“Rise and Shine” is episode fifteen of season five of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
In the previous episode, “The Devil Complex”, it at first appeared that the evil doctor from the Framework had manifested as a fear, but it actually turned out to be Fitz. Who had suffered a psychic split. Fitz had worked out that the only way to compress the gravitonium enough to create the device to seal the rift was with Daisy’s powers. So he removed the inhibitor and got her to do it. This did not exactly make Fitz very popular.
General Hale had been easily captured. Far too easily, it seemed, and this was true. So that Creel didn’t blow the Zephyr out of the sky, Coulson agreed to go with her somewhere. This is supposedly to show him why she is doing what she is doing. To prevent extinction. Hale is also working with Anton Ivanov, who hasn’t been seen since “World’s End”. The post-logo scene showed Hale talking to an alien, a member of the Confederacy – and the phrase ‘Hail HYDRA!’ was uttered by the alien. Hale had claimed she was not part of HYDRA; is this actually true?
Coulson, with his head covered by a bag, is led into a room by a couple of Hale’s robots. The bag is removed and Hale herself enters. Coulson says that this is not an Air Force operation and Hale agrees – she says that it’s HYDRA. Hale wants to tell Coulson her story, so that he can see why it is time for S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA to unite. It then goes back 28 years.
A young woman is woken up by a loudspeaker telling her to rise and seize the future. She is in a room full of space-related material, and dons a school uniform. One with a HYDRA insignia on it. The young woman is a young Hale, and she is in some sort of HYDRA academy.
Her year is just about to graduate, but there is one final exam (and it can be guessed what that’s going to be, even though it’s never seen). There is a final guest speaker first, about opportunities after graduation. This last speaker is Daniel Whitehall. Whitehall is looking for placements for his programme, and a young Baron von Strucker is also in Hale’s year. Hale’s placement is not at all what she might wish, but she is the last one in her year with the qualifications needed to do it.
Then it’s two years ago, and Ruby is at the same academy. She appears rather less compliant and willing to go along with the programme than her mother was. This is also the time when HYDRA was pretty much dismantled by S.H.I.E.L.D. and General Talbot. One thing that HYDRA had done was open communications with an interstellar polity called the Confederacy, and now it’s Hale’s job to speak to them. This is what Hale wants to talk to Coulson about.
Much of the episode is spent prior to the present day, and in the HYDRA academy at one point or another, including when Coulson is there. Hale does not believe that Coulson has been to the future for one thing, and this causes a problem. It is only close to the end that what is happening with the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. is seen.