Three days to the finale, so it's wild theory time!

[sholio]

I have an Agent Carter speculation ...

I think it's interesting there have been so many references to Peggy's hitherto-unheard-of brother this season. There was even a gratuitous mention of him in 2x09 while she's rescuing Wilkes. While I like it (it gives depth to her past), from a narrative standpoint it seems like a lot of focus on a character who died years ago.

When Thompson first discovered the (fake?) blackmail file in 2x08, I actually assumed it was about Peggy's brother ("M. Carter"). I'd completely forgotten her name is really Margaret, and it wasn't until he mentioned 1944 when he was talking to Peggy that I realized Michael was dead by the time the file supposedly took place.

OR IS HE?

What if the file is real, but it's about Michael, not Peggy? What if Michael isn't dead, but in some kind of deep cover, doing black-ops work in Europe during the war, and continuing to do the same kind of things now? That'd explain the ambiguity of the name on the file (same first initial for both siblings), and the reason why there's been more focus on him this season than you'd expect for a character who only shows up in flashbacks.

You know how last season had a stinger scene at the end with Zola and Fennhoff? Maybe this season's stinger scene is Michael Carter, and if the show goes on for a third season (which I'm not optimistic about, but you never know) it would either be The Search For Michael, or he'd be one of the antagonists, or both. It's a classic setup, after all: hero vs. sibling-gone-bad.

Thoughts?

Comments

[st_aurafina]

Awesome and plausible, and that would make a great S3 storyline. It would be a hard sell for me to buy Michael going bad, but Michael in trouble pings all my buttons, especially in tying the story to the Winter Soldier timeline.

[sholio]

Yeah, I'm definitely on the fence about the "Michael is evil" aspect of the theory, as it's a REALLY long leap to get from Michael as we saw him in 1940, to Michael in 1944 massacring a bunch of civilians. However, with all of the different forms of mind control in play in this universe, I could totally believe Michael in deep trouble and being used by some seriously bad people -- and wow, yeah, tying it together with the beginnings of the Winter Soldier program would be GREAT!

[lilacsigil]

That is a great theory and would make sense with Peggy dismissing the report out of hand - you'd think that she'd take a moment to wonder if something she'd done with Howard or Steve had gone horribly wrong, but if it (to her) it was an obviously fake report about somewhere she hadn't been, she wouldn't react to it. Also, it could make for a great team-up with Dottie if they had to go to the Eastern Bloc to rescue Michael.

Also, as we saw in the first series, it was pretty easy for Howard's inventions to go from "here's a good idea" to a massacre, so it's not unthinkable in the context of the series that something could have gone wrong for Michael, too, especially as he was working in intelligence.

[sheron]

Hmm good point, especially with those dead guys coming back to life (seemingly) after the battle of Fennel, you could definitely make some kind of a plausible reason for Michael to still be around.

Though personally, I just hope they drop a hint about Peggy organizing SHIELD and how she'll go about it!

[sholio]

I'm starting to think we might not get all the way to SHIELD this season! For most of the season I've been assuming that all the stuff with the Council was going to lead to Peggy and her friends losing their jobs, and forming their own organization with Howard's backing. It certainly was looking that way for awhile. But as far as I can tell, now they've got their jobs back, Vernon is out of the way, and there's only one episode left to wrap things up, in which a LOT of stuff has to happen given where the cliffhanger left everything. I think all of this would certainly make Peggy less interested in continuing to work for the SSR, and Vernon did say at the beginning of the season that the SSR's time was limited, but now I'm thinking the most we might get at the end is Peggy thinking about the possibility of maybe starting her own improved version of the SSR someday.

Although I guess we'll find out next week.

[sheron]

Oh, I'm not expecting them to organize SHIELD in one episode, but I would really love a hint of "hmm maybe we should start our own intelligence organization!" from either Stark or Peggy. (And a hint on whether Jack would be willing to work with her there rather than do his own thing with the council which, bleah!)

As for Vernon, we saw him fall to the ground still alive. My guess is, Wilkes will take out Madame Frost and disable the bomb somehow but Vernon will survive. To be honest, I'm hoping Dotty will be the one to finish off Whitney, because of the torturing thing in earlier episodes. I guess of all people Dotty would be the one most on Jack's side with the "kill them all" plan. I wonder if she will interfere with Peggy... I'm super nervous about how the standoff gets resolved (I don't think Peggy would ever shoot Jack in cold blood...in fact, this brings to mind a scene from S1 where she disables Jack and tells Sousa he won't shoot her. Maybe she'll shoot it out of his hand? In which case I'll draw amusement from him having a broken hand and a gunshot hand....anyway. Too many elipses).

The closer I get to the air time, the more nervous I get. *crosses fingers for no deaths of the good guys*

[sholio]

Yeah, I can't see Peggy shooting Jack, either -- if nothing else, because it seems way too dark for this show to have their hero shoot someone point blank (and an ally and sorta-friend, no less). The only time I can remember that we've actually seen Peggy kill people on the show was when she was in a firefight in Russia, actively in a kill-or-be-killed situation. Peggy shooting Jack in the face is just ... no, it's not the kind of thing this show would do. My expectation is that their standoff will be interrupted by Wilkes's dark matter explosion, and then everyone will end up working together to fix the inevitable not-so-great consequences of that. At least I'm hoping this doesn't create a permanent rift between the three of them, or set Jack up for a redemption-by-death scenario. NO DEATH. And I'm hoping my babies end the season at least speaking to each other.

(I haven't watched any previews for next week -- PLEASE NO ONE SPOIL ME IF YOU HAVE -- but come on, someone is not going to explode in a giant cloud of dark matter without there being terrible consequences in the vicinity. XD)

As for the antagonists, my guess is actually the reverse of yours -- I think Vernon is a goner, but I think Whitney will survive because of all the dark matter in her system. I think Wilkes is going to survive and be fixed somehow, or at least stabilized; it also seems a bit convenient, or something, to resolve the love triangle by killing off the rival love interest.

I am undecided about whether I think Whitney will survive the season. On the one hand, she's a pretty major villain in the comics. On the other hand, they have introduced several major Marvel villains in the movies and then killed them off at the end (Red Skull, for example) so they might be planning something similar with her.

[sholio]

if it (to her) it was an obviously fake report about somewhere she hadn't been, she wouldn't react to it.

I think that's exactly what it was. If I'm remembering the timeline of major Steve Rogers events correctly (at one point I had a lot of Steve's defining dates semi-memorized, because I was writing a lot of fic about him and it saved me from having to look things up all the time) June 1944 was when she was in the U.S., working on Project Rebirth, so any report that had her doing anything in Europe would have to be faked.

And yeah, that's a good point about Howard; indirectly, he's responsible for a lot of deaths and general mayhem in season one, albeit not intentionally, which means Michael could easily be in a similar situation.

[kore]

Is there an actual reliable Steve timeline around? (The ones I've seen based on MCU chronology seem to be....messes.)

[sholio]

I'm pretty sure there is no way to make an MCU timeline that ISN'T a mess, at least one that lines up with real-world history. (Although I also think that, in a universe with HYDRA, the failure of the MCU version of WWII battles to match up with actual combat and allied troop movements is not really that big of a deal. If I can accept supersoldiers and alien tech, I can also accept that these things are going to shift history a bit ...)

But yeah, I think most of it is just guesswork, and even the semi-canonical points are mostly derived from props and such, which are notoriously unreliable (like giving us multiple birthdates for certain characters).

[kore]

Also, it could make for a great team-up with Dottie if they had to go to the Eastern Bloc to rescue Michael.

Oh yesssss.

[kore]

That really would explain why it was "M Carter," and they certainly have been seeding both the Winter Soldier and Black Widow storylines through the whole show, although moreso in S1. It would also be terrific conflict if Peggy had to go against her brother somehow, especially if he didn't know her, altho that would be repeating Steve's storyline from TWS somewhat. But even if he just needed rescuing, that would also be a great twist.

I'm just hoping by this point that Jason isn't dead, that they don't kill Whitney off, and that Peggy and Jack don't wind up endgame (I'm not that crazy about Peggy and Sousa either, but it would be better).