AGENTS OF
S.H.I.E.L.D. S4

A NEW TIME SLOT

TUESDAY AT 10 P.M., A DARKER TONE AND A NEW GHOST RIDER

The fourth season began on 20 September 2016 and ran 22 episodes to 16 May 2017. It arrived in a new hour. In May 2016 ABC expanded its Tuesday comedy block to two hours, which moved Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to 10 p.m., a time period in which network executives had a hard time finding a drama that sticks.

At the Comic-Con panel on 22 July 2016, the show confirmed it was relocating to that 10 p.m. timeslot and adopting a darker aesthetic, and that the fall premiere would bring Life Model Decoys into the Marvel Cinematic Universe storyline. Producer Jed Whedon, asked about Hunter and Bobbi’s return after the cancellation of the Most Wanted spinoff, said it was “definitely classified … but keep watching.”

THREE STORIES IN ONE SEASON

JED WHEDON AND JEFFREY BELL SPLIT THE SEASON INTO PODS

The season was built as three “pods”: Ghost Rider for episodes 1 to 8, Life Model Decoy for episodes 9 to 15 and Agents of Hydra for episodes 16 to 22. In an interview with Whedon and Jeffrey Bell published on 7 December 2016, as the first pod ended, Whedon put the idea simply: “We’re breaking it into smaller chunks, so that we try to make it feel different.”

Bell tied the structure to the practical demands of a 22-episode season, and mentioned financial considerations and the challenge of balancing storylines. Asked whether Robbie Reyes’s story was over, Whedon said he was “trapped in another place, which usually means that he’s not dead.” Bell also pointed to the Darkhold as the link to the film Doctor Strange, which let the show handle mystical material through a scientific frame.

In February 2017 it was announced that the final arc would resume in April.

THE SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE

ROBBIE REYES RIDES INTO THE SERIES

Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb announced Gabriel Luna as Robbie Reyes, the Ghost Rider, at San Diego Comic-Con on 22 July 2016. Loeb said the season would unquestionably be “the series’ biggest, most ambitious story yet.” Luna was known for Wicked City and True Detective.

Daisy meets Reyes, a vengeful spirit-powered anti-hero, while investigating the Watchdogs, and they team up against Reyes’s uncle Eli Morrow, who weaponises the Darkhold. The Ghost Rider pod ends with Reyes pulled into a portal after using his powers to stop Eli from escaping.

DECOYS AND A VIRTUAL WORLD

AIDA, THE DECOY POD AND WARD’S RETURN IN THE FRAMEWORK

The second pod turns on Radcliffe’s creation. The scientist Holden Radcliffe creates Life Model Decoys, and AIDA, an LMD herself, becomes sentient and replaces key agents with android duplicates. Mallory Jansen played AIDA, and John Hannah was promoted to the main cast as Radcliffe.

The final pod sends the team into the Framework, a digital simulation in which Hydra prevailed, where Coulson is a schoolteacher and Fitz, May and Daisy all work at Hydra. On 21 February 2017 Brett Dalton was confirmed to return as Grant Ward in that storyline, with Jed Whedon explaining the decision.

“We wanted to have Brett back. We missed him.”

Jed Whedon, February 2017

THE REWATCH

SERIES-LOW RATINGS, A SEASON 5 RENEWAL AND A 96% SEASON SCORE

The ratings kept falling. The episode of 18 October 2016 drew 2.3 million viewers and a 0.7 rating among adults 18 to 49, both series lows, and finished a distant third in its time slot. The finale on 16 May 2017 drew 2.08 million viewers and a 0.7 rating, holding steady for a fourth week, and it was the show’s last Tuesday episode before a move to another night. The season averaged 2.35 million viewers and a 0.74 rating, down 32% and 37% from Season 3.

ABC renewed the show for a fifth season on 11 May 2017. TV Guide’s Kaitlin Thomas described the fourth season as one that “dipped in the ratings but was creatively much stronger.” The season ends with the team escaping the Framework only to be abducted by an unknown organization, which sets up Season 5.

Rotten Tomatoes lists a 96% critics’ score from 25 reviews and a 94% audience score, and its consensus says the season “explores darker territory” with “the thrilling introduction of Ghost Rider.” For the Marvel Marathon it sits in the Marvel TV shows in order guide between WHIH Newsfront Season 2 and Luke Cage Season 1. It is classed as Marvel Television rather than MCU, so it is not in the MCU release-order, series or timeline guides.