In the fourth season premiere of “Agents of SHIELD,” Coulson and Mack go off the books to find Daisy, who has been tracking a mysterious vigilante known as Ghost Rider, while Fitz discovers what Dr. Radcliffe has been up to the last few months.
“Agents of SHIELD’s” move to 10 PM certainly affected the content of the once light hearted series. This week, the first episode back, mind you, we got a number of gruesome deaths, an overall darker tone and the introduction of one of Marvel’s darkest characters, Ghost Rider.
Though, we don’t get a lot of Gabriel Luna as Robbie Reyes, what little we do see of him, is quite promising. The effects of the flaming skull are super convincing and different from past iterations, and by episode’s end, we see a softer side of him with his wheelchair-bound brother, which is already seeding a grand story for the season.
Speaking of, we officially met AIDA, Radcliffe’s robot pet project introduced in the stinger of season 3. Not much besides that went down though, aside from Fitz having to keep her existence a secret from Simmons. It’s tough to say how AIDA will tie into the Ghost Rider plot, and also, after seeing “Ex Machina” a lot of this subplot looks a little to familiar. Even Ultron gets name-checked when Fitz points out what a terrible idea this is, which honestly makes one wonder, didn’t the Sokovia incident teach anyone anything?
The other main development is the freaky ghost girl in the box that drove a gang insane and, as seen in the stinger, has possibly possessed May. Again, too soon to say where this will go, but the whole deal of the audience being aware of this ahead of the characters brings back memories of HYDRA Ward in season 1, so kudos for nostalgia points.
“The Ghost” was an interesting slow burn, no pun intended, of a premiere. Not everything is wrapped up by episode’s end- Daisy is still on the run and the new director of SHIELD has yet to appear- but that creates a fun teaser for the season. Ghost Rider is easily going to shake up the show, and it’ll be fun to see just what direction the writers will take him and our characters.
“Agents of SHIELD” airs Tuesdays at 10 PM on ABC.