Truths revealed, questions answered, and flashbacks aplenty in this week’s episode, where we finally learn a little about how Ghost Rider got his powers, and what role good ol’ Uncle Eli plays in everything.
1. Director Jeff is a Jerk
Behind all his smiles and teleprompters, Director Mace is still a SHIELD director. While Coulson’s team was initially wary of him, we as an audience were introduced to someone who mostly just put on a good public face, while making pointless changes to the SHIELD bureaucracy with color-coded rankings and lots of talk about trust.
Now we see him in a darker light, as he sends Simmons off on a top-secret mission. It’s so top secret, in fact, that she doesn’t even know what the mission is, and has to wear a bag over her head the entire trip. But hey, he still says she should trust her.
Not too surprising, considering the last episode made it blatantly clear she was hiding something from him.
He’s also none to happy with Coulson keeping Daisy and Ghost Rider secret and hidden, but this results in some less than strategic decisions, choosing to place their capture over stopping Lucy’s experiment from conceivably killing thousands of people.
But hey, a man’s gotta have his priorities.
2. Brotherly Bonds
Robbie and Gabe get a bit of time to talk this episode, as they’re stuck in a containment capsule with Daisy for a good portion of it. We get a little insight into their characters through this, including the fact that Gabe, smart as he is, has mostly figured out Robbie’s secret.
I say “mostly” because he manages to piece together that he’s working with SHIELD, but not the whole “flaming head of death killing criminals” thing.
But we learn that Robbie’s main motivation is the guilt he feels about getting Gabe hurt in the first place. At the same time, Gabe is okay with his situation, and doesn’t hold it against Robbie; what he does take issue with is being used as an excuse or justification for Ghost Rider’s actions.
I wasn’t sure what to think when we got an intelligent, older Gabe compared to the comic version, but this is definitely a scene we couldn’t have gotten without him, and props to both the actors for the moments.
3. Get the Ghost
In addition to the flashbacks showing how Gabe got confined to a wheelchair, we learn how Robbie became the Ghost Rider. Anyone expecting Mephisto was in for a surprise when the motorcycle rolled up and classic Ghost Rider strolled out, complete with leather jacket and flaming skull.
So perhaps Robbie still made his literal deal with the devil, or maybe Johnny Blaze decided to pass on the torch. Either way, it still raises some questions about Ghost Rider’s place in the Marvel cinematic universe: will we see Johnny Blaze again, will Norman Reedus get to play him, and will we ever see a Marvel-made Ghost Rider movie?
The answers are, in my estimate: briefly, probably not, and no (but the flaming piss scene from the last movie killed those chances anyways).
4. Marvel’s Agents of Carter
While it seems unlikely that we’ll ever get another issue of Marvel’s Agent Carter, we can still see some of the plot points from last season show up again in Agents of SHIELD. In this case, the zero matter and darkforce from the last season are returning, in connection to Momentum Labs and everyone’s favorite Marvel megacorp, Roxxon.
It is nice to see that Peggy Carter’s adventures haven’t been forgotten, although it does make me long for another season. Maybe a flashback or two in Agents of SHIELD?
But since darkforce is coming up again, it’s a reminder that “Cloak and Dagger” will be making their way to a live action adaptation soon; darkforce may be the common element that links the shows together.
5. Evil Eli
When we first saw Eli Morrow, it wasn’t clear where the show was going with him; did they just take the whole Uncle Eli bit to add more of Ghost Rider’s cast, or would he still be a villain? He certainly wasn’t the ghost possessing Robbie, but they wouldn’t bring in a character who was that nasty in the comics without a good reason.
Continued belowAnd now we have it, as the flashbacks have revealed. Eli was the cause of all their misfortune, from Robbie becoming Ghost Rider, Gabe getting shot, and all the ghosts that are haunting the series now. He didn’t even need to touch the Darkhold, he just wanted the power it offered for himself, no dark magic corruption required.
It made for a decent twist; not entirely unexpected, but properly set up and executed. The fact that Robbie and Gabe trusted him will make for some nice emotional drama when they clash, and the flashbacks did well at showing his descent into darkness while the audience was looking for everyone else’s.
From this point on, though, the story and stakes are more tied to Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider than they are SHIELD; the agents are just along for the ride and cleanup now.
