The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 4 premiere was full of spirit(s), fire, and control issues! Here’s what happened in “The Ghost.”
“Everyone’s attached to something,” Daisy repeatedly observes throughout the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 4 premiere, but “The Ghost” suggests that life isn’t quite that simple. (And neither, come to think of it, is death.) Almost everyone in this grungy, madcap episode is stuck in the stage before attachment; pinned between phases of satisfaction, they are all running on fumes of desire.
Despite Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s new 10:00 p.m. time slot, there isn’t too much by way of physical lust at play (at least not yet — I’m rooting for you, Elena!). For the most part, this emotional hunger focuses itself on a desire for control. Almost our entire roster is unmoored and adrift following S.H.I.E.L.D.’s sea-change, but as we know, Team Coulson isn’t one to go with the tide.
The twining themes of desire and control blend especially well in Daisy, whose dedicated vigilantism serves as a painful reminder of the wide-eyed hacktivist of season 1. In her exile as Quake, Daisy has chosen to narrow her scope of control exclusively to punishment — of the wicked, and of herself.
Transient, disguised, and back to living out of a van, Daisy tells Elena that all she wants is “nothing to lose.”
But as it turns out, Daisy still has plenty to lose, even if she may not believe that herself just yet. As she follows the trail of bodies and car parts to Robbie Reyes, it becomes clear that Daisy’s desires, and her fight for control, have been pointed ruthlessly inward. Obsessed with settling some slanted scale of justice, Daisy uses her powers so frequently that her own bones are splintering within her.
Daisy is breaking herself. She wants to — it is the only thing she can control.
Which makes Daisy’s violent confrontation with Robbie and Ghost Rider all the more compelling. The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 4 premiere isn’t especially gossipy about the dude with the flaming skull, but he does seem remarkably chill considering the circumstances.
Though both “have the Devil in them,” Robbie seems to have done what Daisy, despite her efforts, has not; Robbie has surrendered control.
“You don’t get to decide who deserves to die,” Daisy challenges, but Robbie has an answer.
“I’m not the one who decides.”
And he doesn’t fight the demon the breaks forth from his body, nor does he seem troubled by channeling it. Robbie observes humanity’s foibles, not as the executioner but the axe. He has the distance that Daisy desperately desires, though whether or not either one understands this yet remains to be seen.
The actual Ghost Rider, though… well, that entity may know more than he lets on. (I mean, not that he’s going to let on very much while looking like that.) Through the spirit, Robbie kills a criminal who insists that he does not deserve to die. “Everyone says that,” Robbie mutters.
Everyone but Daisy, who begs the flaming skull to end her life. “I deserve it,” she says.
And whether puzzled, impressed, or simply biding his time, Ghost Rider declines her offer.
So Daisy may think that she has found Robbie Reyes’ “attachment,” in the form of his wheelchair-bound little brother. But I can’t help but wonder if Robbie’s surrender to Ghost Rider may in fact be strengthened by that connection — that protective desire that she has turned against herself.
Meanwhile, the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team also grapples with their own desire for control throughout “The Ghost.” Coulson, who has been demoted from all-powerful leader to rank-and-file lackey, initially seems to be handling the dramatic loss of control rather well… until he’s faced with what he really wants.
May (herself fighting to assert her agency in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s latest incarnation) tips Coulson and Mack off to Daisy’s potential location, orders be damned! The pair zip off in pursuit. Mack chafes more evidently under the new regime, as his lack of control conflicts directly with his desire to be with Elena. (I’m rooting for you, Mack!)
Simmons and Fitz are also swirling in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s new order, called to divergent responsibilities. (But don’t worry, they’re still sleeping together.) Simmons, in fact, has been appointed Special Advisor to the Director, awkwardly ranking her above May in multiple strata.
But power, as we have so thoroughly learned, does not translate to control. Simmons, who has always battled to master the variables she doesn’t understand, is actually even more of a pawn than her former teammates.
Isolated in the Director’s attentions and subject to daily lie-detector tests, Simmons can’t even control her own knowledge. In the face of May’s skepticism, she digs in to the new hierarchy, hoping that the Director’s attentions will allow her to “claw a modicum of control” out of the new resident madness. At this point, that seems like a fragile hope. (Though Simmons has had good luck with bad odds in the past, so who knows?)
The Director himself remains a mystery in “The Ghost,” but it seems like the desire for control may be just as punishing a force for the man in charge as it is for his charges. Simmons describes him as “paranoid” about the organization’s recent history, and his convoluted protocols are baldfaced attempts to prevent another unforeseen disaster.
I’ll save you the trouble, dude: It’s not gonna work.
The desire for control is also what animates Fitz’s corner of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 4 premiere. Radcliffe introduces Fitz to AIDA, his totally not dangerous non-AI in a sexy body, and AIDA herself pitches her purpose: To serve as a “shield” for agents, and prevent needless deaths. Understandably (and probably to calamitous eventuality) the idea of control appeals to Fitz.
Unfortunately, due to Simmons’ aforementioned struggle with her own agency, he can’t share AIDA’s existence with his partner — adding the first chink of secrecy into their successful romantic attachment.
Finally, as it does with Daisy, escalating desires lead Coulson, Mack, and May to a confrontation that may have disastrous consequences. Following their lead on Daisy, Mack and Coulson find a group of gangsters who open a box and flip the fuck out. Their response is basically, “Gee whiz, that’s a little different!”
But with the arrival of May (sent on Simmons’ supposedly punitive decisions) the situation appears to calm down. The gangsters are subdued and taken into custody, and yay! Everything is fine.
Except that, in the spirit of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 4 premiere, it’s definitely not fine. Unleashed from the box is not a chemical or gas, but what appears to be an actual, real-live (…real-dead?) ghost.
The spirit sweeps into the gangsters’ minds, painting horrors across their vision. This would be okay, except that May appears to be affected as well; a calm moment with Coulson turns into a nightmare, but May shakes it off. Because, you know, it’s May.
But while I might be getting a little ahead of myself here, I think it’s worth a reminder that ghosts tend to be forces of pure desire. And with this crazy dead lady’s ability to control the minds of those she infects… well, it seems like Team Coulson is going to have to confront their own unmoored powerlessness before too long.
And maybe call the Ghostbusters.
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