Agent Carter – A Missed Opportunity

note: spoilers abound for Agent Carter season 2

Agent Carter’s second season just ended, and I’m sad.  There was a lot of fun to be had – Howard’s always good for a laugh, Jarvis is perfect, and their take on Whitney Frost as a villainous Hedy Lamarr was interesting.  One thing that didn’t help was the finale just being one hour, especially after following a two-hour episode the week before.  The ending felt rushed.  Also, in general you never got a sense that the stakes were super-high.  It may have been a TV budget restriction but the fix for some of the various hurdles (Dr. Wilkes disappearing, getting the ‘zero matter’ back into the Darkforce dimension) seemed fairly pat.  Whitney just…walks into the trap?  She has power, right, so why not have her show it?

Even with those complaints, I enjoyed this season.  I love Peggy Carter, Sousa, Jarvis and Anna Jarvis (adorable!).  No, the missed opportunity actually involves Jack Thompson.  HE was the one Peggy really needed to win over to her side, to come around and view her as an equal.  I honestly thought they were building to something like that, a moment where Jack would be truly humbled by Peggy, and start to view her and other women in a new light.  I come back to Sokka getting schooled by the Kyoshi warriors, and learning that the way he was treating them (and his sister) was not okay.  Imagine Thompson going to Peggy, apologizing for the shit he’s put her through, and them partnering up.  But we won’t get to see that growth, after he gets shot and killed for the redacted file.  It’s a shame we won’t get to him become Carter’s ally.

Speaking of that redacted file…I thought it had been faked up by Vernon’s people, buuuuuut someone (maybe at IO9) pointed out “M. Carter” could’ve been her brother.

Unfortunately, Agent Carter’s ratings were not exactly explosive, so these dangling threads (which also include Dottie Underwood) may never be resolved.  If they DO get another season, I wouldn’t mind them shifting away from the 40s.  We see Peg still active with SHIELD all the way to the 80s in Ant-Man, so why not some swingin’ 60s missions?  Maybe even snag Michael Douglas for an Ant-Man cameo for a ratings boost?  Just a thought, but I want more Peggy Carter and hey, more Jarvis too.  Give ’em one more season, Marvel