IT’S THE SEASON ONE FINALE, Y’ALL!! When I was watching, I wasn’t sure how they’d wrap everything up in 8 episodes, but they actually did a decent job. So let’s just get into it.
Highlights
- We start with the SSR investigation into all the deaths at the theater. It’s bananas – their eyes are clawed out and they were biting each other. One of the local cops says that he thinks it was a monster, and Peggy points out that they did it to each other.
- While they’re in the theater, Sousa finds the gas canister that has Stark Industries’ logo on it, and a spritz of the gas hits him in the face. He immediately starts choking, and when Chad Michael Murray comes over to check on him, Sousa attacks him. Peggy comes to help, and he hits her so hard she flies off of him. It isn’t until one of the local cops hits him with a club that they’re able to detain him.
- Dottie and the Russian Psychiatrist are driving down the road when they’re pulled over by an NYPD officer. He says Dottie ran a red light, and she does the fake apology thing where she acts all dumb and Midwestern. The cop believes her, but when he’s returning to his squad car, he hears over the radio that a car matching the description of the one he just pulled over was reported stolen by a blond woman. He turns around and Dottie is pointing a gun at him.
- Sousa comes to and explains what happened to Peggy. He said he felt like he wanted to kill everyone, and that now he just feels like he swallowed shrapnel. He and Peggy laugh about how he still wants to kill CMM a little, and they go to join the others at the SSR office.
- While the agents are all discussing what to do, Jarvis and Howard Stark walk in. All the agents pull their guns and Stark says he heard about the gas thing and he knows how to draw the bad guys out, so he’s here to help.
- Dottie and RP arrive at a private airstrip, and Dottie gets out of the car to deal with the security guy who is telling her that they can’t be there. Over the radio, RP hears that Howard Stark is going to give a press conference, so when Dottie comes back, he tells her about their change of plans.
- Peggy shows Stark to all of his inventions, and he finds his version of a bulletproof vest to wear under his clothes. The press conference goes on, with the SSR running security and CMM as acting chief, I think. It’s not specifically stated. Once Stark starts to speak, shots start to ring out. Peggy sees where they’re coming from, and she and CMM go to that hotel room to get the bad guys. Except all that’s up there is a rifle rigged to fire on its own.
- Jarvis takes Stark out the back way, and while he’s readying the car, Stark is taken in the back of an NYPD cruiser. It’s our friend, the officer from the beginning. He’s clearly hypnotized by RP’s magic ring nonsense and is taking Stark somewhere. At some point, Dottie gets in the back with Stark, and when he doesn’t remember her, she knocks him out with a nice pistol whip.
- Someone figures out that Dottie and RP are probably going to try to fly out of New York. CMM says they can’t – the SSR confiscated all of Starks planes. Jarvis admits that… he may have not been completely honest. There’s another hangar.
- We see a flashback to six months earlier when Stark took Dottie – under another name – to this hangar for a private ride on one of his planes. That’s how Dottie knew about this second hangar. Stark and his womanizing, it always comes back to bite him, doesn’t it?
- Dottie slaps Stark awake, they go back and forth about him not remembering her name, and then RP jumps in. He tells Stark that he witnessed first hand what that gas did to soldiers on the front lines, and that his brother had both of his eyes gouged out. There were chunks of his flesh missing. Stark apologizes, and RP hypnotizes him so he thinks he’s back in the time of his greatest failure, but is able to fix it. So, naturally, he thinks he can prevent the death of Captain America.
- Peggy, Jarvis, Sousa, and CMM arrive right as Stark’s plane is taking off. Loaded inside it are the remaining canisters of that terrible gas, and RP and Dottie are planning for Stark to crash it into Manhattan. The plan is this – Jarvis is going to fly behind Stark and shoot him down, if needed. Sousa and CMM are going to help Jarvis get going. And Peggy is going to get into the radio room to start trying to break Stark out of his trance.
- Dottie and RP are in the radio room, and RP keeps telling Stark to focus on his task. Peggy comes in with a rifle, but immediately loses it to Dottie. She and Dottie fight, and Dottie tells RP to run. After a long and painful looking fight, Peggy knocks Dottie out the window onto a plane wing and is able to start talking to Stark.
- It takes a while, but Peggy is able to remind Stark that Steve Rogers is dead and that nothing will save him, and Stark is suddenly like “it appears I’m flying a plane.” Jarvis is super relieved that he doesn’t have to shoot Stark down and Peggy is super relieved that it worked.
- CMM and Sousa now have to find RP. RP sneaks up behind CMM and knocks him down, but Sousa has a gun pointed at him the whole time. Obviously, RP tries to hypnotize Sousa, and it looks like it’s working. RP is telling Sousa to shoot CMM, etc. But then Sousa pistol whips RP and pulls ear plugs out of his ears – he hadn’t heard any of it. It was kind of great.
- CMM and Sousa take RP into custody, Dottie gets away, and Stark clarifies that he doesn’t ever want Jarvis to kill him under any circumstances. He also gives both Jarvis and Peggy a hug and remembers that Dottie’s name was Ida when she was with him.
- The next day, Peggy shows up at work to a standing ovation from her colleagues. CMM and Sousa try to convince her to stay with the SSR, but she says she hasn’t decided yet, that she’s just there to pick up her paycheck. A senator comes in and gives all the accolades to CMM, and Sousa is pissed. But Peggy says that she doesn’t need someone else to tell her she did a good job. She knows her worth. Then Sousa asks her to get a drink with him and she says she has to meet a friend, but next time.
- Peggy and Angie meet with Jarvis, who is there to show them around the house that Stark has given them to live in for as long as they need. Angie falls in love immediately and Peggy also agrees. At that point, Jarvis also gives Peggy the vial of Steve Rogers’ blood, saying that Stark thought it went missing somewhere along the way.
- Peggy dumps the blood off the Brooklyn Bridge, saying “Goodbye, my love.” I’M NOT CRYING, YOU’RE CRYING. And it’s so fitting. After all, Steve is just a kid from Brooklyn.
- RP has a wire cage on his mouth so he can’t talk, and he’s put into a cell. And his cell-mate appears to be one of those icky German doctor people from very early in the series! That’ll be… fun for him, I’m sure.
And that’s it! That’s season one of Agent Carter!
Timeline Progress
Still in the same spot. Steve has been dead over a year, and Peggy Carter and Howard Stark are still struggling to deal with it.
Connections and Easter Eggs
Steve’s blood makes its final appearance. And Stark flashes back to the end of Captain America: The First Avenger, to when Steve is off trying to save the world and ends up nose-diving into the ocean. But otherwise, nothing else yet.
Likes and Dislikes
Likes: Peggy, obvi. Jarvis. Sousa. Stark. CMM, mostly. Angie.
Dislikes: Dottie and RP. Stark’s womanizing. CMM at the end with the senator. Also, the senator. And Dottie getting away!
Rating
A reminder of the rating scale:
- Red = Couldn’t even get through it
- Orange = Ugh, no thank you
- Yellow = I mean, I’ve seen worse, but there were problems
- Green = This was good!
- Blue = Oh my gosh, I loved this movie/show!
- Purple = This is the unicorn of movies/shows and I will be rewatching it until Disney+ starts asking questions and EVERYONE should be watching it!
This was a really good episode. It left enough intrigue to get us excited for season two without being ridiculous. The cliffhangers (is Peggy going to stay with the SSR? Where did Dottie go?) are fun, too! That being said, I’m giving the season finale, Season 1, Episode 8, a BLUE rating. A super solid episode. I have high hopes for season two!
Higher, further, faster, baby!
Snark & Squee 