AGENT
CARTER S2

LOS ANGELES, 1947

WHY SEASON 2 LEFT NEW YORK FOR HOLLYWOOD

ABC renewed Agent Carter in May 2015, and the second season ran to ten episodes, two more than the first. Tara Butters, Michele Fazekas and Chris Dingess were the showrunners.

The move west was settled before the cameras rolled. In an interview with the three showrunners published in July 2015, Butters said the team drew on L.A. Confidential and Chinatown, where you start with one little crime that does not seem like anything and, once you dig, find a web of conspiracy. She also said the writers wanted Peggy’s next romance to be with someone other than Steve Rogers.

“Let’s make somebody she dates different than Steve.”

Tara Butters, July 2015

THE ZERO MATTER CASE

WHITNEY FROST, JASON WILKES AND THE ISODYNE CASE

The season follows Peggy to the West Coast SSR, where she investigates a murder connected to Isodyne Energy and an antagonist called Zero Matter, and confronts the Hollywood actress Whitney Frost. Her colleagues Sousa and Jarvis return, with Howard Stark and the others, in the fight against catastrophic threats to California.

Wynn Everett played Whitney Frost and Reggie Austin played the Isodyne scientist Jason Wilkes. Hayley Atwell, James D’Arcy as Edwin Jarvis, Chad Michael Murray as Jack Thompson and Enver Gjokaj as Daniel Sousa returned from the first season, with Dominic Cooper back as Howard Stark.

A DELAYED PREMIERE, A SMALLER AUDIENCE

A TWO-WEEK DELAY, A TWO-HOUR PREMIERE AND SERIES LOWS

ABC had set the premiere for 5 January 2016. On 2 December 2015 the network moved it to 19 January because President Obama’s State of the Union address had been brought forward to 12 January. The return of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on 8 March was unaffected, and the change let the ten episodes run uninterrupted.

The first two episodes aired together on Tuesday 19 January, after a Captain America special that drew 3.2 million viewers and a 0.9 rating among adults 18 to 49. The premiere drew 3.3 million viewers and a 1.0 rating, about half of the series debut, and 3 million and a 0.9 for the second hour, both series lows. The first season’s finale had drawn 4 million and a 1.3.

The audience kept shrinking. The finale on 1 March drew 2.35 million viewers and a 0.7 rating, a series low. The season averaged 2.681 million viewers and a 0.79 rating, against 5.02 million and a 1.51 for Season 1.

A CLIFFHANGER AND A DECISION

THE FINALE’S LAST SCENE, A HASHTAG AND ABC’S 12 MAY CANCELLATION

In the finale, “Hollywood Ending,” Whitney Frost, driven mad after absorbing more Zero Matter, ends up in a mental institution. Sousa and Peggy share a kiss the show had been building toward since the first season, and Thompson comes round to Peggy’s side. In the closing scene, Thompson is shot in his hotel room by a mysterious figure in black, who takes several forged documents accusing Peggy of war crimes.

ABC cancelled the series on 12 May 2016. Butters had rallied supporters before the announcement, and fans used the hashtag #RenewAgentCarter. Atwell’s commitment to ABC’s new procedural Conviction and the declining viewership were reported as factors in the decision.

Atwell spoke about the show at a Television Critics Association panel for Conviction on 4 August 2016. She said she thought they would have figured something out, such as a special, and noted that Peggy lives a long life, so she can come back.

“I don’t feel like I’ve said goodbye to her”

Hayley Atwell, at a Television Critics Association panel, 4 August 2016

THE REWATCH

A SEASON CRITICS LIKED, AND PEGGY’S FUNERAL IN CIVIL WAR

Rotten Tomatoes lists a 76% critics’ score from 21 reviews and a 72% audience score. Its consensus says the move from New York to Hollywood gives the show new territory to explore as it continues to search for a storyline as dynamic as its heroine. TVLine said its readers gave the finale and the season an average grade of A-.

ScreenRant’s finale review called the season enjoyable and, for the most part, well-crafted, but felt the finale reduced Whitney Frost to a punchline. Peggy’s funeral is later shown in Captain America: Civil War, where her niece Sharon Carter delivers the eulogy.

In the Marvel Marathon the season sits in the Marvel TV shows in order guide, between Jessica Jones Season 1 and Daredevil Season 2. It is classed as Marvel Television rather than MCU, so it is not in the MCU release-order, series or timeline guides.