Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD Recap: Meet The New Boss

Agents of SHIELD’s second episode this season reveals a shocking twist with the new director, as the plot of the “ghosts” thickens.

Perhaps it should have been obvious last week when the “ghost” appeared from the stolen box that seemed to drive people mad that there would be some other explanation. That explanation was not forthcoming quite so fast, but by the end of the hour it was clear these were not ghosts. This was a team of scientists, whose experiment…years ago…. had gone horribly wrong.

"May: “Move.”Coulson: “He doesn’t appear to be moving.”"

What experiment? And what happened? That we’ll have to wait for. But so far there’s the woman from the first episode who was the ringleader, Lucy. She still mostly is in charge, though her team are in various states of decay, and at least one is not even willing to listen. (Don’t worry, the thanks he gets is that he won’t survive the hour.)

The boxes they were stored in are not empty but filled with “Crystalline technology.” There’s a book called “The Darkhold” that supposedly lead to their condition, as well as the one scientist who isn’t in a box–“Joseph.” Apparently he’s the one who locked them all away and betrayed them…or at least that’s what we are lead to believe so far.

(ABC/Jennifer Clasen)

There’s a lot we’re being lead to believe it turns out, and none of it real, and all of it weird. Take Coulson’s position at SHIELD. We were lead to believe he was busted down from director due to the events of last season., Turns out it was all his idea. The busting down, the new director (Jason O’Mara in a creepily cheerful performance), this was all his idea.

"Jeffrey: “The team that trust is the team that triumphs!”"

Speaking of that new director, last week we were lead to believe that he was going to be the Utter Worst, what with the color coding, the lie detector tests and the endless bureaucracy. Turns out that’s all just a front too. Our new Director, Jeffrey, was chosen for the role because of how apple cheeked and upstanding he looked on the outside. On the inside…Well, let’s be real, we don’t actually know what even the fuck’s going on on the inside. Every Inhuman is different after all.

(ABC/Jennifer Clasen)

We learn this due to May, whose encounter with last week’s ghost have driven her off the deep end. She held it in long enough for the madness to fully form, in order for the audience to get a good look at it. She hallucinates people around her looking suspiciously like the ghosts who are escaping the box. There’s lots of indications of panicked behavior, disordered thinking and manic behavior. At this stage it’s not clear if the end stage is turning into what those ghosts are… or what.

Meanwhile, over on this week’s episode of “Ghostrider and Quake”….

"Quake: “Wow, listen to you. Take yourself seriously much?”"

Their nascent team meet cute after their throw down the night before, as Daisy keeps shaking her van until Robbie is forced to come knocking. As we know from last week, Daisy was also on the trail of the box from the lab that SHIELD wound up with, just coming from the other direction. Once Robbie sees that he freaks and drives straight there, (with Daisy in hot pursuit.)

(ABC/Jennifer Clasen)

Conveniently, Mack and Fitz are also on site, putting all four in the same room at the same time, with a melting down nuclear reactor and that stray ghost who didn’t want to follow Lucy. Robbie does him in before he can touch anyone and make them May style crazy. Daisy gets to hang out with her SHIELD crew all over again (with a nice touch of Mack putting together that she and YoYo are in cahoots).

"Fitz: “You’re an engineer Mack. And a small tank.”"

But that’s before she’s back to rejecting them and taking off with Reyes in his incredible car and the promise that whatever this mystery is, he’s directly tied into it. Robbie, I do believe this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Next: Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD Recap: “The Ghost”

As the episode closes (by the way, also with Coulson being busted down from director, he’s also been taken off of “we’ll return in a moment” end-of-the-episode button duty–the episodes also now obediently stay within their allotted hour runtime. So many changes this season. Which one will prove the one that lasts? And how in heaven’s name are we going to solve May’s insanity?