Agents of SHIELD “Lockup” sees the team going into the prison to retrieve Eli Morrow, Robbie’s uncle. It also follows Jemma’s worry about the polygraph and the actual test. Lucy is going through the prison like a dose of salts in her search for Eli and the new head of SHIELD has something going on with Senator Nadeer.
This season has a lot going on. Daisy’s short-term rejoining of SHIELD, Robbie Reyes as a player on Phil’s team and the startling revelation that Mace is not the inhuman he makes himself out to be.
Jeffery may be something more. Like Phil Coulson, the man he took over from, Mace is apparently not adverse to “working with the enemy.” Nadeer is clearly the baddie in this scenario and Mace’s little chat revealed that they have been working together for some time.
The Senator blinked when the new leader of SHIELD dropped his bombshell. Like the rest of this episode, this storyline was about secrets. Mace has one a number apparently. Jemma used one of the new boss’s to stop the polygraph so she could keep her secret.
Before all the power plays between Mace, Nadeer and Simmons, Phil and his team enter the prison to release Eli. Lucy manages to keep everyone busy by opening up the Watchdogs’ cell doors. Coulson and the rest of his SHIELD team, May and Chloe, rush to get out of harm’s way.
They have a running fight with their enemies and Chloe purposefully stays back to fight the Watchdogs and does very well for quite a while. Just as she begins losing, to the point where she may well die, Phil and May return to help out.
Meanwhile Mack is teamed up with Robbie Reyes. As they search for Eli, the Ghost Rider gets distracted by certain inmates. His need for revenge puts the mission at risk.
On the way to Eli’s cell, two of Lucy’s ghostly team attack Robbie and Mack. Even when he is not in Ghost Rider form, Reyes can kill the ethereal villains.
The line of the episode goes to Mack who murmurs “ghost busted” when Reyes kills the first ghost. The second comes in contact with the big man and he has to inject himself.
Mack reminds his colleague what they are there for and they eventually find Reyes’ uncle. They explain that Lucy has the Darkhold and Eli agrees to help them out.
Before the recovery of Morrow, Mace has a televised debate with Nadeer. Jemma feeds the director of SHIELD information to help him defeat the senator.
Towards the end of the debate, Jefferey Mace goes off script and reveals that he is an Inhuman.
Back at the prison Robbie lets his inner Ghost Rider out and while he punishes another gang member Eli is taken by Lucy. Later, Phil and his crew see Eli being put in an ambulance.
Jemma comes within a gnat’s whisker of being fired but she uses a little bit of blackmail to retain her position. By the end of the episode Eli reads the Darkhold and seems to have come under its spell.
There were a number of secrets revealed in this episode. May’s seeing Phil Coulson when she died was yet another hidden morsel revealed in the show. The catchphrase of the episode was “Taco Tuesday” and it was made abundantly clear that Robbie Reyes does not play well with others.
Director Mace may or may not have some sort of hidden agenda and that book will obviously work as a tie-in to the latest Marvel big screen treat, Doctor Strange.
It is going to be interesting to see where things go in the organization now that Jemma knows that Mace is not completely upfront. Another issue will be Robbie’s inability to follow orders.
Agents of SHIELD airs Tuesdays on ABC.
CAST:
- Clark Gregg – Phil Coulson
- Ming-Na Wen – Melinda May
- Chloe Bennet – Daisy ‘Skye’ Johnson, aka Quake
- Elizabeth Henstridge – Jemma Simmons
- Iain De Caestecker – Leo Fitz
- Henry Simmons – Alphonso ‘Mack’ Mackenzie
- Natalia Cordova-Buckley – Elena ‘Yo-Yo’ Rodriguez
- John Hannah – Holden Radcliffe
- Gabriel Luna – Ghost Rider. aka Robbie Reyes
- Jason O’Mara – Jeffery Mace
- Mallory Jansen – Aida
- Axle Whitehead – James
- Parmander Nagra – Senator Rota Nadeer
- Lilli Birdsell – Lucy Buar
- José Zúñiga – Eli Morrow
