We begin the final episode of Marvel’s Agent Carter in the radio studio recapping the fall of Captain America over the Sea of Japan.
This radio drama serves as a reminder that this episode is the final chapter, echoing the end of Captain America: The First Avenger.
While this series can lean on being infuriatingly chauvinistic and over the top at points — for and toward great dramatic effect — this time it is accurate.
Captain America crashes down into the ocean, his lady, which we know to be Peggy (Betty in the radio version) swoons and cries, and then its over. We’re just glad Peggy was not tuned in this time to relive it.
It is hard to believe that we need to return to the Inhuman present day with the return of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. next week! It was fun living for a few weeks reliving the past lives of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Strategic Scientific Reserve.
Back to the gassed out movie theatre from last week’s episode, we see the results of the gassy experiment by Dr. Ivchencko and Dottie. A crazed audience turns on itself, leaving no survivors.
Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) concludes that the moviegoers did this to each other in some kind of psychotic rage. Agent Sousa (Enver Gjokaj) discovers the original canister and gets a dose of the stuff, the ‘Hulking’ Sousa attacks Agent Jack Thompson (Chad Michael Murray) before being clubbed and subdued by a local flatfoot.
The bad guys head for the heart of NYC, because Dr. Ivchenko (Ralph Brown) admires the city for its ingenuity. The two make their way into town when suddenly they are pulled over. Dottie (Bridget Regan) plays the character much like the innocent girly-girl on the radio show, which does the trick and almost gets them out of trouble when we hear the license plate number is called out on the police radio. Dottie doesn’t let the officer (DaJuan Johnson) return to his cruiser.
The S.S.R. figures out just how many of the Stark Industries gas canisters went missing, and discover that it would be enough to take out Manhattan, but the reason to go to all of this trouble is still unknown.
Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) rears his head and is arrested by the S.S.R. after hiding for so long. Stark thinks the Ivchencko is after him, and offers himself as bait. Thompson also blames Stark for the whole scenario, but we find out that rage was not an intended side-effect of the Stark ‘Midnight Oil’ gas. The formula was merely intended to keep U.S. soldiers from requiring sleep, but this went terribly wrong.
Stark wants to make everything right, and make up for all of the damage his weapons have caused, and so we will risk his life to do so. He is publicly pardoned for all of the accusations against him — cleverly getting the police to clear his name at a press conference.
Shooters attempt to assassinate Stark from the hotel, and Stark makes a getaway only to be chauffeured away by the hypnotized Officer Pike that had pulled over Dottie!
Dottie does have a vendetta against Howard Stark, and is quite upset that he doesn’t remember her name after a weekend with Howard a few years back (though it’s unlikely it was hear real name anyway). Unfortunately for the fellow feminist fans of show, her Black Widow character is briefly reduced to that of a stereotypical jealous ex-girlfriend.
Doc’s M.O. is only slightly less cliche, as he witnessed the experimentation at Battle of Finow in his Russian town, brutally killing everyone around him and including Ivchencko’s brother, and would like Stark to experience this same feeling. This conflict for the story harkens back to tropes like Nero’s villainous revenge in the Star Trek (2009) movie plot.
The tropes and tributes continue, as Jaws is pastiched by the citizens of Manhattan refusing to evacuate at the threat of attack on May 8, 1946 – V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day). Patriotically, this is the day that Marvel chose to announce this selfsame Agent Carter series last year.
Doctor Ivchencko/Fennhov hypnotizes Stark to fly a plane and crash it into the city to release the gas and now in a situation parallel to Captain America’s supposed demise, Peggy is doing all that she can, coordinating via radio to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Jarvis follows Stark into the sky as a pilot as a last resort to shoot him down to save the city, and Peggy is on the radio trying to get Howard to snap out of the dreamworld that the Doctor has set up for him, targeting the moment in time where he felt the most guilty, and making him believe that he can fix it.
This moment being the crashing of Captain America, which he blames himself for. This time, no promise of a dance with Stark’s best gal. It might be hard for the playboy to narrow his field that much.
Dottie reveals with fists and a baseball bat that she is jealous of ‘girls like’ Peggy as they get into a final showdown.
After a short, but well choreographed melee between Agent Carter and Dottie (in an amazing black with red piping pantsuit – projecting her Black Widow legacy), the Russian spy falls out the command window a few stories down onto a plane wing in the Stark hangar. Dottie bleeds out.
Have we seen the last of her? Is our proto-Black Widow defeated for good? Will she hole up in the Spruce Goose?
Meanwhile Sousa and Thompson face the Doctor, who’s deliberate hypno-talk is no match for Sousa’s earplugs, and they take him into custody.
Peggy is forced to relive the dreaded Captain America scenario, and Jarvis is awaiting her order to shoot Howard down, knowing that they are running out of time. Carter has only a few minutes to get Stark to snap out of his dream and she does convince Howard to let the guilt go, and that there is nothing else he can do to bring Cap back. At the same time, she is persuading herself to let go and somehow this works and he breaks free of the dream, moments away from being shot out of the sky by Jarvis.
We get Howard back safely and both planes landed, only to find that Dottie’s body has disappeared (a la Coulson in Marvel’s The Avengers).
Though she probably couldn’t have gotten that far away after falling out of a window a significant amount of blood, they are too preoccupied with Howard’s safe return to pursue her, and save it for another day.
Back at the S.S.R. office, Carter gets a standing ovation upon entry. Her efforts are finally appreciated by the boys at the office.
Shortly thereafter, Senator Walt Cooper (John Prosky) comes to congratulate the boys and Agent Thompson specifically for a job well done. “The world needs more men like you,” as they once again pass by Carter who gets no thanks from the higher ups and going back to square one.
Peggy is accustomed to such treatment, and doesn’t let it get to her as she tells Sousa who is much more upset over it, that she doesn’t need approval, or care about anyone’s opinion of her. Carter takes the higher ground and ends up being ‘the bigger man’ for not seeking glory for doing her job.
Stark makes a decision to destroy all of his inventions (a lesson learned by his son in Iron Man 3) to keep them out of the wrong hands, but alas, Jarvis took the vial of Captain America’s blood containing the Super Soldier Serum and hands this to the one person capable of handling the valuable fluid, Peggy. He sincerely offers his services if she should need them ever again.
How she deals with her love Steve Rogers remains is touching, and a moment for the Cap and Carter romance to be reflected upon in the final moments of the show.
Meanwhile in prison, Dr. Johann Fennhoff / Dr. Ivchenko sports a new Hannibal Lecter-like mask meets his new cell mate, Dr. Arnim Zola! Toby Jones reprises his rogue gallery role from the last two Captain America films as lead mad scientist who we recognize as one of the key players in Hydra.
And thus concludes season one of Agent Carter, hopefully not the last!
Though this was not the strongest episode of the series in my eyes, the overall tone was a welcome addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We hope that it paves the way for more multidimensional female characters in the future. Fortunately for us female fans (OK, the guys can have the same fun too!) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will be back next week, exploring Skye’s relationship to The Inhumans — so there will be no lull in the action, or lack of ladies kicking ass!
As for Agent Carter? Hayley Atwell is set to reprise the role in both Ant-Man and Avengers: Age of Ultron both out this summer!
