Agents of Shield: Meet the New Boss review S4 Ep. 2
Agents of SHIELD’s fourth season is off to a terrific start. Two episodes in and there’s a number of interesting directions this season can go. Meet the New Boss continued adding new factors into the mix. While they didn’t all work — four ghosts are not better than one Ghost Rider — the early signs are promising.
About the ghosts. The show seemed to play fast and loose with their abilities. One minute they’re phasing through objects, the next they’re loudly stepping on the floor. I’m all for the show adding in weird adversaries for the team to battle, but not as much when the agents are so completely overpowered. That proved a problem in the final arc of the Hive subplot. Without the Secret Warriors, Coulson and company would have been powerless to stop Hive.
The first ghost, Lucy, freed her three collaborators and they began plotting payback on the person responsible for their condition. I’m not especially interested in their end game, but Ghost Rider hunting them down definitely has potential to be a solid season long arc. Assuming Robbie was an Inhuman, Daisy tries to reach out. I liked that Daisy’s not so subtle hinting that she found out Robbie’s past led to him giving her a beat down.
I was worried when Robbie just ignited makeshift weapons in the garage that the effects budget for Ghost Rider would limit his appearance. Fortunately GR did show up in time to help Fitz and Simmons and incinerate one of the ghosts.
On an emotional front, Meet the New Boss’ highlight was the brief reunion of Fitz & Mack and Daisy. Fitz seems legitimately hurt with Daisy abandoning the team. Given how hard he took Ward’s betrayal this makes sense. Turbo forms deep bonds with his teammates. Mack learning Yo-Yo has been stealing from SHIELD to help Daisy should have some interesting repercussions as well.
With one set of allies burned, Daisy takes Robbie up on his suggestion to team up to take down the Momentum Alternative Energy Labs scientists turned ghosts.
After coming up short in tracking Daisy, Coulson is ready to get chewed out by the new boss of SHIELD, Jeffrey Mace (Jason O’Mara, Son of Batman). Jeffrey isn’t the typical hard-edge boss and appreciates Coulson’s display of loyalty to his friends.
It’s not until May’s visions kick into overdrive and she starts pummeling SHIELD agents that Jeffrey reveals his secret. He’s essentially the Inhuman version of Superman. Sure, he’s all smiles and Big Blue Boy Scout now, but once Coulson starts breaking enough rules it’ll be interesting to see how long Jeffrey maintains his composure. Or tolerance with Coulson. Although an even bigger twist would be to actually have Jeffrey be a stand-up guy and not a traitor/future villain.
ABC is already playing around with the schedule. After two episodes to kick off the season, next week the show has a break. That’s risky considering this later time change and the return of the CW shows next week. Ghost Rider has been a tremendous addition to the series so far. While it’s taking some time to find worthwhile opponents, AOS definitely is benefiting from his arrival. And things are only going to heat up from here.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Photo Credit: ABC.com