- Title: Agent Carter – Valediction
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Agent Carter‘s season finale showcases the strengths and weaknesses of the show’s First Season. Despite offering Peggy (Hayley Atwell) some actual field work and acknowledgement from her comrades in the SSR, the season ends with yet another reminder of the times and circumstances Peggy finds herself stuck in suggesting little will change should the show return for a Second Season. The final scene involving Peggy and Angie‘s (Lyndsy Fonseca) future living arrangements (the exact arrangements Peggy turned down in the Pilot) suggests we may see more of Fonseca should the show return but I’m not sure that’s enough to bring me back for another go around.
The crux of the finale centers around the SSR finding and stopping Dr. Ivchenko (Ralph Brown) and his assassin Dottie (Bridget Regan) who have gotten their hands on a deadly invention of Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) capable of turning anyone temporarily into a deranged killer. Realizing what is at stake Stark turns himself into the SSR offering himself up as bait hoping to lure Ivchenko out into the open.
Teased for weeks the final reveal of what happened at Finnau is hardly that shocking (even less so given we actually got to saw the gas used in Ivchenko’s theater experiment). Nor are the personal motives of Ivchenko all that interesting. This isn’t a high-ranking member of Leviathan looking to strike a brutal blow against America but merely a hyptonist with a personal grudge against Stark for what happened to his brother at Finnau.
As we’ve seen before the show is forced to tie its story back to Captain America: The First Avenger to have any real emotional moments as the loss of Captain America is central to the climax of the episode. It also allows for an unexpected cameo, albeit from a character whose end the audience is already keenly aware of. Despite her name being cleared and proving herself in the field yet again Peggy finds herself only marginally better off heading into next season. If the show wants to take full advantage of its star it must find a way to extricate Peggy from the box its so adamant about forcing her back into every week and allow Peggy far more freedom to kick ass in more than the limited instances we’ve seen this season.
