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1944 Captain America: The Invaders
We should learn more about Hydra and how they operate. Introduces the Invaders team.
Build up the relationship between Cap and Stark, as well as Cap and Peggy and Cap and Bucky. Also Cap and the Howling commandos.
Peggy should get to kick butt in this movie.
This takes place after D-Day. The allies are beginning to turn the tide of the war. Our heroes, however, are fighting a different battle.
Now that Red Skull has shown his true colours, his experiments are becoming less tolerable to the Third Reich. Hydra is a massive threat to the whole world and so Cap and the others are engaged in a somewhat secret battle in France.
Because of where we ended the IAC version of First Avenger, Cap and Peggy are still estranged. The last time she saw him she shot at him!
We open on the scene where Peggy sees that Cap has a picture of her in his compass from the propaganda film, but now from her point of view. This could be proceeded by an actual newsreel on D-Day.
Peggy: Where was that video taken?
Howard: Somewhere in the French countryside I think.
Peggy: Let's find an assignment in France, shall we?
We see Cap, Bucky and the Howling Commandos (HC) following a lead to a small Hydra factory, manufacturing one type of component. This is not the first one they have discovered.
They destroy the factory, wondering what Hydra are building. It is obviously some kind of weapon, but it is hard to tell what kind from the limited number of factories and components they have found.
Meanwhile Namor and his Tri Team have been pursuing Merrano and destroying experimental tesseract powered U-boats and other Hydra naval forces along the way.
Jim Hammond (The Human Torch) has been after Master Man. He has been destroying experimental tesseract powered air support and other Hydra air and ground forces along the way.
Peggy and Howard are now in the countryside, investigating whole squads, allied and German, that seem to have been beaten to death. They find one survivor who is embarrassed to tell them that it was a woman.
They surmise that it was Julia Koenig and that she must have gained her powers from the phase 2 super soldier serum in the lab accident from the Human Torch movie.
In the debris of another battle they fine no survivors at all. Allied and Nazi soldiers bodies alike, in no fit state to send home to their mothers, as Howard puts it. There is earth overturned and scorch marks everywhere, huge tank tracks in the ground...
They wonder if Red Skull has outgrown the Nazis. They follow the trail.
Namor's team pursue Merrano to a river based field laboratory where Cap's team have also traced their next components to.
Namor: The famous Captain America. I believe our meeting is long overdue. Now we shall see if you are as great a warrior as they say.
Steve: Pleasure to meet you Prince Namor. Please, call me Steve.
(Namor proceeds to call him Captain for the rest of the movie)
After a big laboratory fight including brainwashed Talokanil and experimental tesseract weapons the heroes triumph. Namor's team captures Merrano and rescues his people and Cap's team has their new component and new leads. They destroy the factory.
Namora and Attuma head home with Merrano and the freed Talokanil. Namor joins Cap to track down the next component.
In the countryside Master Man is supposed to be marrying Warrior Woman. A propaganda wedding to please the Führer. Master Man (aka Willie Lohmer) is quite excited about it, Warrior Woman…is not. Peggy and Howard arrive at the church in disguise as guests. Peggy, of course, speaks flawless German. She has told Howard to keep his mouth shut.
They manage to overhear that not only does Julia not want to go through with the wedding (not into arranged marriages or Willie) but her powers are on the fritz. Her super strength and agility come and go as a result of getting her powers in an accident, though she keeps her enhanced physique.
All very useful until Howard forgets himself, opens his mouth and soon they are running across the countryside with shots fired after them from Hydra and the Nazis present. Howard gets caught by Master Man but then The Human Torch shows up and challenges him to a fight. Willie can't back down in front of Julia. Jim keeps him busy and then Colonel Phillips and his troops arrive. They engage the enemy and Howard is freed. Cap, Bucky and the HC arrive (they were in the area obvs) and mop up the remnants. The whole wedding party (excluding Julia) is captured. Cap and Peggy are reunited.
The prisoners are relocated to their European base. One, Lotus Newmark, appeals to Howard. She says she started working for Hydra because they could get her family out of their detention centre in New York. Two years later, the centres are still intact and her parents still interred. If they can get them released, she will take them to where Schmidt's super weapon, Panzer Max ('Panzer Max? Sounds a little patriotic for Schmidt…'), is being built. She doesn't know what it is exactly, but it is meant to end the war. It sounds like the kind of machine that could cause the horrific scene that Peggy and Howard found in France.
Howard falls for it, no mind control necessary, and gets the crew together. They all head out to this rather large but otherwise unassuming factory back in the French countryside.
When they arrive the factory is empty save for something big covered in canvases up the back and a series of workrooms and offices behind that. They smell a rat, but Lotus is gone. From a safe distance, she mind controls them to fight eachother. It is clear she is toying with them, she could have them kill each other. Cap does get shot but it is fairly superficial.
Steve and Namor are able to resist due to their powers, Jim is unaffected as he is synthetic. They are surrounded by their friends and allies. Namor is happy to kill them all but Cap and Jim won't let him. They prepare to fight.
Lotus releases them and (psychically) tells them that her part is done, and that the allies are a-holes for the way they treated their own citizens.
Then, as everyone is recovering, Panzer Max rises from the canvases. At full height it nearly reaches the ceiling. It is ridiculously decked out with minigun hands and missiles on it's shoulders. Oh and a tesseract powered laser.
Zola, Warrior Woman, Hydra goons and the Red Skull are piloting. This is the second field test, the first was unsatisfactory as it only contained two opposing military companies and some light artillery. Red Skull is disappointed that Herr Rogers didn't bring more firepower. Panzer starts to lay into our heroes. They warm up the laser.
Dugan says reinforcements are ten minutes out. Cap says they have to hold out till then.
They assault Panzer from different angles to make themselves difficult to target. Cap, Bucky and the commandos try to damage the tank treads. Namor and Jim take to the air and try to break into the cockpit.
It appears to be impervious to conventional weapons, even Cap's shield. They have also made it fireproof and waterproof to combat Namor. Peggy and Howard hit it with rocket/grenade launchers from cover (crates or something? idk), the plating holds.
The laser finally fires and hits close to the crates. Peggy and Howard go flying but survive with minor injuries.
Red Skull is disappointed as it takes the laser a long time to charge. He shoots the goon operating and takes his seat. He asks for time to get it warmed up again.
Namor gets his spear to make a dent but it gets jammed in the plating. He gets hit with a flame thrower taking him out. The group are tiring and the blasts/bullets are getting closer.
Morita gets the call on the radio, reinforcements are here, open a wall and clear a blast zone. The Torch makes the hole and the others get clear. Cap helps Namor.
Panzer takes a volley from missiles, tank shells and mortars. It is unscathed.
The laser is ready. Red Skull retaliates and takes out a tank division with the laser and some missiles.
RS: See? It's not so hard to shoot a laser.
Dying goon: '…'
Then the mini guns go on the advancing infantry. Things are not going well for the heroes. But the distraction for Red Skull gives them a chance to regroup.
Howard and Peggy have some ideas. Howard thinks that the vibranium in Cap's shield could redirect the laser to the shoulder missiles causing them to explode. Peggy didn't like that one as it puts Steve in danger. She reasoned that the operators need to breathe so their must be an intake or exhaust somewhere and they have a powerful and sentient flamethrower.
Steve says they should do both to maximise their chances. Peggy and Howard get Namor to a workroom at the back of the factory.
Surviving reinforcements start arriving at the factory and immediately start getting picked off. Steve makes his presence known and goads Red Skull into concentrating fire on him. He has a hard time avoiding the miniguns but his agility just keeps him from any serious harm.
Jim quietly searches behind it for an intake or exhaust.
The laser warms up, the miniguns fall quiet and Cap stands his ground. Taking up his shield at the strategic moment, he redirects the laser. It is difficult, and the heat is almost unbearable but he manages to get it back to the rockets before Schmidt manages to shut it off.
BOOM!
An entire minigun arm comes off.
Meanwhile the Torch has found an opening and concentrates his flame in there. As the operators frantically try to assess the damage from Rogers' strike, the fierce flames disable the operating system and spread to the cockpit.
Realising the experiment has failed Zola suggests they are now outnumbered and should retreat. The Red Skull says he will deal with Zola's design failure later and they exit with 49 Hydra goons as cover. They head for the back rooms!
As the allies head for the back rooms, Panzer explodes and Jim is caught in the blast. He is thrown into the brickwork and gets buried in rubble.
Cap, Bucky and the commandos pursue Schmidt's party to an underground tunnel. The commandos engage Schmidt's personal goons while Cap and Bucky take on Red Skull.
Zola has quietly made his way to the tesseract powered high speed underground rail transport and is frantically trying to get it started.
Schmidt manages to grab Bucky and puts him between him and Cap. This gives him an opportunity to get on board the transport but with Cap in hot pursuit. Cap manages to get Bucky clear. Schmidt uses that distraction to force Steve off as well and the transport disappears into the distance.
Meanwhile, Julia discovers Peggy and Howard protecting Namor from some goons. She goes for Peggy and Howard tries to be all manly and get in the way. She says she never got the chance to thank him properly for ruining her wedding and she means it. But then she starts to strangle him. Peggy tries to intervene but Julia easily sends her flying. Peggy picks up a wrench and knocks down the goons and stands with it. Julia derisorily asks what she means to do with it.
With a wry smile she knocks a nearby water pipe open and it floods the room. Julia realises what this means too late and is soon in a pitched battle with a revived Namor. The goons recover and keep coming for him until Julia gets the upper hand. Peggy goes to intervene again and Julia hits her but it only lands as a normal punch.
Peggy: What's the matter? Powers on the fritz?
Peggy decks her and, being in a weakened state, she is knocked out. Namor bests the goons. He is impressed with Peggy. Probably tries to flirt with her because…Namor.
Then a debrief back at their European base. Colonel Phillips congratulates the allies for ensuring that Hydra didn't turn the D-Day invasion into a failure.
Howard has charmed some Locals into giving a crate of champagne. He starts passing out glasses and bottles as Phillips speaks. When he finishes, Howard proposes a toast to his favourite Invaders (too on the nose?).
Cap should have a moment with Peggy and with Bucky while Jim is welcomed to the gang by the Howling commandos. They ask where Namor has gone. Jim says he went home to have a party of his own.
Cut to Namor having a lavish ceremony to celebrate the capture of the traitor Merrano and the return of the kidnapped Talokanil. Big celebrations!
Then we track down to the prison where Merrano can hear the celebrations. But instead of being sad, he is SMILING…
Post credits:- Lady Lotus complains to the Red Skull that her parents haven't been released yet…"You said you would free them all, raze the internment camp to the ground".
Schmidt has realised that if Steve Rogers can resist her then he can too and he needed some insurance that she would stay and carry out the next part of the plan. He will need her talents very soon…
Panzer Max idea inspired by this article:
1945 Captain America: Super-Axis
Need a better title…
We open with the scene from Captain America: The First Avenger, where SS officers demand to see Schmidt as the Führer wants the tesseract weapons for regular soldiers, not just Hydra. In addition he is worried about the growing threat that Schmidt poses.
Here we see that he means to conquer the world, including Berlin. He kills the officers, shocking Arnim Zola.
This scene would be cut from CA:FA and put here instead as, up till now, he has had the support of the Nazi party.
He now needs to bring his plans forward before he loses the element of surprise. He goes to visit Lady Lotus.
She has Hydra goons waiting on her, hand and foot. Schmidt remarks that she seems to be making herself very comfortable (implying that she is mind controlling them (which she totally is)). She says if she's going to be stuck with Hydra she may as well make the most of it.
Schmidt asks her to enact the next phase of their plan as the murdered officers will be missed soon and the Nazis will investigate their "disappearance". They can't allow any disruption after all they have worked for. She reminds him that it is not her plan. He says her parents are not safe in the internment camp so she should do as she is told. She agrees through gritted teeth.
She has installed sleeper agents at the London SSR base and also in Talokan. They had been in Hydra's custody but were 'liberated' by the allies and Invaders in the previous movie.
She activates them by psychically reciting a series of seemingly unconnected words to them, similar to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This means she doesn't have to control them all the time they just follow more general psychic instructions (e.g. you work for Hydra now).
The brainwashed Talokanil free the captured Meranno and Krang who lead them in an assault on Talokan. Namor, Namora and Attuma lead a resistance.
The brainwashed SSR agents free the captured Warrior Woman and Master Man who lead them in an assault on the SSR base in London. Agent Carter, the Human Torch and Howard lead a resistance.
Meanwhile Captain America and the Howling Commandos have just gone radio silent as they hunt down Zola, who is still on the Hydra train. The train scene proceeds as per the movie. Bucky is lost.
After 3 films showing Bucky and Steve's friendship, the fall will have more emotional weight.
Not knowing who is friend or foe, Namor's Tri-Team are forced to flee Talokan. They head to London.
Steve and co arrive at the SSR base early on the second day of the siege, Namor's team in the evening and turn the tide of the battle. Members of Super-Axis escape.
Peggy and the team are forced to fight their friends, some of whom are killed. Those who survive activate their cyanide capsules and die. The London base and the surrounding area is badly damaged.
This gives more urgency to the Zola interrogation scene and more poignancy to the blast damaged pub scene between Steve and Peggy.
Zola gives up Schmidt's last stronghold. The whole team head out there to stop him using his tesseract powered weapons of mass destruction on the world.
Steve gets them in and they spread out, looking for a way to defeat Super-Axis and stop Red Skull. Peggy and Jim find Master Man and Warrior Woman and a battle ensues. Jim goes toe to toe with Master Man and his personal squad of Hydra lackeys. Julia plays a game of cat and mouse with Peggy. It gets perilous for Peggy at times, but she is canny and manages to wound her with her pistol. Willie is bested by Jim again. Both the super soldiers retreat.
Steve and the Howling commandos are mopping up Hydra minions and pursuing Red Skull.
Howard and the Tri-Team find Lady Lotus with her brainwashed Hydra goons. Attuma and Namora easily defeat the goons. A furious Namor tries to kill Lady Lotus (she cannot control him). She turns Attuma and Namora against him.
Howard calls for them all to stop and listen.
He manages to convince Namor that despite her actions she is also a victim of the Red Skull, that she's not really had a choice. That she told him at least part of the truth when they captured her before. That her parents really are interred in California and Schmidt has been using them as leverage.
Howard suggests releasing all the brainwashed Talokanil in return for her release. Namor cannot countenance this. Howard says if she removes her control, you can defeat Meranno without fear of harming your people. He tells him about the harrowing scenes at the SSR base and the cyanide capsules.
Namor says he cannot let her go after what she has done.
Howard says why would she release your people if you don't.
Namor thinks. He says if she betrays him he will find her and kill her.
She releases Namora, Attuma and all the others. We have a very brief scene of Meranno, about to have himself crowned king of Talokan, being turned on by dozens of formerly brainwashed subjects. He flees.
Lotus says what about my parents?
Namora says, why not get them yourself? There aren't many who could stop you.
She says what about Red Skull?
Howard says leave Red Skull to us.
Steve meets up with Peggy and Colonel Phillips in the hallway as per the movie and they get after Schmidt, Steve stowing away on the plane.
Meanwhile, Meranno has arrived and joined up with Super-Axis and the remaining Hydra soldiers. The SSR team converges on their position. We cut back and forth between their battle and Steve's infiltration of the plane.
The fight between Cap and Skull should be huge as this is the last time they will fight.
Peggy manages to finish what she started and caps Julia (not before kicking some SSR butt though). Willie tries to get to her and gets caught in the crossfire. As she dies, Julia calls him an idiot.
Willie appeals to Jim as they were friends. Jim is conflicted as he has the real Jim's memories, but ultimately decides that that isn't really him and leaves Master Man to die alone. Meranno and the other Hydra forces are holding their own, but then the pursuing Talokanil turn up and the base is overrun.
Red Skull acidentally makes himself disappear with the tesseract at the climax of the battle. Steve takes control of the plane.
Peggy joins him on coms. Crash. Downer.
Red Skull has now been an impressive antagonist 3 times in a row for Cap, much better.
1st Post credits:-
We see an older Japanese American couple playing Go while others internees mill about and chat etc.
We see the guard outside wandering off.
We zoom out and see ALL the guards wandering off.
We see the residents start to realise something is going on. They look out the windows. The older couple look up momentarily but then continue their game.
We see Lady Lotus enter and say (in Japanese), "Nothing ever interrupts your Go game, does it…"
They finally look up and see who it is, their daughter.
"Hasu chan!"
They embrace. Everybody else crowds around. She smiles and says (in Japanese), "Let's go"
1945 Agent Carter
Feature presentation!
This is Peggy Carter's first and possibly only movie with her name in the title.
Peggy, the Human Torch (Jim Hammond) and the Howling Commandos dealing with Hydra cells left after the war.
Espionage! Infiltration! Fighting bad guys!
We open on a memorial service for Steve. They believe he is lost to the icy waters he crashed into.
Peggy Carter, Howard Stark, the Human Torch (Jim Hammond), the Howling Commandos, Colonel Phillips etc attend. Then they share Steve stories at the wake.
Emotions are still raw, especially for Peggy and the commandos.
Howard is still looking for him, the SSR has stopped funding the search so Howard is using his own money. Peggy suggests, however hard it may be, that they try to move on. Howard doesn't believe Peggy, he knows she can't move on. He can't either so he won't give up.
Cut to two young adults being chased down the street in liberated Paris. They are kidnapped. They try to reason with their captors, the young man says, "Do you know who I am?" and the kidnappers know exactly who they are. Not the response he was expecting.
The young woman says "Our father has money, he can pay you". But they are not interested in the money…Hail Hydra.
Back at SSR HQ (or 'the playground') Jim is discussing a mission to locate and take out a Hydra bunker (believed to be in northern Italy) with Peggy and Howard. As they finish Peggy is approached by Lord James Montgomery Falsworth, member of the Howling Commandos, revealed here to be a major financier of the SSR. It was his children, Brian and Jacqueline, that were taken, in Paris, just like their mother. There is no ransom note either, also like their mother.
He is trying to maintain a stiff upper lip but failing miserably. Jim offers to stay and help. Peggy points out that, unfortunately, Hydra won't defeat itself. They resolve to find them. Jim wishes them luck and sets off for Italy.
Cut to Brian and Jacqueline in a holding cell with other prisoners. A Hydra scientist, Werner Rheinhardt, enters carrying the Obelisk artifact in special safety gloves. An armed guard insists one of the prisoners hold it, bare handed. They turn to stone. The stone person is taken away.
They then start harassing Brian to do it, so Jacqueline steps in to volunteer, despite his protests. To their relief, she does not turn to stone. Instead, Rheinhardt utters, 'discovery requires experimentation' and she is taken away as Brian is beaten unconscious with the butt of the guards rifles.
Peggy, Howard and Lord James and the other HCs have travelled incognito, posing as journalists. In their hotel room Gabe and Howard present them with discreet gadgets they designed and produced together. All are impressed with Gabe's hidden talents. Howard laments that he is too well known now to go with them and hopes they don't blow themselves up with the exploding toaster. Jacques excitedly says, "There's an exploding toaster!?". Howard points out that he was joking. Jacques looks disappointed. Howard says maybe next time.
They have traced Brian and Jacqui's last known location to a small café near the city centre. They make discreet enquiries and deduce there is a new waiter who served them on the day and hasn't been to work since.
They go to his address and he seemingly isn't home. Jacques suggests a small controlled explosion to blow the lock. Gabe counters that to be more discreet, they should use the laser disguised as a pack of cigarettes to cut the lock. Jacques is disappointed.
They cut the lock and enter, the apartment is empty but the bathroom window is open. Lord James spies a man on the rooftops who flees. The gang take to the streets while Falsworth squeezes through and pursues across the rooftops of Paris.
The suspect is very good at rooftop running, but not quite as good as Falsworth and they engage in a thrilling chase. Lord James is in constant communication with the team using their walkie talkies disguised as American quarters. Peggy has an idea if he can force the man down to street level.
He is able to corral his quarry down a fire escape and through an apartment window and down the main staircase into the street. The team then begin to cut off his escape routes, through coordination with Peggy, until he is forced down a narrow sidestreet. There he sees Peggy, having not spotted her in the apartment, pleads in French for her help from a gang of pursuing thugs. Je suis désolé, says Peggy pulling out her pistol, my French is a little rusty. The suspect turns away from her to flee again but is punched out by Dugan instead.
Jacques offers Peggy French lessons. She says she lied, she's actually fluent in French, but it was a good line. Jacques looks disappointed.
Falsworth is praised by the group for his amazing free running skills, they ask where he learned them. He says he studied under Georges Hébert who in turn had learned these skills from "indigenous tribes he had met in Africa" (quote from Wikipedia) for a special military project in WWI.
Peggy surmises that he was the mysterious WWI hero Union Jack. Peggy and the gang are astonished and asked why he didn't show those skills (rooftop running, parkour, amazing feats of agility) before. He says Steve did all that stuff and was better at it too.
Peggy says oh pish posh (or something else peculiarly British like that) and tells Falsworth to take the compliments.
They take the suspect for questioning.
Back at the Hydra research facility, Rheinhardt is monologuing to Jacqui about how few people could survive contact with the Obelisk and how they are yet to exactly determine why they do. From what they have discovered by interrogating and dissecting other survivors they believe it is something to do with their genetics being different to other humans. Genetics, muses Werner, you appear to share with your mother. Jacqueline asks if they took her mother, if she is still alive. Werner says she escaped and they don't know how (he is irritated by not knowing things).
He resumes monologuing. There are mentions of a ritual, he says, for beings such as you…to awaken their true potential. The ritual involved crystals and Rheinhardt has actually managed to procure some. He instructs the guard to break it and leaves for the observation room.
The guard follows the instructions and the gas from the broken crystal turns both them and Jacqui into stone. Rheinhardt is disappointed as he believed they were finally getting somewhere. He tells his assistant to put the stone bodies into storage.
Brian, meanwhile, is about to have the latest batch of Hydra brand super soldier serum. It uses the blood of the Obelisk survivors to make up the gaps in Erskine's original formula. After the procedure, they are surprised to see he has survived as the last 47 batches have resulted in death for the test subjects.
Their success is short lived however as Brian, unaccustomed to the super-strength, breaks the lab and accidentally kills the technicians.
The café waiter/suspect wakes up in the basement of an abandoned building. He is interrogated by Peggy (good cop) and Dum Dum (bad cop).
He eventually confesses that he was blackmailed under the threat of being revealed as a Nazi collaborator. An old contact had heard of the Falsworth children coming to Paris. The Café was a favourite of the Falsworths in the interwar years. They had installed the young man as a waiter with instructions to call if they came to the café. They ask for the number and Jim radios Howard to call back to base to trace it to its origin.
The young man says he couldn’t do it before because he was too scared.
Peggy says "Do what?"
The man says that he is now more scared of what will happen if he is found out. He says they are executing collaborators.
Peggy says perhaps they can come to an arrangement, then she realises his intentions. It is too late. He bites the hidden cyanide capsule and dies.
"It's Hydra" says Peggy, "of course it's bloody Hydra."
The number then comes back as Austrian. Howard, glad to feel useful again, will fly them. Dugan realises, entirely too late, they could have used the hand-held hypno-beam disguised as a hair dryer.
The Hydra research facility is masquerading as a grand hotel. Peggy checks in with Howard as he's terrible at espionage and is under strict instructions to keep his mouth shut. Her German is still good and she even manages an Austrian accent. Their disguises are top notch and so they go to their room without suspicion. They do some reconnaissance and Peggy finds an area that is off limits to guests and the staff don't know what's in there.
Peggy goes back to the room and calls reception for help as her "hair dryer" has an American plug. It is secretly a hypno beam. She convinces the receptionist to let the Howling Commandos in the service door. They are disguised as staff and the hypno beam makes the receptionist tell anyone who asks that they are new.
Howard, putting on a slightly different accent, plays the brash American tourist (not a big stretch for him) and wanders into the restricted area and starts taking pictures. The receptionist makes a fuss about not being allowed in there.
The Howling Commandos rush over and Gabe, who also speaks good German, assures them that they'll take care of it. Peggy hurries over with the pretense of rescuing her 'dummkopf' American husband.
The camera is actually a portable x-ray scanner and shows a secret door that is sealed electronically.
The receptionist is starting to get suspicious when Gabe activates the EMP joy buzzer which lets them in the door. They slip away unnoticed in the ensuing chaos. When the lights come back on the receptionist goes to check up on them and they are gone. With no knowledge of the secret door they reason that they simply didn't notice them go past.
They gain access to the underground bunker (it's always an underground bunker isn't it?), stow their gear and change into Hydra uniforms. Jim Morita uses the UHF Pin to radio for backup with instructions on how to get in.
They try to go stealth mode for a while but arouse suspicions when they don't know some of the new Hydra protocols. Howard confirms it with his feeble attempt at a 'Hail Hydra'.
Aware that Hydra research subjects tend not to survive, they launch a full on assault of the facility with back up already on the way.
Jacqueline awakens from what we now realise was terragenesis and has gained pyrokinetic powers. She and her brother make their own way through the compound, with somewhat unintentional violence.
They are heading away from the labs, towards the centre of the huge underground complex of corridors and tunnels. Peggy's team are heading down through the tunnels to reach the labs. They all converge near the centre of the complex.
Lord James is obviously thrilled that they are both alive and seemingly well.
His kidults tell him to stay back and relay some of their harrowing experiences. They are both afraid of their powers.
Human Torch arrives. He destroyed the Italian base and left an SSR clean up crew. He followed a lead from that base to Austria. Word in Italy was that Werner Rheinhardt is the last head of Hydra.
Seeing Jacqui's fear, the Torch remembers his own struggles in learning to control his own powers.
He reassures her that she can't hurt him and he will help her learn to control it.
Brian wants to be left behind and is distraught at all the death he has caused. Peggy and Lord James convince him to join, albeit reluctantly.
Rheinhardt has escaped to a storage facility. As it turns out, the kids powers prove useful in accessing the escape tunnel, though the transport is long gone.
Werner is desperately trying to load up as many artefacts as he can before he escapes, especially the Obelisk. He laments that he cannot experiment further on Jacqueline as she not only survived but gained powers too. He is relieved to hear they have more samples of the batch of serum that gave Brian his powers.
Peggy's team arrive, with backup (and the Torch) and get the drop on Werner. They arrest him and his goons. Peggy volunteers to interrogate him.
In the chaos of securing the base, Brian is able to destroy the whole batch of serum. Howard is livid at losing a possibility to complete Erskine's work. Peggy however, approves. She believes that Steve was unique and worries that they could end up with hundreds of Johann Schmidts running around instead.
She sees that Brian has recognised that risk too and that says something about his character.
Peggy arrives at the Playground after her first interrogation of Rheinhardt at the Rat.
Colonel Phillips has been leading the debrief. He notes that Jacqueline and Brian have been reunited with their father. He says their presence here indicates they have some degree of control over their powers.
Jim Hammond says their training is going well. Jacqueline says she hasn't set anything on fire today, at least, not by accident. The two are clearly getting on well.
Brian is more reticent. He hasn't managed to get through a training session without injuring an instructor. Peggy volunteers to help him as she has some experience with super soldiers.
Phillips asks if she got anything useful from Rheinhardt. She says he may have lost his marbles, he keeps going on about blue angels. Besides, she has seen the results of his experiments for Hydra and isn't sure if gaining his knowledge is worth the moral cost.
Colonel Phillips says there are two big announcements. First, after days of research and fact checking and double checking, it appears Hammond was right. Werner Rheinhardt appears to be the last head of Hydra. It's over.
(Many congratulations all around. Apart from Peggy who shakes her head).
Second, he is retiring.
(Various reactions).
He'd been thinking about it and, with the last piece of news, it just seemed like a good time.
He hands over to the new Agent in Charge, John Flynn.
Flynn: Hello everyone. A pleasure to meet you. If I could get straight to business…with the war over and Hydra defeated-
Peggy (interrupting): Don't be so sure they're gone. We have to-
F (interrupting back): Settle down, sweetheart.
P (standing): What did you just say to me?
Howard manages to convince her to sit. Flynn continues. They will be relocating the SSR base from London to New York. Effective immediately. Everyone will have to relocate. Uproar. Colonel Phillips settles everyone down.
Flynn says the Falsworth children will need to stay on base until they are deemed to be safe. The Falsworths are not happy.
Flynn is starting to get flustered. He apologetically tells Howard that they can longer justify spending SSR funds on a futile search for Captain Rogers. Howard points out they are his funds and he can damn well do what he pleases with them. He walks out. Peggy follows him, leaving the debrief in chaos behind her.
Howard apologises and said he had heard rumours that Phillips was retiring but didn't realise he was being replaced by a moron. He says they should have asked her to take charge. She agrees. This lightens the mood somewhat.
Howard: Listen I was thinking of starting up my own agency.
Just think…you, me, the boys. If Union Jack over there comes with us we can run it our way, the right way. Be like a shield of armour around the world.
Peggy: I'll think about it…
Will you really keep looking for Steve?
H: I have to.
P: You can't move on?
H: I can't. He was my friend.
P: I suppose I can't stop myself helping broken soldier boys either.
Howard leaves her to consider her future with the SSR.
Mid credits:- Lord James Falsworth has just agreed to join Howard's new project and is trying to get the SSR to release his children. Jacqueline and Brian approach him with a theory about their mother.
Post credits:- From a deep dug mass grave in a forest (with Hydra's grand Austrian hotel dilapidated in the background) a person digs their way out. They spend a moment processing their survival. Then they notice they look different from how they remember. It is…Baron Blood!
1945 Agent Carter and the Howling Commandos
Feature presentation!
This is Peggy Carter's first and possibly only movie with her name in the title.
Peggy, the Human Torch (Jim Hammond) and the Howling Commandos dealing with Hydra cells left after the war.
Espionage! Infiltration! Fighting bad guys!
We open on a memorial service for Steve. They believe he is lost to the icy waters he crashed into.
Peggy Carter, Howard Stark, the Human Torch (Jim Hammond), the Howling Commandos, Colonel Phillips etc attend. Then they share Steve stories at the wake.
Emotions are still raw, especially for Peggy and the commandos.
Howard is still looking for him, the SSR has stopped funding the search so Howard is using his own money. Peggy suggests, however hard it may be, that they try to move on. Howard doesn't believe Peggy, he knows she can't move on. He can't either so he won't give up.
Cut to two young adults being chased down the street in liberated Paris. They are kidnapped. They try to reason with their captors, the young man says, "Do you know who I am?" and the kidnappers know exactly who they are. Not the response he was expecting.
The young woman says "Our father has money, he can pay you". But they are not interested in the money…Hail Hydra.
Back at SSR HQ (or 'the playground') Jim is discussing a mission to locate and take out a Hydra bunker (believed to be in northern Italy) with Peggy and Howard. As they finish Peggy is approached by Lord James Montgomery Falsworth, member of the Howling Commandos, revealed here to be a major financier of the SSR. It was his children, Brian and Jacqueline, that were taken, in Paris, just like their mother. There is no ransom note either, also like their mother.
He is trying to maintain a stiff upper lip but failing miserably. Jim offers to stay and help. Peggy points out that, unfortunately, Hydra won't defeat itself. They resolve to find them. Jim wishes them luck and sets off for Italy.
Cut to Brian and Jacqueline in a holding cell with other prisoners. A Hydra scientist, Werner Rheinhardt, enters carrying the Obelisk artifact in special safety gloves. An armed guard insists one of the prisoners hold it, bare handed. They turn to stone. The stone person is taken away.
They then start harassing Brian to do it, so Jacqueline steps in to volunteer, despite his protests. To their relief, she does not turn to stone. Instead, Rheinhardt utters, 'discovery requires experimentation' and she is taken away as Brian is beaten unconscious with the butt of the guards rifles.
Peggy, Howard and Lord James and the other HCs have travelled incognito, posing as journalists. In their hotel room Gabe and Howard present them with discreet gadgets they designed and produced together. All are impressed with Gabe's hidden talents. Howard laments that he is too well known now to go with them and hopes they don't blow themselves up with the exploding toaster. Jacques excitedly says, "There's an exploding toaster!?". Howard points out that he was joking. Jacques looks disappointed. Howard says maybe next time.
They have traced Brian and Jacqui's last known location to a small café near the city centre. They make discreet enquiries and deduce there is a new waiter who served them on the day and hasn't been to work since.
They go to his address and he seemingly isn't home. Jacques suggests a small controlled explosion to blow the lock. Gabe counters that to be more discreet, then should use the laser disguised as a pack of cigarettes to cut the lock. Jacques is disappointed.
They cut the lock and enter, the apartment is empty but the bathroom window is open. Lord James spies a man on the rooftops who flees. The gang take to the streets while Falsworth squeezes through and pursues across the rooftops of Paris.
The suspect is very good at rooftop running, but not quite as good as Falsworth and they engage in a thrilling chase. Lord James is in constant communication with the team using their walkie talkies disguised as American quarters. Peggy has an idea if he can force the man down to street level.
He is able to corral his quarry down a fire escape and through an apartment window and down the main staircase into the street. The team then begin to cut off his escape routes, through coordination with Peggy, until he is forced down a narrow sidestreet. There he sees Peggy, having not spotted her in the apartment, pleads in French for her help from a gang of pursuing thugs. Je suis désolé, says Peggy pulling out her pistol, my French is a little rusty. The suspect turns away from her to flee again but is punched out by Dugan instead.
Jacques offers Peggy French lessons. She says she lied, she's actually fluent in French, but it was a good line. Jacques looks disappointed.
Falsworth is praised by the group for his amazing free running skills, they ask where he learned them. He says he studied under Georges Hébert who in turn had learned these skills from "indigenous tribes he had met in Africa" (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour) for a special military project in WWI.
Peggy surmises that he was the mysterious WWI hero Union Jack. Peggy and the gang are astonished and asked why he didn't show those skills (rooftop running, parkour, amazing feats of agility) before. He says Steve did all that stuff and was better at it too.
Peggy says oh pish posh (or something else peculiarly British like that) and tells Falsworth to take the compliments.
They take the suspect for questioning.
Back at the Hydra research facility, Rheinhardt is monologuing to Jacqui about how few people could survive contact with the Obelisk and how they are yet to exactly determine why they do. From what they have discovered by interrogating and dissecting other survivors they believe it is something to do with their genetics being different to other humans. Genetics, muses Werner, you appear to share with your mother. Jacqueline asks if they took her mother, if she is still alive. Werner says she escaped and they don't know how (he is irritated by not knowing things).
He resumes monologuing. There are mentions of a ritual, he says, for beings such as you…to awaken their true potential. The ritual involved crystals and Rheinhardt has actually managed to procure some. He instructs the guard to break it and leaves for the observation room.
The guard follows the instructions and the gas from the broken crystal turns both them and Jacqui into stone. Rheinhardt is disappointed as he believed they were finally getting somewhere. He tells his assistant to put the stone bodies into storage.
Brian, meanwhile, is about to have the latest batch of Hydra brand super soldier serum. It uses the blood of the Obelisk survivors to make up the gaps in Erskine's original formula. After the procedure, they are surprised to see he has survived as the last 47 batches have resulted in death for the test subjects.
Their success is short lived however as Brian, unaccustomed to the super-strength, breaks the lab and accidentally kills the technicians.
The café waiter/suspect wakes up in the basement of an abandoned building. He is interrogated by Peggy (good cop) and Dum Dum (bad cop).
He eventually confesses that he was blackmailed under the threat of being revealed as a Nazi collaborator. An old contact had heard of the Falsworth children coming to Paris. The Café was a favourite of the Falsworths in the interwar years. They had installed the young man as a waiter with instructions to call if they came to the café. They ask for the number and Jim radios Howard to call back to base to trace it to its origin.
The young man says he couldn’t do it before because he was too scared.
Peggy says "Do what?"
The man says that he is now more scared of what will happen if he is found out. He says they are executing collaborators.
Peggy says perhaps they can come to an arrangement, then she realises his intentions. It is too late. He bites the hidden cyanide capsule and dies.
"It's Hydra" says Peggy, "of course it's bloody Hydra."
The number then comes back as Austrian. Howard, glad to feel useful again, will fly them. Dugan realises, entirely too late, they could have used the hand-held hypno-beam disguised as a hair dryer.
The Hydra research facility is masquerading as a grand hotel. Peggy checks in with Howard as he's terrible at espionage and is under strict instructions to keep his mouth shut. Her German is still good and she even manages an Austrian accent. Their disguises are top notch and so they go to their room without suspicion. They do some reconnaissance and Peggy finds an area that is off limits to guests and the staff don't know what's in there.
Peggy goes back to the room and calls reception for help as her "hair dryer" has an American plug. It is secretly the hypno beam. She convinces the receptionist to let the Howling Commandos in the service door. They are disguised as staff and the hypno beam makes the receptionist tell anyone who asks that they are new.
Howard, putting on a slightly different accent, plays the brash American tourist (not a big stretch for him) and wanders into the restricted area and starts taking pictures. The receptionist makes a fuss about not being allowed in there.
The Howling Commandos rush over and Gabe, who also speaks good German, assures them that they'll take care of it. Peggy hurries over with the pretense of rescuing her 'dummkopf' American husband.
The camera is actually a portable x-ray scanner and shows a secret door that is sealed electronically.
The receptionist is starting to get suspicious when Gabe activates the EMP joy buzzer which lets them in the door. They slip away unnoticed in the ensuing chaos. When the lights come back on the receptionist goes to check up on them and they are gone. With no knowledge of the secret door they reason that they simply didn't notice them go past.
They gain access to the underground bunker (it's always an underground bunker isn't it?), stow their gear and change into Hydra uniforms. Jim Morita uses the UHF Pin to radio for backup with instructions on how to get in.
They try to go stealth mode for a while but arouse suspicions when they don't know some of the new Hydra protocols. Howard confirms it with his feeble attempt at a 'Hail Hydra'.
Aware that Hydra research subjects tend not to survive, they launch a full on assault of the facility with back up already on the way.
Jacqueline awakens from what we now realise was terragenesis and has gained pyrokinetic powers. She and her brother make their own way through the compound, with somewhat unintentional violence.
They are heading away from the labs, towards the centre of the huge underground complex of corridors and tunnels. Peggy's team are heading down through the tunnels to reach the labs. They all converge near the centre of the complex.
Lord James is obviously thrilled that they are both alive and seemingly well.
His kidults tell him to stay back and relay some of their harrowing experiences. They are both afraid of their powers.
Human Torch arrives. He destroyed the Italian base and left an SSR clean up crew. He followed a lead from that base to Austria. Word in Italy was that Werner Rheinhardt is the last head of Hydra.
Seeing Jacqui's fear, the Torch remembers his own struggles in learning to control his own powers.
He reassures her that she can't hurt him and he will help her learn to control it.
Brian wants to be left behind and is distraught at all the death he has caused. Peggy and Lord James convince him to join, albeit reluctantly.
Rheinhardt has escaped to a storage facility.
As it turns out, the kids powers prove useful in accessing the escape tunnel, though the transport is long gone.
Werner is desperately trying to load up as many artefacts as he can before he escapes, especially the Obelisk. He laments that he cannot experiment further on Jacqueline as she not only survived but gained powers too. He is relieved to hear they have more samples of the batch of serum that gave Brian his powers.
Peggy's team arrive, with backup (and the Torch) and get the drop on Werner. They arrest him and his goons. Peggy volunteers to interrogate him.
In the chaos of securing the base, Brian is able to destroy the whole batch of serum. Howard is livid at losing a possibility to complete Erskine's work. Peggy however, approves. She believes that Steve was unique and worries that they could end up with hundreds of Johann Schmidts running around instead.
She sees that Brian has recognised that risk too and that says something about his character.
Peggy arrives at the Playground after her first interrogation of Rheinhardt at the Rat.
Colonel Phillips has been leading the debrief. He notes that Jacqueline and Brian have been reunited with their father. He says their presence here indicates they have some degree of control over their powers.
Jim Hammond says their training is going well. Jacqueline says she hasn't set anything on fire today, at least, not by accident. The two are clearly getting on well.
Brian is more reticent. He hasn't managed to get through a training session without injuring an instructor. Peggy volunteers to help him as she has some experience with super soldiers.
Phillips asks if she got anything useful from Rheinhardt. She says he may have lost his marbles, he keeps going on about blue angels. Besides, she has seen the results of his experiments for Hydra and isn't sure if gaining his knowledge is worth the moral cost.
Colonel Phillips says there are two big announcements. First, after days of research and fact checking and double checking, it appears Hammond was right. Werner Rheinhardt appears to be the last head of Hydra. It's over.
(Many congratulations all around. Apart from Peggy who shakes her head).
Second, he is retiring.
(Various reactions).
He'd been thinking about it and, with the last piece of news, it just seemed like a good time.
He hands over to the new Agent in Charge, John Flynn.
Flynn: Hello everyone. A pleasure to meet you. If I could get straight to business…with the war over and Hydra defeated-
Peggy (interrupting): Don't be so sure they're gone. We have to-
F (interrupting back): Settle down, sweetheart.
P (standing): What did you just say to me?
Howard manages to convince her to stand down. Flynn continues. They will be relocating the SSR base from London to New York. Effective immediately. Everyone will have to relocate. Uproar. Colonel Phillips settles everyone down.
Flynn says the Falsworth children will need to stay on base until they are deemed to be safe. The Falsworths are not happy.
Flynn is starting to get flustered. He apologetically tells Howard that they can longer justify spending SSR funds on a futile search for Captain Rogers. Howard points out they are his funds and he can damn well do what he pleases with them. He walks out. Peggy follows him, leaving the debrief in chaos behind her.
Howard apologises and said he had heard rumours that Phillips was retiring but didn't realise he was being replaced by a moron. He says they should have asked her to take charge. She agrees. This lightens the mood somewhat.
Howard: Listen I was thinking of starting up my own agency.
Just think…you, me, the boys. If Union Jack over there comes with us we can run it our way, the right way. Be like a shield of armour around the world.
Peggy: I'll think about it…
Will you really keep looking for Steve?
H: I have to.
P: You can't move on?
H: I can't. He was my friend.
P: I suppose I can't stop myself helping broken soldier boys either.
Howard leaves her to consider her future with the SSR.
Mid credits:- Lord James Falsworth has just agreed to join Howard's new project and is trying to get the SSR to release his children. Jacqueline and Brian approach him with a theory about their mother.
Post credits:- From a deep dug mass grave in a forest (with Hydra's grand Austrian hotel dilapidated in the background) a person digs their way out. They spend a moment processing their survival. Then they notice they look different from how they remember. It is…Baron Blood!
1948 Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. series 1
Howard finally opens the S.H.I.E.L.D. agency and makes Peggy director. The SSR keep the Playground base and are absorbed into S.H.I.E.L.D. as their research division.
Howard's greater authority and larger amount of resources from the government (as well as his own) allow them to pull in more heroes.
S.H.I.E.L.D. will fight terrorist cells and non-state actors, investigate supernatural phenomena, also deal with and cover up powered people cos the general public "can't handle the truth". This is part of their mandate from the government and S.H.I.E.L.D. is threatened with closure or refusal of funding many times for trying to circumvent this aspect of their role within said government.
Director Carter is trying to maintain a long distance relationship with Sousa and has to investigate the "hit" on Agent Thomson.
Zodiac is the main story for this series.
Zodiac is behind the assassination attempt, with the council of 9 previously being under them. Vernon Masters returns to do their bidding (never saw a body right?). Peggy's brother has been alive all this time and it was his redacted file that Thomson was to smear Peggy with and not actually Peggy's (Michael's name and d.o.b. were redacted just leaving the surname Carter and informants that heavily implied that it was Peggy). With the smear failed, the Zodiac group want it back, for safe keeping. Thomson is the only one outside of the Zodiac or the council of 9 that has read it, so he was supposed to be killed, but they hired Dottie to do it and she was able to make it look like she was trying to kill him without killing him ("if I'd wanted to kill him he'd be dead"). She arranges a meet with Peggy in a subterfugey way, info dumps, insists she really was trying to be helpful by taking the hit job, and manages to wriggle away again.
Zodiac is led by Marcus Lassiter (A buff Milo Ventimiglia with a cool beard). Marcus has the codename Aries and wears ram horns at the meetings which seems silly at first till we realise they are functional and they all have silly costumes. Marcus has super-human strength, which we don't see initially.
All of the Zodiac members have themed powers/tech:
Taurus (Cornelius Van Lunt) has bought his seat on the board and isn't afraid to use that fact. He has a bull's head costume. He also has dangerous horns.
Gemini (Joshua and Damian Link) are identical twins have identical costumes and carry identical dual wielding pistols. They have an amazing synergy when they fight as a duo. They only get one vote between them.
Cancer (Jack Kleveno) has a crab costume. That is all I have to say about that.
Leo (Daniel Radford) is a dude in a lion suit. It has a lion mask and an exoskeleton that gives the wearer enhanced strength, agility and durability.
Virgo (Elaine McLaughlin) has an extraterrestrial material coating her suit which gives her great durability and shock absorption. It also allows her to heal/regenerate herself or others. In my head, crab man gets injured by S.H.I.E.L.D. and Elaine comes back and gets captured just to heal her secret crustacean lover.
Libra (Gustav Brandt) has a hi tec blindfold that allows him limited psychic abilities and a teleportation ring. Martial artist too.
Scorpio (Jake Fury) has a costume with venom blasts and neurotoxic sprays. Yes. That Fury. In the comics he is Nick's brother. Here he would have to be his dad. In the series he is only referred to as Jake initially to keep his identity a slight surprise.
Sagittarius (Harlan Vargas) has an eye mask that grants enhanced vision and tracking abilities. He is highly skilled with a bow and arrow.
Capricorn (Willard Weir) is green. I'm thinking they're an alien. This superpower ideas site says Capricorn might have shape shifting abilities so they could be a Skrull masquerading as a Willard Weir.
Aquarius (Michael Carter) has a water based costume and weapons. Michael was not happy with the smear on Peggy but went along with it for fear of repercussions. But now her life is under threat, so he leaves warnings for her to help her avoid getting killed. Eventually Aries discovers the betrayal and beats Michael to death in his secret apartment. Peggy comes across the apartment as part of the S.H.I.E.L.D. investigation and discovers the body. She realises he was the one giving warnings (to help them avoid traps, ambushes etc) and finds a note he wrote for her when he knew Aries was coming for him. It's written in their shared childhood code. It explains his motivations (he was trying to change the world for the better) and gives some info about what Zodiac are going to do next. Zachary Drebb is the second Aquarius.
Piesces (Noah Perricone) is blue and looks like he'd be good in the water so I'm thinking Talokanil
S.H.I.E.L.D. discover there is an off-books SSR mole on the inside. They are furious with Flynn for not telling them straight away. Flynn thought it would compromise the mole's safety.
As the Zodiac members are arrested or killed during the S.H.I.E.L.D. investigation, Jake Fury is revealed as the SSR mole. He tries to escape with the actual Zodiac key but it corrupts him and he tries to incite rebellion within the remaining Zodiac council members to effect social change. This just causes everyone to squabble and fight. Aries finds this amusing, but comes for Jake nevertheless. Jake ends up losing the key back to Aries, but escapes with his life.
Aries reveals himself as an actual god at the end of the series. He was cast out by Zeus for causing too much trouble in Omnipotence City and bound to be peaceful. He has taken that to mean he can't fight personally and has been manipulating world events with extracts from the aforementioned Zodiac Key to cause as much conflict as possible. The S.H.I.E.L.D. team have been annoying him by thwarting his plans. He says he is tired of being subtle.
They need the whole team, including Dottie, Sousa, Thomson and the Howling commandos using Stark tech and the Human Torch (Jim), Union Jack II (Brian) and Spitfire (Jacqueline). Peggy also calls in a favour from California based Adam Brashear (aka Blue Marvel) to help take him down. As Adam was the love interest from the previous series, this risks embarrassment for Peggy and could possibly end her relationship with Sousa, but the stakes are too high not to.
Ultimately Jim is the only one not affected by the Zodiac key and has to go Supernova to knock him out. He knew he was becoming unstable and had been advised he might go supernova, he just decides to do it on purpose. Heroic sacrifice! The team is devastated at the loss.
A relationship between Jim and Jacqueline would be built up through the series so she would take this the hardest.
Zeus could come and actually bind Ares with power dampening bangles. This physically prevents him from conflict instead of just getting his word. He is captured and will not be seen again till Dark Avengers.
S.H.I.E.L.D. recommends Adam for a commendation and Jim for a posthumous one. The CIA intervene and say that not only will no one will be getting one but no one must hear of it. The existence of gods and aliens is very much covered up at the behest of the American government so as not to cause mass hysteria. No one outside of the President and the people who were at the final battle know anything about it.
Adam is told he cannot be publicly rewarded and is no longer allowed to fight crime (he has been fighting crime in a costume and mask to hide his identity) as the CIA believe the world is not ready for a black superhero. The President reluctantly confirms this. S.H.I.E.L.D. must assign him a handler (he is so going to fight crime).
As Jim was essentially a sentient weapon the CIA won't publicly acknowledge his existence and stipulate he must be buried in the desert in an indestructible airtight box. The President reluctantly confirms this too.
Dottie disappears after making a significant contribution and manages to stay off radar until the first Black Widow movie…
Peggy and Sousa decide to carry on with their long distance relationship.
Namor shows up when he finds out about Noah. He is not happy that his citizen was defeated and arrested and he vows never to return. He is also not happy with said citizen for acting without his consent and forces S.H.I.E.L.D. to release him into Talokanil custody. He is sorry about Jim Hammond's passing though and stays for the burial in a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. location in the desert.
Post credits:- Peggy calls Marlene Frazier and asks, as she has been with Adam this whole time anyway, if she'll be his handler. He comes home and gives her a kiss, they have developed a relationship while working together. She says she is happy to keep an eye on him.
1959 Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. series 2
S.H.I.E.L.D. has been running pretty smoothly for some time now. But a pair of terrible twins are about to disrupt things for the team…Fenris! They are older (77) in 1959 (their age is related to where The Gifted is in this timeline) and some of their story will be told in flashback.
They have been setting up Hellfire Club chapters around the world, trying to manipulate world events in the club's favour. They create terrorist incidents and blame them on other factions, plant misinformation etc. They have also been finding or rescuing promising mutants then enticing/forcing them to join.
Nathaniel Essex is referred to as "our employer" but never by name. No one has been able to work out how the bombs were planted in these incidents, but Howard works out that Fenris are the bomb, managing to link these incidents together and build up a profile for the now elderly Von Struckers.
In a slight rework from the original The Gifted timeline, the London incident should be 1915 and it's the Police in pursuit, Rio should be 1930 with SSR investigating and pursuing. They manage to evade capture until this series.
They chase them across the world after the latest incident in Plac Zamkovy, which kills hundreds. They can't figure out what gives them this power (no one knows about mutants, except Otto Strucker). They finally catch up with them and Andrea is killed before they can detonate. Andreas flees to grieve and consider his next move.
They have embedded themselves in Hydra to disguise their true allegiance.
Peggy, Howard, the Howling Commandos, Brian and Jacqueline Falsworth are all present but Adam Brashear is now off world and Sousa 'died' in 1955 as per original AoS s7 continuity. James Braddock (actor tbc) is more prominent here after being a background character previously, also he had "mystically given" powers, but kept them secret from all but a select few, also a great scientist. Very useful for S.H.I.E.L.D. and S.T.R.I.K.E.
As a second arc in this series Howard and Anton Vanko finalise their prototype for the arc reactor. Howard wants to keep developing it in secret, with a view to sharing it when he is sure it can't be copied or duplicated without them both. He has learned his lesson from season 1 of Agent Carter where some of his technology was dangerously flawed or misappropriated. He doesn't want the arc reactor rushed. He doesn't want the technology to fall into the wrong hands. Vanko wants to patent it and start selling the idea straight away.
Vanko: It's too important not to share it right now.
Stark: I see that it could help the world right now, but I am not prepared to compromise on safety or security. If we rush out a design that could be reverse engineered relatively easily it could start another world war.
V: You just don't want to share the technology with Russia, do you? You think Russia is Leviathan? You think I am with Leviathan? I have known you 13 years Howard…
S: Now Anton, it's not like that, I just need to put in some checks and bal-
V: You want to take all the credit! Where is the proof I was involved in the design if there is no patent?
S: Now wait a minute Anton-
V: You want all the profit too?
S (scoffs): This shouldn't be about money.
V: This is easy for you to say. You live in America like a billionaire, I live here like a Russian immigrant.
S: I pay you well enough Anton…Let's just…let's just cool off…talk about this in the morning. We can work this out.
V (tersely): Good night, Mr Stark.
By the next morning, Vanko has gone and so have the blueprints. S.H.I.E.L.D. tracks him down and recover the blueprints and hand him over to the company lawyers who have him charged and deported. Howard is too angry to object to the industrial espionage charges or the deportation. He does, however, offer to pay Vanko his share of any profits their design makes. Vanko refuses, arrogantly thinking he can recreate the designs on his own in Russia. He cannot and ends up drunk and destitute setting up Iron Man 2.
Post credits:-
With the Fenris bomb duo out of the picture, we see Sebastian Shaw at the Las Vegas chapter of the Hellfire Club taking a phone call from his employer saying he "would be delighted to be the new black king". After he hangs up he says "now to find myself a queen".
one night, the commandos see something, a flicker of something none of them dare name, between their captain and their sniper.
‘i think we should just ignore it, dugan. it doesn’t really make a difference. we’re still a team, right?’ gabe asks, eyes flickering over to where cap and barnes are sitting at the bar as he does. there’s so much there; it’s in the way they move around each other, the look in their eyes as they stare at one another.
‘i mean… does anyone here have a problem with it?’ falsworth comments. gabe quickly translates, and dernier waves him off in a way that tells gabe that he’s got no quarrel with it. ‘speak now or forever hold your peace, gentlemen,’ morita says. they stay silent, and falsworth raises a glass. the rest of them follow suit. ‘swear yourselves to silence, gentlemen. cap and barnes deserve this. we owe ‘em that much.” they drink, and the moment passes. none of them mention it again. they don’t mention it when barnes and cap go missing for hours, only to sneak back into camp in the middle of the night. they don’t talk about the way the two of them slide their sleeping mats ever so closer together when they’re out in the field. they don’t talk about it, until the day after they receive the news that cap’s plane went down, with him on it. “to the captain, and to barnes. may they find each other again, in every eternity.”
