'AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.' and the mighty flashbacks that reveal some cunning twists | S05E15
‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ pulls back the curtain and delivers one Hale of a backstory in an MCU-packed episode.
General Hale is HYDRA. Hale. HYDRA. Well played, Marvel, well played.
After the psychological thriller that was last week’s episode, ‘Rise and Shine’ is separated into a number of parts and changes up the pace with a HYDRA history lesson, providing a more coherent, and much wider view of the season’s villains and ultimate arc.
SPOILER ALERT!
Flashing back to “28 Years Ago”, we see a teenage Hale getting ready to graduate from an underground high school for HYDRA youth. She’s friends with a teenage Jasper Sitwell, is rivals with a young Baron von Strucker, and is given a guest lecture by old season two villain, Daniel Whitehall – who’s spruiking HYDRA’s new super-soldier program. Dubbed the Particle Infusion Chamber, the machine can infuse human cells with the properties of any raw material, creating “the perfect human specimen” that would put even Captain America to shame. Whitehall polls the class for ideas, and Von Strucker suggests tapping into the Red Skull’s Tesseract, while Hale one-ups her rival by suggesting HYDRA look forward – and into outer space – for new raw materials.
Whitehall is impressed by Hale’s thinking, but Hale’s ambition doesn’t sit well with Von Strucker and he orders some of his lackeys to pick a fight with her. Hale manages to hold her own in the fight, but her punishment for fighting the boss’ son is a less than ideal placement upon graduation. While Hale has the makings of the next great HYDRA leader, she’s only seen as the sum of her reproductive organs; and it’s revealed that Whitehall only wants her to serve as the vessel for the “seed” that will one day be transformed into HYDRA’s super soldier.
Jumping ahead to “Two Years Ago”, it’s Ruby’s turn to go through the same HYDRA training as her mother. It’s confirmed that Ruby is indeed that special child who was bred to be the perfect subject for Whitehall’s machine, but she comes of age in a world where HYDRA is on its last tentacle. Its leaders are dead, its various S.H.I.E.L.D. infiltrations have been found out, and its resources are depleted. Hale’s HYDRA colleague, and fellow sleeper agent, General Fisher has also been found out; but before he offs himself with an old-fashioned cyanide pill, he hands her the key to a room hiding a Chitauri communications device.
We check in on General Talbot at “Six Months Ago”, and he’s still recovering from LMD Daisy’s gunshot in Season 4. With Talbot’s military career over and his own family frightened by his erratic behaviour, he’s taken to HYDRA’s underground bunker. There, he’s subjected to Hale’s interrogation but refuses to lead her to the stash of confiscated HYDRA goodies, Whitehall’s chamber included. Hale attempts to sway Talbot by showing him the Chitauri device that was found in the wreckage of the Battle of New York (‘The Avengers’). She reveals that her predecessors had not only found a way to contact the Confederacy, but that they had also struck a deal for protection; and for a moment, Talbot is all ears… until he learns of Hale’s allegiance.
And that brings us to “24 Hours Ago”, where Coulson is Hale’s current prisoner. After spending the majority of the episode with the season’s supporting characters, Coulson injects some much-needed personality into the doom-and-gloom HYDRA bunker. Hale takes him to meet with the Confederacy, and then explains the deal in place: the alliance will provide the Earth protection from an incoming war, in trade for Inhuman warriors and gravitonium. When Coulson argues that the Confederacy could just turn on them, Hale notes that she has something up her sleeve. Which brings us to her ultimate plan: to use Whitehall’s machine to infuse Daisy with gravitonium to become… the Destroyer of Worlds. Coulson tries to warn Hale about the consequences but unfortunately, Hale doesn’t believe his story about the Lighthouse and locks him up; while Ruby, after Coulson reveals that she isn’t the Destroyer of Worlds, is determined to take out Daisy so she can fulfil her destiny.
“Now”, Daisy and May are chasing all possible leads to find Coulson. Fitz’s recent actions have left a gap in the team and Daisy, understandably, wants no part of him but May has the bright idea to outthink one HYDRA villain by using another. Daisy, acting as director, has her own lightbulb moment and decides to pull young Robin out of hiding to get some answers, despite May’s protests. Elsewhere, Simmons is outfitting Yo-Yo with her new arms when Mack mentions that the speedster now believes she’s invincible after seeing how far she survives into the future. Simmons realises that the same principle applies to her and Fitz; and decides to prove to him that they’re “invincible” by revealing that Deke (who is sadly absent from this episode) is their grandson, much to Fitz’s disgust.
‘Rise and Shine’ was an incredibly surprising episode. The idea of a HYDRA-centric episode wasn’t all that exciting but in true ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ fashion, the show delivered.
With the focus pulled away from the S.H.I.E.L.D. team, the brief moments we spent with teenage Hale added depth to a character that, up until the reveals of ‘Rise and Shine’, has been a bit one note. As for the Confederacy, the arrival of the alien alliance holds countless potential. What alien races are involved and what’s the impending war that they’ve warned HYDRA about? While a part of me wants to believe that this is the show’s ‘Infinity War’ tie-in, the alien ship we saw in Coulson’s vision looked nothing like any of Thanos’ ships that we’ve seen to date. Fingers crossed though, right?
Out of all of Marvel’s television properties, ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ has always done the best job at integrating the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe. From a young Jasper Sitwell to Chitauri technology to the Tesseract, ‘Rise and Shine’ is so densely packed with Easter eggs and continues the trend.
It’s still unclear who Ruby’s biological father is, but Marvel fans online are speculating that it’s the Red Skull himself, which would make her the MCU counterpart to Sinthea Schmidt (aka. Sin). Watch this space!
The show’s many elements are all starting to fall into place as we march towards the pointy end of the season. And with Hale’s ultimate plan, the Confederacy, and the impending war on Earth; ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ could give us the most explosive and memorable season finale to date.
New episodes of ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ are updated weekly on Amazon Prime Video.
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