This episode had some good moments and set up the second half of the season pretty well. But it was pretty slow for the first half. Eli was doing something evil. The team spent a good portion of the time complaining about Director Mace. And Robbie got stuck in a box.
So it’s a bit more complicated than that. Eli was creating a bomb using his newfound powers. The SHIELD team is sent in to fix it. Coulson manages to convince Mace that they need to use Daisy, Robbie, and Yoyo on this mission. The so called “big guns.” The only issue is that Daisy and Robbie can’t be seen by the swarms of news people. After Yoyo goes into recon, she sets off a flaming booby trap.
Next up: Robbie, who is impervious to fire. Unfortunately, his Uncle Eli doesn’t seem to be feeling any familial love, and stabs him through the chest with a carbon spear not once, but twice. Robbie doesn’t die because of his Ghost Rider companion. But he is stuck so onto…
Coulson? Yeah, Coulson goes in to talk with Eli. He tells him what Fitz figured out. The laws of physics haven’t been changed, and matter can neither be created nor destroyed. Eli has been stealing energy from the hell dimension that Coulson, Fitz, and Robbie were stuck in last time. This puts a damper on Eli’s mood because as it turns out, he hasn’t accomplished something godlike (debatable, but he was certainly disappointed).
Then everyone gets in on the action. Mace, Mack, and Yoyo run into the room with the bomb and Yoyo shoves Eli inside the bomb box with Robbie. They take out all the guards and Coulson attempts to pull Robbie out of the box using a chain. But in the end, Robbie chooses to let go of the chain in order to hold Eli in the box. Aida, Daisy, Fitz, and Simmons made a portal to transport the bomb to the Hell dimension. And the portal works, sending the bomb, Robbie, and Eli to who knows where. I really hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Robbie Reyes. But with the somewhat disappointing defeat of the main antagonist, Eli, the Ghost Rider’s revenge arc has at least come to a close.
In the process of making the portal, Aida gets shot revealing that she can feel pain. That did a lot to make viewers sympathetic to her character. Especially considering that it’s then revealed Aida has taken the real Melinda May captive (the one opening a celebratory bottle with Coulson is another Android). Aida kills a SHIELD agent to protect this secret. Aida’s clearly being set up as the second half of season 4’s main antagonist. I still hope she gets a redemption arc. After all, she didn’t kill May, so she clearly has some sense of right and wrong.
Meanwhile Daisy is officially back at SHIELD (finally). Mace came through and told the public that she had been working for them the whole time, undercover. Mace has definitely improved over the season from a mysterious, somewhat skeevy guy to a member of the team. Hopefully, that continues. More Mace and Coulson conflict would be tiring at this point.
By far the most important part of this episode was that Mack and Yoyo finally kiss. Thank God. Hopefully, this means more Yoyo in episodes to come. We’ll have to wait and see until Agents of SHIELD returns.