Marvel's Agent Carter: Valediction

Spoilers.

The eight episodes have all been played, and milked for all their worth; Agent Carter's few weeks of fame is over and done, and this Tuesday we'll be back to watching Agents of SHIELD again, like nothing ever happened. But it did -- oh, it did. 

Valediction wrapped the show up nice and neatly, but there was surprisingly and very interestingly a good amount of things left open-ended. Like, say, the amount of things you would want to leave open-ended if you wanted to maybe come back to the storyline sometime, but also not too much to make it necessary. Obviously, they'd have to be crazy to not bring this show back for a second season eventually. Or maybe they should make it a movie!

I will definitely miss this lady's upright character, heroism, and fantastic sense of fashion.

Anyway, I think this final ep was my second favorite to A Sin to Err, with lots and lots of vintage-styled action-ing and adventuring and drama. With all the good guys finally on the same side, teaming up against the villains to save the day and the city!

With his name finally cleared, Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) comes back for his fame and glory, and is promptly put in a way worse situation than he ever would have been under arrest for treason. Even though his appearances always took away from Jarvis' role (and this one was no exception) Howard is easily one of the most established characters in the show, and Cooper's performance of him is endlessly enjoyable.

And Jarvis (James D'Arcy) is by no means forgotten in this final round, and gets plenty to do and a very nice final scene with Peggy. There are a lot of great characters in this show, I know, but seriously, Agent Carter (the lady and the series) would have been lost without Jarvis. He was from the beginning, and still is my favorite.

Two awesome men, and two self-absorbed men.

Jarvis, Howard, and Peggy all started out great, but Sousa (Enver Gjokaj) has slowly been climbing up to their level for the past seven episodes. I'm not sure exactly when he made it, but he did, and I noticed it clearly this time when I was more interested in what he was going to do than any of the other characters. I wanted him to play an important part in saving the day, and he did; using brains instead of brawn. And, I wanted him to make some headway with Peggy -- and okay, there wasn't as much as I could have handled with great happiness, but the scene was adorable, and promised a lot. He finally gets up the courage to ask her out, putting aside his crutch before talking to her, and thankfully doesn't turn into a bumbling idiot for being nervous. He was perfect. And even though she really couldn't go just then, the huge grin on her face after he looks away said everything we needed to know.

My two favorite Agent Carter men.

I saved the best for last -- Hayley Atwell's titular heroine. This may not have been her best episode, but when you're so constantly awesome, who can even say? She gets a nice and exciting hand-to-hand combat scene with the evil villain Dottie, and then she got an even better dramatic scene about Steve. The previously mentioned grin I loved because it showed her feminine, romantic side. Sure she's a level-headed, sensible, strong woman who can beat people up, but she's still a woman. And she knows her own worth, as she says in a speech near the end. And she bravely takes that first huge step toward moving on from Captain America.

Great job, Peggy.

It was nice to see her do that, but as for us, we'd forgotten Cap from the very first episode of this show -- with all this vintage awesomeness fueled by Peggy and co. distracting us, we didn't miss him for a second.

Here are the rest of my Agent Carter reviews:
Now Is Not the End/Bridge and Tunnel
Time and Tide
The Blitzkrieg Button
The Iron Ceiling
A Sin to Err
SNAFU