Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season four premiere is finally here!!! We pick up six months after two major death in the season three finale. S.H.I.E.L.D. is under new management, Daisy is still on the run and of course…unless you’ve been living under a rock…Ghost Rider has joined the show. Let’s take a look at Episode 1, The Ghost before tonight Episode 2, Meet the New Boss airs tonight.
Just to recap last season, our world is chaotic as more and more Inhumans are being discovered. Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his team are doing their best to find these individuals before the newly reformed HYDRA does. HYDRA has a secret ally in Hive, who has taken over Ward’s (Brett Dalton) body. Just before the big showdown between HIVE and Coulson’s Crew, the Sokovia Accords were introduced and caused a rift in the Avengers and in the Agents of Shield. The Sokovia Accords required anyone with a superhuman ability to register themselves or be hunted down and locked away. S.H.I.E.L.D. does prevail but at a great cost…the life of Lincoln (Luke Mitchell). Daisy (Chloe Bennett) left S.H.I.E.L.D. after Lincoln’s death. Coulson has since been looking for her, almost catching up with her in the final scene.
In the season opener, Daisy is still fighting crime and people are aware of her abilities; they call her Quake. She has caught up to a group of Watchdogs who are attempting to rob a truck when she gets a little help from a mysterious…e’hem…’rider’ (Gabriel Luna). Daisy watches as the rider kills two of the watchdogs, injures another and then takes the last one with him.
Coulson and Mack (Henry Simmons) are called back to S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ during the most recent trip to finding Inhumans. May (Ming-Na Wen) tells them of a report out of LA about the murder of two men and a third injured. They assume it was Daisy, but Daisy doesn’t kill, at least she didn’t used to. Coulson and Mack head to LA to find out what’s going on.
Elena, Yo-Yo (Natalia Cordova-Buckley) checks in with S.H.I.E.L.D. She has signed the Sokovia Accords, so though she is considered an asset to S.H.I.E.L.D., because of a lot of red tape, they cannot deploy her into the field. Elena flirts with Mack, who reminds her that the new director has regulations against fraternizing amongst the agents. So…what are Fitz and Simmons doing? Elena takes what Intel she finds out from S.H.I.E.L.D. and secretly meets Daisy to inform her. She also gives her meds from S.H.I.E.L.D. to help Daisy, whose ability is wearing down her body.
Meanwhile we get to see the newly reformed S.H.I.E.L.D. and the new structure that includes Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) being a trusted advisor of the new director. Which means that the rest of the team can’t really trust her with anything because she is subjected to daily lie detector tests and would reveal what the team is really doing. May is frustrated by the new chain of command especially when Simmons reprimands May for withholding information about Daisy.
Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) discovers that Dr. Radcliffe (John Hannah) has been secretly working on a new project. AIDA (Mallory Jansen), a artificial intelligence, that is designed to protect S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with no capability for killing. She has a small glitch, and Dr. Radcliffe is excited to show Fitz and Simmons, but Fitz tells him to wait on telling Simmons anything.
Elsewhere the rider is questioning the man who he took hostage to find out what they stole from the truck. It was a box that a Chinese gang wanted. It turns out the group of men are actually from the Aryan Brotherhood and the fact that they are working with the Chinese is suspicious. The rider asks what was in the box and when the man can’t tell him, the rider kills him.
Coulson and Mack are led to the Chinese gang and May follows. Coulson and Mack break up the fight that ensued after the box was opened but no one has any answers to what was in the box. The box contains a ghost that makes people turn on each other. The ghost brushes past May…wonder where this story is going.
We finally get to learn more about the rider when Daisy catches up with him and accuses him of being a serial killer. The two begin to fight as he tells her he only kills those who deserve it. Daisy tells him that he doesn’t have that right, and he responds that he is not the one who decides as he transforms to the Ghost Rider. He uses his fire to pin Daisy. She tells Ghost Rider to kill her…she deserves it. Ghost Rider leaves.
Later, Daisy is watching the Rider as he meets his little brother, who is in a wheelchair. So there is obviously more to Robbie than his demonic alter ego.
The season opener was highly publicized because of Ghost Rider. I’m not a fan of knowing who the new character is and having to wait to see him in action. So opening with Ghost Rider instead of a Robbie Reyes is very satisfying. I don’t know much about Robbie Reyes as Ghost Rider, so I’m excited to find out more about this anti-hero and how he became the Ghost Rider.
The team’s new dynamic in S.H.I.E.L.D., for the last three seasons, we’ve always known Coulson as the leader. That status quo is no longer. S.H.I.E.L.D has been rebuilt with a new director and our beloved team has new roles as well. Although some of our team has taken a step back in their roles within S.H.I.E.L.D., their characters have definitely grown, especially Simmons. She started as a very timid, prim, and proper scientist, and though she has kept that charm about her, she is bolder in her new leadership role. I understand her reasoning for following the rules but she is already annoying May…and myself. I have a feeling she will get worse before she decides that breaking the rules is the only way the team can remain together.
Coulson has accepted his role as a field agent, but I think it’s only because it gives him the freedom to look for Daisy. So does this mean that everyone knows that Coulson is alive?? With May gathering intelligence at the base, at some point, Coulson and May are going to break away and do what they feel is best.
The show crossed genre lines with the addition of the ghost story. This was a little bit of a surprise for me because up until now, the non-human characters have all been aliens. Sure, some of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. stories are out there with some of their characters, but a ghost? But then I remembered that things are going to start to get pretty “strange” in the MCU very soon.
Coulson and Daisy’s relationship has always been so warm and more than a mentorship. If and when he finds her, is there really anything he can say to her to bring her back to the team? And if he can, what will the new S.H.I.E.L.D. do to her?
It is interesting to me that they made Elena one of the Inhumans who signed the Sokovia Accords. I guess we’ll get to see how that document really affects an Inhuman’s life as a superhero.
Fitz and Radcliffe are headed down an interesting path with the creation of AIDA. Did someone say, Ex Machina? If the technology works though, I wonder if it will be introduced into the films at some point…you never know…
With the Bobbi and Hunter spin-off dead in the water, I wonder if we will see these two reappear this season? And how will the release of Dr. Strange in November affect the television show?
Check out Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on Tuesday night. Check your local listings for channel and time.
News Editor, Senior Contributor, and Press Editor. Coordinate breaking news, trailers and press releases. I also contribute reviews, recaps and interviews. Creator of the Indigenerd Wire, a column dedicated to the Indigenous creatives in pop culture.
GGA's resident Indigenerd, a little bit rez, a little bit classy...with a love for all things Star Wars, zombies, science fiction, and Indigenous. My ultimate goal is to start my own podcast.
