All season Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been playing with a darker tone to the show. This tone has involved more violence and some horror beats in the action. It has all fit together well with the introduction of Ghost Rider and his particular brand of vengeance and demonology. When the show returns from its November/Election/Thanksgiving break, it looks like it will continue down that path as we see “Darkness Unleashed.”


Thus far the Darkhold, a mystical book McGuffin that has been flying around this season, has been pretty non-descript. As time goes on, however, it promises to unleash chaos on everyone’s favorite espionage team. Mack, in particular, is concerned about what might happen. He has always been the most skeptical character on the show, or at least the character least comfortable with super powers and the supernatural. It’s no surprise he has doubts about the effects of the Darkhold. Viewers also have been wondering when Dr. Radcliffe will go from lovable rule bender to rule breaking trouble maker. Looks like that threshold may be crossed next Tuesday.

Something that many will be watching is how everything holds together. Currently, several plot threads are disconnected, including the two Ghost Riders (Reyes and Blaze), the Darkhold, the dark dimension or dark matter, and Marrow’s experiments. Fans have reasons to believe it all ties in together, as well as some elements from Agent Carter and Doctor Strange, but the exact connections are foggy. Likely the show will connect the dots as time goes on. This is also the first episode since the release of Doctor Strange, so any explicit tie-ins are possible now.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. stars Clark Gregg, Ming-na Wen, Chloe Bennett, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, and Henry Simmons. It airs on Tuesday evenings at 10PM on ABC, with its return to the air from a short break next week on November 29th.