So the Agent Carter finale was last night

[sholio]

WELL ....

... I'm still a towering mess of incoherent feels about it. FEELS ALL OVER THE PLACE. FEELS SPILLING OFF MY KEYBOARD. I desperately want to write fic to fix that cliffhanger (WTF WAS THAT CLIFFHANGER) but I can't seem to corral all of my various emotional reactions running in every direction enough to actually do it.

FEELS ALL OVER THE PLACE.

That Peggy/Daniel kiss!

THAT CLIFFHANGER! About which, my thoughts can best be summed up as:



He is SO not dead; that is a Hollywood TV-dead cliffhanger if I ever saw one -- it's even signposted by the episode title! However, if I do not get a season three, and season three is looking tragically unlikely based on the show's ratings and Hayley Atwell signing with another series, I will NEVER be over the fact that the show set up an h/c scenario which is cut straight from my id and then FAILED TO GIVE ME THE REST OF IT.

... also, from a fanfic-writing perspective, I think I've been writing Daniel WAY less physically badass than he is actually capable of being. Going to have to remember this. I am also having serious doubts that his nonspecific ailment is actually a missing leg as opposed to a leg that's just seriously messed up, because I'm not sure if he could actually have gotten away with some of the stuff he does in this episode with a prosthesis. (Yes, I know the reason is that Enver Gjokaj has two perfectly functional legs; still, I need to decide for ficcing purposes, and I'm leaning more in the "messed up but still intact" direction after these episodes. Though there's still that line from season one that suggests the opposite.)

THE CLIFFHANGER THOUGH.

And Peggy and Daniel at the end. Her delighted smile, and his stunned and happy look ... it's just so great. It's all I wanted.

Although that scene where Jack comes into the lab and Peggy sends him to get food for everybody and he does it cheerfully and happily might just be my favorite scene in the episode. I never dreamed we'd get as much of a redemption arc for him this season as we did. That betrayal at the end of last season is SO worth it now, since it set up that lovely, lovely moral dilemma and reversal to Team Good Guy.

I said this last season and I think it's still true: this is not a perfect show, but it's perfect FOR ME. So perfect. Unless Jack is dead, in which case see above gif.

Whether or not we get a season three, I hope you guys want post-finale fixits, because I have a feeling you are going to be getting a LOT of them coming from my direction shortly.

Comments

[madripoor_rose]

I'm still in a state of AAARGH! myself.

[sholio]

I am recovering from my AARGH by writing basically all the fixits ever. XD

[st_aurafina]

I came out of it unexpectedly shipping Jason and Howard - they were all smirks and little touches at breakfast.

It was so Michael at the end, it was. Poor Peggy.

[sholio]

They are really fun together! I love the idea of Wilkes finally getting the respect he deserves working for/with Howard. (Who is such a great guy, really, even if he IS the Marvel universe's answer to Hugh Heffner.)

It is definitely either Michael or someone connected to him. However, I ran across something somewhere -- tumblr? LJ? idek -- that pointed out one big reason to believe Michael might not be the Big Bad after all: if the MCU keeps Sharon's relationship to Peggy the same (allowing for a generation or two of removal) then Michael needs to be alive and non-evil to have kids that Peggy stays on good terms with.

[st_aurafina]

OMG SHARON! I hadn't thought about that, but she must be Michael's granddaughter. Ooooh, it's fascinating.

[sholio]

YES! I didn't think of it myself, but unless they have decided to make her a completely different character, she HAS to be. And it doesn't appear that Michael was married or had any family in the flashbacks, which means he must be not only alive, but capable of having a family that Peggy is on good enough terms with to invite his granddaughter or great-granddaughter into SHIELD.

[lilacsigil]

You were so right! I was thrilled!

Daniel may have a prosthesis or not, but I don't think there was anything that he couldn't have done with a below-knee prothesis and somewhat-messed-up thigh? (I definitely don't think he has an above-knee prosthesis, and the knee joint stiffness could be due to how the prosthesis straps on rather than thigh injury.) He lost his balance fast at the zero matter machine, he had to tip himself out Whitney's window rather than climbing through, and at the start he only had to outpace a wobbly Whitney long enough for Jarvis and Howard to arrive. I would like to see if he pays for all that action afterwards, though!

[dirty_diana]

Ooh I would love to see that. Now I'm trying to remember why I thought it was above-the-knee last year - I think because Sousa talks about getting shot in the femur? But of course the injury could have been weird and complicated. Or the writers could be clueless. Love all the stuff he got to do this season, though.

[lilacsigil]

He could have been shot in the thigh, had a tourniquet on for too long and lost most of his lower leg to necrosis easily enough in battlefield conditions.

I originally thought above-the-knee as well because of the very straight-legged way he walks, but he does sometimes have a bent knee when he's already seated and the stiffness could be due to the straps. But I also liked him being more physically confident this season - maybe the warmer weather suits him!

[dirty_diana]

These are all good theories! Sousa could just have been massively simplifying the description of his injury as well, since he didn't exactly want to talk about it.

[sholio]

I was right! Sort of. I didn't call everything, but I did call some of it.

And those are good points about the prosthesis! I guess I was so set on the idea of it being an above-the-knee prosthesis (and I'm not sure why, either, though I think the stiff knee was a big part of it) that I didn't even think that a below-knee prosthesis would solve all those problems.

And now I want the fic about Daniel dealing with the after-effects of all his unaccustomed athleticism ...

[cesperanza]

Just saw it and I really liked it too! Though the scene of my heart was Joe and Howard - I nearly jumped out of my chair. Peggy/Daniel was nice too, and I appreciated the efforts they took for the femmeslashers. And I like the cliffhanger if only because it IS great grist for fic - it makes me want to write somethign!~

[sholio]

Yessss, the cliffhanger is amazing fic fodder -- I haven't been this inspired by a season ender in a number of years. I wish the fandom was more active, because right now I just want ALL THE FICS FOREVER. *crosses fingers that you write something* :D

[jadesfire]

I'm not watching (and don't care about spoilers!), but watching everyone love this show is bumping it up my 'to watch' list like woah.

Also, that octopus makes me laugh every. single. time :D

[sholio]

I LOVE the octopus gif, it's so great. :D

If you do watch the show, I'd love to hear what you think!

[kore]

Peggy telling Jack to do the dinner orders and then JACK ACTUALLY DOING IT WILLINGLY was pretty damn awesome.

I wasn't that thrilled with his being shot because he had just gotten the classic Redeemed Guy Edit plus Peggy's official seal of approval, so I could actually predict something terrible was going to happen to him in the next five minutes. And if it's true that "M. Carter" refers to Peggy's brother and not her, that sets up a possible conflict in S3 I really dislike and I'm not crazy about Peggy's story suddenly being all about her brother, either. I have no doubt that if they get renewed, Jack isn't dead, because the writers kept saying "You saw him get shot, you didn't see him die!"

But I don't think they'll get renewed, which is a major bummer, because as much as I didn't like a lot of this season (it went way downhill for me at "Monsters," personally) I LOVE Peggy. And AoS just got renewed for season four, to rub salt in the wound. sigh.

[sholio]

I think that scene with Jack and Peggy was possibly my favorite scene in all of season two. Such a great callback to early season one, and how far he's come from then.

I don't know how to feel about season three! I'm so conflicted! On the one hand, I really want to see all their darling faces again! But on the other hand, there are so many things they could do that would make my life tragic (killing Jack, doing something awful to Daniel and Peggy's relationship, take Peggy in a direction I won't like ...) and, aside from the cliffhanger, this season left everything in such a good place for me. But on the THIRD hand, the odds of renewal are really low and that makes me so sad because this show is so much better than so much else of what's out there. (Salt in the wound, yes ...) ALL MY HANDS ARE FLAILING AND CONFLICTED.

[kore]

I think that scene with Jack and Peggy was possibly my favorite scene in all of season two. Such a great callback to early season one, and how far he's come from then.

I SCREECHED when Peggy ordered him to do it and almost missed when he did do it and didn't argue about it so cutely. Best callback!

But on the THIRD hand, the odds of renewal are really low and that makes me so sad because this show is so much better than so much else of what's out there. (Salt in the wound, yes ...) ALL MY HANDS ARE FLAILING AND CONFLICTED.

MY HANDS FLAIL WITH YOURS YES. One other thing about S3, they seemed big on the almost-triangles this season, so if there was something new there might be a setup with Peggy-Jason-Daniel? :-/ BUT, I'd be so sad to never see Peggy again on the small screen. Atwell is just incandescent in the part.