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.*
 

Fresh from Thresh! Agents of SHIELD ep. Ghost

******Spoilers ahead!*******

Well, I gotta say, I didn’t necessarily expect to get to this point, making a review of this! However, here we are now, welcome to season 4 of Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D! I am Matt Thresher,aka Matty Thresh, and I hope you will all continue on this journey with me this season!

 

Season 4 is here, that’s right, yes, “Agents” has lasted this long. I have watched this show since the first season, and it was very cool to see Agent Coulson’s team again. Coulson, Mack, Fitz, Simmons, Daisy, May, etc. The losses from previous seasons are felt, however, by the team as a whole and as by the individual members. However, there is a new change in the status quo, and this left us with some interesting scenarios and with many questions.
                  As was teased at the end of season 3, Coulson is no longer the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. In this episode, we do not learn who this director is, he is never referred to by name, but seems to be the subject of great criticism and distrust by the team. In fact, this new director has split up Coulson’s team, with each of them moving to heads of certain departments, and Simmons actually becoming a direct advisor.
                  There are a few performances that I feel need extra recognition. All of the cast members play their roles extremely well, it’s true, but these performances stand out, and perhaps that’s because of the arc that we’ve seen the characters going through to get here. Leo Fitz has come such a long way, and has had to endure so much heartbreak and suffering. True, he’s not alone in this, not on this team, but having met Fitz as a timid, highly intelligent, and naïve agent who had never gone into the field and now seeing this confident and (frankly) bad-ass agent we’ve seen him become throughout past seasons, it’s really rewarding to see Fitz as he is now.
                    The same can be said about Agent Simmons. She is now in a position of power in the new director’s power structure, and she does very well. Because of the mistrust that the rest of the team has for the new director, some of that mistrust, especially from May, gets directed back at her, and you can’t help but feel for her when she finally explains to May: She sees the writing on the wall, and in order to have some level of control over things, she has been doing what she can to gain power and influence and gain the mystery director’s trust. As a viewer, it’s very hard NOT to appreciate the tough position Simmons is currently in, and you can really feel her hurt and frustration with the rest of the team’s attitude towards her, again, especially May.

                  Daisy Johnson has left S.H.I.E.L.D., and is now a wanted vigilante that the world knows as Quake (yay, comic reference!), and Coulson and Mack are desperate to find her before the military does. Quake, however, has no desire to let this happen; she is obviously still reeling from Lincoln’s death and she has made her decision that she doesn’t want anyone else being hurt or killed for her. Her goal now has been hunting The Watchdogs, and it is following up on leads that result in her meeting with a new character that is ALSO hunting hate groups…out for vengeance (but more on that later). Aside from all this though, it is shown that Daisy is having trouble with her bones as a result of pushing her powers too much. Yo-yo, the “InHuman asset” from last season, has been providing her with Intel and pills to help with the pain. Daisy is going to be interesting to watch this season, and I am definitely looking forward to seeing what else she will get into.
                  Ok, well, I guess it’s time that I talk about what we’ve all been looking forward to since we saw the comic con teaser…the dude with a flaming skull. The Ghost Rider.  When I first learned of this happening, I was of two minds about it. Firstly, I was really pleased that Ghost Rider was back in Marvel’s hands, and that Nicolas Cage was NOT involved (sorry, but I really wasn’t a fan of those movies). I was a little shocked to see that he would be in THIS show however, and not in a Netflix Marvel show, perhaps meeting with The Punisher or something. Also, upon learning that this Ghost Rider was NOT going to be Johnny Blaze or Danny Ketch, but Robbie Reyes, Marvel’s “All-New Ghost Rider”, who made his debut in 2013. I haven’t been reading this comic, and so know very little about this Rider, except for what I have looked up, and from what I have learned, I’m very interested in seeing if they pursue this route for a backstory. For example, in the comic, the spirit possessing Reyes is NOT actually a Spirit Of Vengeance (typically the type of spirit that becomes a Ghost Rider), but is his estranged uncle, Eli Morrow, who was a Satanic serial killer. Whether or not the show will have this stay, or if they will kind of merge origins with other Ghost Riders, will be interesting. Also, are there OTHER Ghost Riders? Hmm, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.  Besides the backstory things, and my initial reservations and expectations of the character, I really want to discuss the execution that went through.
                   

My initial judgement upon seeing this character is…WOW. Wow. Again, without knowing much about Robbie, really, I was very impressed and very intrigued. From the opening, where we first see Ghost Rider’s car (not a motorcycle, remember), the Aryan Brotherhood members being pursued are obviously terrified. Having Quake seeing him from behind a wall of flame, not able to see clearly but seeing a figure with the flaming skull (HELL YEA!) walking among the fallen gangsters, capturing and throwing one in the trunk of his car, and brutally killing the others, built up the monstrous effect of this character. True, yes, this is overplayed in any kind of monster movie or show, yes, but this is GHOST RIDER, a character many of us wanted to see in the MCU for a long time, and it worked. The impact that the Rider has in the world of the show is incredible. Seeing as this is the season premiere, we don’t know much about him, but he obviously is known and has been for some time. Anyone who Quake questions about him, or even that Robbie is interrogating, knows of The Rider and fears his power. A huge point to me is when Robbie is shaking down the captured gang member, and he refuses to give Robbie the location, Robbie responds with “If you don’t tell me, you’ll have to tell HIM”, and all defiance fades from the man’s face, replaced with stark and utter horror and terror. Robbie Reyes is portrayed very well, too. He comes off as harmless and in the background I he needs to, but he can also be a commanding, scary interrogator as well. The scariest part of his intimidation persona is the fact that he DOESN’T need to be over the top scary, because he knows that he has someone MUCH scarier in reserve, and the people he’s interrogating know this too. The actual transformation into Ghost Rider is really well done too, and I had to remind myself while watching “DUDE, this is AGENTS OF SHIELD I’m watching right now!” CG on the car in flames as well as his skull on fire was really awesome, and honestly, hard to tell only one episode in, but I think I definitely preferred it to the movie versions.

                  The fight between Quake and Ghost Rider may have been quick, but it showed some real growth and potential in the show, as well as an awareness of the show-runners of what they can do now, especially with a new, later, time slot. This episode is NOT afraid to get dark, especially not with Ghost Rider’s executions of the guilty. The best dialogue is between Quake and Reyes, when she is questioning him about the people he’s killed, who  he claims deserve it. “It’s vengeance, chica” he says. Quake then angrily asks him about the not so obvious targets:  A detective (“He had blood on his hands” Reyes responds with a dark grin), a school teacher (“ A pedophile” Reyes snarls back). Quake claims that he doesn’t get to decide who deserves to die, to which Reyes responds, with glowing eyes, “I’m not the one who decides”…and then his skin melts, lips peel back, hair burns off…and we see the Ghost Rider’s face for the first time. All of this, of course, reminds us of another Marvel show, “Daredevil”, and the moral debate between Matt Murdock and Frank Castle, aka The Punisher. The fact that Agents Of Shield isn’t afraid to go this dark, and harkens back to this other great show with other great characters shows great awareness by Marvel for what their audiences like, at least in their t.v. properties. 

           

       There are several other sub-plots going on that are worth mentioning, such as Dr. Radcliffe’s ongoing work on Life Model Decoys, with Aida (which honestly creeped me out a bit), and this weird spiritual/ghost thing that May and the other teams encountered attacking a Chinatown gang. But as there’s really not much substance or much we know about those yet, these I feel inclined to discuss at a later episode. The main attraction of this show now, is Ghost Rider, and I’m really glad that Marvel took this leap to bring him in, and this show has absolutely benefited in the later time slot, and it kind of eases my anxiety about Ghost Rider NOT being in a Netflix show. This season is off to a great start, and I can’t wait to see the new episodes, and I hope to see you all along with me! Again, thanks to Jerry Rapone for the invite to this blog, keep in touch, and also look for my reactions/recorded reviews on my Youtube channel, and hope to see you on the next review!

*All images are property of Marvel and ABC.