Agent Carter Season Finale Review: Hollywood Ending

This Agent Carter review contains spoilers.

Agent Carter season 2 episode 10

Well, if Marvel’s Agent Carter is going out it certainly is going out with a bang. This week’s season finale provides a nice catharsis that gives a strong hint at the future of Peggy Carter but also leaves a big fat pulsating lingering question over the fate of one of the main characters. So read on for what will hopefully not be the final Agent Carter recap.

I’ll get the complaint out of the way first. The final battle with Whitney Frost ends rather anticlimactically. Yeah, it is fun to watch all our heroes get together in a united front to take on Frost. There is the returning Howard Stark, Peggy, Doctor Wiles, Edwin Jarvis, Doctor Samberly, Agent Sousa, and Agent Thompson all dedicated to bringing down the growing more unstable by the second Frost. Heck, even Frost’s beau Manfredi understands just how unstable his lady love has become as Manfredi helps Peggy and company get to the bottom of what Frost is up to in a very fun sequence.  Frost is holed up in her room, writing her Zero Matter formulas all over her walls when Manfredi asks his GF if she would help him intimidate one of his gunsels. Hilarity ensues, Peggy gets what she needs and the 1947 version of the Avengers science bros get to work on a gimmick that will suck the Zero Matter out of Frost.

Wilkes, Stark, and Samberly are great together and the three brilliant minds build what they need to defeat Frost. They open a portal, and Frost is drawn to the location. Now, there is not a big battle or anything, there is not a cathartic confrontation between Carter and Frost, they just kind of open the gate and suck the Zero Matter out of Frost. Before you can blink, she is defeated and, I don’t know about you, but I really wanted to see Peggy kick Frost’s ass. Hell man, Frost impaled Peggy with a piece of rebar; it’s only fair that Cap’s best girl should get her licks in.

That’s not to say the episode doesn’t have its drama. After Frost is defeated, Stark’s machine fails and the rift to the Dark Dimension stays open. Now don’t get excited you adorable little comic nerds, the hand of Dormammu doesn’t come out, but the world is now in danger. Even more danger than the 2016 Republican nomination, but that’s neither here nor there. What is important is that Agent Sousa takes it upon himself to manually close the rift and risks getting sucked into the hole. Team Peggy holds him back but it is intensely dramatic to watch as Sousa is just inches away from oblivion. Peggy is about to lose another brave love to eternity, just as she did Steve Rogers, but this time things work out and some quick thinking on Jarvis’ part involving Howard’s flying car saves the day.

Since Captain America: The Winter Soldier, fans have known that Peggy gets married in her post-Cap days. The question was, to whom? The answer probably came this week as the last thing we see is Peggy and Sousa locked in a passionate embrace. For two seasons, we have witnessed Peggy sacrificing her own happiness for duty. This week, our Peggy gets her reward.

There are other moments of brilliance this week. Howard Stark hitting on Rose (he likes all body types, bless his heart), the subtle handing of Ana Jarvis and her profound personal loss, and the always wonderful friendship between Mr. Jarvis and Miss Carter. The episode could have wallowed in tragedy at the fact that Mrs. Jarvis lost her ability to have children, but the season ends with nothing but strength and love between Edwin and Ana. Peggy is in a very happy place and even Doctor Wilkes is hired by Howard Stark to oversee an important project.

So if this is the end, it is a happy end. It wraps up themes and character arcs that began in season one episode one and it leaves us with a few chapters closing on Peggy’s life. We now know she stays in LA, we now know she finds acceptance in a man’s world, and we now know that even without Captain America, Peggy still saves the world. It seems like the series leaves enough left over for season three (oh please oh please). We don’t know where Dottie Underwood is and Whitney Frost is still alive, albeit locked up in an insane asylum. Heck man, the episode even finds depth for Manfredi, a character that seemed like an afterthought at first. If Agent Carter does come back for season three, there are enough threads to deliver an effective third season.

Speaking of that, things don’t end happily for the entire cast. Agent Thompson does the right thing this week and helps Peggy save the world. But he also steals that redacted file he scored on Peggy a few weeks back. We never find out what Thompson wants with the file as he is seemingly executed and the file stolen by an unseen assassin. The story of Agent Thompson comes to a close with many questions that hopefully will be answered in the next season of Agent Carter.

I hope there is a next season. Not only because of the cliffhanger but because Agent Carter truly is a joy to watch. A thoughtful, insightful, action packed series that never takes itself too seriously but still manages to deliver some of the most unique thrills on TV. I am trying to put into words why I love this series so much. I think it’s because the series has made Peggy Carter the Nick Fury of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I don’t mean the badass Sam Jackson version of Fury, I mean the classic Silver Age Caucasian Nick Fury.  In the comics, the grizzled old white Nick Fury was Marvel’s go to super spy that kept the world safe in the 40s through the modern day, and this Peggy Carter has taken that role. She is the one that fought with the Howling Commandoes and she is the one that teamed with a man named Stark to form a unit called SHIELD. Having a Peggy Carter series to look forward to is an annual guarantee of some classic Jim Steranko inspired Cold War goodness in the classic Marvel style.

So here’s to you Peggy, the coolest spy on TV. We hope to see you soon

Retro Marvel Moments

I have to say Marvel promised some Doctor Strange action, but other than some vague references of what lies in the Zero Matter dimension, there really isn’t much to collect this season to the coming Doctor Strange film. I guess after Doctor Strange premieres later this year, fans will see more connective tissue but as far as Agent Carter goes, this season was a cursory attempt at best to introduce elements of Stephen Strange’s odd world.