There are two very important moments in this episode. The first is that Eli is the villain. Considering the role he plays in the comics, this shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone. But it’s nice to finally have it out there. I have to imagine this thread will end with Robbie tearfully having to end his Uncle’s life, as he pays for the lives he’s taken. It will be sad and emotional, but everything will have come full circle.
The flashbacks gave a good amount of back story into how everything went down. As we saw, it was the Darkhold that made people mad. It’s an evil book, that drives people to do evil things. The more interesting aspect is that Eli never got ahold of the book though. So you can’t even blame that for his actions. He was simply a man who lusted over power, and was willing to do anything to get it.
Before we get to the other important moment of the episode, let’s loop back around to the beginning. Simmons was a non-player this week because she was shipped off to some mysterious assignment. I can’t help but the find the timing of this suspect because of how she and Mace interacted at the end of last week. If she is in danger of some kind, it would certainly paint Mace in a more villainous light. But right now, he’s simply suspicious.
Speaking of Mace, it was about time that Coulson’s actions have come to a head. It’s too often in TV we see agents like Coulson break the rules and never suffer any consequences because he still saved the day. But he’d been going behind Mace’s back since before the beginning of the season and it was time for that to end. It didn’t help things that Mace was there because he was being blackmailed, but I imagine this would have happened eventually even without that extra push.
I’m also glad to see that he isn’t as stupid as he sounds sometimes. Hiding Daisy and Robbie under the plane was a clever idea, but not necessarily enough to fool the Director. What was even more fun though, was watching everyone question whether the containment module could hold the Ghost Rider. The answer? Not so much. This led to a cool fight scene between Mace and Ghost Rider, where we saw that even an Inhuman with superhuman strength isn’t a match for the Spirit of Vengeance.
And while Mace eventually agreed to let him work with SHIELD to help shut down Lucy Bower, I can’t imagine he’s doing to go to prison any time soon. If anything, either his relationship with his brother will recover because he saved the day, or he’ll become a lone rider of sorts. The destiny of the Ghost Rider is to be alone, more or less.
It was kind of neat to see such a large tie-in to Agent Carter season two. I was a huge fan of that show and very sad that it didn’t get renewed. But it’s good to see that some of it lives in through Agents of SHIELD. Considering the dealings they had with Dark Matter (something from the Doctor Strange comics), it makes sense that those actions would affect the present day in some regard. I wonder if we’ll even see a cameo of the stuff as the season goes on.
The other important moment I mentioned occurred during Robbie’s story about the night he died. Turns out, the man that came to Robbie and Gabriel’s “rescue” was another Ghost Rider. Was this Johnny Blaze? More than likely, but we’ll have to see if this is going to be more than a cameo down the road, or just something fun to add to his origin. But the fact that there is more than one Ghost Rider out there presents all sorts of ideas. Seeing multiple Ghost Riders work together would be something to behold for certain.
Lastly, there’s the cliffhanger of sorts. Where did Robbie, Coulson, and Fitz go? Are they in those boxes? Are they now poorly CGI generated ghosts? Were the simply transported somewhere else? These are questions we’ll have to wait a few weeks for. Since next Tuesday is Election Day, I’m doubtful we’ll get an episode.
Written by Peter Freeman, AGENTS OF SHIELD Beat Writer -- Click to read Peter's posts
Related Posts:
AGENTS OF SHIELD Season 4 Episode 5 Review: LockupAGENTS OF SHIELD Season 4 Episode 4 Review: Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire
AGENTS OF SHIELD Season 4 Episode 3 Review: Uprising