The Ghost (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)

Plot

Former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Daisy Johnson, now the vigilante "Quake", is hunting gang affiliates of the anti-Inhuman terrorist group Watchdogs in Los Angeles when members of the Aryan Brotherhood are murdered by the fiery "Ghost Rider" in front of her. Agents Phil Coulson and Mack, who were forbidden from searching for Johnson by the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D, are tipped off to her location by Agent Melinda May. They fly to Los Angeles under the guise of checking in on Inhuman asset Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez, who has signed the controversial Sokovia Accords and is now under the jurisdiction of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the United Nations.

Agent Leo Fitz visits friend and S.H.I.E.L.D. ally Holden Radcliffe, a transhumanist doctor who is on probation after previous illegal experimentation. Fitz discovers that Radcliffe has secretly transferred his artificial intelligence AIDA into a human-like body, which he intends to be the first in a line of decoys for field agents in danger. Believing Radcliffe's altruistic intentions, Fitz agrees to help him perfect Aida, and to keep her a secret from his girlfriend Agent Jemma Simmons, who is in the paranoid Director's inner circle, and takes daily lie-detector tests. Simmons realizes that Coulson and Mack are investigating Johnson, and orders May to stop them; May and her new strike force arrive to find Coulson and Mack surveilling Chinese gangsters, who they believe are potential targets of Quake.

The gangsters have bought a weapon off the Brotherhood which can help them fight against Inhumans. They open the box containing the weapon, and unleash a mystical being who turns the gangsters berserk. She secretly infects May as well, as the strike force takes out the gangsters. Johnson meets with Rodriguez, who stole medication from S.H.I.E.L.D. during their brief check with her which can help Johnson heal—her recent over use of her Inhuman abilities as Quake has been fracturing her bones. Johnson then tracks down the Ghost Rider and confronts it, but it defeats her, explaining that it only murders people that deserve to die. She thinks this should include her, but it refuses to kill her. She later sees the Ghost Rider's human form, Robbie Reyes, looking after his disabled brother Gabe.

Development

The series was renewed for a fourth season on March 3, 2016, to air at the later time of 10:00 pm. At the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con International it was revealed that the series would be adapting the character of Robbie Reyes / Ghost Rider. In September 2016, Marvel announced that the premiere episode of the season would be titled "The Ghost". The episode is written by executive producers Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, with Billy Gierhart directing. It serves as the beginning of the first "pod" of episodes for the season, subtitled Ghost Rider, and introduces a new title card for the series.

Writing

On how much more "mature" the episode is from previous episodes given the later air time, Whedon explained that ABC "haven't really ever given us a note on violence. We've cut people into pieces and hacked them up and shot people point blank in the head. Never got any notes on that. So pushing the envelope for us will be in the sexual nature". This is evidenced by the episode's opening, a "sexy" look at the character Quake getting dressed. Executive producer Jeph Loeb added, "what it does is give us the chance to tell different stories. The idea is some of the material might be more mature, there may be more grit, what we're doing might be darker. It certainly made a lot more sense when we wanted to introduce a character like Ghost Rider into this world."

Discussing Quake's mindset when the episode picks up, actress Chloe Bennet said, "She's not doing well. She's had a rough couple of years. She's taking some time and I think it's kind of her way of protecting the people that she cares about. Everyone she's gotten close to, something bad has happened to them. It's her weird, selfish way of protecting them". This, the character's assertion in the episode to Ghost Rider that she "deserves to die". Concerning the character Fitz keeping the android Aida a secret from his girlfriend Simmons, actor Iain De Caestecker said, "They're trying to maintain a healthy relationship while being secret undercover spies that have secret assignments ... it's with the best intentions, keeping stuff from her, I suppose. It's going to get interesting. Lying is a strong word. I'm just keeping stuff from" her.

Casting

In August 2016, Marvel confirmed that series regulars for the season would include the returning Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May, Bennet as Daisy Johnson / Quake, De Caestecker as Leo Fitz, Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons, and Henry Simmons as Alphonso "Mack" MacKenzie. They are joined by John Hannah as Holden Radcliffe, promoted from his third season recurring role.

When Ghost Rider was confirmed to be joining the season at Comic-Con, after months of speculation, Gabriel Luna was revealed to be cast in the role. Lorenzo James Henrie was later revealed to be cast as his younger brother Gabe Reyes. Shortly after the event, Lilli Birdsell was revealed to be cast as the mysterious Lucy. In August, Mallory Jansen was cast as the android Aida, whose artificial intelligence was briefly voiced by Amanda Rea during the third season finale.

In September 2016, Marvel confirmed that Luna, Henrie, Jansen, and Birdsell would guest star in "The Ghost", and that they would be joined by Natalia Cordova-Buckley as Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez, Briana Venskus as Agent Piper, Max Osinski as Agent Red, Ricardo Walker as Agent Prince, Edward Gelhaus as skinhead, Ian Hutton as Blondie, Blaise Miller as lab tech, Samuel Barajas as Felix, Bryan Rasmussen as warehouse manager, Wilson Ramirez as Diego, Jen Kuo Sung as Chen, and Jerry Ying as thug #1. Cordova-Buckley, Venskus, and Osinski reprise their roles from earlier in the series.

Filming and visual effects

Production for the season began on July 21, 2016, in Los Angeles. Filming for "The Ghost" was completed by August 16. The effect of Ghost Rider and his flaming skull was imitated on set by Luna wearing a hood fitted with flickering lights that could be adjusted to match different temperature fire for different situations. The skull was then produced with CGI, with Luna wearing tracking markers on his face to provide performance-reference for these sequences. The character's 1969 Dodge Charger was driven by Eric Norris for stunt work, while a CG double was used for more complex stunts: for the introduction of Ghost Rider in the car during the episode's opening sequence, the series recreates a scene from the All-New Ghost Rider comic that Robbie Reyes was introduced in, where the car is hit by a rocket, flips in the air, and lands with its Ghost Rider flames on driving towards the gang members; the flip and flames were achieved through visual effects.

Marvel Cinematic Universe tie-ins

On the mystical weapon released from the box in the episode, Whedon said, "We are introducing a different supernatural element of the MCU, which happens to coincide with the release of Doctor Strange. So that's what's in the box ... something along those lines." On how it will affect May now that she is infected by it, Wen said, "You never want May out of control. You don't want her to be paranoid." Whedon added, "You can assume that what happened to those other people might happen to her. It's not good."

Release

Promotion for the season and its premiere focused heavily on Ghost Rider, through promos and viral marketing teasers, with the season promoted as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Ghost Rider; this was later revealed to be the subtitle for the first "pod" of episodes for the season. The premiere episode was first shown at a special fan screening event held for the season on September 19, 2016, at Pacific Theatres at The Grove in Los Angeles. "The Ghost" was first aired in the United States on ABC on September 20, 2016.

Ratings

In the United States the episode received a 1.1/4 percent share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, meaning that it was seen by 1.1 percent of all households, and 4 percent of all of those watching television at the time of the broadcast. It was watched by 3.44 million viewers. This was down from previous season premieres, but average for the series. Within a week of its release, "The Ghost" had been watched by 6.24 million U.S. viewers.

Reception

Terri Schwartz of IGN scored the premiere 8 out of 10, indicating a "great" episode, and praising the introduction of Ghost Rider and subsequent darker tone which "will eventually allow [the series] to sit more comfortably beside its corporate cousins over on Netflix". Schwartz was positive about the smaller cast compared to the previous season, which meant that the episode "doesn't feel as overstuffed as it would have", and of Coulson not finding Johnson and asking her to return to S.H.I.E.L.D. straight away after the newly established status quo. Schwartz did feel that there were some "growing pains" with the transition to more mature material, particularly criticizing the "sexy" opening of the episode with Johnson because "S.H.I.E.L.D. has already done a great job establishing Daisy as a sexy character without needing to depict it in this unsubtle way. Hopefully the inclusion of more overt sexuality in the show feels a bit more organic to the show as it continues".

The A.V. Club's Alex McCown-Levy graded the episode a "B", calling it "a standard first episode back, in that it once again does a lot of table-setting, and not always in the most compelling manner". Levy felt that Ghost Rider's introduction was handled well for non-comic fans discovering the character with the show, but that the new positions of the series' main characters were more interesting and should have been focused on more. Kevin Fitzpatrick of Screen Crush said, "I'm nervous for Season 4 overall, especially if said reinvention doesn't goose the ratings like Marvel and ABC hope, but 'The Ghost' is reason enough for some casual optimism." He was positive about the new similarities to the darker series Daredevil, but felt that the series "doesn’t have the firmest handle" on Ghost Rider, either "who Reyes himself is in relation to his murderous alter-ego", or in the blend of practical and digital effects—"the finished product isn't seamless just yet". He said, "The junkyard battle with Daisy [and Ghost Rider] was an understandable highlight", and praised the episode's smaller character moments like "the moment of Daisy feeling as though she deserves to lose her life in battle, only for the Rider to silently disagree." Rob Leane at Den of Geek compared the series' new status quo to Red Dwarf VIII and called it and many of the season's storylines being set up as "pretty strong", but "nothing grabbed [his] attention" like the introduction of Ghost Rider, which Leane felt was "a complete slam-dunk". He praised the effects for Ghost Rider and his car, and Luna's performance.

Evan Valentine, writing for Collider.com, gave the episode a "good" rating of 3 stars out of 5, saying that the series "certainly benefits somewhat from taking a page from" Daredevil and Jessica Jones, highlighting the number of more mature elements in the episode's opening as "a nice introduction that shows you this may not exactly be the same show you’ve gotten to know over the years." Valentine called Robbie Reyes "satisfactory" and the Ghost Rider "where things really shined"; "ABC pretty much nail the look [of Ghost Rider], and while he's obviously been tweaked to more accurately portray this new interpretation of the Spirit of Vengeance, he looks great in motion all the same ... his car has a particularly cool scene where it transforms mid air and lands in a fiery blast." He called the Ghost Rider/Quake fight a highlight, and the latter's health issues "an interesting twist". He concluded saying, "the show still has all the flaws and strengths that [it] is known for ... [but] if you're looking to rejoin your favorite agents for another solid romp with the added twist of throwing Ghost Rider into the mix, this one's for you." Marc Buxton, also of Den of Geek, gave the episode 3.5 stars out of 5, calling it "a fun way to kick off the new season". He criticized the Ghost Rider transformation scene as "way too CGI cartoony" and negatively compared it to Grimm, but otherwise said that "Ghost Rider feels right" and much improved over the Nicolas Cage Ghost Rider films. He also criticized the opening shots of Johnson, calling them "misogynistic" and saying, "Seriously Marvel, you’re better than that."

Accolades

Comic Book Resources named "The Ghost" as the 15th best episode in 2016 among comic book-related television series.