“Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD” Season 4, Episode 6 Recap: “The Good Samaritan”
“Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD” finally gives us an in-depth look at Ghost Rider’s back story. And it does not fail to impress. You might say it blazes its own trail!
After an article off last week due to a rib out of place, I’m back at it for this week’s Agents of SHIELD! And with Doctor Strange premiering this week, it’s a good one, even if the threads aren’t quite there yet. Forward!
Not-So-Short Summary
We start “Back in the Day” at the Momentum Lab, following Robbie’s uncle Eli. The Bauers (Bowers?) have made a breakthrough in whatever they’re doing. When they activate the machine, an energy field shoots out at everyone, but more than that…
They made carbon. This is a stepping stone to bigger and better things for the world.
But they keep Eli out of the details. All he knows of is a book that helped them make matter out of nothing. Later in the episode in another flashback, Eli tries to warn Joe about the dangers of the book.
The goal of the project now? Create matter without using a machine. Joe wants to become a god, but Eli wants to destroy it before it destroys them all. More on this later!
In the present day, May storms into the Momentum lab to find agents down and pieces missing. Lucy is rebuilding the lab offsite, as the old one is controlled by SHIELD. Also, Gabe gets picked up by Daisy and brought into the SHIELD fold. Gabe puts the pieces together, but he has it all wrong: he thinks Robbie is a secret agent (I mean, right now he is?).
And that’s when Director Mace shows up to arrest Daisy and Ghost Rider. He and Coulson have a very in-depth conversation about Han Solo, Admiral Akbar, the Empire, Rebels… Star Wars, basically. IT’S A TRAP! Good thing Mack shoved Daisy, Gabe, and Robbie into the containment module and they kind of float out in open air while Mace storms the castle.
That’s when Robbie decides to have a heart-to-heart with Gabe and come clean.
We flash back to pre-Ghost Rider, pre-accident where Robbie steals Eli’s car to go race and win some money. He brings Gabe along. It’s fun to see a lighter side to Robbie, joking around.
Photo credit ABC/Marvel Studios
On their way to the race, they get stopped at a red light behind a nondescript van. When the light turns green, men in the van toss a molotov cocktail on the hood of the car. Robbie backs up and tears away from the van, but they get chased by an Impala that shoots up the car. Their car flips, still on fire. Gabe can’t feel his legs and he looks over to find Robbie unmoving, thinking he’s dead.
“Because I was dead,” Robbie says. What a way to cut to commercials.
Gabe continues to recall the evening, how the Good Samaritan on a motorcycle pulled him from the car. He went over to Robbie and Gabe saw him move, so he knew he was alive.
That’s not what happened.
Robbie was thrown from the car and begged any greater being to save Gabe. He hit the street and died. He heard a voice asking him if he wanted to survive, to take vengeance on those who had hurt him and Gabe. Robbie says yes.
We have our first look at Johnny Blaze! Granted, it’s just the flaming skull, so who knows who it really is (I held my breath for Nicholas Cage because why not?). Whatever was in him, he passed it onto Robbie. Meanwhile, Gabe is ticked that Robbie has killed so many people, not wanting his brother to put their blood on Gabe’s hands.
Image Courtesy of Marvel Studios
That’s when Mace brings them back onto the plane. Sure, Coulson told the truth on a technicality, but that means he lost Mace’s good will. And he won’t listen to Coulson or Fitz’s pleadings about going after Lucy and Eli.
Mace wants to bring Robbie in, as he’s a cold-blooded killer, although the devil inside him has other ideas. So Ghost Rider breaks out of the unbreakable containment module.
It’s a Ghost Rider versus Mace showdown, and it’s this week’s badass moment of the week!
Hey, remember when the Agent Carter writers said the zero matter would tie into Doctor Strange? Anyway, Fitz realizes Lucy sets up her base in a closed Roxxon plant thanks to an Isodyne redacted SSR file. They reroute the Zephyr there, and thankfully Coulson convinces Mace to go along with it.
SHIELD storms the Roxxon plant and find Lucy right away. Naturally she goes for the group of agents that includes Robbie, so I cannot see her lasting very long. She throws a curveball at Robbie: Eli was the master behind it all. He wanted the power for himself, and he made Lucy into this weird ghost.
He burns her anyway.
Coulson stumbles upon the Darkhold and hands it off to May to take it to a safe place. They also stumble upon Eli, but he heads into the machine and turns it on. The same power surge as before
He comes out of the machine and makes matter in his own hands. Now that’s a cliffhanger!
Image Courtesy of Marvel Studios
Post-Credits Stinger
It’s a special look at Doctor Strange! I won’t go into huge details here, as you may want to stay relatively spoiler-free, but it makes me all the more excited for this next MCU movie.
Badass Moment of the Week
Ghost Rider versus Director Mace! Mace gets in some really good punches that toss Ghost Rider across the room, but Ghost Rider takes the upper hand. Mace must have superhuman Inhuman strength because Ghost Rider’s punches do nothing to his face.
Best One-Liner
“Geese? I have zero geese. We are goose-free!” Coulson says to Mace when he inquires about Robbie and Daisy.
Meanwhile, Simmons gets talked into doing a favor for the US government by Mace. It includes a bag over her head. No one knows where she went.
Quick shoutout to the trick-or-treater in my neighborhood who showed up on my doorstep dressed as Robbie Reyes. He got two giant Pixi Stix for his efforts.
Next week’s Agents of SHIELD isn’t actually a thing. In fact, Agents of SHIELD doesn’t return until November 29th. How will we survive?! How many times must we go see Doctor Strange to sate our Marvel needs? Keep a lookout later this week for our standard movie review by our own Steve and our mid- and post-credits scene recap!