Oh no! The science is threatening to science! We'll have to open a science hole, lure the bad guy in, and defeat her with the science gun! Wait, the science gun isn't working the way it's supposed to! Time to turn the science car into a science bomb and save the day!
I'll admit that's an unfair bit of fun on my part. Pretty much any end-of-season fireworks can be reduced to something along those lines. But let's be honest here, the whole zero matter storyline was something of a dud, no pun intended. The "mystery" part of the plot lost its intrigue very quickly, and the "power of the goop compels you" part of it lost its juice pretty quickly as well. That final showdown, where the blasted the goop out of Whitney Frost, and then sealed it away for good with nothing more than some pluck and hover car felt anticlimactic after the prior hoopla out in the desert, but it's really just the icing on a pretty underwhelming cake.
It's a shame, because there's the seed of a good idea thematically amid the onslaught of plot contrivances and shallow technobabble. The new villain and the new ally, both of whom become consumed by the zero matter have a connection that resonates despite the clunkiness of the story itself. Both are smart, capable individuals who are disregarded by 1950s society because of the color of their skin or a pair of X-chromosomes, who respond to their predicaments in very different ways.
But the finale of Agent Carter doesn't feel like the culmination of that. It barely feels like the culmination of the zero matter issues on a basic plot level. After all the trouble that Whitney Frost has caused, all the difficulty that the team has had fighting her and getting the upper hand on her and fixing the problems she's caused, all they have to do is lure her to a secluded area and out-science her. That feels unsatisfying because, despite the difficulty in closing the rift and stealing Frost's plans, the actual scheme feels too easy relative to the type of difficulties both Frost and zero matter have posed this season.
Despite that, at the end of the day, there's something that feels appropriate about the big arc of the season closing in a somewhat perfunctory manner, because it's never really been the thing that kept this show going. It's hard to call a show with an overarching plot and an action/adventure vibe a "hangout" show, but what drives Agent Carter and makes it a cut above its competitors are the stellar character dynamics between the best personalities on the show.
To that end, it feels right that the best parts of the finale were not the semi-convenient scheme to defeat the bad guy once and for all, but rather the budget excesses of a season (likely series) finale being able to get all of the players into one room and bounce them off of each other. I don't love all of them, but Agent Carter has done an impressive job at giving even minor characters like Rose and Samberly enough of a sketched out personality that the audience knows enough about everyone on screen, and they're all distinguishable from one another, to where we care about them.
I didn't know that I wanted Ken Marino and Dominic Cooper to rib each other as a pair of 50s bigwigs, but seeing Joseph Manfredi and Howard Stark play off of one another in a brief moment at brunch was nothing but charm and comedy. Cooper injected quite a bit of verve to the finale in fact, whether he was flirting with Rose (to Samberly's annoyance), bantering with Jarvis, trying to claim the naming rights for the rift opener, or having Peggy blow his bluster back in his face.
But Stark's presence is an indicator of what makes the show worth watching--and it's not the clumsily-structured major plot machinery--it's the fun, jaunty tone, with the emotional ballast of strong character moments that Agent Carter can pull off better than any MCU property this side of Guardians of the Galaxy.
To wit, one of the funniest scenes in "Hollywood Ending" is Jarvis's despondent tone when he learns that Peggy has opted to take a taxi rather than have him drive her to her destination, and his correspondingly chipper shift in demeanor once she gives in and let's him hang out with a hero he clearly loves and idolizes for a little while longer. But it's proceeded by a moment shared between Peggy and the endearing Ana Jarvis, who is an unexpected pillar of strength on the show that assuages Peggy's palpable guilt and thanks her for protecting Mrs. Jarvis's husband.
It's just one of several superlative bits from Atwell as Carter in the episode, who uses subtle facial expressions to convey her character's inner thoughts and can shift in tone perfectly with the moment. She hits the right notes of bemusement and confidence when she tells Thompson that she won't turn him in because she thinks he's a good man; she strikes the right balance of concern and reassurance when she asks Jarvis how Ana is doing and tells him he may be the strongest of any of them, and she finds the right place between quiet respect and well-deserved combativeness for Stark's various bon mots. With Atwell at the lead and James D'Arcy close behind, Agent Carter can depend on superb performances from its principals, and can even bust out ringers like Howard Stark, Joseph Manfredi (whose scene where he unwittingly smokes out a confession from one of his lieutenants was also a comedy highlight), Ana Jarvis, an unexpectedly amusing Jack Thompson and a sadly absent Dottie Underwood.
Which is why it's so frustrating that on top of the uninspiring finish to the zero matter storyline, the season devolves back into a tedious love triangle. As little chemistry as Wilkes and Peggy have had beyond one good kiss, their "the timing just wasn't right" scene felt odd and inert. Maybe if we'd felt their attraction more, it would have had more meaning, but even with how poorly the relationship was built up, that scene seemed like an odd, convenient way to effectively close it off.
And Sousa, or as my wife refers to him, "Wet Rag #2," was no improvement. The show has been trying to sell that relationship all season, and it's no more successful here in a labored attempt at a Tracy/Hepburn vibe than it's been before. Sousa is a bland lump, regardless of his plucky hero routine, and while it makes sense at a basic level that Peggy would respect Sousa for his principles and share some mutual admiration after all they'd been through, the romantic sparks between them just aren't there, and it leaves the big kiss that's supposed to send the season, and possibly the series, out on a high note, feel more like a sour one.
I've already written about how one of this show's strengths in its first season is that it didn't feel the need to delve into trope-y love interests for its lead. In the final tally, what makes Agent Carter an interesting engaging show isn't its season-long arcs, or false-start attempts at romance. It's Peggy Carter, a unique, complicated, multi-faceted character worth investing in, who has a clear personality and perspective that makes her the best part of every adventure she embarks on and every exchange with Jarvis or Stark or this week's villain she has. The tone of the show and the great supporting task help make that possible, but cliched plot-related hoopla, and a bargain basement love triangle with a pair of dull suitors drag down one of the brightest lights in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Agent Carter, and Peggy Carter, deserve better.
