Valediction: Agent Carter Races to Stop Midnight Oil Over New York

Well I guess it had to finally happen. The little “filler” show in between seasons of Agents of Shield had to finally end and I’ll be honest, I’m somewhat mixed up in my feelings. While I’ll be really happy to have Agents of Shield back and more specifically of course, find out what the heck happened to Raina and Skye, I’m going to be quite sad to see Peggy go, as I’ve gotten quite fond of her and the rest of the gang.

Jarvis and Sousa in particular, and even Thompson, who’s still a bit of a snake but has been a lot more human since the Howling Commandos episode told us where his medal came from. The cinematography and costumes that they utilized to bring that world to life … well, let’s just say that it’s extremely lifelike and believable. And while I realize they’re somewhat restricted to the stories they can tell, with Peggy’s future already sort of written in the movies, I hope that Marvel finds a way to bring her back in her own show again in some way or form. Valediction is a good send-off, but it doesn’t feel like enough.

And yes, I’m really not happy that Peggy is no longer on the screen. While some of the episodes have been weaker than others, the fact that it was in such a compressed period of time meant that they didn’t drag things out, and we weren’t forced to endure filler episodes, which I personally abhor!

The movie theater and Midnight Oil

Valediction picks up right after last week’s excellent episode, Snafu, with the SSR agents investigating the horrific scene from the movie theater. If you don’t remember what happened, let me give you a quick reminder. Dottie placed a baby carriage in the theater loaded with some sort of poisonous gas that turns everyone in there into raging maniacs, and they end up killing each other, all of them. Not a single person is left alive when the theater attendant finds them. For a Marvel show on ABC it was really bold, and when the credits rolled you were left looking at bodies all over the theater. When Sousa accidentally gets a whiff of the gas this week, he immediately tries to kill Thompson and knocks Peggy away with manic strength, which gives you a real idea of how potent this stuff is.

Following the incident at the cinema, Howard Stark comes back to the SSR and we learn that the chemical in question is something called Midnight Oil, and it was meant to give US soldiers the ability to stay awake for long periods of time. Of course it does a lot more than that.

By the way (and this is an aside) … have you noticed that Howard is a bit of a nutjob with his inventions? He definitely does not have Tony’s skills, as it seems that his inventions more often than not, not only DO NOT WORK, but they tend to leave the user in something of a less than healthy state! To paraphrase the comic book guy from the Simpsons … “Worst-Inventor-Ever” … it really makes you question where he got his incredible wealth from?!

Fennhoff’s revenge and a stolen Stark

Well, it seems that the US Government in their infinite wisdom decided to “help” the Russians in their attack with this gas, and it was the gas that actually caused all the horrible deaths and mutilations we found out about during the course of this series. Johann Fennhoff (Dr. Ivchenko’s real name) was one of the only survivors of that massacre and he’s made it his life’s work to get revenge on the inventor of Midnight Oil, Howard Stark. I’m not sure if you recall from my post last week, I did mention that he didn’t seem all bad when he was helping the wounded soldier, but what he did to Dooley was just mean. I guess to some extent this does explain his motivations, even if it doesn’t excuse a single one of them.

In an attempt to trap Ivchenko and Dottie, Thompson and the team agree to hold a press conference, hoping it’ll lure them back to town. During the press conference, where they basically clear Howard Stark of all wrongdoing, shots go off and a shooter is seen in a window across the street. While Peggy and Thompson rush to investigate, Jarvis hustles Stark to a waiting police car, but before he can jump into the passenger side it rushes off, leaving Jarvis to stare in horror at the dead bodies of two police officers slumped on the ground nearby.

When Peggy and Thompson break into the room the shots are coming from, they find a gun that’s been rigged to fire automatically, but it’s been rigged to miss! Wondering why Dottie would do this, they come to the horrifying realization that they must want Stark alive for some nefarious purpose, just as Jarvis tells them he’s been kidnapped. It’s a nice little bit of misdirection, and for once the SSR are only a step behind instead of three.

An airfield, a hijacked plane and a goodbye on the bridge

With Jarvis’ help they track them down to an airfield outside the city where Stark had squirreled away some planes and classic cars (turns out this is another vault he’d shown Dottie when she was seducing him). Unfortunately they’re minutes too late, as Ivchenko has managed to hypnotize Stark into flying a plane loaded with Midnight Oil over New York City. As Jarvis takes off in another plane with the intent of shooting Stark down if necessary, Peggy, Thompson and Sousa head into the airfield hangar to try and stop Ivchenko and Dottie.

Peggy tracks them down in the control room and battles Dottie while Ivchenko makes his escape, but he’s stopped by Sousa and Thompson. Peggy’s battle with Dottie, while cool, unfortunately doesn’t match the epic May vs. May fight from Face My Enemy, and to some extent it’s a bit of a cop out, as Peggy shouldn’t really have won. But regardless, Peggy eventually manages to “de-hypnotize” Howard over the radio and gets him to bring his plane back to the airfield.

By the time it’s all over, Senator Walt Cooper personally congratulates Agent Thompson, who’s been put in charge of the New York SSR branch now that Dooley’s dead, and Thompson accepts the accolades despite the fact that Peggy did all the work. Considering his unearned medal from WWII, clearly Thompson is used to accepting praise for things he didn’t do. A now restrained Ivchenko turns up in prison, where Dr. Zola is waiting to meet him (infamous from both Captain America movies of course), while Peggy pours the last remaining vial of Captain America’s blood into the river as she says a final, tearful goodbye to the man she loves.

My verdict on the finale

If I’m honest though, I think the start of the season was stronger than the end. The last two episodes were exciting, but they didn’t have the charm of the early ones, when Peggy was more of a detective and she and Jarvis were running around trying to track down Howard Stark’s stolen inventions. That was the show at its best for me. Even when the SSR thought Peggy was working against them, it didn’t feel as personal as what she was dealing with early on. Peggy as the woman nobody in the office takes seriously was a lot more interesting than Peggy on the run, and Paste felt the finale was good rather than great too.

I liked the little smile and conversation between Carter and Sousa at the end, as it very much implies that perhaps there’s a future for both of them and Peggy won’t have to live her life as a war widow. But I personally didn’t think Carter should have been able to defeat Dottie, as I really believe a graduate of the infamous Black Widow program would be far superior to a regular US agent, regardless of how talented he or she might be. I was actually hoping, even expecting, that Sousa or even Thompson would have been needed to help subdue Dottie, and it felt somewhat rushed. In some ways they didn’t really give her the exit that she so richly deserved (I mean that in the best possible way!).

Conversely, Dr. Zola’s appearance was truly a surprise and a very welcome one. While it obviously hints at the Winter Soldier and mind control, it perhaps also implies a more involved future for Peggy and the agents at the SSR in the overall MCU, and I’d be very happy to see that.

Should Peggy have needed Sousa or Thompson to help her take down Dottie, or did you buy her winning that fight on her own? Tell me in the comments.