The final episode in the second season of Marvel's Agent Carter is everything we hoped for before the rug was pulled from under all the viewers in its last seconds.
Whitney Frost (Wynn Everett) was brilliant until the end, Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) is back, and Ana Jarvis (Lotte Verbeek) also made it back before Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) left the Stark Estate.
Edwin Jarvis (James D'Arcy) admits he likes tacos and Jack Thompson (Chad Michael Murray) has finally redeemed himself after becoming Vernon Masters' (Kurtwood Smith) pawn - so why did Marvel have to do that?
If you haven't seen the finale of Agent Carter and aren't keen on reading spoilers, better turn back now, because there are definitely spoilers ahead.
In the penultimate episode, we saw Peggy at odds with Thompson because the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR) New York branch chief had Dr. Samberly (Matt Braunger) turn the gamma cannon into a remote trigger bomb. Thompson holds the detonator while Peggy has a gun pointed at her supervisor.
Of course, Thompson was confident that Peggy wouldn't really shoot him - at least until Peggy tells him that even when that was true before, that is no longer the case. Thompson decides to risk it, but before he could detonate the bomb, Dr. Jason Wilkes (Reggie Austin) detonates himself inside with Frost and Masters.
When Peggy, Thompson and Daniel Sousa (Enver Gjokaj) enter the room where the explosion happened, they find most of the things destroyed and zero matter on the floor. They also find a weakened, zero matter-free Wilkes and a zero matter-absorbing Frost, which of course prompts them to run for their lives.
Surprise! Stark is back from Peru to pick up the group and candidly observes that Jarvis just hit a two-time Oscar winner with his car. Jarvis assures him that Frost is more resilient than he thinks.
Back in the Manfredi house, Joseph Manfredi (Ken Marino) discusses his woes about the change in Frost with his mother (Tina D'Marco) and tells her that he loves Frost with all his heart and soul. His mother tells him that he must make a deal with the devil to get the old Whitney Frost back.
Apparently, Stark and Peggy are the devil because we next see Jarvis held by Manfredi at gunpoint. We also find out that Manfredi and Stark are friendly with each other. Manfredi tells the group - Peggy, Stark, Jarvis, Sousa and Wilkes - that he wants the old Frost back and he agrees to help them get their hands on whatever she was working on.
A brief distraction affords Peggy and Sousa the time to take photos of Frost's formulas - plus a little adjustment care of Sousa - and gives Stark, Samberly and Wilkes the idea on how to build it. Peggy walks in on the three men fighting, which, as it turns out, was just about naming the machine. Of course, who else would know how to stop the unnecessary fighting but Peggy?
"I believe I can actually hear the sound of their egos growing," Jarvis nonchalantly tells Peggy after she talked to the three men. This line just landed a spot in the list of the most quotable quotes for season two.
Peggy also settles the naming argument by suggesting that the machine be called the "Rift Generator."
One of the memorable scenes comes after Thompson stops by the SSR laboratory to offer his help and Peggy casually suggests that he collect the dinner orders - and he actually does as Peggy suggested.
The final, rather subdued, showdown happens in the Stark Pictures studio lot where the SSR group opens the rift to bait Frost, and uses the gamma cannon to force the zero matter out of Frost's body. Trouble happens when Stark couldn't close the rift, the gamma cannon still needs to charge for a good 20 minutes and Sousa dares to access the manual override right under the open rift.
Peggy, of course, makes sure Daniel does not get taken and Stark sacrifices his hover car so they can close the rift from the inside.
Not everyone gets a happy ending because Frost was driven mad due to the loss of zero matter, although she sees her husband, Calvin Chadwick (Currie Graham), supporting her in her delusions. Poor Manfredi, though, can't catch a break.
Wilkes has been offered a position in Stark's company and accepts that being with Peggy could only work if the circumstances had been different.
"I've learned, dwelling on what might have been, it's no way to live," Peggy tells Wilkes. It seems Peggy has really moved on from Steve Rogers, but let's add her words in the list of memorable lines in this episode.
Ana and Edwin Jarvis arrive in time to say farewell to a New York-bound Peggy. After convincing Peggy to let Jarvis drive her or else he will never stop sulking, Ana heads to the SSR L.A. branch and tries to get Peggy to stay.
Of course, Peggy mentions all of Jarvis' complaints about L.A. when she first arrived and he tells her that there are a few reasons he has come to love the city - tacos being one of them. He also correctly guesses that, in spite of the many reasons he could give, Peggy only needs one compelling reason to stay.
Inside, Chief Sousa happily closes the Isodyne case and tells Peggy she was reckless and went against her own rules in trying to save him at the Stark Pictures studio lot and it ends with them kissing.
All would have been well if it ended there, but Thompson had to be shot and left bleeding in his hotel room.
The only one missing in the finale is Dottie Underwood (Bridget Regan) and it would have been great if she was able to make her presence felt with a witty line or two. Please make sure there will be a season three for Agent Carter because we all want to know what happens next.
On the bright side, Agent Carter delivered on its promise during the season premiere and the finale was not as frustrating a cliffhanger as X-Files - we're looking at you, Chris Carter.
