"Scientifically impossible self-healing car."
Full spoilers for Marvel's Agents of SHIELD continue below.
Several weeks after Doctor Strange's release, we finally got the payoff for Agents of SHIELD's latest Marvel movie tie-in: Fitz, Coulson and Robbie were sucked into a space between dimensions, playing off the exploration of the multiverse in Doctor Strange.
It's one of the more organic crossover concepts for the show, and worked well as the show continues to muddy the lines between science and the supernatural. That continued to be a theme in this episode, as man of faith Mack got possessed by the Ghost Rider (such a cool twist) and Aida read the Darkhold.
First: the Ghost Rider of it all. With Robbie in an almost-alternate dimension, the Rider didn't want to stay separate from his quest for vengeance. That led him to possess Mack for a brief period of time -- and goodness but Mack, Spirit of Vengeance was fun. We get a hint of some of his anger at the end of the episode when we see him holding a piece of paper that says "Hope" and the date (I think?) 4/18/06. Given his and Robbie's team-up at the end of the episode, chances are we're going to find out a lot more about the meaning behind what's on that paper soon.
But beyond the Ghost Rider of it all, the real conflict raised in this episode was with the Darkhold. The second they showed the book to Radcliffe, did anyone else have mental warning alarms screaming: "This is a terrible idea!" And of course once Aida was chosen as the best (read: only) person to do the job, it was clear there wasn't a lot of forethought in that decision. Yes she can read the Darkhold, but it certainly will advance her in unforeseen ways.
The kicker with her seemingly reconfiguring her own mind sets up potentially bad events in the future (think Ultron) but I don't think Agents of SHIELD is that obvious. My hope is that we see Aida become that ally, that shield, she was designed to be except now with her own agency instead of being controlled by Radcliffe.
The parallel depictions of life playing out in the normal world and in the space between dimensions was a great storytelling device, and was a nice bait-and-switch partway through the episode after wondering when the show would reveal where Coulson, Fitz and Robbie went. What a good idea to have them there all along, albeit seeing the world from a different perspective -- and another chance to further explore the Coulson/May relationship clearly being developed.
It's also worth noting Simmons' side adventure when she helped hatch Senator Nadeer's Inhuman brother, though it's unclear where that story is going to go. What is clear is that Mace's expected balance of power with Nadeer isn't what he thought it would be, which could be bad news going forward.
An aside: I try to review TV shows removed from when and how they air, but I did want to note that it's a real shame this Agents of SHIELD episode aired four weeks after the last episode's big cliffhanger. It really killed the momentum of watching the show live, which is only going to carry over into next week's midseason finale. The SHIELD team doesn't have any control over when the network chooses to air them, but the delay didn't help elevate this episode.
The Verdict
Agents of SHIELD neatly tied up its Doctor Strange tie-in storyline with some unexpected results: Mack becoming the Ghost Rider briefly and Aida developing new cognitive abilities thanks to the Darkhold. "Deal with Our Devils" suffered because of the long hiatus between the last episode and this one, but seems to be setting up a strong midseason finale next week.
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