapes into the night as well.

We’re then brought onto the team’s plane, Zephyr 1, where Coulson and Mack are playing a game of backgammon when they’re informed that they’re being called back to SHIELD HQ. As they arrive, May is training/sparring with her own strike team. She greets her two former teammates and reveals that she’s the one who called them back to HQ after they had been in the air for six weeks. She tells them about what happened in L.A as she believes Daisy is connected to it, and wants Coulson and Mack to go check it out before the new director of SHIELD goes after her, although they were taken off of her case.

Before they leave, they stop by the science lab where Simmons is trying out a virtual version of the lab that Fitz has cooked up with some tech alongside Dr. Radcliffe. The four of them talk about how different things are with the new director and how Simmons is in his inner circle before Fitz gives Coulson a new hand. With his brand new hand, Coulson and Mack head off to L.A.

Meanwhile, Daisy goes to the hospital where one of the thugs she encountered is laid up. She asks him about what his crew was doing, but instead he warns her about Ghost Rider and asks her to save his friend before he dies. She escapes the hospital and then begins searching around for info on Ghost Rider. At the same time, our fiery friend has his captive from the previous night chained up and he’s interrogating him about what his crew was doing.

We then get to catch up with Radcliffe who gets a house visit from Fitz. He gets settled in only to then get unsettled at the sight of a naked woman named Aida. Turns out that Aida is Radcliffe’s personal computer program, and he gave her a human body. And with that ladies and gentlemen, we have our first Life Model Decoy! Fitz is freaked out and doesn’t agree with Radcliffe making her a body, especially since he’s not allowed to do any experiments without oversight. Radcliffe has Aida explain to Fitz that she was made to prevent future tragedies and put herself in harm’s way to protect others. Radcliffe wants to show her to Simmons, but Fitz realizes that they can’t because Simmons will have to report it to the new director, and there’s no telling what he’ll want to do with Aida. SO for now, it’s Fitz and Radcliffe’s little secret.

Back on the plane, it makes a pit stop to pick up none other than Elena! Her and Mack have a talk, revealing that a lot has gone on between them since we last saw them. Unfortunately, she isn’t able to help them since she signed the Sokovia Accords, so she leaves. She then goes to L.A and has a secret meeting with Daisy on a bus. She gives Daisy some pills to help with the pain that help with her using her powers and suggests she goes back to SHIELD, but Daisy refuses because she doesn’t want to have anything to lose. Before she leaves, Daisy tells Elena about what she’s doing in L.A and what she knows about Ghost Rider.

At SHIELD HQ, May signs out on some tech from Simmons that she’s going to use with her strike team. As she does this, Simmons tells her about what happened at the hospital and that she believes Daisy had something to do with it. Shortly afterwards, Simmons talks with May and reveals that she knows why she called Coulson and Mack back to base and what she sent them to do. She doesn’t approve of it and the two of them get into a heated discussion, with May making it very clear that she’s not happy about how close Simmons is with the new director since she doesn’t trust him. This causes Simmons to tell her that she doesn’t trust him either, but since the old team is split up now, she’s trying to stay in his good graces to keep a good eye on everyone and keep them all together. Because of this, she has to report everything back to the director and sends May and her team to go and bring Coulson and Mack back.

Back in L.A, Coulson and Mack identify the guys Ghost Rider killed as members of the Aryan Brotherhood, and track down the truck they were going after. When they find it, they discover two dead bodies in it, and go to the place the dead guys worked at. Meanwhile, Daisy is combing the streets to try and find anyone who may know where Ghost Rider’s car is, eventually getting a tip to go to a nearby junkyard that has all kinds of stuff.

Later that night, Coulson and Mack are staking out the factory they tracked down and are watching a meeting of some sort take place. Apparently, the truck had a box in it that caused the two people inside it to go crazy and attack each other. That box is now at the factory the meeting is taking place at, and when it gets opened up a ghost of some sort appears to haunt everyone inside and make them see things, leading to them all shooting at each other. As Mack calls in backup, May appears with her team and they go in and take everyone out. Before they leave though, the ghost walks by May and she senses it, but doesn’t see it.

At the same time, Daisy goes to the junkyard and finds Ghost Rider in his human form, and he introduces himself as Robbie. He tells her that the car isn’t there, but she could look in a book in his office. As they walk over to the office, she realizes who he is and the two of them start to fight. The fight is pretty evenly matched, but that all changes when Robbie turns into the Ghost Rider!

He gets the upper hand and Daisy begs him to kill her, but he doesn’t, instead leaving her alive. The following day, Daisy sends Elena a picture of a Ghost Rider mural as confirmation of who she’s looking for. At the same time, she’s watching Robbie from her van and she sees him with his younger brother Gabe who’s in a wheelchair, showing that he has something he cares about.

The episode ends with May and Coulson playing backgammon on the plane headed back to HQ and talking about what’s gonna happen when they return. As they do this, May sees Coulson’s face transform in a way that was similar to what happened to the guys in the factory. She shakes it off, but she’s clearly weirded out by what happened.

Other thoughts:

• Let’s just get this out the way. GHOST RIDER IS FUCKING AWESOME!! Sure we didn’t get too much of him in this episode, but he’s already much better than the Nicholas Cage version of the character. On top of that, those special effects for him (notably during his transformation in the fight during Daisy) are amazing for a TV show. I really hope they didn’t blow the budget so soon and we get a lot more scenes of Ghost Rider on the show in all his fiery glory.
• Elena and Mack definitely had a lot happen between last season and this one, if you know what I mean. I’m definitely intrigued to find out just what the two of them have been up to and if anything is going to happen with them to further this new relationship they have.
• It’s interesting having all of our main players so separated this season. To be honest, it’s sad not seeing the full team together, but I’m sure they’ll all get together at some  point. Just the fact that they’re all separated though because the new director doesn’t trust them, already has him on my bad side.

This was a great season premiere for the show, and is probably the best one yet. The show is definitely taking a darker turn this season with its move to a later time slot. So far I’m really liking it, and can’t wait to see how much darker things get as the season progresses. Oh, and more Ghost Rider. I quite simply cannot wait to get more of him.