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You know, all the talk coming into this
season finale was wondering about Agent Carter’s chances for a season 3
order. After all, the ratings have been
pretty low and Hayley Atwell was cast in a pilot for a new ABC series, and both
of those items don’t exactly look good for Carter’s future. However, focusing on the negatives actually
detracts from a very good season finale, which satisfactorily wrapped up all
the major plots for the season and offered some tantalizing hints at the series’
future.
The episode picks up with the
last 60 seconds of the previous episode (“A Little Song and Dance”), as
Thompson is trying to set off the bomb and Peggy is trying to stop him. However, before Thompson can do anything,
there is an explosion as Wilkes releases all the built-up Zero Matter. Peggy, Sousa, and Thompson go in to see what
happened, and find Wilkes seemingly free of the Zero Matter, with Zero Matter
pooled all around the room. The Zero
Matter all starts migrating towards Frost, who absorbs it all and comes after
them. They all flee, pursued by Frost,
who starts to monologue—only to be hit by a car as Howard Stark makes his smashing
entrance! Howard and Jarvis have some
great chemistry together, which really shows in all their interactions. They all escape together and return to the
mansion.
Up until this episode, Joseph
Manfredi really didn’t seem to have much character beyond his infatuation with
Frost—that changes a little in this episode.
On the surface he is extremely supportive of Frost, but that is clearly
just a show, and his conversation with his mother shows that internally he is
worried about her and perhaps a little frightened—the Zero Matter has changed
her. This leads him to make a deal with
Howard, Peggy, and the rest to “help” Frost by getting the Zero Matter out of
her. I have to say, I was a bit confused
at first by Howard and Manfredi’s familiarity, and I’m not entirely sure if
they ever clarified that part (I think Wilkes’, Peggy’s, and Jarvis’
expressions pretty much sum it up). Regardless,
he wants their help to save Frost, and they agree to use his insider knowledge
to do it. He reveals that she is
designing a device intended to reopen the Rift, and agrees to distract her long
enough for Peggy and Sousa to photograph Frost’s “wall of crazy.” He does this by “interrogating” one of his
thugs and asking Frost to be his “muscle.”
The guy is absolutely confused at first, but eventually admits to snitching
to the FBI when threatened with Frost. I
don’t think he was expecting that! This
does buy enough time for Peggy and Sousa to retrieve the information.
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| Image Courtesy www.mcuexchange.com |
Samberly, Wilkes, and Howard all
examine the photographs and figure out that they can contain the Rift using
X-Rays. It’s fun to watch these three
interacting, as they are the smartest men on this series. I was expecting that Wilkes and Howard would
get more screen time together, but I was not expecting Samberly to be added to
the mix. Considering how he started the
season I didn’t think I would like his character all that much, but I think he
really started to grow on me in the last half of the season, particularly the
last 3 episodes or so. The scene with
everyone working together to build the “Rift Generator” was also really good—because
it was designed specifically to give us the different character interactions
that we needed to see. Howard flirts
with Rose (to Samberly’s dismay). Wilkes
and Sousa patch things up now that everything’s in the open, and Wilkes
explains that he held the gun on Peggy because he knew that Sousa would cave—he
would have too in that situation. Peggy
and Jarvis reconcile after their spat in the previous episode. Finally, Thompson comes in to help, and Peggy
asks him to take the lunch orders—a nice piece of revenge for him consistently
having her take lunch orders in season 1. Considering that this is a very character-driven series, it is absolutely
necessary for those meaningful character interactions to be there, and this
episode I think they were spot-on.
They set up the Rift Generator at
the Stark Productions lot, fire it up, and Frost immediately senses that it is
active. I really like the horror genre
borrowing in this episode: body horror,
Frost behaving as though she’s possessed, the wild look she gives to the
camera, appearing behind a character (Samberly) who screams and isn’t seen
again, and even the conclusion of her arc.
Frost arrives at the site while Howard is practicing his golf (because
why not), and Howard shoots her with the gamma cannon, which separates the Zero
Matter from her. The Zero Matter is
sucked into the rift and Peggy, Sousa, and Thompson take Frost into
custody. However, they can’t shut down
the Rift Generator remotely, so they need to get close enough to shut it off on
the machine itself—meaning that whoever does it will be inside the zone and
sucked into the rift. Everyone starts arguing
about why they should be the one to do it, but Sousa just goes over, ties
himself off, and makes his way into the danger zone to do it. It’s a pretty interesting scene as Sousa
tries to shut it off, the gravity goes haywire, and his lashing comes loose,
leading to all the characters joining together to hold him and keep him from
being sucked in. Finally Howard and
Jarvis figure out that by putting the cannon’s core in Howard’s (working)
hovercar, sending it into the rift, and detonating it, they can close the rift
and save the world. They do so (aided by
the not-dead-but-fainted Samberly), and everyone survives. This climax was surprisingly straightforward
for a spy show, but Agent Carter doesn’t really go for the big, flashy
fight scenes—instead this series prefers the more personal fights and
intricately-layered plots.
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| Image Courtesy www.mcuexchange.com |
The remainder of the episode is
largely dénouement. Frost is locked up
in a mental institution and visited by a heartbroken Manfredi. Wilkes goes to work for Howard at his new
Malibu facility. The facility’s purpose
is unstated beyond a reference to an idea he had on the way back from Peru, but
it could be connected to the ARC reactor.
Wilkes and Peggy finally talk and accept that a relationship would not
work for the two of them after the circumstances of their meeting. Ana returns home from the hospital and she
and Peggy part as friends. Jarvis gives
Peggy a ride to the S.S.R. office, and tries to convince her to stay along the way. Peggy and Sousa fill out paperwork together,
after which Sousa mock-scolds Peggy for not letting him go to close the Rift
(and be sucked into it for his trouble).
In response, Peggy throws herself at him and kisses him passionately
(kind of saw that coming). I actually
appreciated the resolution to the love story:
Peggy and Wilkes are friends; Peggy and Sousa are lovers. It wasn’t unexpected, but it also wasn’t
quite as drawn-out—particularly when there were other things going on. In fact, there were only a couple of actual
references in the episode.
The biggest twist in the finale
came right at the end when Sousa called Thompson to explain that Peggy was
taking some more vacation time in Los Angeles.
Someone knocked on his door, and shot him in the chest when he opened
the door. Then the unknown assailant
stole Peggy’s (forged?) file from Thompson’s suitcase and walked out of the
room, leaving him dead or dying on the floor.
Considering everything that happened this season with his character, I was
hoping to see more of him in the future, particularly with his reconciliation
seeming to put him even more solidly on Peggy’s side than he was at the
beginning of the season. I think this is
premature for them to kill him off, but that is what would make it such a
shocking decision (similar to Ward’s murder of Victoria Hand on Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D.). What does this mean
going forward? Is someone trying to
acquire blackmail material against Peggy?
There are two things we can
really take away from this season finale in terms of a possible season 3. The first is Masters’ Arena Club pin, which
Thompson discovered to also be a key—will this key lead Peggy to discover even
more nefarious dealings of the Council/Evil Empire/possible-Ancient-Hydra? The second is Thompson’s mysterious attacker—was
he looking for material on Peggy on behalf of the Council, or is there another
party involved? As of now it certainly
appears that Thompson is dead, but they could always reveal that he was
discovered quickly enough to survive.
I really enjoyed season 2 of Agent
Carter, and I think that with its exploration of Zero Matter I may even
have enjoyed it more than I did season 1.
Howard is always funny, and I especially enjoy watching him play off
Jarvis and Peggy for humor. The character
development and interactions in this series are absolutely phenomenal, to say
nothing of the effects they use to recreate the time period. If ABC decides not to renew this show for
season 3, they will really be missing out on an excellent series.
What did you think of the season
2 finale? What do you want to see in a
season 3? Let me know in the comments!
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