selenak

Again two episodes in a row, and only one more left to go.

To get the bad out of the way first, Jason Wilkes' storyline would be absolutely no problem... if he weren't the only poc character in this show. If there were several, than anything he does would just be about Jason Wilkes. As it is, though, the only poc character goes morally grey and likely dies while the white characters making shady choices (Thompson, all the time, Jarvis in 2.08) survive, which: should have done better, Marvel.

This being said: I appreciate that Wilkes is acting out of sheer desperation to survive and not to become a ringwraith, because with a few exceptions, I'm not a fan of "Plot device made them go bad" type of stories, and prefer it if characters get to make their choices, good or bad, on their own volition. Which is why I really liked his last scene in 2.09. with Peggy, telling her it had been all him, not the zero matter, and trying his best to get her to safety and keep everyone else from being affected by the zero matter.

By itself, I also liked Jack Thompson's storyline, because it suddenly became less predictable. I'd been waiting for him to choose Team Peggy all along at a criticial point, so the phonecall as a wake up call for him to make up his mind was by the numbers of what I was expecting. I also didn't believe he genuinely wanted to join Team Whitney Frost, not least for pragmatic reasons (being a minion of someone who can kill you by touch is just too risky for a good survivalist), so I was expecting a double bluff. What I HADN'T expected was that Thompson's alternate plan to make ruthlessly pragmatic sense and for this to be a good character momement for Peggy, because note she's not just upset at the prospect of Jason Wilkes dying, but insisting that their job is to bring Vernon and Whitney to justice, not to execute them. Now this was interesting, because you could see both povs (at least if you believe that supervillains and corrupt cops, too, deserve their day in court). (Re: the cliffhanger on that one, I think Peggy will actually shoot, but not kill Thompson because this isn't Netflix.) And Peggy not believing that the ends justify the means is what makes her a heroine more than her ability to punch bad guys.

(The interplay between Peggy, Daniel and Jack was also fun to watch. I don't ship them as an OT3, but I can absolutely see why others do.)

On a similar note: Peggy being furious with Jarvis over his shooting of Whitney (which would have been murder instead of attempted murder if she hadn't gained zero matter altered physicality), and her using the word "murder" despite her understanding of his motivation. Jarvis makes a couple of bad choices in 2.08 ("last will and testament" indeed, he should have known Ana needed him alive, not on a roaring rampage of revenge, but they never do), which I thought was the right decision on the show's part, because it makes Jarvis human, and it takes him seriously, instead of assuming that his origins in sidekickness and comic reliefdom somehow immunize him from reacting terribly when what must be the ultimate nightmare for him almost happens. And the ensuing argument between Peggy and him in the desert, with everything that has been boiling underneath coming to the surface, oh my heart. (Should Peggy have been angry with him longer, post mutual apologies? Probably, but I'm so invested in the relationship I'm glad they made up within the same episode. Especially since the prospect of another season is so unlikely, and I don't want the show to end with them estranged.)

Ana waking up: was pretty sure she'd survive, but that awakening scene was still wonderful, with Jarvis' promises painting such a great picture in a few words of what their marriage is like, and Ana teasing him saying so much about her.

Whitney Frost: continues to be a great villain, and I really loved that the show lets her continue to geek out about all the scientific date in betweeen world ruling ambitions, that it never lets us forget she's a scientist first and foremost and that this is her original passion.

Manfredi the mobster: okay, I'm aware it's a cliché, but his mother being of the archetypical eternally not satisfied with son yet ready to knife the opposition type still cracked me up. Am also weirdly touched by his devotion to Whitney.

Peggy's musical dream sequence: silly but fun (also very fitting for that era in Hollywood), and no, I didn't miss both Angie and Dottie are on stage as well, and she dances with them as well as with her male love interests.

Earlier black and white dream appearance of her brother, together with the file Thompson unearthed about how Agent M. Carter was involved in some 1944 massacre: certainly makes me think that if we get a third season, the writers were planting the seeds her for Michael being revealed as alive, with the British Secret Service only having faked his death in order to turn him into some type of Black Ops agent. (It makes for a parallel to the Bucky and Steve situation and explains the file, because if it was just about Thompson wavering a few minutes longer as to whether or not to sell Peggy out by ruining her reputation, he could have been tempted by, say, accusing her of breaking a Soviet prisoner out of jail...)

Finale speculation: whether he just died in this episode's ending explosion or will in the finale, Jason Wilkes is a goner, which, see above; Whitney will end the finale assumed to be dead by Peggy & Co. but in reality only severely depowered and behind a metal mask; Thompson, see above, will get shot by Peggy but survive. (She'll probably aim for the shoulder.) Vernon is most definitely dead, which means in theory Peggy could work for the SSR a while longer before founding SHIELD.