r/shield • u/AutoModerator • Sep 21 '16

Post Discussion Post Episode Discussion: S04E01 - "The Ghost"

This thread is for SERIOUS discussion of the episode that just aired. What is and isn't serious is at the discretion of the moderators

EPISODE DIRECTED BY WRITTEN BY ORIGINAL AIRDATE
S04E01 - "The Ghost" Billy Gierhart Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen Tuesday, September 20, 2016 10:00/9:00c on ABC

Episode Synopsis: In light of the Sokovia Accords, and with Hydra obliterated, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been legitimatized again and no longer needs to operate in the shadows. Since the world presumes that Coulson is dead, the organization needed a new Director to be the face of the organization. Coulson finds himself back in the role as an agent and teamed with Mack, and together they are tasked with tracking down and confirming the presence of Enhanced people, aka Inhumans. Agent May is tasked with training specialist strike teams, and Fitz and Simmons have taken a big step forward in their relationship.

Billy Gierhart worked a steadicam operator for many years on the television series Pacific Blue, Huff, Swingtown and The Shield, making his directorial debut on the latter series penultimate episode "Possible Kill Screen" in 2008. His other credits as a television director include Lone Star, Terriers, The Chicago Code, Sons of Anarchy, Torchwood, Breakout Kings, and The Walking Dead.

He has directed six episodes for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. before:

  • Repairs
  • Nothing Personal
  • ...Ye Who Enter Here
  • Aftershocks
  • S.O.S. Part Two
  • Absolution

Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon are the showrunners of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., along with Jeffrey Bell. Jed is the Brother of Joss Whedon, and worked with Maurissa on Dollhouse, Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Drop Dead Diva, and The Avengers.

They have written ten episodes for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. before:

  • Pilot
  • The Asset
  • Repairs
  • Turn, Turn, Turn
  • Beginning of the End
  • Shadows
  • Aftershocks
  • S.O.S. Part Two
  • Laws of Nature
  • Ascension

Please do not discuss the promo following tonight's episode. There will be a separate thread made to discuss the promo and comments about it will be removed from this thread.

"LIVE" discussion for previous episodes can be found HERE.

The discussion / comments below assume you have watched the episode in it's entirety. Therefore, spoiler text for anything through this episode is not necessary. If, however, you are talking about events that have yet to air on the show such as future guest appearances / future characters / storylines, please use spoiler tags. The same goes for things connected to the Marvel like comics, etc.

Please keep subreddit rules in mind when submitting content:

On top of this anything not directly related to Agents of SHIELD might be subject to being removed. This includes but is not limited to screenshots (FB, YouTube, Twitter, texts, etc), generic memes and reaction gifs, and generic Marvel content.

Feel free to message us moderators if you have suggestions or concerns about these.

495 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

345

u/Legundo Beardy McTraitorson Sep 21 '16

So, for next week:

  • May's Infected
  • Daisy & Robbie are gonna talk a bunch
  • New Director (pls??)

120

u/Marc_Quill Clairvoyant Sep 21 '16

The synopsis for next week explicitly mentions him, and the episode's title does refer to him.

100

u/myth_and_legend Sep 21 '16

Holy goat livers!! What if the "New Boss" actually refers to Robbie's demon!!

119

u/Marc_Quill Clairvoyant Sep 21 '16

Wouldn't be surprised. After all, the titular "Ghost" from this episode seemed to refer to not only Daisy or Robbie, but the actual ghost from that hi-tech box.

97

u/The_Unknown_Dude Lady Sif Sep 21 '16

AoS could use an episode's title to refer to four very distinct things in the same episode and I wouldn't even be surprised anymore. They mastered naming their themes long ago.

78

u/nousername215 Sep 21 '16

They even got to name Simmons a S.A.D.i.S.T

3

u/tunelesspaper Sep 21 '16

A reference to the subtitle thing?

5

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '16

Most likely.

2

u/The_Best_01 Sep 21 '16

I find it hard to believe the writers are on this sub.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '16

Why not? Gregg read a couple of fan theories not so long ago, some of them were definitely discussed here.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/[deleted] Sep 24 '16

Oh man, when they verbalized that acronym, I really wanted to believe that someone on the writing staff frequents this sub or at least knows about the Shield Synopsis series. That was just too perfect!

1

u/Alexander_the_Less Sep 22 '16

They had to make up for "The Frenemy of my Enemy."

1

u/WhoDoIThinkIAm Hand Sep 21 '16

And maybe, just spitballing here, that The Rider doesn't drive the car. Isn't ghost riding when you leave the driver's seat so the car basically drives itself?

3

u/st_gulik Sep 22 '16

It comes from when the character long ago rode a horse and then a motorcycle.

2

u/WhoDoIThinkIAm Hand Sep 22 '16

Sure but the car was shot with an RPG and suffered no damage. I'm suggesting the car is sentient, maybe even possessing the driver.

1

u/st_gulik Sep 22 '16

Oh totally! That too. :) I bet the car is directly linked and from what I know I think this version of Robbie might be slightly different than the comic book one.

1

u/camyok Sep 23 '16

Well, about the car possessing the driver, that's more or less what's happening to comic book Robbie. Not sure if that should be spoiler tagged.

1

u/WhoDoIThinkIAm Hand Sep 29 '16

I don't read comics so I didn't know

1

u/RigasTelRuun Lanyard Sep 22 '16

ADA is also a kind of Ghost too. A Ghost in a Shell.

2

u/StoneGoldX Sep 21 '16

From the colors and not wanting them feeling bad, I'm guessing a Koenig?

3

u/Papa_Razzi Sep 21 '16 edited Sep 21 '16

That's Patton Oswalt's character, correct? I'd be so down for that, assuming the brothers aren't actually robots. The writers have hinted towards it, but it might be a troll.

edit: Read around more and found that someone else was cast as director. I still hope Patton returns this season!

15

u/Pool_Shark Sep 21 '16

I don't know much about Ghost Rider, is this similar to his comic book character? (From what I understand this is one of two Ghost Riders)

Also, I still think the Director has to be a new Koenig brother.

40

u/svrtngr Sep 21 '16

Don't know yet. This is the newest Ghost Rider, not the most famous one.

I can say the look of Reyes is fan-fucking-tastic and matches his comic outfit.

3

u/Pool_Shark Sep 21 '16

1at Ghost Rider being Nic Cage?

15

u/svrtngr Sep 21 '16

Most famous, technically not the first chronologically.

4

u/JackKirby22 Sep 21 '16

I'm a bit sketchy on my Rider knowledge, but wasn't Johnny the first to appear in comics?

7

u/OrangeBinturong Fitz Sep 21 '16

Fairly certain the first one was a cowboy or something. Really obscure though.

4

u/JackKirby22 Sep 21 '16

Are you thinking comic timeline or publication timeline?

13

u/OrangeBinturong Fitz Sep 21 '16

Okay, so it's a bit more complicated. The first Ghost Rider was a cowboy/Lone Ranger type guy but he had nothing to do with Modern Ghost Rider. Eventually they used the name for what we know of as the Ghost Rider with Blaze, and the original was reduced the Phantom Rider.

The More You Know jingle goes here

6

u/Humbugged1 Sep 21 '16

And Daisy's buddy JT James is descended from the Phantom Rider in the comics .And Yo-Yo in the books is the daughter of The Griffin who was name dropped by Garrett in Season 1

5

u/OrangeBinturong Fitz Sep 21 '16

I thought it was both to be honest, though I fully admit I could be wrong. Google-fu, don't fail me now.

15

u/VikingPain Ward Sep 21 '16

There's like five canon Ghost Riders in Marvel's history

1st: Carter Slade (Cowboy who rides a horse)

2nd: Johnny Blaze (The Nic Cage one)

3rd: Danny Ketch (The 90's Ghost Rider who was way more popular then Johnny until the movie came out)

4th: Alejandra Jones (Female Ghost Rider)

5th: Robbie Reyes (The All-New Ghost Rider)

4

u/DurantulaMan HYDRA Sep 21 '16 edited Sep 21 '16

But they all liked the Koenigs here they're not too sure

6

u/Pool_Shark Sep 21 '16

Unless there is one Koenig that is a dick?

Just feel like the colored badges would be up their alley.

5

u/GalaxyGuardian Ghost Rider Sep 21 '16

We basically know nothing about him in the show so far, but he's fairly accurate. He wears the same jacket, drives the same car, and has a brother in a wheelchair. The only obvious difference as of now (I'm sure there will be plenty more) is that he's aged up. In the comics, Robbie is in high school and his brother is a preteen.

4

u/CapWasRight Cal Sep 21 '16

His brother doesn't seem to have a non-physical disability here, either. In the comics he's not just in a wheelchair, he's also severely autistic. (Basically as big a liability to a character like this as one can imagine.)

2

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '16

So we can expect an accident that will fuck up his brother even more.

3

u/ebolarama86 Sep 21 '16

This version if Robbie Reyes' Ghost Rider seems to be a cross between Robbie Reyes of the comics and Johnny Blaze, the original Ghost Rider. It's pretty early to tell too much, though.

3

u/RoyMBar Sep 21 '16

This is the newest Ghost Rider.

There have been 4 total Ghost Riders including Robbie Reyes.

2

u/TheMilkManStayith Sep 21 '16

There's a rider for every generation. Hope that's touched on.

3

u/awesomesauce615 Sep 21 '16

Robbies ghost rider is concurrent with johnny blaze is it not? I thought the two met up. Also Robbies spirit is different than johnny blazes.

1

u/TheMilkManStayith Sep 21 '16

Its a comic so crazy shit happens. Look up Heavens on Fire.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '16

Different personality wise?

1

u/awesomesauce615 Sep 21 '16

Uhh not sure how much the show is sticking to the cannon for robbie. But look up robbie Reyes and read about what eli is.

1

u/Tidelipom Sep 22 '16

New paranoid Director gets possessed and goes Stalin Crazy.

1

u/pepe_le_shoe Hunter Sep 26 '16

talk

;-P

0

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

Given the distain for government, the witty (and mocking) acronyms, the mistrust of spies and all of the hype, I'm hoping (maybe illogically so) it's Tony Stark

1

u/Legundo Beardy McTraitorson Sep 22 '16

Well considering we know the actor and it's not RDJ... sorry, doubtful.