Agents of SHIELD, Season 4, Episode 6: The Good Samaritan
Hell yeah, backstory! Johnny Blaze! Dramatic reveal! Mace and Coulson come head-to-head! Eli Morrow is secretly evil! Sudden huge magi-science explosion! It's a very big episode, and one of the biggest parts of it is definitely the confrontation between Jeffrey Mace and Phil Coulson's group, as well as Robbie being forced to tell his origin story to Quake and his brother Gabe.
After the hilarious scene where Gabe thinks that his brother is a cool secret agent, it's pretty clear when Mace arrives and the three of them being hidden in a containment module that's left hanging from under the Zephyr that something's going on. This leads into an origin story for Robbie that's also a big confession to his brother about what he's doing, and just like Quake I keep saying 'go on, go on', because it's fascinating. During the fateful day, Robbie, irresponsible dude who races cars, brings his academically-minded brother Gabe to go on car races to make money, 'borrowing' their uncle's car without permission. This caused them to be shot by a bunch of gangsters (which Ghost Rider killed later).
What Gabe remembered was someone pulling him out of the wreckage, while Robbie was thrown away, and when this mysterious 'good Samaritan' shows up to check on Robbie, it seemed to him Robbie was fine. Robbie tells a different version of the story, though. As their car was flipped up, he knew he fucked up and caused his brother's death, and he begged to the powers that be for a chance. And he died. For a moment, because he saw the true form of this good Samaritan that Gabe remembered coming on a motorcycle, and to Robbie? It's the Devil.
While the rest of the audience cheers because it's not so much the Devil as the original Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze. YAY!
Regardless of the cameo from a major Marvel comics character, it tells us a lot about Robbie, really, and just how much he loathes having this little pesky Spirit of Vengeance bound to his soul. Gabe isn't quite sure what to think of his brother being the legendary Ghost Rider that's been going around murdering gangsters in the street.
Of course, in the Zephyr, Coulson tries to play off Mace's very specific accusations about Quake and Ghost Rider being on board off, but Mace very quickly realizes the containment module is missing... though thankfully not before giving Robbie a chance to tell his origin story. Despite Fitz and Coulson's protests that a world-ending crisis is happening, you really can't fault Mace for at least wanting the rogue element Ghost Rider be locked up, while they handle the mission themselves. I'm liking Mace more and more -- deal with Nadeer notwithstanding, he really feels very reasonable. He even tells Coulson that if it's just Quake, for the history Coulson shares with her due to her former role as a SHIELD agent, Mace would've actually not minded that much.
Of course, Ghost Rider isn't going to be locked up anywhere, and we get the very awesome scene of him pounding and pounding and breaking down the door to the containment module. Notably, as Fitz pointed out, no one has been able to do it before. Not Quake, not Lash, not Slingshot, and even Giyera had to break it by manipulating things in the outside. But Ghost Rider punches and punches and goes demonic, breaking out of the door as everyone -- even Mace and Gabe -- stares in horror. It's a very effective scene, as Fitz, Mace and Coulson argue about the source of the Rider's powers, leading to this hilarious gem from Coulson: "Flaming skull's a pretty good indicator of Hail Satan."
And the Ghost Rider just easily takes on Jeffrey Mace and his Inhuman super-strength, beating down the SHIELD director, as well as tossing Coulson away, and not listening to anyone but Gabe. It's a pretty intense sequence, but with the crisis finally being told to Mace, he decides to lend his support... but only for this mission until the Darkhold problem is dealt with, because whatever the case, Ghost Rider did kill a bunch of people and he needs to stand for his crimes.
This ends with Ghost Rider confronting and executing Lucy Bauer, but not before the reveal that Eli Morrow, all throughout this episode seemingly just forced to work for Lucy, revealing that he's the one that's actually evil, having read the Darkhold and now has set up the experiment to give himself the power to create matter out of nothing. Also the huge explosion seemed to consume Coulson, Fitz and Robbie but obviously they're alive. The question is, where have they been sent to?
Eli being evil is a very interesting wrinkle, which actually makes sense. All we know of him is that he's Robbie's uncle and he keeps insisting that he's innocent. But it turns out that while Lucy and Joseph Bauer were corrupted by the Darkhold and obsessed with the new knowledge that the Darkhold gave them, and they ordered a hit on Eli (which ended up hitting Robbie and Gabe by mistake), Eli actually killed everyone in Momentum and was the one that caused the first explosion that turned everyone there into ghosts.
Oh, and early in the episode Mace ships Simmons somewhere, putting a bag over her head (though she seems okay -- if snarky -- about it), presumably for the favour he promised Senator Nadeer. That's honestly the only big indication that Jeffrey Mace might be... well, not evil, but not completely good. But honestly I'm actually on his argument for most part, and it's not that Mace is fucking over Coulson's operations by being an obstructive bureaucrat, but simply because Coulson kept Mace in the dark, causing a lot of problems for the director of SHIELD. But hey, next episode promises to be exciting, with a far more cooler villain in Eli compared to the lackluster ghosts.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
After the hilarious scene where Gabe thinks that his brother is a cool secret agent, it's pretty clear when Mace arrives and the three of them being hidden in a containment module that's left hanging from under the Zephyr that something's going on. This leads into an origin story for Robbie that's also a big confession to his brother about what he's doing, and just like Quake I keep saying 'go on, go on', because it's fascinating. During the fateful day, Robbie, irresponsible dude who races cars, brings his academically-minded brother Gabe to go on car races to make money, 'borrowing' their uncle's car without permission. This caused them to be shot by a bunch of gangsters (which Ghost Rider killed later).
What Gabe remembered was someone pulling him out of the wreckage, while Robbie was thrown away, and when this mysterious 'good Samaritan' shows up to check on Robbie, it seemed to him Robbie was fine. Robbie tells a different version of the story, though. As their car was flipped up, he knew he fucked up and caused his brother's death, and he begged to the powers that be for a chance. And he died. For a moment, because he saw the true form of this good Samaritan that Gabe remembered coming on a motorcycle, and to Robbie? It's the Devil.
While the rest of the audience cheers because it's not so much the Devil as the original Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze. YAY!
Regardless of the cameo from a major Marvel comics character, it tells us a lot about Robbie, really, and just how much he loathes having this little pesky Spirit of Vengeance bound to his soul. Gabe isn't quite sure what to think of his brother being the legendary Ghost Rider that's been going around murdering gangsters in the street.
Of course, in the Zephyr, Coulson tries to play off Mace's very specific accusations about Quake and Ghost Rider being on board off, but Mace very quickly realizes the containment module is missing... though thankfully not before giving Robbie a chance to tell his origin story. Despite Fitz and Coulson's protests that a world-ending crisis is happening, you really can't fault Mace for at least wanting the rogue element Ghost Rider be locked up, while they handle the mission themselves. I'm liking Mace more and more -- deal with Nadeer notwithstanding, he really feels very reasonable. He even tells Coulson that if it's just Quake, for the history Coulson shares with her due to her former role as a SHIELD agent, Mace would've actually not minded that much.
Of course, Ghost Rider isn't going to be locked up anywhere, and we get the very awesome scene of him pounding and pounding and breaking down the door to the containment module. Notably, as Fitz pointed out, no one has been able to do it before. Not Quake, not Lash, not Slingshot, and even Giyera had to break it by manipulating things in the outside. But Ghost Rider punches and punches and goes demonic, breaking out of the door as everyone -- even Mace and Gabe -- stares in horror. It's a very effective scene, as Fitz, Mace and Coulson argue about the source of the Rider's powers, leading to this hilarious gem from Coulson: "Flaming skull's a pretty good indicator of Hail Satan."
And the Ghost Rider just easily takes on Jeffrey Mace and his Inhuman super-strength, beating down the SHIELD director, as well as tossing Coulson away, and not listening to anyone but Gabe. It's a pretty intense sequence, but with the crisis finally being told to Mace, he decides to lend his support... but only for this mission until the Darkhold problem is dealt with, because whatever the case, Ghost Rider did kill a bunch of people and he needs to stand for his crimes.
This ends with Ghost Rider confronting and executing Lucy Bauer, but not before the reveal that Eli Morrow, all throughout this episode seemingly just forced to work for Lucy, revealing that he's the one that's actually evil, having read the Darkhold and now has set up the experiment to give himself the power to create matter out of nothing. Also the huge explosion seemed to consume Coulson, Fitz and Robbie but obviously they're alive. The question is, where have they been sent to?
Eli being evil is a very interesting wrinkle, which actually makes sense. All we know of him is that he's Robbie's uncle and he keeps insisting that he's innocent. But it turns out that while Lucy and Joseph Bauer were corrupted by the Darkhold and obsessed with the new knowledge that the Darkhold gave them, and they ordered a hit on Eli (which ended up hitting Robbie and Gabe by mistake), Eli actually killed everyone in Momentum and was the one that caused the first explosion that turned everyone there into ghosts.
Oh, and early in the episode Mace ships Simmons somewhere, putting a bag over her head (though she seems okay -- if snarky -- about it), presumably for the favour he promised Senator Nadeer. That's honestly the only big indication that Jeffrey Mace might be... well, not evil, but not completely good. But honestly I'm actually on his argument for most part, and it's not that Mace is fucking over Coulson's operations by being an obstructive bureaucrat, but simply because Coulson kept Mace in the dark, causing a lot of problems for the director of SHIELD. But hey, next episode promises to be exciting, with a far more cooler villain in Eli compared to the lackluster ghosts.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- No idea how much this plays into actual Marvel comic lore because I know jack shit about Robbie Reyes beyond what's shown here, but I do know that the Ghost Rider that showed up on a motorcycle, with a more traditional flaming skull, and passed the Spirit of Vengeance into Robbie, is Johnny Blaze, the first and most iconic Ghost Rider.
- Isodyne is the company that Whitney Frost's husband owned, and references to the Zero Matter and Darkforce research that was the huge plot in Agent Carter's second season was mentioned.
- Roxxon Corporation is a company that has had many, many roles within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, first introduced in the Iron Man movies.
No comments:
Post a Comment