Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S4 Ep6 – The Good Samaritan

Well, for an episode in which about half of its action takes place in the past, there was still plenty to go around!

I guess the fact that Ghost Rider is practically indestructible and unbeatable helped Mace decide not to put him in jail yet. Also, ouch to Gabe’s reaction to his brother’s secret. (Image courtesy of EW)

If you’ve been curious – as I have – to know how the show has adapted the comic book story of Robbie Reyes’ Ghost Rider, then this was the episode for you. To start off, Daisy and the Quinjet (which sounds like an awesome rock band) take Gabe into protective custody. That kind of backfires when Director Mace then arrives at the Zephyr to take both Robbie and Daisy into, er, the other kind of custody. But Coulson truthfully tells Mace that those two wanted criminals aren’t on the plane. They’re actually in the containment module, attached to the bottom of the plane. Nice, Coulson. Except Mace isn’t dumb, and he figures that out.

But meanwhile, being stuck in a small box with his brother makes Robbie realize he should tell his brother the truth about who he is now. Gabe thought a Good Samaritan pulled him out of the wreckage after the drive-by shooting that left him unable to walk. But Robbie tells him it wasn’t a Good Samaritan: “It was the Devil.” See, we still don’t know who it was who saved Gabe, and offered the freshly killed Robbie a deal to take vengeance on his killers. But now we do know it was a guy on a motorcycle with a flaming skull. So… that’s interesting. Johnny Blaze? Danny Ketch? Or was it somehow still something to do with his evil uncle Eli?

So who was this not-so-good Samaritan? That question still remains to be answered.

Because that’s the other big revelation this week. We knew from the comics that Robbie and Gabe’s uncle wasn’t a good guy – and that’s evidently true on the show, too. In flashbacks we see that Eli found out about the Darkhold, and then started to want it. It was Eli who imprisoned Lucy and the other scientists in their little cube thingies. He beat Joseph into a coma when Joseph wouldn’t reveal where the Darkhold was. So Eli has been planning how to get the book during all his years in prison. Once Lucy brings him to an old Isodyne power plant (not a good idea, Lucy), Eli recreates the experiment that failed the first time due to a lack of power. Then he himself steps into the central chamber that ghost-ified the other scientists. I’m not totally sure what he emerges as, but it’s not good. He now seems to have the power to create matter out of nothing. There was also a power surge that affected Coulson, Fitz, and Robbie, too. They were all in the plant during the blast. Since the plans for this came from the Darkhold, wherever they vanished to is probably bad.

Other things: Simmons was mostly absent this week, after the Director sent her off on a mission that was supposedly a favor for the US government. I’m thinking, more like a favor for a certain Inhuman-hating senator. Fitz worries about her the whole ep, and I kinda do, too. I told you blackmailing Mace wasn’t going to end well, Simmons. Also, the Spirit of Vengeance has now destroyed Lucy, even though she reveals Eli’s betrayal to Robbie.

So what’s going to happen with all of the characters who ended up in peril? We don’t get to find out until November 29, as the show is going on a mini-hiatus until then. Alas.