“Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire” is episode four of season four of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
In the previous episode, “Uprising”, the new S.H.I.E.L.D. revealed itself to the public again, as the organisation that stopped the EMP attacks on major cities around the world. As expected, these attacks were not down to Inhumans, but were a false flag operation run by the Watchdogs, who now appear to be global in nature and have access to some cutting-edge technology. Plus, the support of a senator, Ellen Nadeer, who, although she blamed the Inhumans for the attacks even afterwards, would appear to have helped do them herself. Her motivation would appear to be a brother who would appear to have been turned into a black statue by terrigen mist, and was presumably a normal human (has said brother actually appeared before?).
Daisy and Robbie Reyes, the Ghost Rider, were going to see his uncle, a former employee of Momentum Alternative Energy, in prison but, before, they could do so, got derailed by an EMP attack on LA. Robbie’s brother Gabe warned Daisy away, saying that he would reveal her identity as Quake if she didn’t leave Robbie alone; Gabe says that Robbie needs good people around him and Daisy doesn’t qualify. May was healed of the effect the ghost had on her by Simmons and Dr Radcliffe; an EMP attack during a critical point in the process resulted in Radcliffe digging out a shielded energy source – probably from Aida. Aida is being kept secret from Simmons (Fitz decided that she couldn’t know about Aida in “The Ghost”, as she would have to tell Director Mace. There is a potential for problems here.
Simmons is shopping for apartments for her and Fitz, and is following up on an email about one that, she says, seems almost too good to be true. Fitz can’t come because he’s still working with Radcliffe. Simmons’ email wasn’t genuine, and when she arrives at the apartment, the lock has been broken. The email was actually from Daisy. Daisy is injured, shot by one of the Watchdogs, and she has evidence that they are hacking into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s servers, getting information on Inhuman assets, then hunting them down and killing them.
Daisy wants Simmons’ help in tracking this hack. Simmons says, because of her lie detector tests, that she can’t ‘willingly’ help a wanted fugitive. So Daisy pulls a gun on her. It did seem that Simmons was rather broadly hinting at Daisy to do this, and she certainly helps quite willingly afterwards. Simmons is probably going to have problems with the lie detector test; she’s rather skirting the boundaries here. It seems that James, who is taking the comedown from Hive’s Sway even worse than Daisy, is the next target.
May is being cared for by Aida and Radcliffe, after her cure, which involved killing her. Which she isn’t happy about when she discovers this. Fitz and Radcliffe are trying to come up with a chemical cure that’s a bit less fatal. Radcliffe is trying to see if Aida can pass for human.
Coulson goes to see Robbie’s uncle, who has a PhD in electronic engineering, in prison, to find out what happened at Momentum that made him almost kill his boss. The uncle isn’t willing to talk though. Outside the prison, Mack spots Robbie as he arrives to also talk to his uncle, so Mack and Coulson end up chasing Robbie’s Charger in Lola. Because this is a car chase in Los Angeles, of course it winds up in LA’s infamous concrete river. As Robbie’s powers come from what he calls the devil, and Coulson’s experience has been that gods are generally aliens, he thinks this may be where the Ghost Rider’s powers come from too. More is revealed about the mysterious book, called the Darkhold, that was previously mentioned.
In the season three episode “Emancipation” James used a flaming chain. Given the Ghost Rider’s fondness for this weapon, this seemed a bit of foreshadowing – and perhaps it was.