Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – The Good Samaritan Review

On this week’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., many burning questions from the beginning of the season were answered. It was also revealed that “The Good Samaritan” might just be the devil. The line between good and evil sure has been blurred this season. This episode had two main parts, the present and “back in the day." I’m not really sure how far back we’re talking, but it was far enough. The first scene was at Momentum Energy Lab, where Robbie’s uncle, Eli, was working with Lucy and her husband in the lab with the Darkhold book. They were just working away, playing God, when Eli decided he didn’t want to play nice anymore. Lucy decided to put in a hit on Eli, but as it usually happens with these kinds of things, Robbie was driving Eli’s Charger when the gang decided to attack. Robbie and his brother Gabe were left for dead, but the “good Samaritan” showed up to save them. Well this Samaritan wasn’t actually so good. Robbie explained that it was actually the devil who heard his plea for another chance at life, and he got it, but he also got Ghost Rider. Eli didn’t die, so he continued to work at the lab, where it turned out he wanted to play God. The whole time he made it sound like he was trying to stop Lucy, but he really wanted the power for himself. Nice guy that Eli. I’m a little bit confused about that whole thing. If Eli was the one who turned Lucy into a ghost, why did she go to break him out of prison? I guess she thought he could change her back into a person, but I wouldn’t have risked him getting this power that he could literally create anything with. Maybe that’s just me. Anyway, of course Robbie didn’t know any of this and then promptly killed Lucy after he found out. I’m also a little confused about how much control he has over Ghost Rider. In the instances where he’s killed someone, it seemed more like an addiction than a complete loss of control, like it was with Lash. It looked like he sort of considered not doing it, but the temptation has always been too strong. It has definitely been interesting learning more about Ghost Rider. I also wonder if he could pass on his power in the same way that this “good Samaritan” passed it on to him or maybe he’s just stuck with it forever. During this whole mission, Robbie came clean about everything to his brother Gabe, who was pretty disturbed by the whole thing. Also, even though Robbie made a deal with the devil to live, I’m not sure how Gabe survived that crash at all. He was shot multiple times and crushed inside a car. That did not look great. At the end of the episode, Eli got his wish and put himself in the power chamber to become a god, which sent off a shock wave. This left the fate of Robbie, Fitz, and Coulson unknown. Hopefully they didn’t go all ghost on us. Now that Eli is a supervillain, he can just create matter in the palm of his hand. It will be interested to see what exactly that means. They just kept saying they could create something out of nothing, but I’m not sure how complex are we talking here.

Final Thoughts:

- It was a good episode, but I was expecting more from the Ghost Rider origin story. It pretty much happened exactly how I imagined it. - Fitz better be okay, or I’m going to lose it. The whole episode he was complaining about not knowing where Simmons is and now this. I can’t take another separation. - I loved the little Peggy Carter reference, but it made me sad to remember that it’s not returning. I guess I’ll have to survive from these little kernels of reference. - I liked the twist that Eli is the actual bad guy, definitely wasn’t expecting that. - I still love Mack and Fitz’s friendship. They continue to have my favorite dialogue in any given episode. As it usually happens with cliffhanger episodes, we will have to wait a while until we get any answers. The next Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. airs Nov. 29, so we’ll just have to wait to see what happens next. Leave your predictions in the comments below.