Agents of SHIELD S04E07 Review: Sepia World

Agents of SHIELD, Season 4, Episode 7: Deals With Our Devils

It's a very smartly-scripted episode with the episode first showing a series of scenes from the points of view of May, Quake, Mack and Mace in the real world as they ponder what's going on to the disappeared heroes, while suddenly Mack runs off on a motorbike to chase down Eli. Meanwhile, we learn that Fitz, Coulson and Robbie are trapped in, well, a kind of a shadow-realm where they can see what's going on but they can't interact. This leads to a very interesting series of scenes as we see both scenes repeated from a different POV, which also includes Robbie quickly seeing the graphic deaths that the power-mad Eli subjects the two SHIELD agents to, Fitz and Coulson discovering that Senator Nadeer has Simmons, and the fact that Mack's sudden burst of strength is caused by the Ghost Rider jumping from Robbie into Mack. 

The whole concept of Robbie having to co-exist with this parasitic burning demon of vengeance that is pretty capricious with his own agenda is explored very well here, as we see later on when Robbie confronts his partner that Ghost Rider is an independent entity. A mostly-silent one, but he's not going back to hell (or whatever the darkness that keeps sucking Coulson, Fitz and Robbie are) and he finds that apparently Mack has sufficiently lost hope (huh? Is there some huge loss in Mack's life we don't know about?) to be the Ghost Rider's vessel, at least temporarily.

Robbie even has to make a deal with the Ghost Rider to become his host in a permanent basis, dealing with the Ghost Rider's debts of vengeance (well that's interesting) if the Ghost Rider will help Robbie with his. The Ghost Rider and Robbie disappears from the shadow dimension or whatever before popping back through Aida's portal, though we don't get much of an explanation for where they went. Mack also has a photograph with 'Hope' and a date scribbled behind it, so maybe there's more to Mack's backstory we haven't learned?

Meanwhile, while we don't get to see a lot of Eli beyond him creating carbon spikes that burst out of the SHIELD agents' chests, and creating a huge wall of graphite, the conflict between Robbie and the Ghost Rider, as well as the temptations for May to read the Darkhold, is very well told. I'm unconvinced that it should've taken the entire episode to tell it, but it's suitably well-paced. We get to see Ghost Fitz and Ghost Coulson as they follow the group as they meet with Radcliffe. There's a nice bit where Fitz breaks down in anger at the thought of him failing Simmons, which is pretty powerful.

Radcliffe opening the book and reading it and immediately shutting it and saying how it's a terrible idea is hilarious and well-done, and of course the obvious response is having Aida read the Darkhold (which hilariously appears in binary for her), allowing Aida the knowledge to construct a magical portal with SCIENCE! Yeah, the lines between sufficiently-advanced science and eldritch necromantic magic is blurred a lot here, and we get to see Fitz and Coulson break free from the ghostly dimension after nearly being sucked into the darkness. 

Of course, the stinger shows Aida using her fingers to create like a brain or something -- we all know that the glowing orange magical lines that Aida creates are invisible except to her, and it's pretty cool that Aida might be set up as the villain after we deal with Eli Morrow, this very strange amalgamation of ancient forbidden magic and modern state-of-the-art robot. It does feel a bit too obvious, though Agents of SHIELD has been known to do some really obvious plot twists before. 

There are some really good character beats in the episode -- in addition to the obvious Fitz one, there's May growing desperate to save Coulson, Mace being concerned about informing the families of the fallen himself... honestly the one big weak part of the episode is Simmons's B-arc, which, as much as the actress is entertaining, felt like a huge, weird distraction. I get that the show still wants to keep the Inhuman elements introduced last season around, while still building up to the Inhuman... movie? TV show spinoff? Whatever they're planning. But it feels weird that apparently Senator Nadeer wants Simmons to 'rescue' someone (who we don't even get to see) from a Terrigenesis cocoon, and apparently all she has to do is talk nicely to him, before she gets removed from premises? It felt odd and strange, and felt like a bit of a cop-out just to show that Mace is actually nice, and only to give Fitz some drama so he can be angry at Mace. 

Overall a pretty okay episode, nothing special, just a transition and some character building. Still, how cool is it to see Mack don a leather jacket, ride a motorbike and actually transform into the Ghost Rider?

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• I haven't actually watched Doctor Strange, but the magical ley-line thing that Aida was using to construct the magic-portal thing definitely resembles the visuals of magic as displayed in Doctor Strange.