Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Deals with Our Devils Review

After a few weeks off, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. came back with a vengeance in “Deals with Our Devils." The team was divided by different dimensions, but they had the same goal in mind - figure out how to get everyone back on the same playing field, while getting Eli under control. Let’s see how they did. The episode picked up right where things left off with the energy plant “explosion” having just gone off, but as Mack pointed out, there wasn’t really an explosion. Everything seemed fine, well aside from the fact that Coulson, Fitz, and Robbie were missing. May and Mack looked around trying to figure it out, but they had bigger problems with Eli on the loose with his new powers. He summoned pure carbon and killed two agents and made a run for it. That was all we saw of Eli this episode, but it won’t be the last of him. The new director quickly (some would say too quickly) considered Fitz, Coulson, and Robbie to be dead. The others were not as easily convinced and who could blame them? So many team members have looked death in the face and returned and let’s not forget Simmons was literally stranded on another planet and she managed to find her way back. A little multi-dimensional stuff should be easy. After that first commercial break, things really started to get interesting. The whole first act was repeated only this time from the perspective of the lost team members, Fitz, Coulson, and Robbie. Yup, it was a multiple point-of-view episode and I wasn’t mad at it. I really appreciate when shows mix up their storytelling tactics. Fitz realized what was happening almost immediately. They were stuck in between two dimensions so no one could see or communicate with them. It was frustrating seeing the ghostly members of the team yelling at the rest of the team trying to get their attention. All was not well with Robbie though, he started feeling sick and was freezing. As soon as he mentioned he was cold, I knew something was up. The Ghost Rider demon was trying to escape and escape he did, right into Mack. The first order of business for Ghost Rider Mack was to find the gang that helped transport the boxes from one of the very first episodes this season. He ran off on Robbie’s motorcycle and a bewildered Daisy quickly followed in Robbie’s car, with other dimension Robbie riding shotgun. Dr. Radcliffe was called in to help figure things out and of course he brought his new assistant Aida. May suggested reading the Darkhold book, but Radcliffe (rightfully) deemed it too dangerous. However, Aida, not being human, was able to lend a hand. She read/downloaded the pages and quickly made a portal to another dimension. Coulson and Fitz made it though first, but Robbie was too busy trying to get his demon back from Mack to return. Robbie had a heart-to-heart with the Ghost Rider (now in Mack’s body). Robbie promised that he will help the Ghost Rider settle all of his debts if he lets Mack finish this thing with his uncle. The Ghost Rider said something about Mack being the perfect host because he was in pain, but he made the switch back to Robbie and Robbie eventually found his way back to the portal. By the end, everyone was back where they needed to be, but they weren’t any closer to finding Eli. The third storyline this week was Simmon’s secret mission. She was sent to a mysterious location to help an unnamed person through Terrigenesis. Apparently, he had been trying to transform for months, but couldn’t break through. Simmons arrived and lowered his heart rate by being friendly and his shell started to crack. That was kind of strange, did they really need Simmons for that? They should have just played him some soothing music. As soon as the coating started to crack Simmons was whisked away to be reunited with Fitz, thank goodness. Their relationship is still one of my favorites on the show. I just want them to stop being separated! At the very end, Aida was in her lab and it looked like, thanks to the Darkhold, she might be figuring out how to build herself a brain. I can’t see that going wrong at all. Yikes. They definitely should have wiped her memory after she read that demonic book.

Final Thoughts:

- Overall it was a strong episode with interesting storytelling, even if nothing really happened. I mean it didn’t REALLY move the plot forward at all. We just learned that Aida is an asset, well for now. - It was cool to see Mack with Ghost Rider abilities, but it didn’t exactly make sense. His situation was much less dire than when Robbie made his deal with the devil. I didn’t know the demon could just jump bodies like that. - Most of the time the team is just trying to recover from the previous episode. It seemed like Eli could have done a lot of damage in the time it took for them to get the team all back in the same dimension. Next week is the winter finale and I just hope it doesn’t end with Fitz and Simmons being separated. The only way to find out is to watch next week at 10/9c on ABC!