(Marvel Studios 2016)

Summary: It’s 1947, one year has passed since Peggy took on the remnants of the Nazis and came out victorious. But not all wars are won after just one battle, and Peggy’s journey to build a life for herself after the war continues. This time in L.A. after a mysterious new substance called Zero Matter has cropped up and begun wreaking havoc. Agent Peggy Carter has been dispatched to find the answers behind this new threat, and along the way she is joined by old friends and new enemies. Season 2 is finally here, and what tale it shall be…

Episode 10 – “Hollywood Ending”

Directed by Jennifer Getzinger; Written by Chris Dingess

[SPOILERS!!]

Review: -and breathe- Alright guys, let’s just get right to the point shall we?

That was flat out terrible. At the end of the long road there was nothing and this journey failed to earn any muster or acclaim as the Zero Matter story plot when absolutely nowhere. Whitney Frost is officially outed as one of the worst MCU villains to date as well an overall terrible adaptation of a rather interesting comic book character. And – unfortunately – the MCU as a whole has now seen it’s greatest blunder in storytelling since Thor: The Dark World.

I really don’t know where to start with this. I had been wishing for weeks now that the show’s roots would push through and not only would so much be explained but we’d finally see characters come into their own, grow, and become what they’re capable of. But I didn’t enjoy this episode at all.

Seeing Howard was fun but ultimately he felt like a shadow of his former self. Jarvis still has the greatest character arc this season and I’m happy he got the ultimate idea which brought Whitney and the Zero Matter-verse down. Samberly was awkward and I was just on the fence about him. Rose is amazing as well as Anna. Peggy is still great however her character is bogged down by her boy woes which had absolutely no reason to be a part of this season. Wilkes is just boring. Flat out. Jack Thompson’s character was ruined after all the development he went through last season – and we’ll get to that final scene in just a bit.

I loved Manfredi, he was a lot of fun and honestly his pure love and dedication to Whtiney even after her breakdown is really well written for the character. But Whitney herself is a terrible, terrible villain who does NOTHING and all of the strife she is caused is rendered moot when in the finale she does absolutely ziltch. Sousa is also bogged down by his woman troubles and really I’m bitter towards the show writers for their inexcusable treatment of Violet who’s just written out of the show for very flimsy reasoning.

When the episode comes to and end with Sousa and Peggy mackin’ out I feel nothing. Which sucks because when season 1 ended I actually wanted to see them ultimately get together, but thanks to he terrible writing this season as far as romantic subplots go I just couldn’t do it. I can’t support Sousa/Peggy when Violet got such a raw deal because of it.

Like I mentioned earlier the Zero Matter plot line is abysmal. And I am gonna be quite upset if it happens that this entire season was built to set-up Zero Matter for the Doctor Strange film. Because of everything we saw this season with Zero Matter’s abilities being all over the place and with nothing getting explained in the slightest, if we finally get explanations in Doctor Strange because Zero Matter for whatever reason is a part of the movie, it will only hurt this season more in my opinion.

Now getting back to that final scene with Jack… I get what they’re doing, who shot JT? I wonder how many of you will get that reference. But I just don’t care enough. One thing I really enjoyed about season 1 was its ending was definitive and there was no cliffhanger so that if Agent Carter, already a slippery show as far as ratings go and sitting on the edge of never returning, never returned you get a complete story.

Thanks to the unresolved mystery key and red ledger subplots as well as the newly made corpse of Jack Thompson obviously a season 3 is needed to tie-up those loose ends. However, because Hayley Atwell was recently cast in another show there is a strong possibility that a season 3 may not come. Honestly I would be okay with the show runners just shooting and airing a 2-hour made for TV movie to finish up Peggy’s story and tying everything up. I think that would be a good way to go out since season 2 was such a mess.

Either way, I’m really sad that this is how everything turned out and if a season 3 has even the slightest possibility of becoming just as messy I think it’d be all the better for us that the show doesn’t return. But definitely give us that TV movie. I love Peggy, she’s still my favorite female MCU character, but unfortunately season 2 jumped the shark big time. And that is unforgivable.

Final Score: 0 Matter out of 5

Derrick is a born and raised otaku with a love for comics, anime, manga and movies. The full list is pretty long, but that’s just the basics. Stories set in space are his bread and butter.

You can find more of his writing at IndieComix.net

@KazekunForever