‘Agent Carter’ Showunners on the Season 1 Finale; Tease Season 2 Plans..

Marvel Studios/ABC’s Agent Carter will be finishing up its first season run tonight. Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) and the other members of the S.S.R. – following the death of their Chief Dooley (Shea Whigham) – must now track down the hypnotist Ivchenko/Dr. Fenhoff (Ralph Brown) – based on the Marvel comics villain Doctor Faustus – and the deadly assassin formerly known as Dottie (Bridget Regan), before they use Howard Stark’s (Dominic Cooper) mystery weapon to harm even more people.

There’s no word yet on whether or not Agent Carter will get a second season, but co-showrunners Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas say they’ve certainly left the door open for that to happen, with the season one finale. Indeed, from the very beginning, the series had a good reason to exist – to show how Peggy came to co-found S.H.I.E.L.D. and her early days running the organization in the Marvel Cinematic Universe - and there’s a story that the TV series has only begun to setup. (A story deserving of more than one season, at that).


Agent Carter‘s season one finale, “Valediction”, won’t attempt to suddenly rush through that narrative either, thankfully, judging by what the showrunners have teased so far. Instead, Fazekas told TV Guide that the immediate conflict at hand (involving Fenhoff and his killer assistant) will be the main focus in this episode – though, “Valediction” will aim to bring Peggy’s arc this season to a fitting stopping point, at the same time:

I would say the [immediate] problem is handled. There’s still a larger issue out there and there are certainly two very obvious loose ends. So there’s a little bit of both. I think there’s some closure for Peggy personally. There’s some closure in the immediate threat that they’re facing. But we’ve left room for other things to happen. Which is not to say that in future seasons we would have to go into that particular story. The thing about this show is the way that it’s been conceived is there’s so many avenues you could go down that aren’t married to anything. But there’s certainly little threads out there that have still not been tied up.

Peggy has spent the first season of Agent Carter not just adjusting to life in a world where (following the end of WWII) she is no longer welcome in the workplace, but also dealing with the loss of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). It sounds as though “Valediction” will (as the title implies) bring Peggy some peace of mind on both fronts, now that her fellow S.S.R. employees Jack (Chad Michael Murray) and Daniel (Enver Gjokaj) have gotten to know her better – and now have respect for what she’s capable of - even as Peggy commits herself to keep on fighting the good fight, like she did with Steve back during the war.



Fazekas and Butters teased more about the Agent Carter season one finale during their TV Guide interview, mentioning that Howard will play “a very big role” in the episode, while Daniel will get two big moments – one more personal (with Peggy), the other being his own “big hero moment” in the case of Howard’s missing weapons. And, of course, there will be a big throw-down between Peggy and Dottie; the latter of whom Butters (rightly) describes as being a nice foil to the show’s eponymous “strong female heroine.”

Butters: It felt very fitting to have the very big fight sequence in the last episode be between Peggy and Dottie.

Fazekas: What I like about the fight is that out of all the people she’s fought over the past eight episodes, and there’s been quite a few, Dottie’s probably her most formidable opponent. So I think that’s really fun. But there’s going to be a loose end at the end of the fight.

So, all in all, it sounds as though “Valediction” may end up being a strong finish to Agent Carter‘s debut season: a perfectly watchable and fun romp in the historical MCU, despite (arguably) having some significant problems at the same time. Of course, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was certainly a mixed bag during its freshman season, before it became must-see material for Marvel fans in season two, so there’s no reason why Agent Carter cannot follow suit – assuming it gets a season two. Here’s hoping it does, anyway.

Agent Carter season one wraps up tonight when “Valediction” airs on ABC at 8/7c.