Agents of SHIELD: "The Ghost" Review (Season 4, Episode 1)

It honestly feels like no time has passed between the end of last season and the start of the new one. Which is weird, since the wait for Season 3 last year felt like an eternity to me.

Anywho, a new SHIELD season has begun and with it, a new crop of reviews. "The Ghost" turned out to be a pretty great way to start the new season, already setting in motion a few new plotlines.
Oh yeah...and Ghost Rider.

The series' darker and edgier tone, allowed by the later time slot, made itself evident from the first scene with Daisy confronting a group of thugs. A confrontation that is interrupted by the Ghost Rider. It was a fantastic sequence to start the season.

Even through the rest of the episode, I could feel that things were...different. Sure, it's not as grounded and brutal as Daredevil, and it still has that fantastical element, but things were a lot less light-hearted. I mean, we get a scene with Robbie Reyes torturing a guy by beating him with a pair of keys. There's also the separation, mistrust, and deception among our core band of agents as a result of the new director. The more somber tone seems like an interesting detour from what we've seen in previous seasons, and seems natural after the events of Season 3's finale.

Alright. Ghost Rider. How was he? The word that comes to mind is "incredible."  Most of that incredibleness is visual, from his first appearance at the beginning of the episode (the car flip!) to his transformation during his scuffle with Daisy (another awesome scene). Gabriel Luna’s performance also lent a lot to my enjoyment with the character. He makes Robbie feel like a normal joe, despite being possessed by a demon.

Stepping away from Ghost Rider for a bit, let’s talk about Aida, the life model decoy created by Radcliffe. As much as I found the scenes with her, Radcliffe and Fitz to be interesting, they didn’t mesh well with the Ghost Rider scenes. It felt odd to move from the clean, pristine lab of Dr. Radcliffe to the grittier garage of Robbie Reyes. The two plotlines don’t complement each other very well. At this stage, anyway. Hopefully down the road, the series can connect the two stories in some way. But yeah, liked the Aida stuff. Her speech about her being created to save others was quite foreboding. I’m betting Aida’s bad news.

Other Thoughts:

• I got a kick out of seeing Simmons as the now highest-ranking agent of the team. Her discussion with May about the new director was great, especially May’s “Yes ma’am.”
• Can’t wait to watch the spin-off Simmons: Agent of SADIST and Simmons: Agent of WIMP.
• I love the Coulson/Mack pairing. Love it.
• So…Mack and Yo-Yo are a thing now?
• Speaking of the Secret Warriors…where has Joey been?
• I was surprised we got to see what was in that box so soon. It looks like that ghost-thingy affected May somehow. Uh-oh.
• I liked how they didn’t immediately have Daisy return to SHIELD. It’s fun seeing her on her own solo quests. Well…with some help from Yo-Yo.
• So SHIELD has a pseudo-holodeck now, I guess.

Rating: 8.8/10 X-Ray hands

Next week, it looks like Daisy and Ghost Rider are set for a rematch, and we finally get to meet SHIELD’s new director.

Noah