Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Good Samaritan (4x06)

Uh oh. Not good.

Cons:

I don't mean that the episode is not good. The episode is just fine, actually. I do have one large-ish complaint, however.

Eli, Robbie and Gabe's uncle, is a villain. We see a lot of flashbacks in this episode as we learn what happened with the Darkhold and Momentum Energy Lab. Turns out, Joe and Lucy were getting a little power-hungry, and Eli was worried about them. But then it turns out that Eli actually just wanted to the power for himself. In the present day, he's thrilled that Lucy has led him straight to a place with enough energy to transform him, and as the episode ends he is so transformed. He now has the ability to create matter from nothing, effectively making himself a god.

The flashbacks showed Joe and Lucy as slowly corrupted scientists, and then flipped the script on us to show us that Eli was the bad guy all along. My problem here is that we don't have a big emotional investment in Eli as a character, so I didn't really care that he turned out to be a villain. Also, this episode had a big problem with spelling things out too easily. Multiple characters tell the audience what we're smart enough to already figure out. In a flashback, after Lucy sees that Eli has done away with her other colleagues, she says something like "you just wanted the power for yourself!" And in the present-day, as Eli locks himself in the chamber ready to make himself a god, Coulson says "It was you all along!" Like... yeah... we got it, thanks very much.

Pros:

I am glad, though, to finally have answers about what happened. May now has custody of the Darkhold, as she took up up to the Quinjet while Coulson was still down below trying to power everything down. Mack left Fitz down there to try and get an EMP device that could help them shut down this risky experiment, but to no avail. As the episode ends, we've got Eli newly empowered, and we've got Coulson and Fitz stuck in there with potentially dire consequences. This ends the episode on an appropriately tense note, especially since we've got no new episode for a while. Are Coulson and Fitz ghost things now? And now that Robbie has destroyed Lucy, do they have any idea how to fix what happened?

Before this climax arrives, we get a lot of fun drama involving Jeffrey Mace, Coulson, Robbie and Gabe, and Daisy. Essentially, Mace finds out that Coulson has Daisy and Robbie, and he comes to collect them. Gabe is there as well, since Daisy has just brought him in out of fear for his safety. Coulson and the others hide the fugitives, but Mace tracks them down in the hidden containment cell. Robbie, who has just finished telling Gabe what really happened to them the night they were attacked by hit men, goes all Fire Skull and breaks out of the containment cell, attacking Mace. His priority at this point is his uncle, and he's willing to stomp everything that gets in his path. Gabe talks him down from killing Mace, and Coulson convinces Mace to use Robbie to help them get into Momentum Energy Lab and find Lucy and Eli.

There's just so much going on here. The complications of the relationships and the power dynamics... yikes. First of all, Ghost Rider's backstory. I think they were implying that Johnny (played by Nicholas Cage in that terrible movie) showed up and created a new Ghost Rider, but of course in Robbie's mind, he was approached by the Devil. This whole plot thread gave me a lot of feelings about Gabe and Robbie's brotherly bond. When they were shot, and the car flipped, Robbie was thrown out. Gabe, pinned, believed his brother was dead. That was a real gut punch, and it made me understand these two a lot better. When Gabe thought that his brother was a secret agent, he was really excited, but when he realized the full truth, he was horrified. He's okay with being paralyzed. He's not okay with his brother turning into a vengeful monster because of it.

And that confrontation between Ghost Rider and Mace... yowza. I don't think we're meant to be impressed with the cool fight scene. I think we're supposed to be terrified at Robbie's power. He bursts through a wall that Fitz says was impossible to break through, and then beats up on the super-strong Jeffrey Mace like it was nothing. Gabe is the one to talk him down, but that doesn't mean that everything is forgiven between them.

Coulson and Mace have such an interesting dynamic. Current Director vs. Past Director. I love that Coulson keeps a calm head even when his hidden fugitives are discovered. He even convinces a pissed off Mace to let them work with Robbie, since he's the only one who can defeat the ghosts. When Jeffrey keeps calling Robbie a terrorist, Coulson says it "sounds a little Fox News" to him. Oooh good one. The best moment was when Coulson tries to talk Mace down, calling him Jeff, and then "Jeff" comes back and says "It's Director Mace." Oh crap. Things are getting real up in here.

My favorite humor moment is when Coulson and the team are hiding Daisy, Robbie, and Gabe from Mace, and Fitz and Mack have this exchange:

Fitz: "The director hasn't found you-know-who and you-know-who?"

Mack: "I don't know what you're talking about."

Fitz: "Right, me neither."

Ha.

Simmons was temporarily fridged this week, as Jeffrey Mace has a mysterious assignment for her. She's forced to put a bag over her head so she doesn't know where she's going, and she's gone for the rest of the episode. Fitz is distracted and slightly worried about her. He makes several comments throughout the episode. This seems to be a combination of worry and frustration, since last time we saw Fitz and Simmons, things were a little strained between them. I'm hoping that after we're back from our mini-hiatus, we can see what Simmons got up to, and hopefully get some intense reunion stuff between her and Fitz. I do hope they will both be okay!

I'm sorry this review is such a mess... I wrote it very piecemeal!

8.5/10