Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 5, Episode 15 Review

"Rise and Shine" is a very interesting flashback episode, mostly in that the episode ends without quite affirming it's point, despite throwing quite a few vague ideas at the wall.

Some of General Hale's backstory is filled-in, giving us an insight into the Hydra recruitment program headed by Daniel Whitehall - did I mention how good Agents of SHIELD's cameos have been this season? The lack of them in "The Real Deal" is definitely forgiven. There's a really eerie aurora to the Hydra school, demonstrating how the organisation manipulated and shaped their children into the perfect agents. We even get a cameo from a younger Jasper Sitwell (who appeared in Season 1, as well as several Marvel One-Shots, Avengers Assemble and Captain America: The Winter Soldier), as he becomes a mole within SHIELD. I'd actually be interested to see more of this in the future, and it makes me wonder why SHIELD hasn't really touched on this aspect of Hydra recruitment beforehand.

We also get to see what happened to good old General Talbot after being shot by an LMD Daisy Johnson last season. His determination to stand by SHIELD and wait for Coulson and company to come and get him really cements his character arc over the course of the show, and makes his gradual descent throughout the episode all the more tragic. Adrian Pasdar is one of Agents of SHIELD's MVPs, and it's nice to see him return to the series after a relatively short stint on DC's Supergirl. He brings a much-needed sense of charm and levity to the proceedings, and his first meeting with Ruby is a really great little scene that parallels Von Strucker's meeting with her, and subsequently Coulson's meeting Ruby - which he, in character, guesses straight away and takes his bowl of cereal back to his room to eat.

There's some extra details about the Confederacy, and Hale's plan to fight back, but it all feels a little bit woolly at the moment. I'm fully expecting some kind of cop-out resolution that ties it all into Avengers: Infinity War, but the revelation of Hale preparing a "destroyer of worlds" made for an interesting reveal - even if one can't help but question her choice of name. The question is now raised as to whether Daisy or Ruby will be the actual "destroyer of worlds" - or if Agents of SHIELD will pull out another twist from its belt and make the destroyer someone else entirely. For now though, the stakes are gradually rising...

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