Fresh From Thresh Agents of SHIELD ep. Meet the Boss

Well now, THIS episode leaves quite a lot of head scratching and questions, burning questions, and the way that they are bouncing around my skull, well, feels like my head is on fire. Well, I certainly hope that the answers come with a vengeance, because I’m having a devil of a time trying to figure them all out. 

OK OK fine, that’s enough Ghost Rider puns, let’s get on with the review! For those just joining and checking out this blog for the first time, welcome to Fresh From Thresh, I am Matt Thresher, aka Matty Thresh. And for those who are returning, then, welcome back! Today we are continuing on our journey across the S.H.I.E.L.D. corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). As always, I want to issue a SPOILER ALERT, as I will be discussing key plot points throughout. So if you haven’t watched it, first off, why not? Second, go watch it and feel free to join in any discussion in the comments!

 So, this episode I feel like I can bring in some of the other topics explored during the previous episode, such as the identity of the new director and what the heck is going on with those ghost…spirit…things. Can’t really tell you too much about what they actually are yet, but we can discuss them a bit! 

 First, we finally get to meet the new director. I gotta tell you, I was SURE it was gonna be Talbot if it was gonna be anyone we’ d known before. Turns out, it is not Talbot though, it’s a man named Jeffrey Mace. People who know Captain America comics extremely well may recognize him as the Golden Age hero “The Patriot”, who would also take up the Captain America mantle for a time. No idea of any indication to have this idea in his backstory yet, but what IS confirmed is that Mace is actually an Inhuman, with super strength and durability (from what we’ve seen so far). The fact that the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D is an Inhuman, and is planning to take the agency public again for the first time since the events of The Winter Soldier, is a big deal in the political environment in the MCU at large, what with fear of Inhumans being stoked by groups by like The Watchdogs (sound familiar, X-Men fans?), and the continued fallout of the Sokovia Accords. Seeing how S.H.I.E.L.D. will handle being thrust back into the limelight affects this season, and maybe even the Avengers movies, will certainly be something to keep track of this season!

Something is in the air, and Agent May has been affected. We’ve seen a ghostly looking woman affecting members of a Chinese gang, as well as May and in this episode, a father and son whom she accuses of living in her house. In this episode, we see her at a lab, with some kind of boxes where she releases several more ghostly people, all of whom seem initially unaware of the passage of time or what really happened to all of them. We learn that the first woman that we see seemed to be the leader of the project, because of some mysterious book. Just like “The Director” in the first episode, though, the pronoun game is alive and well, as all the “ghosts” seem angry at someone, presumably the person who oversaw the full experiment/project, and they never say this person’s name, always “him” or “he”. Minor frustration, true, but a frustration nonetheless.   

As was stated before, May had been affected by this influence of the ghosts, and started seeing threats all around her. Believing that everyone else had been infected, she proceeds to finally attack all agents in front of her, including Coulson, before being subdued by Mace. He promises Coulson that he will take care of May and is on top of everything.  

Quake, meanwhile, continues to pursue Robbie Reyes after her previous fight with the Ghost Rider. Robbie doesn’t appreciate this at all, and after confirming that he DID sell his soul (Daisy originally believed him to be an Inhuman like her) they eventually get into a fight after Quake mentions Robbie’s brother Gabe. This royally pisses Robbie off, and after a fight, subdues Quake. While going through her possessions to find a reason to justify killing her, Quake talks to him about the leads with the various gangs she’s been tracking, and all signs pointing to a certain lab. With that, both vigilantes head there, with Quake breaking free to do so.            

It just so happens that Mack and Fitz are at this lab, since they are investigating the “ghosts” and have tracked the machine they had recovered to here. Mack and Fitz end up encountering one of the ghosts, resulting in Mack getting locked in a chamber and Fitz about to be possessed. Ghost Rider shows up however, and shows that he can touch these spirits; he grabs the one attacking Fitz by the arm, and then proceeds to burn him to nothing. Daisy rescues Mack and the three former teammates have a rather touching scene as Mack pleads with Daisy to come back with them, and when she refuses, Fitz shouts that she turned her back on them, due to the terrible events of the previous year. Fitz goes on to say that they all have gone through terrible things in the past, and never did any of the other of them go rogue. Mack also is angry that she is working with a murdering vigilante like Ghost Rider, but Daisy is adamant that this is what she has to be doing. So Mack and Fitz return without her.
 
So, more things to ponder and more cool Ghost Rider imagery has shown that so far, this season is in no danger of slowing down. A new Inhuman director ready to take the agency out of the shadows, mysterious ghosts causing panic and paranoia in their victims, and Ghost Rider and Quake continuing on their way to find out what the connection between Ghost Rider, the Ghosts, and the gang wars really is, since Robbie seems to think there is one. While I enjoy their chemistry and the uneasy truce that they seem to have, I can’t help but just be afraid for Daisy, and I just hope that she remembers that if she continues playing with fire, she might be the one that gets burned.  

AHHH!!! I’M SORRY!!!! I’M SORRY!!!!
Thank you everyone for reading, I am enjoying this so far and can’t wait to see the new episode! Keep posted on Jerry’s page to look for my latest articles, including reviews of the D.C. TV shows, starting with The Flash, an article discussing exactly what having Ghost Rider in the MCU could mean for that universe, as well as, of course, any new AOS episodes! As always, stay rockin, and keep your cool everyone!

No…no…I didn’t mean…it was just…a slip of the tounge…please…mercy…MERCY!!! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

*All images are property of Marvel and ABC. I  or Matt do not own any of these images or characters.*