Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S4 Ep4 – Let Me Stand Next To Your Fire

Man, you guys. This show has so much awesomeness so far this season!

One of tonight’s best lines: Coulson’s “I get his car now, right? Isn’t that how this works?”
Don’t be greedy, man. You already have Lola!

So, what did we have this week? For one thing, we had Coulson and Mack almost literally running into Robbie outside the prison where his Uncle Eli is serving time for manslaughter. (Side note: we don’t have the whole story here yet, but it certainly doesn’t seem like this version of Ghost Rider is possessed by the serial-killer spirit of his uncle, like Reyes is in the comics, since his uncle is still alive. I’ll be interested to learn more about how it all did get started in this universe.) That in turn leads to a delightful car chase between Lola and the Hell Charger. Robbie might have gotten away, if he hadn’t run into the invisible Quinjet that Coulson steered him towards. Nicely done, Coulson.

Meanwhile, Simmons is looking for an apartment for her and Fitz to share (!!). She’s pretty sure the one she’s about to check out is too good to be true – and it is, in that Daisy hacked her search history and sent her this location. She needed Simmons there to help her with a bullet wound, and also to tell her how the Watchdogs are finding Inhumans. They’ve somehow managed to hack SHIELD’s secure servers, because of course they did. (Probably that senator from last week’s doing somehow.) But Simmons isn’t just going to let Daisy keep on trying to rescue Inhumans by herself. Because she’s awesome like that.

The third plotline: May is recovering at Dr. Radcliffe’s lab, under the watchful eye of Aida. May’s frustrated at being unable to leave yet, but neither she nor Coulson seem to notice anything off about Radcliffe’s “assistant.” That’s after Radcliffe has told her it can be all right to lie/bend the truth sometimes, to protect people or help save a life. I’m sure that won’t have dangerous implications later or anything! Simmons, though, recognizes Aida as an android immediately. Because, again, she’s awesome and smart like that. And now she has a bunch of things she’ll have to lie about on her next lie detector test. Uh oh. Also, Mallory Jansen continues to be flawless (heh) as Aida.

She found you a really nice apartment, Simmons. I think she missed you.

I like the fact that Coulson trusts Robbie (at least enough to let him out of the cage) because Daisy trusts him. Aww. And of course Robbie is at least kind of willing to work with them, because Ghost Rider can sense they’re not bad guys, and because their goals align. So now both SHIELD and Ghost Rider know about the Darkhold, and about Lucy the mad scientist ghost who wants it. And plus, plus, we get to see James, aka the treacherous Hellfire, come up against the Spirit of Vengeance. And it is amaaaaazing. I’m sure James has some story left, but for right now, it’s deeply satisfying how easy it was for the Rider to take him out. The fireworks were a nice touch, too.

We end with Daisy unwillingly rejoining her team, with Robbie as well. The Darkhold is enough of a threat to convince them both to stay – for now, at least. And I can’t wait to see how they all work together on this.

What did you think of the episode? Is Reyes’ Ghost Rider living up to your expectations so far? Let us know in the comments!