Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. hits the halfway point of its season with "The Laws of Inferno Dynamics" which wraps up the extended arc featuring Ghost Rider with a final confrontation between S.H.I.E.L.D. and Robbie Reyes (Gabriel Luna) and the increasingly powerful Eli Morrow (José Zúñiga). The dire situation does call for S.H.I.E.L.D. to put all its meta-human resources in the field, and while Daisy (Chloe Bennet), Yo-Yo (Natalia Cordova-Buckley), and the Director (Jason O'Mara) each have a part to play, in the end it comes down to Coulson (Clark Gregg) buying Robbie enough time to end the situation. The episode also has a odd piece of fan service with a mention of Ghost Rider's previous host, which doesn't seem to track with S.H.I.E.L.D. not knowing (and not believing) the truth about how Robbie's powers work for almost the entire season. While a nice nod to fans, the scene seems completely out of place (as does the team's bitch session about their boss in the middle for prepping to save Los Angeles from nuclear destruction).
I understand Marvel going to a season split with smaller individual arcs, but the opening arc to the season wasn't exactly flawless. Dragging in several spots, I'm not sure attempting to follow the Netflix formula is what is ultimately best for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The mid-season finale does wrap-up some lingering issues by getting the team (at least temporarily) on-board with trusting the Director, bringing Daisy back into the fold as an official agent, and setting up what appears to be another extended arc following the show's winter hiatus centering on Aida (Mallory Jansen), who seems to have gone from invaluable asset to super-villain in a remarkably short period of time. Unlike this first arc, I'm hoping the back-end of the season builds in some breathing room and some strong individual episodes as the show's attempt to string together so many episodes in the front-end met with mixed success.
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