Ghost Rider, LMDs, and a virtual world come into the equation in this show's greatest season yet.
(WARNING: SPOILERS)
The time has come once again for another ‘Season Review’ of Marvel Studios’ first TV series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. And for those who are new to this site, this review will be done in a similar manner to my reviews of Season 2 of Agent Carter and Season 3 of this show in that it’ll be in the form of a bulleted list instead of a ‘full’ review. The reason why I’m doing this is simple; at four seasons in, I’m well-aware that I’m just repeating myself at this point when it comes to describing certain elements of the show. Thankfully, because this season was separated into three primary story-arcs, that will help keep the review organized.
Synopsis: While Season 3 of AoS ended with S.H.I.E.L.D. director Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his team; Agents Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet), Leo Fitz (Iain de Caestecker), Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), and Alphonso ‘Mack’ Mackenzie (Henry Simmons), managing to thwart the plans of the ancient Inhuman monster known as Hive, it came at a great personal cost. Their friend and ally, Inhuman Lincoln Campbell, sacrificed himself in the process, fulfilling a vision that Daisy, Lincoln’s love interest, had of a S.H.I.E.L.D agent’s impending death. Thus, as Season 4 begins, it’s shown that Daisy has left S.H.I.E.L.D. and has been operating as the vigilante ‘Quake’. Meanwhile, Coulson has been relieved of his duties as director of S.H.I.E.L.D. by Jeffrey Mace (Jason O’Mara), who works to revitalize the organization following everything that’s happened to it over the past few years (e.g. the ‘HYDRA’ incident). While this is going on, Coulson and his team continue to deal with superhuman beings, who find themselves under higher scrutiny from the government and, therefore, the world following the signing of the Sokovia Accords in Captain America: Civil War. This results in them coming across some fascinating figures, including a man named Robbie Reyes AKA ‘Ghost Rider’ (Gabriel Luna), who is possessed with the powers of a demon, and an increasingly sentient A.I. named Aida (Mallory Jensen), who begins to pose a serious threat to the team once she begins to grapple with dangerous mystical technology.
*Season 4 saw the show move to a new timeslot, 10:00 PM EST. Doing so allowed the series to go down some darker places than it could do back when it aired at 8:00 PM in Season 1 and 9:00 PM for the next 2 seasons. Granted, it doesn’t go to the same lengths that the Netflix shows have gone to in terms of dark and edgy storylines or R-rated action sequences (e.g. nothing on the level of the ‘prison brawl’ from Season 2 of Daredevil) but it was still a much darker season compared to what we got before. This season was also split into three separate story-arcs AKA ‘pods’. Thus, this review will be organized in the order of those story ‘pods’.
*The first third of the season, as noted in the intro, introduced Marvel’s classic anti-hero, Ghost Rider. Specifically, it introduced the Robbie Reyes iteration of the character instead of the arguably more well-known Johnny Blaze. However, Blaze does make a cameo during this season in a flashback, where he’s revealed to be the one who gave Reyes his powers. It seems to me like when it was first announced that Ghost Rider would appear on the show, there was some blowback from fans, namely because they were hoping that he would get his own series on Netflix instead so that the character would be done justice after the infamous Ghost Rider films from 2007 and 2012 that starred Nicolas Cage in the titular role. But, like I noted earlier, the fact that this show moved to a later timeslot gave it enough clout to work with a character like this. And to the show’s credit, they do handle him perfectly; Gabriel Luna is fantastic in the role and the show does a great job of establishing Reyes’ sympathetic qualities, specifically his efforts to provide for his younger brother Gabe (Lorenzo James Henrie), who was paralyzed from the waist down in the incident that led to Robbie becoming Ghost Rider.
*In the finale of Season 3, it was implied that Coulson was no longer the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 2 of this season, ‘Meet the New Boss’, introduces us to his replacement, Jeffrey Mace. And right out the gate, Jason O’Mara does a great job of making us unsure, initially, whether to trust Mace. There was this great mysterious vibe to him undercut with a charismatic personality. And then, during that same episode, he reveals a big game-changer; that he’s an Inhuman with superhuman strength. However, just a few episodes later, we find out that this isn’t the case; instead, his powers came from a super-serum a la Captain America. It’s quite fascinating to see this character go through that arc. Initially, he’s portrayed as a heroic figure (he’s shown to have ‘saved’ people from the Vienna bombing in Civil War) in the eyes of the public but is then revealed to not be that ‘hero’ and is shown to be constantly grappling with that dark truth. This characterization lasts through the entire season, culminating in Mace truly doing something heroic (more on that later…).
*Meanwhile, Daisy continued to have one of the best character arcs on the entire show. As noted in the intro, she left S.H.I.E.L.D. after the events of the Season 3 finale, clearly traumatized by everything that she just went through; Lincoln’s death, her brief time under Hive’s control, etc. All this affects her so much that during a fight with Ghost Rider, she begs for him to kill her like he does to everyone else who ‘deserves it’. Obviously, he doesn’t but it goes to show how she feels responsible for a lot of the bad things that tend to happen to her friends and why she believes that the best option to prevent that is to push them out of her life. Thankfully, by the time that the second story arc of the season rolls around, she gets reinstated into S.H.I.E.L.D. And by season’s end, she’s the one who rallies the team up when the situation gets grim. A few months ago, I listed Daisy as one of my favorite main protagonists from the superhero film/TV genre and I still stand by that, especially after this season. Just like the show itself, she’s come a long way since we first knew her as ‘Skye’ in Season 1.
*During this stretch of the season, we were also introduced to an antagonistic character in Senator Ellen Nadeer (Parminder Nagra), who is one of the primary critics of the Inhumans and is seen constantly debating those who support them (e.g. Mace and S.H.I.E.L.D.). Things get a bit more interesting, however, when we learn that her brother Vijay is an Inhuman. But Nadeer ultimately kills her brother in Ep. 9, ‘Broken Promises’, which, despite the title of the episode, fulfills a promise that the two made when they were kids that one would kill the other if they became ‘infected’, as we learn that they both have a contempt for ‘aliens’ after their mother died in an alien attack. As for Nadeer herself, well, let’s just say that her vitriolic comments towards the Inhumans will remind you of a certain political figure who I won’t name here but, suffice it to say, I think you know who I’m talking about. Heck, this entire season is full of references to you-know-who, particularly during the final third of the season.
*The initial stretch of Season 1 saw Coulson and co. deal with a group of scientists who became ghostly figures following an explosion at the facility where they worked. This soon leads to them coming across an ancient book of dark magic known as the ‘Darkhold’, which the scientists had been experimenting with at the time of the explosion. Not only did this connect to the then newly released Doctor Strange (which, of course, focused on the mystical side of the MCU), but it also gave us a rather scary group of enemies capable of infecting people by making them see ghastly images. Even May is affected by this early in the season but, thankfully, she is cured not too long afterwards. How? By temporarily killing her, that’s how! Ultimately, though, the real mastermind behind the whole situation is Robbie and Gabe’s uncle, Eli Morrow, which ties perfectly into the character’s typically villainous portrayal in the comics. This gets even more personal when it’s revealed that Morrow’s actions were the catalyst that led to the incident that paralyzed Gabe and turned Robbie into Ghost Rider. But this part of this story ends in a satisfying manner with Robbie killing his uncle before being sent into another dimension, where he stayed until the season finale.
*The second story arc of the season, LMD, focused around the Marvel concept known as ‘Life Model Decoys’, androids who are used to double major figures in the Marvel universe. In fact, former S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury has had plenty of LMDs used in the comics. Here, though, it’s introduced via Dr. Holden Radcliffe’s (John Hannah) A.I. system, Aida, portrayed in physical form by Mallory Jensen. Like Luna as Ghost Rider, Jensen does a fantastic job in the role. After all, the defining trait of the LMDs is that they can effectively pose as a human so that no one would immediately recognize that they’re, in fact, a robot. And Jensen handles this aspect of the character perfectly, who slowly becomes more sinister after reading through the Darkhold. At first just the assistant to Radcliffe, Aida eventually takes over as she begins to fulfill her own goals; namely, to become a real human. In fact, Jensen even played a few other roles during this season as well, including Agnes Kitsworth, an old flame of Radcliffe’s who served as the physical reference for Aida, and another character who’ll I bring up later.
*One of the primary plot-threads of the LMD arc began at the end of the Ghost Rider arc, where it’s revealed that Aida and Radcliffe had captured May and replaced her with an LMD to steal the Darkhold from S.H.I.E.L.D. And, as noted earlier, this made things complicated due to Coulson and the team (especially Coulson given the two’s close relationship) being fooled into thinking LMD May was the real May. Meanwhile, the real May was being put through several tests within a virtual world that would only become bigger later in the season. And while the team eventually realizes this ruse, LMD May is shown to have developed some ‘human’ emotions of her own despite just being a robot.
*I also want to highlight the spin-off series that premiered during the show’s midseason break. Sadly, we didn’t have Agent Carter to hold us over during the break this year as that show was, unfortunately, canceled after Season 2. However, we did get a cool spin-off this season featuring the character Elena ‘Yo-Yo’ Rodriguez (Natalia Cordova-Buckley); Slingshot. This 6-episode miniseries, released online on December 13th, 2016, focused on Yo-Yo as she goes off on a personal mission that occurred during the transition between Seasons 3 and 4. While each episode was only a few minutes each, it did provide us an entertaining little side-story within the world of the show, which also allowed for some entertaining cameos from the main cast. The true star of the show, though, was Cordova-Buckley; of course, she first joined the main show during Season 3 and her role has expanded since then to become one of the series’ biggest standouts. Hopefully, she gets promoted to the main cast next season.
*Finally, there was the third story arc of the season; Agents of HYDRA. At the end of the LMD arc, it’s revealed that Aida had replaced multiple members of the team, including Coulson, Fitz, and Mack, with LMDs. Daisy and Simmons manage to escape before they get captured as well and hack into the digital world that Aida had placed their friends in, the Framework. Thus, we got a cool take on Marvel’s famous ‘What If?’ series; storylines that re-imagine classic plotlines from the Marvel Universe with radically different results. Examples of this include Aunt May being killed instead of Uncle Ben, resulting in a darker origin for Spider-Man, and Wolverine serving as ‘the Punisher’ in 1920’s Chicago.
*In this alternate universe, HYDRA is shown to have taken over as the dominant force in the world, hunting down Inhumans left and right. Daisy, without her Inhuman powers, is still known as ‘Skye’ and works for HYDRA along with, drumroll please, Grant Ward! Yes, Brett Dalton came back for another memorable run as the infamous double agent. And, sure enough, he’s a double agent in the Framework as well. Only in this instance, he’s a good guy working for S.H.I.E.L.D., which is shown as an underground organization led by Jeffrey Mace, who legitimately is an Inhuman in this world. This allows for a surprisingly poignant mini-arc for Framework Ward, who eventually comes to learn about what his real-world self has done to Coulson and co. the past few years. Apologizing to Daisy and Simmons for ‘whatever he did to them in real-life’, this Ward, despite just being a digital creation, somehow manages to give the infamous villain a rather touching redemption. Speaking of awesome cast member returns, B.J. Britt also made a memorable appearance as the Framework version of Agent Antoine Triplett, who of course tragically died back in Season 2. And in his brief appearance, I’m sure that I’m not the only one who remembered how much I missed Trip’s smooth charisma.
*Meanwhile, May is one of the top agents at HYDRA. It’s revealed that, in this universe, the incident that led to her being known as ‘The Calvary’ (when she was forced to kill an enhanced young girl) went differently within the Framework, which subsequently led to HYDRA taking over. Gradually, though, she begins to question her position within the organization and allies with the S.H.I.E.L.D team to help the main crew escape from the Framework. As for Fitz, he is HYDRA’s diabolical head scientist. Instead of being in love with Simmons, who is ‘deceased’ in this universe (allowing Elizabeth Henstridge a cool Kill Bill Vol 2-style rise from the grave moment when the real Simmons awakens in the Framework), he’s in a relationship with the organization’s leader, Madame Hydra AKA Aida’s Framework avatar, Ophelia. And to be perfectly blunt, Framework Fitz was scary AF. He wasn’t the lovable geek that we’ve become so connected to in the real world; instead, he’s a ruthless scientist who does not hesitate whenever he’s forced to kill someone. And once out of the Framework, even though he wasn’t responsible for his actions within it, Fitz is shown to be severely haunted by what he went through to the point where he wonders if he can still have a romantic relationship with Simmons. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that Framework Fitz tried to kill Simmons after she was forced to kill Fitz’s controlling father, who was a troubling aspect of Fitz’s past in the real world?
*As for Coulson and Mack, both were portrayed as being initially uninvolved with the whole S.H.I.E.L.D.-HYDRA conflict. Coulson is portrayed as an ordinary schoolteacher who teaches his students about HYDRA’s history, referring to any claims to the contrary as ‘alternative facts’ (sound familiar?). However, when Simmons and Daisy try to make him remember them, he does start to change once he does remember who Daisy is. And despite not having a history with S.H.I.E.L.D like his real-life counterpart, Framework Coulson gradually becomes a major force within the organization. As for Mack, back during the LMD arc, he revealed to Yo-Yo, who he had become romantically involved with back in Season 3, that he once had a daughter named Hope, who tragically died when she was just a baby. But in the Framework, Hope is alive and well, which complicates matters when Framework Mack, despite learning that the Framework isn’t real, decides to stay within it to be with his daughter. It isn’t until the system’s final moments when he’s forced to accept the fact that his daughter is dead, easily one of the most heartbreaking moments of the entire series.
*So, what’s next for Season 5? Well, by season’s end, the team found themselves in trouble when Aida’s plan to take over the world puts them, and therefore S.H.I.E.L.D., in trouble with the government, especially after an LMD of Daisy wounded their on-and-off ally, Glenn Talbot. After deciding to stick together no matter what happens to them from here on out, the team heads to a diner to await their impending capture. However, they are instead captured by a mysterious group, who use a special weapon to freeze them in place. The final scene of the season sees Coulson waking up on what seems to be a space station. Where is he? Are the other members of the team there? Who is this mysterious group that captured the team? From what I’ve read online, it looks like they may be introducing the organization known as S.W.O.R.D., which deals with extra-terrestrial affairs. At this point, though, nothing has been confirmed so we’ll just have to wait until next season to find out.
This may arguably have been the best season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D to date. It really is impressive to see how far this show has come since its early days and that rocky start that it had back in Season 1 before being saved by the big HYDRA twist from Captain America: The Winter Soldier during the final third of the season. Each of this season’s primary arcs was fantastic in its own unique ways. Ghost Rider gave us our first great live-action take on the iconic anti-hero for whom the arc was named after. LMD delivered a suspenseful arc in which the team found themselves dealing with a dangerous threat capable of tricking them with their robot duplicates. And finally, Agents of HYDRA was arguably the best of the bunch; not only did it tie back to the previous seasons in fantastic and fan-appealing ways but it also provided some great and powerful emotional moments as well. Thus, I’m glad to hear that the show will be back for a fifth season, as Marvel Studios begins to prepare its next big network show, Inhumans. It’ll be interesting to see how these two shows will co-exist and I look forward to Inhumans because of how well the race was set up in this show. In fact, it was recently confirmed that the 8-episode first season of Inhumans will debut first this fall, starting with a special IMAX release of the first two episodes in September (Hopefully, I’ll be able to see those first two episodes in IMAX). Once the Inhumans season is over, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D will return in the beginning of 2018 for a supposedly uninterrupted 22-episode run. And by that, I mean that, apparently, there won’t be any midseason breaks as the show has done in the past, primarily in December-January.
Now, with that said, I have heard rumors that Season 5 may potentially be the final season of the show. It may be because of the show’s gradually increasing disconnect to the MCU films, something that’s been happening since the film division disbanded the controversial creative committee that was responsible for some of their more ‘questionable’ decisions (and yet are still generally in charge of the TV division) back in 2015. You could even factor in its impending schedule change as another sign of this, as it (and Inhumans) are being set to air on Fridays, a date dubbed by experts as one of the worst possible time slots for a show. Either way, if this next season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is ultimately its last, then I’ll admit that I won’t be too upset if this happens, as I’m just happy that this show has managed to stay on for as long as it has. Again, it started off on a rough note but has since blossomed into something incredible; I’d argue it’s up there with shows like The Flash and Marvel’s Netflix shows as one of the best superhero TV shows out there and I can’t wait to see what they do next season. I’m aware that a lot of people more than likely tuned out during Season 1 and I do understand if they did. But, if you ask me, this was a mistake. Believe me when I say that this show is truly excellent now. If you’ve been a fan of the series since the beginning, even during the rough start, then you’ve continuously been rewarded with fantastic storylines, lovable main characters, and some great bits of emotional depth amidst some great action sequences. If you’re not, then I implore you to give the show another chance. If you manage to stick with it through its slow start, I promise that it’ll be worth it in the end. And besides, haven’t there been plenty of classic shows that had rather rocky starts, like Star Trek: The Next Generation or, to tie things back to AoS co-creator Joss Whedon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer? The same general principle applies!
Season 4 Rating: 5/5!
And now, as always, it’s time for me to list my favorite episodes from the season. This time around, though, I managed to do a full Top 10 list instead of just a Top 5 because, as I alluded to in the review, this season was so damn good that there were plenty of stand-out episodes from each of the three story-arcs. First off, though, here are my four Honorable Mentions…
DEALS WITH OUR DEVILS (EPISODE 7/Ghost Rider)
At the end of Episode 6 (more on that in a bit), Coulson, Fitz, and Robbie ended up affected by one of Eli Morrow’s experiments, forcing them into an alternate dimension where they were unable to be seen by their peers despite them still being in the same room as them. This is done through a subtle but effective visual effect in which scenes have a brownish hue to them whenever it comes from the perspective of Coulson, Fitz, and Robbie. Ultimately, though, there are two primary highlights in this episode. The first is the result of the Ghost Rider spirit leaving Robbie and taking over someone else, as the three are slowly being dragged into what is pretty much ‘hell’ and the spirit isn’t ready to return there just yet. That someone happens to be our favorite shotgun axe-wielding mechanic Mack, who uses these powers to hunt down members of the anti-Inhuman terrorist group, the Watchdogs, before the spirit returns to Robbie, who agrees to remain the spirit’s host in exchange for helping him take down his uncle. The other highlight of this episode was its incredibly tense finale, in which Coulson, Fitz, and Robbie try to return to the ‘real’ world. With no other options, May decides to use the Darkhold to get them back despite the dangers that come from reading it. Aida volunteers to read it, claiming that it won’t affect her because she’s only an Android; this is also the first time that May (and Coulson, for that matter) learn that she is a robot. Her experiment proves to be a success and the three return from the other dimension via a dimensional portal. However, unbeknownst to them all, this would ultimately be the beginning of Aida’s sinister intent.
THE PATRIOT (EPISODE 10/LMD)
As usual, some of the best episodes of the season came courtesy of co-creator Maurissa Tancharoen’s brother, director Kevin Tancharoen. And while this K-Tanch directed episode, ‘The Patriot’, didn’t end up cracking the Top 10 (Fear not, though, because his other episodes will!), it’s still a solid episode. As the title suggests, it focuses on Director Jeffrey Mace AKA ‘The Patriot’, as it is this episode where we learn the big secret about him; that he’s not the Inhuman hero that we initially thought he was. Instead, he’s just an ordinary man who gains his superhuman strength through a special serum that is provided by the government. And in this episode, that becomes a problem when Mace, Coulson, and Mack end up being stranded from the group when their quinjet is shot out of the air, resulting in Mace being separated from his source of the serum. To make matters worse, the trio is being hunted by a group of assassins working for the Watchdogs that they were trying to get away from earlier following an assassination attempt on Mace at a press conference. The reveal of Mace’s secret is well-handled, completely redefining our view of someone who has been portrayed as a heroic figure ever since we first met him back in this season’s second episode. Instead, he’s just a man who’s been living a lie for quite some time and is clearly guilt-ridden by it. However, he does get to do something ‘heroic’ in this episode when he manages to take on the Watchdogs’ assassins even without his serum, allowing the trio to hold them off until they are rescued. And at the end of the episode, Coulson and Mace decide that it’ll be better if Coulson handles all S.H.I.E.L.D. operations, just like he used to do when he was the director, while Mace continues to serve as the organization’s primary public figure.
HOT POTATO SOUP (EPISODE 12/LMD)
The legendary Patton Oswalt made a memorable cameo back in Season 1 as the Koenig brothers, a group of identical-looking S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. This season saw Oswalt return in a memorable episode with an equally catchy title (‘Hot Potato Soup’), in which the brothers found themselves hunted by Aida’s forces once it’s revealed that one of them, Billy, was selected by Coulson to protect the Darkhold. Billy ends up getting captured and interrogated by Anton Ivanov (Zach McGowan) AKA ‘The Superior’, an old-school Russian industrialist who notably has a vendetta against Coulson as he feels that he’s responsible for everything alien-related that’s happened on Earth over the past few years. During this time, we also meet some other members of the Koenig family, including Thurston, who isn’t a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent like his brothers, and a sister named L.T. (Artemis Pebdani), who may just be the most badass of all the siblings. But, through it all, the episode allows for some great dialogue courtesy of the hilarious comedian, including an intro that primarily consists of rapid-fire geek related quotes (especially in relation to Star Wars; remember his epic Star Wars filibuster on Parks and Recreation?). This was also a solidly tense episode, culminating in a great finale in which the team races to find the Darkhold, which is stored within a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility known as ‘The Labyrinth’, before Aida does. And while Aida, unfortunately, finds it first, this episode is where the team finally realizes that the May that they’ve been working with as of late is really an LMD, leading to Coulson embarking on a mission to find the real Agent May.
ALL THE MADAME’S MEN (EPISODE 19/Agents of HYDRA)
Episode 19 opens with a bang as Framework May subjects Daisy to the Terrigen Mist, allowing the latter to reclaim her Inhuman powers. And she uses them to great effect right out the gate, culminating in her launching Madame Hydra out the window and causing her to fall many stories to the ground below. Basically, it’s the opposite of the scene from Winter Soldier where Captain America jumps out an elevator after fighting a whole bunch of HYDRA goons. This results in Madame Hydra being forced out of commission because of her broken back, although she encourages Fitz to continue in her place as the new ‘leader’ of HYDRA. While this is going on, May and Daisy team up to escape from HYDRA’s forces, as they are now being hunted as ‘terrorists’. Also, Simmons, with the aid of Framework Tripp, looks to find a way to get the team out of the Framework. In the process, though, she realizes Aida’s plan; a secret project that Fitz is working on at HYDRA named ‘Looking Glass’. If completed, it would allow her to build a human body for herself in the real world. But amidst these dark developments, the ending contains moments that are both poignant and badass. One involves Ward in what was ultimately Brett Dalton’s last appearance this season. When he offers to stay behind and deal with any HYDRA forces that will try to attack, Daisy admits that she didn’t really know Grant Ward until she met the Framework version of him and that perhaps there was still some good in him before his death. It’s an unexpectedly poignant bit of redemption for this character that we knew in a much different light all these years. The other great moment occurs not too long after this. When S.H.I.E.L.D. hijacks one of HYDRA’s news stations (with Simon Kassianides notably making a cameo as the Framework version of recurring Season 2 villain Bakshi, who’s portrayed as a newscaster in the Framework), Coulson appears on air to reveal HYDRA’s sinister intentions to the world and declare that he is an ‘Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ in the only way that the Coulson we know and love can; like a total badass!
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| My name is Phil Coulson... and I'm an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.! |
And now, onto the Top 10…
10. WHAT IF? (EPISODE 16/Agents of HYDRA)
The first episode of the Agents of HYDRA story-arc, fittingly named after the comic series in which it takes inspiration from, started the final stretch of the season off with a bang. From Daisy learning that her non-Inhuman Framework self is in a relationship with a still-living Grant Ward (who, fittingly enough, is still a double agent, only in this case he’s with S.H.I.E.L.D., the good guys, instead of HYDRA) to Simmons rising from the grave a la Beatrix Kiddo from Kill Bill Vol. 2, the two immediately realize the dangers of the Framework world. It’s a world in which HYDRA has taken over and is on the hunt for those who are Inhuman. May and Fitz are unyielding agents of HYDRA, Coulson is just an average schoolteacher teaching HYDRA propaganda and dismissing ‘alternative facts’ (which I’m sure has NO connection to the real world… right?), and worst of all, none of them know who Daisy and Simmons really are, nor do they realize that they’re in a simulated reality. Thus, a lot of the episode consists of Daisy and Simmons attempting to convince their friends that this world that they’re currently in isn’t real. They mainly attempt this with Coulson but find it hard to convince him of the truth, though this does lead to a great emotional performance from Elizabeth Henstridge as she tries to convince her boss of the truth. During this process, though, she notices something that could be a potential means of convincing him; a hula doll on his desk that symbolizes that ‘magical place’, Tahiti (i.e. the project that revived Coulson after his death in Avengers, for those who don’t recall). Thankfully, they finally manage to start getting Coulson’s memory jogged (somewhat) when Daisy confronts him and he finally remembers her name, a nice little ending tag for the episode that gets the ball rolling in their efforts to escape the Framework.
9. NO REGRETS (EPISODE 18/Agents of HYDRA)
‘No Regrets’ manages to make the Top 10 primarily thanks to its emotionally heart-wrenching finale, which gives us a tragic but heroic send-off for one of this season’s newest characters. At the same time, there’s also some great emotional moments in this episode as well prior to that finale, like Simmons struggling to cope with a key action done by Framework Fitz in the previous episode (more on that in a bit). The bulk of the episode, however, consists of Framework Mace and Framework Coulson attempting to rescue an undercover agent from one of HYDRA’s ‘Enlightenment Centers’. This agent happens to be none other than the Framework version of Antoine Triplett in what was easily one of the most satisfying cameos of the season (#TripLives). During the mission, Coulson comes across some of his old students, who are currently being brainwashed by HYDRA. In their attempts to rescue them, they are pursued by Framework May, who’s been enhanced with ‘super serum’ to give her a fighting chance against Mace. Cue an epic fight between them, resulting in Mace winning but not killing May to prove to her that he’s not the terrorist that HYDRA’s labeled him as. May then orders an airstrike on the ‘Enlightenment Center’, bringing us to the episode’s devastating finale, as Mace sacrifices himself to let Coulson and Tripp escape with the students. And because one dies in the real world if they die in the Framework, this, sadly, kills the real Mace as well. It’s a bittersweet way to go out, for sure; in the world of the Framework, he died a hero, a fitting parallel to his real-world persona as someone who was only publicized as one. But that’s just in the digital world; in the real one, he goes out without any fanfare. The only light at the end of this tunnel is that May, who was unaware that kids were being brainwashed at the ‘Enlightenment Center’, subjects Daisy to the Terrigen Mist as she begins to turn against her superiors.
8. THE LAWS OF INFERNO DYNAMICS (EPISODE 8/Ghost Rider)
The Ghost Rider arc ended on a great note with this episode thanks to, who else, Kevin Tancharoen. I think many will agree that one of the best elements of any K-Tanch directed episode of this show are their great action sequences. From Daisy’s one-take fight scene back in Season 2 to the fight between Daisy and Hive in Season 3, he’s clearly got a great eye for action set-pieces. And that hot streak continues in this episode thanks to a thrilling sequence in which Yo-Yo uses her speed powers to disarm all the guards within a warehouse… and for the record yes, I know that this scene is basically just like the Quicksilver scenes in the X-Men films… moving on. Anyway, the team manages to stop Eli Morrow from enacting more of his experiments, primarily with the help of Aida, who’s now widely known to be a robot (“Doesn’t anyone remember Ultron?”, Mace points out). Robbie manages to kill his uncle but ends up getting sent into another dimension, where he stayed until the end of the season. By the time that it’s over, Daisy ends up getting re-initiated into S.H.I.E.L.D. and cleared of anything that she was accused of while operating as a vigilante. But where one conflict ends, another begins. We see that Aida has captured Agent May and has begun to subject her to various tests. Meanwhile, an LMD of May has been placed within S.H.I.E.L.D. and has managed to fool everyone, even May’s closest friend, Coulson.
7. IDENTITY AND CHANGE (EPISODE 17/Agents of HYDRA)
Episode 16 ended with an optimistic moment in which Framework Coulson finally remembers who Daisy is. Episode 17, by comparison… ends with Fitz performing what I refer to as a ‘Kylo Ren’ moment, affirming his Framework self’s status as a cold and intimidating threat. In fact, there are two big moments in this episode; the first involves Daisy when she comes across the Framework version of Mack. In the Framework, his daughter Hope is alive and the two are just ordinary citizens trying to get by in this crazy world. They end up getting arrested by HYDRA, however, when their home gets raided. And when Daisy talks with him, she tries to convince him that she’s with S.H.I.E.L.D. Mack mentions that he is too but, unfortunately, he was just forced into saying that by Framework May, who then proceeds to arrest Daisy. Thankfully, Mack ends up offering his services to S.H.I.E.L.D. immediately afterwards to make up for what he just did. Meanwhile, Simmons tries to figure out a way out of the Framework, leading to her, Coulson, and Ward confronting the Framework version of Radcliffe, who, by the way, had been killed by Aida in the real world a few episodes prior. They find him, along with the Framework version of Agnes (who also died in the real world due to a brain tumor after agreeing to meet with her ex in Episode 13, ‘BOOM’), before they are confronted by Fitz and Madame Hydra. And in what is easily one of the most devastating moments of the entire season, Fitz murders Agnes in cold blood, which comes as a complete shock to Simmons. After all, one of her main bits of proof as to why this world isn’t real is that Fitz, the man that she loves, would never harm anyone. And yet, in that moment, that’s exactly what he did, even if it was just him in the Framework and not him in real life. Clearly, the Agents of HYDRA ‘pod’ has produced some of the most emotional episodes of the entire series.
6. THE GHOST (EPISODE 1/Ghost Rider)
I find that I usually don’t consider season premieres as one of the best episodes of a season, but this season’s premiere of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a different story. After all, this season premiere also served as the debut of Marvel’s iconic anti-hero, Ghost Rider, within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And it does so in glorious fashion in its epic opening action sequence, in which Ghost Rider takes down a bunch of thugs complete with an epic stunt in which his car is hit with an RPG but withstands the blast as the Ghost Rider’s flames engulf the car as it flips in the air, lands, and rams into the thugs’ vehicle. Daisy witnesses all this while operating as the vigilante ‘Quake’ in her efforts to hunt down members of the Watchdogs. This then leads to Daisy investigating into the elusive ‘Ghost Rider’, which brings her to mechanic Robbie Reyes. Once she confronts him over the matter at a junkyard, the two get into a fight as we get our first true look at Reyes in Ghost Rider form, and it’s a fantastic moment, thanks in no small part to the brilliant effects work from the show’s visual effects team, led by one of the show’s biggest unsung heroes, VFX Supervisor Mark Kolpack. Meanwhile, back at S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson and co. investigate into the ‘Ghost Rider’ as well, which leads to us being introduced to a group of ghostly scientists that can infect people by making them see haunting images everywhere they go. As such, the episode ends on an incredibly haunting note as we see that May has become one of those victims, setting the stage for the first big conflict of Season 4.
5. FAREWELL, CRUEL WORLD! (EPISODE 20/Agents of HYDRA)
This was an intense and emotional episode; very much a pattern with these Agents of HYDRA episodes. For one thing, it opened with the main protagonists in a situation of grave peril. Yo-Yo and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who are protecting Daisy and Simmons while they are inside the Framework are forced to try and keep the Zephyr that they’re all on in the air when Ivanov finally figures out where they’ve been hiding. Meanwhile, in the Framework, things get even more tense when Simmons attempts to sway Framework Fitz back to their side. She goes to see his controlling father, Alistair, and tries to get him to persuade Fitz to stop working for HYDRA. He doesn’t comply with her demands, though, and she is forced to kill him when he starts to attack her, putting Fitz in a state of intense vengeance for the rest of the episode. There’s also plenty of emotional moments in this as well, like when Daisy finally meets Framework Tripp and embraces him. Obviously, Framework Tripp doesn’t know who she is, but fans of the show will recognize the poignancy of the situation given that Daisy personally witnessed his real-world counterpart’s death when she was transformed by the Terrigen Mist back in Season 2. The team also finally finds the portal that will bring them out of the Framework. Coulson and May get through with ease, but Fitz soon comes in looking to kill Simmons to avenge his father’s death. Thankfully, Framework Radcliffe arrives to stop him and they manage to get Fitz out of the Framework. However, one of them decides to stay behind; Mack. The reason? In the Framework, his daughter Hope is alive, and despite learning the truth about the Framework, Mack is unwilling to leave his daughter behind even though she’s just a digital creation. To make matters worse, Project ‘Looking Glass’ is completed and Aida returns to the real world in a human body. Not only that, but she is revealed to have some new Inhuman powers as well that were gained from the Inhuman experiments performed by HYDRA in the Framework. One of these is the power of teleportation, which she uses to take Fitz, whom she still has feelings for. This brings us to…
4. THE RETURN (EPISODE 21/Agents of HYDRA)
Hands down, the best K-Tanch directed episode of the season, which sees the team dealing with the aftermath of their time in the Framework. This includes Coulson and May being stuck inside Ivanov’s secret submarine base, resulting in an epic fight scene involving May and Ivanov’s several robotic clones (the latter of whom were created by Aida after Ivanov was wounded in a battle with Daisy), and a heated confrontation between Daisy and Yo-Yo when the latter learns that they were unable to get Mack out of the Framework because he wanted to be with his daughter. Things get even more tense when the submarine base starts to get attacked, with Mack still inside and plugged into the Framework. Thankfully, Fitz manages to convince Aida to use her new Inhuman-like powers to rescue Mack. Meanwhile, Aida begins to adapt to her new human body, hoping that Fitz will reciprocate the romantic feelings that she still has for him. However, that doesn’t prove to be the case when Fitz begins to express remorse over everything that he had done within the Framework. And when he admits to her that he’s still in love in Simmons, let’s just say that she doesn’t take this rejection well. She escapes from S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, kills a few government agents who had arrived along with General Talbot to arrest Coulson and his team for ‘being robots’, and continues her plan on taking over the world. Meanwhile, Yo-Yo decides to head into the Framework to try and get Mack out… she awakens in one of HYDRA’s Inhuman test chambers strapped to a chair. But, on the bright side, the old portal that Aida created back in Episode 7 starts up again, as Robbie Reyes comes out of it.
3. THE GOOD SAMARITAN (EPISODE 6/Ghost Rider)
It is this episode where we learn about the fateful incident that turned Robbie Reyes into the Ghost Rider. While Robbie, Daisy, and Gabe are trapped within a S.H.I.E.L.D. containment unit, though done intentionally by Coulson and co. to keep them hidden from Mace (who’s intent on arresting them), Robbie finally reveals to Gabe about who he really is and how it was all because of the incident that changed both of their lives forever. One night, the two went out to go street racing in their uncle’s car. However, they end up getting attacked by a local street gang, the Fifth Street Locos. Gabe ends up paralyzed and Robbie is straight-up killed when he’s thrown from the car, though he ends up being approached by the previous host of the Ghost Rider spirit, Johnny Blaze. While they don’t refer to him by name in the episode, the motorcycle that he rides is more than enough proof that this is the MCU’s interpretation of this iconic character. The arrival of this ‘Good Samaritan’ (hence the title of the episode) leads to the Ghost Rider spirit being transferred to Robbie, resurrecting him in the process. In short, it’s only fitting that this excellently crafted take on Ghost Rider gets an equally excellent origin story that’s handled with great care in this episode. This reveal gets even more personal when it’s revealed that it was because of Eli Morrow that his nephews were attacked. Meanwhile, the team continues to hunt down Morrow after it’s revealed that he was trying to obtain the powers of the Darkhold for himself. And it ends on a suspenseful note when his latest experiment traps Coulson, Fitz, and Robbie within a dark dimension where they’re separated from their allies, setting the stage for the tense proceedings of the next episode.
2. SELF CONTROL (EPISODE 15/LMD)
The finale of the LMD storyline was a special one; for one thing, it was the directorial debut of series creator Jed Whedon. And, suffice it to say, Joss’ brother did a fantastic job in his first major directorial effort, giving us an intense and suspenseful finale to the LMD storyline and a great lead-in to the impending Agents of HYDRA storyline. At the end of the previous episode, Fitz and Simmons realize that almost all their friends have been replaced with LMDs. Thus, the two try to evade them before they too are captured. However, Simmons realizes that Fitz is one of the LMDs, resulting in an incredibly emotional scene that culminates in her destroying the Fitz LMD. As it turns out, Daisy hasn’t been replaced yet and after being pursued by the Mace LMD, she reunites with Simmons in another emotional moment as the two assure each other that neither is an LMD. It’s a real testament to how great of a job these two (and, heck, the whole cast, for that matter) have done in their respective roles, so much so that we’re fully endeared to them in intense moments like this. And then, to follow that up, Daisy destroys the Mace and Coulson LMDs in an awesome action sequence backed by equally awesome visual effects (kudos, once again, to Mark Kolpack and his team). As the two manage to escape, they decide that they need to hack into the Framework themselves to rescue their friends. Thus, the episode ends with an overall tease of what we’re about to see within this digital world. Ward is still alive? Fitz is with another woman? Simmons is dead? HYDRA is in charge?
1. WORLD’S END (EPISODE 22/Agents of HYDRA)
Ok, I’ll admit it… I realize that I’ve become quite predictable when it comes to ranking episodes of this show. This is now the third time in a row where I’ve listed a Season Finale as my favorite episode of the season. But really, can you blame me? Because to the show’s credit, it once again delivers an epic season finale, even with this season’s finale being only one hour long instead of a two-hour special event, as was the case for the previous two seasons. A lot happens in this episode; first off, there’s the whole plot of the team trying to defeat Aida. While they are successful in doing so, including a freaking awesome moment in which Coulson inherits the Ghost Rider powers to defeat Aida, an equally badass fight scene involving Ivanov’s clones, Daisy, and Robbie, and an intense moment where we fear that Aida has killed Simmons only to find that she ‘killed’ a LMD, Aida’s plot to take over the world puts them and S.H.I.E.L.D. into some major trouble with the government. This is especially after an incident in which an LMD of Daisy attacked members of the government, including General Talbot. Despite the team’s best efforts to prove their innocence, they end up getting captured by a mysterious group and forced onto a space station. Meanwhile, there’s also an incredibly emotional plot-thread in which Yo-Yo enters the Framework, which is on the verge of being shut down, to try and get Mack to come back to the real world. She manages to get Mack out, but only after one of the most emotional moments of the entire series in which Mack, sadly, must accept the fact that his daughter Hope is dead in the real world. And that’s the Season Finale of the fourth season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in a nutshell; emotional and epic. It’s a true testament to how phenomenal this show has become, and as someone who’s been a fan since the very beginning, I can’t wait for another season.
And those are my extensive thoughts on Season 4 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Thanks for following along and you can bet that I’ll be back around this time next year with a review of Season 5. And if you’re just as big of a fan of the show as I am, be sure to sound off about it in the comments below.
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