Agent Carter finishes her limited series with “Valediction.” The show started with another episode of the Captain America radio show they’ve been using to either contrast Peggy’s life or as commentary on the times. This one seemed to be a dramatization of the mission where Cap crashed, which made a bit of the episode more poignant. 

The SSR goes to examine the movie theater incident the last show ended with, and it’s an ugly scene with forty-seven reported deaths. Sousa gets exposed to the gas, as well, and causes some tense moments, as well as letting the agents see how the gas works. As they try to sort all this out, “Dottie” and Dr. Ivchenko are loose in the city, causing more problems for our heroes.

In a surprising development, Howard Stark shows up and pretty much acts like a grown up. Things get a big complicated with him and the SSR, but they eventually end up working together. Howard helps them with their decisions by agreeing to be bait for an elaborate trap. Since Thompson can’t stand Stark for reasons never really explained, that works out well for him either way.

The killer gas is called Midnight Oil, as in “burning the…” Stark created it to try to help soldiers stay up longer, but it had some serious side effects, as seen. He decided it shouldn’t be used, but General McGuiness raided his lab and dropped it on Finnau, causing the battle/atrocity we’ve been hearing about. As an aside, this highlights one of problems with the way scientists are shown on tv, movies, and comic books. Everything else Stark has developed was some kind of engineering or mechanical science.  Now, suddenly, he’s a biochemist, too? Where’d that come from?

Ivchenko uses his evil persuasion powers to get Stark himself to deliver the gas to its target- the big VE (Victory in Europe) Day celebration. The heroes have to find Ivchenko, talk down Stark, and defeat Dottie. Not an easy series of tasks. Jarvis gets put in a really ugly position, earning some sympathy from me for possibly the first time in the series. Stark actually does, too. What Ivchenko makes Stark think is happening is really kind of sad, and shows that there are some things that Stark cares about.

The series ends on some high notes. Ivchenko is captured, and put in some dangerous company in the inevitable end scene. Carter goes in to the SSR and gets applause and acknowledgment from her coworkers. Stark decides to do something to make the world safer. Jarvis makes a decision to do the right thing in spite of Stark, which leads to a heartbreaking scene of Peggy on the Brooklyn Bridge.

What I liked: Finally seeing WHY Carter would have endangered herself and her career for Howard Stark. If he’d acted at all like this earlier, parts of the series would have been much more believable. Carter getting the recognition she deserves, and moving on. Carter and Angie’s last scene with their new home was good. Seeing Peggy with Cap’s shield was great. Showing Jarvis in a more sympathetic light was long overdue.

What I didn’t: The Stark being a bio-chemist bit I mentioned above. There was some sloppy work regarding Dottie near the end.

I’ll give this episode a 4 out of 5. The series as a whole I’ll say 3 out of 5, which is better than I would have thought at one point.  A second series of Agent Carter is very uncertain right now. But, Peggy Carter will be back in both a flashback scene in the Ant-Man movie and in Avengers: Age of Ultron.