Back from the dead, and back from Hell in the last episode, Ghost Rider and the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are ready for the real enemy, the matter manipulating Elias Morrow. All agents are on board, including the big guns – Quake, Yo-Yo, and even Aida. Meet me after the jump for my thoughts on “The Laws of Inferno Dynamics.”
Building Armies
When we open, Eli Morrow is building something with his new powers, while the police, the media, and S.H.I.E.L.D. are on the streets of Los Angeles looking for him. For all that hassle, his henchmen need more incentive, so he pays them. In uncut unrefined diamonds, created by Morrow’s power, within the lungs of the complaining henchman. Gory, but efficient, the act provides motivation for the others. Morrow is not playing around.
While Morrow even with his newfound power of matter creation has surrounded himself with the shambles of a Chinatown gang and the prisoners from the breakout, Coulson is also picking out soldiers. After some psychological cat and mouse with Director Mace, he gets Yo-Yo, Quake, Aida, and Ghost Rider, despite Mace’s objections that one’s a killer, one’s a vigilante, and one’s an illegal android.
Demon Core
The team only makes it so far into Eli’s lair. They encounter traps that indicate he’s testing his powers, working his way through the periodic table so to speak. When Robbie alone catches up to him, the team, via video, discover what he’s really making. Fitzgerald and Simmons have seen one before, and it’s not good. It’s a box called a demon core.
It’s bad, but not what one might think. It’s basically a nuclear bomb, and that’s where the dual confessions of Robbie and Eli take place. Both of them spouting secret origin stories, one good and one evil. And apparently neither Robbie nor his fire-faced friend is a match for Eli or his new and evolving powers. Carbon spikes hold him fast inside the nuclear device.
Resolutions
Coulson engineers a fantastic plan to assault Morrow’s lair, with the help of Aida and her Darkhold-inspired portal, and Ghost Rider who not only finished off his uncle, but also zapped him and the bomb away to only the Devil knows where. It seems only right that Ghost Rider chose vengeance over salvation. It may sound like a quick clean-up but it wasn’t and felt organic, giving viewers a chance to cheer for the good guys as it happened.
Also resolved is the Quake as vigilante subplot when Mace announces, spur of the moment, that Daisy saved them all and was acting as part of S.H.I.E.L.D. There’s acknowledgement that S.H.I.E.L.D. knew about other Ghost Riders and that Robbie might come back. The biggest surprise of all was Mace putting on a costume, Patriot-like, but black, probably so he won’t be confused with Citizen Steel over on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Too many heroes in red, white, and blue, I guess.
LMDs and Kisses
With Daisy back, partnerships and relationships that work so well are renewed. Looking forward to seeing Coulson as well as Mack working with her again on level ground. Speaking of Mack, I, and every other viewer watching, was thrilled to finally see he and Yo-Yo kiss. Let’s see more of that.
Aida has been reprieved of being dismantled like Ultron, but all may not be right there. As the next segment of this season will be called LMD, replacing the subtitle Ghost Rider, there may be a lot more coming. We know that Aida is more than she seems, having killed Agent Nathanson, and holding Agent May captive. What will happen to May, and what terror will her LMD cause? We’ll find out in January.
The Future
I really enjoyed this episode as it had all the things about the show that I enjoy… the espionage, the superhero action, and especially watching a plan coming together and still being surprised by it. I hope we’ll have more of this when the series returns on January 10th.
In other news, an official television series of Marvel’s Inhumans is coming to ABC as a companion series to Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. The first episode will feature the Inhuman Royal Family and premiere in IMAX in theaters and then continue on television in the fall. And until then, or January 10th, don’t forget to check out the online series Slingshot, featuring Yo-Yo.
