S4 of AoS has premiered – and?
Well, Brad and Angelina are divorcing, after 2 years of
marriage (and 10 years of living together). As a member of team Aniston, I am
certainly not upset; as an average person,
I do not really care either way – oh. We are talking about AoS. Never mind.
As an AoS episode, ‘The Ghost’ was a very good starter, in the
same vein that ‘Laws of Nature’, (3x01) was not.
In case people have not figured out, back in S2, AoS opened
with the action directly following the S1 finale, AoS was shaping to be a different
show, from a technical P.O.V., than how it turned out. Then they tried to
integrate Blood & Palicki, (Hunter & Morse), the plot line with Stojan
(33/Palamas) went really wonky, and starting from the second half of S2, AoS
went into a slog, to use a term from ‘Ocean’s 13’ movie. S3 tried to start
afresh, but it could not, especially post the ‘Maveth’ episode, where original
S3 ideas where intermixed with the older, S2 ideas. Basically, rather than
making S2 largely Hydra with the InHumans really coming into their own in the
finale, AoS tried to mixed InHumans and Hydra from the middle of S2, and it
didn’t work.
What did work was getting rid of both of them by S3 finale –
sort of. Obviously, since InHumans are very major part of Marvel, they are not
going away, especially since NCB (Yo-Yo) is now a major secondary character on
AoS. (Daisy does not count: she is a part of the main cast, and not just an
InHuman, period).
With Hydra, it is the same thing – as soon as it can be
useful, it will be brought back. (Alternatively, AIM will, or maybe the Secret
Empire – they all amount to the same thing, really, a shadow organization that
plans to take over the world). But for now there is no Hydra, and as for ‘generic
bad guys’? The Watchdogs, (introduced in the second half of S3) can probably do
the trick. Maybe we will see S.H.I.E.L.D.’s former agent Felix someday, but considering
that Deathlok had not appeared in S3,
the odds are against it.
This brings us to ‘The Ghost’ proper; maybe the title is
about the Ghost Rider, (who is busy being discussed all over the ‘Net by now),
or maybe about the ghost/banshee who were released out of the box in the second
plotline (you can see her; she is brief, not blurry). Either way, ‘The Ghost’
did its’ job in introducing the new major character, in reintroducing the old
characters, and in introducing new story lines.
Once more – ‘The Ghost’ is an introductory episode; it introduces,
it does not develop anything. ‘Laws
of Nature’ tried to the same thing, but between the massive placings of MCU
elements, the way that S2 has ended, and some other issues, it did not really
work. ‘Purpose in the Machine’ did: it mainly concluded S2 and started the new
S3 plotlines, primarily regarding Hive, (who looked like the villain in the old
‘Osmosis Jones’ movie, but that is irrelevant). ‘The Ghost’ does the same
thing, without the massive installment of MCU elements, and it has started anew…well, no, AoS did.
Grant Ward’s conflict with S.H.I.E.L.D. has been resolved, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s
conflict with Hydra has been resolved, Hydra’s greatest monster – Hive was
defeated, the end. AoS could honestly start anew, with new everything, except
for the main cast, unlike the S2 finale (well, duh). Now what?
Nothing. The S4 is just getting started. We saw now that
Daisy has gone rogue and vigilante, with Yo-Yo running interference between her
and S.H.I.E.L.D. (This raises the question – just how much Mack is in the loop:
by now, he and Yo-Yo are clearly in a relationship of their own). This will
allow AoS to have several plotlines and P.O.V.’s in their episodes, (they
actually did something similar with Grant & Hive in S3). We have seen the
new Ghost Rider – Robbie Reyes in action and in his entire CGI glory (and it is
a good CGI, BTW), as well as his crippled brother. We have seen all of AoS
leading ladies, (not just Daisy) in new getups, (what? We did! I do not think
there will be too many complaints regarding this – hence why AoS moved to
another time slot). We learned about the new lay of the land in S.H.I.E.L.D.
(and undoubtedly will learn more in the future episodes). And we were
introduced to the occult not just via the Ghost Rider, but via an actual ghost/banshee/spirit,
that has a magical box (Pandora?). Now S.H.I.E.L.D. will have to deal with the
occult directly, and while a visit from Dr. Strange is not very likely, (his
movie will not be aired anytime soon), S.H.I.E.L.D. will have to call in
someone to help them deal with this – and no, this isn’t the ghost of Grant
Ward – Dalton is done with AoS for now, and the ghost is a woman, from what we’ve
seen.
This actually brings us to not-a-love-machine that Radcliffe
has built and Fitz is helping to further improve. You know what, however? These
are the FitzSimmons; apparently to AoS they just have to have some sort of personal drama in their lives, so why not
Radcliffe’s robot? Maybe the ghost will fuse with it and make it an entirely
new entity, who knows? AoS is big on twists like this. We will just have to
wait until the future episode to see how it goes.
So: a very good starter episode and a good episode, with
good acting and plot overall. Let us hope that remains like this in the future,
too.
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