This week's Marvel's Agents of SHIELD contains more answers and plenty of jail-fighting action. The hunt for the Darkhold continues, and you would think sending SHIELD agents, an Inhuman, and a demon-possessed killing machine would make it an easy mission. If that were the case, we wouldn't have such an exciting episode.

Warning: Spoilers for Season 4, Episode 4 of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, "Lockup," will be discussed below.

The Darkhold Is Revealed

Lucy, the main ghost, is after the Darkhold. A flashback reveals the moment she and her husband found the "book of sins" buried in a cellar. This is the book that the Red Skull, Daniel Whitehall, and Nick Fury could not locate. The pages appear to be blank at first, but text suddenly appears in different languages for Lucy and her husband. The languages are the ones they first learned. This brings her to question if the book is actually reading them.

Lucy retrieves the book in the present day and discovers she can no longer read the pages in her ghostly state as the text has dissolved and the pages don't respond to her touch. This leads her to force Robbie Reyes' Uncle Eli to help her due to his connection with her group's original research with the book.

Ghost Rider Goes to Jail

Coulson recruited Robbie and Daisy to help them find the Darkhold. Running out of answers and time, the decision is made to visit Robbie's uncle at the penitentiary. Lucy arrived before them, and several guards and the warden have become infected. Inside the prison, Robbie sees a member of the gang responsible for the drive-by shooting that put his brother in a wheelchair. Later when Robbie and Mack are taking Eli out amidst the chaos of a prison riot, Robbie can't resist taking out the gang member.

Daisy's Last Stand

In the prison, Daisy, Coulson, and May discover several members of the anti-Inhuman group, the Watchdogs, are inside. This is where a lot of them are being recruited. When Lucy's actions caused all the prison cells to be opened, they are soon outnumbered. As the three are escaping the swarm of inmates, Daisy sets it up so Coulson and May can escape while she takes on prisoners. Daisy is unable to use her powers because they could shatter all the bones in her body. She does a great job taking them on but eventually becomes overwhelmed. Coulson and May eventually find a way back to help out Daisy. She's still carrying the guilt over Lincoln's death and didn't want their lives put at risk. May makes it clear it was a dumb move.

Simmons Takes a Lie Detector Test

Simmons reports directly to the new Director, Jeffrey Mace, and has to take mandatory lie detector tests. The problem is, she's learned several things being kept from him, such as Coulson working with Daisy, Ghost Rider's existence, thelife model decoy Dr. Radcliffe created, and the ghosts that are on the loose. Asked if she ever withheld vital information from the Director, the test begins to detect her reluctance to answer. Mace pulls her out just then because he needs her expertise for a press conference. Afterwards she's told she needs to complete the testing process. She lays out to the Director that she is aware he told a lie about a heroic moment from his past. She suggests taking a lie detector test could force her to reveal the truth about him. Forced into a corner, Mace decides she no longer is required to take the mandatory tests.

Jeffrey Mace's Big Revelation During Press Conference

The Director's press conference involves several hard-hitting questions from Senator Nadeer. As a supporter of the Humans First movement, her concern is SHIELD is not doing its job against the threat of Inhumans. She questions his qualifications in being the right person for the role of Director and dealing with the Inhumans. Mace decides to reveal to the world he is an Inhuman. Luckily the approval ratings in the polls were in his favor.

Mace does secretly meet with Nadeer later. She has footage from the prison showing SHIELD working with Quake, a wanted fugitive. She also mentions evidence of SHIELD working with a flaming killer who murdered a model inmate. When she informs Mace of her plans to leak the footage, he asks her what she wants in order to change her mind.

Our Thoughts

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With Jeffrey Mace revealed he was an Inhuman, it appeared he's trying to be completely honest with the public. Simmons mentioned he was hiding something and Coulson doesn't fully trust him. We'll have to wait to see what sort of agreement he'll reach with the senator.

We're getting more answers about the Darkhold, but there's still a lot we don't know. It's not clear what Ghost Rider's connection to it is. He is able to kill the ghosts but has mentioned several times he made a "deal with the devil." It's also unclear how exactly Eli is involved with the project at the Momentum facility. He was not transformed into a ghost like the others. By helping Lucy at the end, will he turn into one?

We had a nice Easter egg when Lucy and her husband found the buried Darkhold. A poster was seen for Quentin Carnival. This is where, in the comics, the original Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, performed as a motorcycle stunt driver. This was likely included as a nod towards the comics but not necessarily proof that there is any connection to the original Ghost Rider.

Anyone else curious how Robbie earlier said that it's not him who decides who lives and dies, yet every time he goes Ghost Rider, it's been nothing but HIM and what he wants.

Is there any GR spirit in him or is it just him really deciding who lives and dies?

Like with Watchdogs in his first appearance?)

Family home of the guy who killed the last owner of the Darkhold, a cellar full of motorcycle parts, chains and leather jackets... I don't think we're getting another Ghost Rider on Shield this season, but if they make a Ghost Rider show, and you bet they are considering it, there is a good chance to see Johnny as an recurring character on it.

I loved Coulson finally using his shield again, albeit when he hit the guard with it, that didn't look like it would knock a person out.

Wonder who bothered to order a hit on Robbie and Gabe, with Josef in a coma and Lucy in a box it seems like the likely candidates who would do so to get to Eli can't have been behind it.

Also still counting on Eli to be this seasons first traitor, the way he left his cell immediately when he heard about Lucy having the book and his expression using it...

@dark_stranger said:

Guess we might find out next episode, the promo promises his origin.

@stahlflamme: Seeing as how he's an evil mofo in the comics, I'm thinking it's Eli that ordered the hit for whatever reason.

Good episode overall, although I'm getting a little tired of Daisy's "I hate life" attitude.

Still not convinced that the Darkhold or Ghost Rider will turn out to be legitimately supernatural. And Daisy may be well trained, but it's a stretch to think she could hold her own against a couple dozen hardened cons without using her powers.

As near as I can tell, when the GR spirit "senses" people who need to be punished, he tries to emerge. Robbie can (sometimes) suppress him, but the GR's urge for vengeance is still there. That's what he means when he says he "doesn't decide who lives or dies." Robbie has limited access to some GR's powers (heat conduction, strength) in his human form, but once the full transformation to GR is complete, the "spirit" takes over and Robbie is basically a passenger.

If he did, he probably did it to purposefully make him into the Ghost Rider in some way. Yeah, its also not much development on that front she tried "getting heroically killed" for the third or fourth time now, but there wasn't really much of a change. Girl needs therapy, but I don't need her to get another therapy session on screen. Unless it is with Doc Samson and he becomes a reoccurring buffed up gamma mutate shortly thereafter, maybe.

If that's the case, then GR should have fried all of those prisoners, when Robbie went full GR.

But he didn't. Instead he just left them alone and walked off.

Which doesn't make sense if there is a "spirit" within Robbie, that seeks vengeance against those who deserve it. Rather everything we see is Robbie and what he wants an decides to do.

An it's making me think that AoS is keeping somewhat in line with the comics, in the Robbie is a faux GR, rather than the real deal.

This season has been great so far. Why cant DC make shows like this?

Less eye make up daisy! Jesus!

Angst = eye shadow and eye liner? I thought you weren't in high school. Grow the **** up.