The episode also guest stars José Zúñiga as Reyes' uncle, Eli Morrow, as backstory for the Ghost Rider character is explored, as well as seeing Axle Whitehead return as J. T. James to continue the season's Inhuman and Watchdogs storyline.

"Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire" originally aired on ABC on October 18, 2016, and was watched by 4.78 million viewers within a week of its release.

Simmons tends to Johnson's injuries while the latter explains that she has been tracking the Watchdogs terrorist group, who she believes has hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D.

Johnson wants access to the list as well, to see who the Watchdogs' next target is, and coerces Simmons into helping her.

Johnson and Simmons remove James's wristwatch, but he betrays them to the Watchdogs with the promise that they would kill him once he helped destroy the other Inhumans—James admits being so traumatized after being freed from Hive that he regrets going through Terrigenesis and has come to hate himself and his Inhuman identity.

Coulson, Mack, Simmons, Johnson, and Reyes join up with agent Melinda May, who has been recovering from a mysterious illness, to go find the Darkhold.

's fourth season at San Diego Comic Con featured flaming chains, leading to speculation that the series would be introducing the character of Ghost Rider.

Though this speculation turned out to be true, with Gabriel Luna cast in that role and introduced with the start of the season, some commentators noted that the series already featured a character who wielded a flaming chain, Axle Whitehead's James.

[5][6] In October 2016, Marvel confirmed that main cast members Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May, Chloe Bennet as Daisy Johnson / Quake, Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz, Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons, Henry Simmons as Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie, and John Hannah as Holden Radcliffe would be starring in the episode.

[2] In addition to Gabriel Luna as Robbie Reyes and Axle Whitehead as J. T. James, guest stars for the episode include Mallory Jansen as Aida, José Zúñiga as Eli Morrow, Kerr Smith as Joseph, Phil Tyler as watchdog #1, Sergio Enrique as guard, Tanner Fontana as Elliot and Lilli Birdsell as Lucy Bauer.

[7][8] Following the airing of the previous episode, executive producer Jed Whedon teased that "Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire" would explore the dynamic between Luna's Ghost Rider, Robbie Reyes, and Elias Morrow, his uncle, but would be "pivoting from the storyline in the comics.

"[9] When asked whether the series still wanted to pursue stories about Inhumans such as James, Whedon said they are "still in our world, so we still have some of these people in the mix ... but right now we're on the Ghost Rider kick."

[2] Ahead of the episode's airing, Marvel released a teaser poster depicting Ghost Rider and his Hellcharger, with the pod's promotional title Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

[23] Writing for Nerdist, Joseph McCabe praised the chemistry between the series' main characters and the performance of Jansen as Aida, but said "most of this is just preamble to the sight of two guys with a lot of attitude and similar pyrokinetic powers unleashing holy hell on one another in a building chock full of explosives.

[25] Kevin Fitzpatrick of ScreenCrush felt the line "had to see that coming" applied to many elements of the episode, but said "there's a lot of fun to be had" and praised the use of the character James, dealing with the character's "self-loathing" well while acknowledging his status as the series' pre-Ghost Rider Ghost Rider.

Schwartz praised the car chase, the handling of the relationship between Simmons and Fitz in regards to his keeping Aida a secret from her, and the use of James, taking advantage of the audience's familiarity of him from the previous season.

He appreciated the time spent with Johnson and Simmons, and called the car chase "an absolute blast".

He felt the newly introduced origin for Ghost Rider was diluting the "elegance" of the source material, while Aida's storyline was "more effective" (though he said it "seems so redundant when compared to the utter perfect exploration of the same subject on Westworld).