WMG / Agent Carter

Pre-Release Season 1 Theories

The Zodiac cartel will serve as the Big Bad of Season 1 and of the series.

If the show is picking up where the short left off, this is more of a logically stand-point. Bonus points if some are HYDRA agents having splintered off and joined with Zodiac.

• One interview hints this series takes place before the short, so Zodiac might just be foreshadowed and saved for later.
  • Partially jossed, the Big Bad organization of season 1 is Leviathan.

The android known as the Human Torch (or the Torch, or Jim Hammond) will likely appear as a prototype version of J.A.R.V.I.S. or Vision

Like Father, Like Son, Howard would work on the Torch after seeing it was at his expo and seeing it could be useful, thus creating a being that would serve as a Robot Buddy for Peggy and also The Confidant to her.

• And, like he was in All-New Invaders, insanely Adorkable.

Winter Soldier will make a cameo, if not outright be the focus of an episode.

The show will give a glimpse of the beginning of his long bloody career. As Leviathan is something of an offshoot of Hydra, it seems likely.

Peggy will marry one of the Howling Commandos.

In the video interview with her seen in Winter Soldier, she mentions the guy she married was one of the soldiers saved by Cap from the Hydra factory. That included the Commandos. Though she describes as a different incident than the POW rescue, ^note  She says that a battalion was surrounded by the Enemy and Steve executed a breakthrough, and that he saved 1000 men, as opposed to 400 POWs. who's to say that one of the Commandos didn't get in trouble again?

1950's Cap might appear in the show

Alternately, Isaiah Bradley could appear as the 2nd Captain America.

There will eventually be time-travel-fueled crossover shenanigans with Agents of SHIELD

What's the point of a shared universe if you don't do crossovers occasionally? Alternately, Peggy might, for example, hide some artifact that Team Coulson later find, and so on.

• One episode could possibly deal with how the 0-8-4 that the Team found in Peru ended up there in the first place.
  • There is a Call-Back/Shout-Out to the Peru 0-8-4 in the Season 2 finale, when Howard Stark mentions that he's leaving for Peru for some unspecified reason. Weapon testing perhaps?
• Along those lines, we'll see Triplett's grandfather gathering/using his suitcase full of SSR spy gear

In addition to the Human Torch and 1950s Cap mentioned above, we'll get some other 1940s/50s-era superheroes making cameos

Spitfire and/or Union Jack, for example.

Howard Stark will build a proto-Iron Man suit

As in the comics, Howard Stark will develop Project: Tomorrow and creates the superweapon known as Arsenal, but instead of a robot that eventually goes rogue, it will be an armored suit piloted by Stark himself. Howard Stark in his "Arsenal Battlesuit" would be the MCU's version of Iron Man Noir.

Alexander Pierce will make an appearance.

Given the age of Robert Redford, Pierce would likely be a young child during the time of this series. He may make a cameo appearance, or they could go deeper into his backstory, showing his early ties to SHIELD and/or HYDRA.

Peggy will become an Empowered Badass Normal, or get the chance to do so.

But she will eventually either renounce it or just not accept it in the first place, and go back to being her Badass Normal self.

Peggy will team up with a young British agent called John Steed

so they will become The Avengers (1960s).

A young Hank Pym will eventually become a part of the show.

According to the upcoming Ant-Man movie, Hank Pym is a retired superhero who was active during the 1960s. Since Agent Carter is set in the 40s, the show could have Hank Pym (played by a younger actor, of course) become a part of SHIELD and work alongside Peggy Carter and Howard Stark. Granted, there would have to be some sort of Time Skip to make it work, but perhaps each season of the show could have a Time Skip every couple of years.

• Instead of Pym having a cameo in Agent Carter, Peggy and Howard will cameo in Ant-Man.
  • Confirmed, with Hayley Atwell in make-up and John Slattery as Howard Stark.

Peggy will form a Five-Man Band

In which she will obviously be The Leader; Howard will be either The Smart Guy or The Lancer; and if Hank Pym appears as the above WMG suggests, he could be The Smart Guy instead. The roles of The Heart (or Team Mom) and The Big Guy may be fulfilled by Canon Foreigners.

Pvt. Lorraine will become an Ascended Extra

She was played by Natalie Dormer, who does plenty of television work. Seems a waste not to invite her back as Peggy's recurring Vitriolic Best Bud.

A recurring antagonist in season 1 will be Jake Fury

Except he will be Nick's older brother instead of younger. The series will likely continue the Zodiac plotline from the one-shot, and Jake Fury was Scorpio of the Zodiac in the comics. The end of season 1 will reveal that he was secretly working for SHIELD the entire time, similar to what happened in Secret Warriors.

In some episodes, Peggy will use Mythology Gag aliases, such as...(feel free to add your own)

• Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
• Sharon. As Foreshadowing, Peggy could comment how she's always liked that name.

Angie Martinelli will turn out to be an agent for someone

Lyndsy Fonseca has been cast as Peggy’s Muggle Best Friend. Given her bona fide Action Girl credentials from her time in Nikita Angie will turn out to be a secret badass.

• The same goes for Dottie, played by Bridget Regan of Legend of the Seeker fame.
  • Dottie will turn out to have moved next door to Peggy in order to keep an eye on her. For some time it will be unclear if she has evil intentions or is Bodyguarding a Badass, similar to Agent 13's cover in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
    • Confirmed. Dottie is, what nobody expected, an early Black Widow, and The Dragon for the season's Big Bad.

Isaiah Bradley will make an appearance

Instead of the super soldier serum, they'll use him and others to test the effects of GH-325

Agents of Atlas will appear in some form.

Probably some sort of pre-version of the team. Maybe just Jimmy Woo and (pre-Gorrilla-Man) Ken Hale.

Skye's mother will show up at some point.

Possibly showing up to thank Peggy for saving her from Rheinhardt, which would throw some Tear Jerker into the meeting for viewers of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..

Maria Stark will appear.

Because if we're getting Howard and Jarvis, it seems only fair the only other character left related to that family. She could be pals with Peggy.

Post-release Season 1 theories

Vanko and/or Stane are involved

Obvious one. Stark's super-secret vault was broken into, so it had to have been someone close to him to even know about it, much less break in and take the stuff.

• If it was Vanko, it would explain why Howard had him deported, leading to the events of Iron Man 2.

Leviathan is linked with both Hydra and Zodiac.

Probably not directly linked, but there's got to be some connection with all these evil organizations. Adding further to this, is the symbol that Leet Brannis drew on the sand before he died, which appeared to be an abstract version of the Hydra emblem.

Time travel is involved

Leet Brannis told Carter that she wouldn't like the future "such as it is". He and the other Leviathan agents are from the future, and Leviathan is trying to change the past in order to benefit in the future. It might end in failure since they technically Already Changed The Past.

At some point Peggy will be introduced to a young Nick Fury

Likely not in the first season, but the creators did say that they would do time skips if they got more seasons. Fury could join the SSR around the sixties and meet Peggy, where she'd see something in him and start grooming him to take over when the time comes.

At some point Jarvis will be Mistaken for Cheating

Sneaking out at odd hours with a woman and lying to his wife about it? Sounds a lot like an affair.

Howard did have something to do with his inventions ending in the wrong hands

It's clear he and Jarvis are hiding something from Peggy, which would be that he's somehow more involved in it than he admitted.

• It's revealed in "The Blitzkrieg Button" that Howard hid a vial of Captain America's blood.

At least one of Carter's coworkers is HYDRA

Since the SSR is sort of a pre-S.H.I.E.L.D., it would make sense that HYDRA had someone infiltrated there. It could be Thompson, but it could also be Dooley.

Sousa is the grandfather (or great-grandfather) of the cop in The Avengers.

Both played by the same actor, both working in law enforcement; throw a little Generation Xerox in there and why not pretend they're related?

• Plus it could be a good Family Business parallel to Peggy and Sharon.
• Possibly confirmed by the show runners. (Take it with a grain of salt since they could be joking, but they do acknowledge the possibility).

Grant Morrison is helping write the show and this is a crossover with the DCU.

Why else would the bad guys be calling themselves Leviathan?

Peggy will marry Souza.

He's set up as nice to her, he was a soldier in the war, and we know Peggy married a soldier who was saved by Captain America...

Angie is really a spy.

Why is she so insistent on having Peggy as a neighbor? There is more to her that meets the eye. She's working for someone. Possibly HYDRA...Or Perhaps SHIELD? It would also be a fun Actor Allusion to her role in Nikita.

Green Suit is Heinrich Zemo

The green symbolizes Hydra's color of choice.

• Jossed

At some point, Peggy will do an Indy Hat Roll

The producers have said the show is inspired by Indiana Jones and Peggy does have a Fedora of Asskicking.

Angie is a spy, but not for Leviathan or any malicious organization.

She works with Stark and Jarvis and is in on whatever secret they're keeping from Peggy.

• In the comics, there is another character named Martinelli who works for Tony Stark.

Someone will try to kill Peggy in her new apartment

The landlady's first reaction will be that the dead assassin on the second floor is an unauthorized male. She will then drive them away with a shotgun she keeps hidden in her office. Men are not allowed in her boarding house, after all.

• Partly confirmed. Mr. Mink breaks in and tries to kill her, but no one except Dottie even knows he was there.

The assassin at the end of episode 3 is Peggy's new neighbor, the "ballerina" from Iowa, Dottie

Both are obviously female, even if the episode tried to hide it, both are blonde, and both are quite tall with long legs. Why else would Dottie be randomly and explicitly introduced to Peggy during the episode? It wouldn't be the first time a Marvel female assassin is a ballerina (or has a cover story as such). She could even be another female operative trained by the Black Widow program. It might be a stretch, but her method of dispatching the Aryan would-be assassin towards the end of The Blitzkrieg Button seems very reminiscent of takedowns we've seen Natasha Romanoff perform.

• All confirmed. Dottie is a result of the Black Widow program, and is indeed the Leviathan killer.

Agent Carter, and by extension the entire MCU, is set in the same universe as Casablanca

Jarvis mentions trying to use letters of transit to smuggle his wife out of Hungary, the famous MacGuffin invented for Casablanca.

Angie was an experiment by the Italian branch of Hydra.

Italy, being an ally of Germany, could have had its own branch of Hydra which conducted experiments similar to those done on Bucky. Angie could have been one of the subjects, turning her into a proto-Winter Soldier.

Daniel is the HYDRA Agent.

It'd be a surprise and a blow to Peggy and the other agents because he's nice and disabled, so they didn't expect him to be evil and still a badass.

One or more of the Howling Commandoes will show up

They will be outraged over how Peggy is treated, as they saw no problem with her taking over for the Captain as their CO during the HYDRA mop-up operations, as was shown during the flashback scenes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

• Confirmed that one or more Commandoes are coming. They don't openly say anything about their opinion of how Carter is treated, but the casual way in which they acknowledge her as a superior - and seek her concurrence on the orders of the official mission commander - speaks volumes.

Carter killed Krzeminski

The killer was kept completely in the shadows, and she had motive to protect herself from accusations of treason. She also never wonders who killed him or why, and her stress could be interpreted as guilt over the murder. She wonders why his death hit her so hard, listing reasons they weren't close and she didn't like him.

• Jossed. Later episodes reveal that the killer was Dottie Underwood.

Stark is guilty.

Not necessarily of selling his 'Bad Babies' to other powers, but the person who stole the tech from him found out in some 'not-so-legal' dealings. Furthermore, after Carter accepts the case Jarvis calls Stark and says some suspicious things.

• Jossed. Howard was seduced by a black widow and he told her about it while they were dating.

By the end of the series Stark will have started drawing up plans for the ARC reactor.

What better way to get the public opinion of him back up than to announce that he is engineering a super-efficient power source? Shane tells Tony in Iron Man 1 that he made it to "shut the hippies up" and there were proto-hippies in the post WWII era. They were called "pro-beatniks". It's possible.

• During her invasion on Stark's lab, Whitney notes that Stark is working on a "palladium core". As we know from Iron Man, palladium is the main component of an arc reactor.

Arnim Zola will appear.

When he is recruited to SHEILD after WWII, and will begin growing Hydra inside it.

• Very confirmed at the stinger of the Season 1 finale! Now the guess is he'll be recruiting Dr. Fenhoff into HYDRA.

Anna Jarvis is somehow involved with Leviathan.

It wouldn’t be obvious enough for her to be the assassin we know is a woman, but it seems suspicious that Anna’s just The Voice so far. What reason is there for the audience to not see her? Additionally she has a connection to Howard Stark, whose inventions Leviathan wants. Honey Trap maybe?

• Of note — co-showrunner Michele Fazekas has said there are no plans to have Anna on the show. However, in an interview about one week later James D'Arcy said he's "literally forbidden to discuss" whether Anna will appear or which actress he would like to play her. Something seems... off.

A young Natalia Romanova will appear in Episode 5.

Promos show a young girl with combat training, and the producers have confirmed that Episode 5 will feature details about the origins of the Black Widow Program. The timeline matches up perfectly with Nat's, so why not tease her backstory ahead of Age of Ultron?

• In The Winter Soldier, Zola lists Natasha's birth name and date, unnerving her. The date was 1984. However, this is Natasha 'can lie to the god of lies' Romanoff; it's not unreasonable to assume that the given age was wrong, while her reaction could merely be the fact he knew her full birth name and whatever birthdate she gave SHIELD. Given that nothing else in her backstory so far fits the given 1984 birthdate so far, either assuming it's a lie or just retconning the year isn't exactly out there.
• It'll turn out that Natasha is the girl who attacked Peggy and the Commandos and later escaped.
  • Jossed, the girl is a product of the Red Room but not Natasha.

Sousa will find Steve's blood

.He will try to use it to heal his injured leg with tragic results.

• Jossed. Peggy ends up with it in the end and she pours it into the Hudson.

Dottie is Yelena Belova.

After seeing her deliver a righteous and very Black Widow-esque lethal ass whooping to Mink, it wouldn't surprise most people if she turned out to be Black Widow #2 (or 1, in this case).

Leviathan is a Soviet version of HYDRA, and Anton Vanko is involved

In the comics, Leviathan was to Soviet Russia what HYDRA was to Nazi Germany. Additionally, if it turns out that Anton Vanko is behind their actions, this could explain why he was deported back to Russia, and easliy set up Iron Man 2.

Dottie will find and steal the vial of Steve's blood to create the Black Widow serum.

• Jossed. In SNAFU, Peggy expects Leviathan to take it, but they steal another item instead, and as of the first season finale,she has gotten rid of it.

Peggy's future husband is...

• Daniel Sousa. Nice guy, Birds of a Feather over their tendency to be overlooked or outright scorned, was a soldier in the war (the only thing we know about her husband).
  • Possible supporting evidence: Peggy's husband was someone once rescued by Captain America. Sousa lost the use of his leg during the Battle of Bastogne, which took place in the same theater of the war that Cap fought in, well after he stopped doing stage shows and started being a Super-Soldier in truth.
    • All but confirmed in Season 2.
• Jack Thompson. He's a jerk, sure, but has Hidden Depths and Word of God suggests it's not impossible.
  • Winter Soldier claimed that she married someone who Captain America once rescued. Steve served in the European Theater of the war. Jack served in the Pacific.
• One of the Commandos.

The finale of Season 1 will include a big shakeup at the SSR

• By the end "Iron Ceiling" episode, SSR Agents like Dooley and Thompson have finally come to show some respect for Carter. However, the series takes place before the One-Shot, which includes a totally different supporting cast of SSR agents, neither of whom treat Carter as anything more than a paper-pusher once again. Since it's a Foregone Conclusion that Stark will have his name cleared and will form S.H.I.E.L.D., many of the agents trying to blame him for treason could be faced with demotion for their efforts. Alternatively, Sousa, Dooley and Thomson will experience Character Death.
• Starting to come true as of "SNAFU" with Chief Dooley's Heroic Sacrifice.

Anna Jarvis will turn out to be Natasha Romanoff

The fact that, as of episode 5, we have yet to see Anna onscreen, only hearing her voice a couple of times, suggests two possibilities; One, that she's so unimportant a character that she doesn't warrant screen time, or two, that her appearance is being set up as a Wham Shot. The former seems unlikely, as the show has already gone out of it's way to give her a backstory and establish her relationship with Jarvis. If it's the latter, then the reveal could be that she's someone important that the audience, if not Peggy, has already met.

In the comics, Natasha is about the same age as Steve, and has had her aging slowed down by serums. She could have easily lied to Shield about her real age when we see her in the present day, or she could have been brainwashed to forget. Also, just think of the shock factor that would have, to not only have one of the Avengers show up in the show but also open up a load of potential storylines for her. If nothing else, it would make an amazing cliffhanger for the show to end on.

• Alternatively, Anna could be simply another Black Widow operative. Since one is keeping an eye on Peggy, she could be keeping an eye on Stark.
• Nat is Russian, not Jewish, and her being alive in the 40s were screw with her backstory where she claims meeting Hawkeye led her to join SHIELD...However...if she spent most of the Cold War fighting for the USSR, which is plausible enough, she could have met Hawkeye late in the game. She had clearly been doing what she was doing long before she met Clint (since she had developed enough of a reputation to warrant SHIELD to order her dead), and in CATWS, she mentions working for the KGB immediately before working for SHIELD, putting her recruitment somewhere around 1991 (which also means she was definitely lying about her age, given that she would only be 7 at this point, which is too young for SHIELD to plausibly want her dead). In other words, it's clear that the little we know so far about Black Widow's background is probably all a lie considering none of it adds up right, and given the only source for it comes, directly or indirectly, from her herself, it means that, until they flesh it out properly, everything we know about her is to be taken with a grain of salt.

The mysterious assassin from episode 3 is HYDRA

The figure was literally shadowy because HYDRA is metaphorically still in shadows. Even if the killer's identity is eventually revealed, their true allegiance may not.

Ivchenko is Dr. Faustus.

He certainly has the whole evil psychologist/mundane mind control schtick that Faustus has. In addition, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has made reference to the "Faustus Method" of brainwashing, indicating that the not-so-good doctor exists in this universe.

• The actor who plays Ivchenko, Ralph Brown, retweeted a Comic Book.com article that makes this theory, which strongly suggests that this is indeed the case.
• Seemingly confirmed in SNAFU. In a flashback to 1943 at the beginning of the episode, he is referred to as "Dr. Fennhoff" (Faustus' real name in the comics), and is seen reading a copy of Doctor Faustus.

Dottie is jealous of Peggy's life as federal agent

Because why wouldn't you if you had such a messy childhood and raised as Tyke-Bomb / Child Soldier? That may also explains her out-of-nowhere suddenness imitation "Hello, I'm Peggy Carter."

• Confirmed by Dottie during her fight with Peggy in the first season finale.

The series will fill in the backstory of The Hulk

In The Avengers we're told that Bruce Banner got his powers when an attempt to create another super soldier went awry. A major MacGuffin of the series is Captain America's blood.

• Jossed. Peggy dumped her sample, which is also the last sample, of Steve's blood into the Hudson.

The SSR is heavily penetrated

Dottie knew enough about the SSR's location to know where she had to go to get a good line of sight on Dooley's office, and Ivchenko knew that Leviathan knew this, or else he wouldn't have been secretly sending coded messages from said office to the sniper across the street. The only logical conclusion is that the SSR's secret base at the phone company isn't secret at all, which means that there's a leak.

The true mastermind behind Leviathan, and the season 1 Big Bad is Dr. Ivchenko.

As of this writing we are currently three quarters of the way through season 1, with only two episodes left. It is unlikely that at this point they would reveal a completely new character out of the blue to be the Big Bad, so it's likely that it's someone who has already been introduced. Dr. Ivchenko is the only Leviathan agent seen so far who is neither a Tyke-Bomb nor a mook whose vocal cords have been removed, and it's clear that he ranks above Dottie given that he was the one who gave her instructions.

• Ivchenko probably knew the typewriter had been compromised by the SSR. So he sent the encoded message to ensure they got it—not to lure them into a trap (though he made sure it looked that way) but to ensure his "rescue" from Leviathan.
• Carter confirms this at the end of SNAFU.

Angie's gonna discover the dead body under Dottie's bed.

It will get her in serious trouble if Dottie finds out.

• Since Angie's moved out of the Griffith without learning anything about Dottie's true nature, Jossed.

Season 1 will end with Peggy avoiding criminal charges but being fired from the SSR.

Due to the contributions she made, Peggy's punishment would likely be merciful. The next season will involve the SSR approaching Peggy for a mission that requires Plausible Deniability. This would allow the writers to preserve the dynamic of Season 1 in which Peggy is both a member of the SSR and an outsider who must work with Stark and Jarvis.

• Jossed. While she is temporarily fired, she is quickly rehired.

Not everything Ivchenko said was a lie.

Ivchenko claims that Leviathan recruited him by force and killed his family. This isn't a cover story, despite him being a Leviathan agent. Leviathan did destroy his life, but he's been using his hypnotic abilities to take control of the organization. He's crossed the Despair Event Horizon and is plotting to use Stark's inventions to take revenge on the people responsible. Similarly, Dottie is working with him to destroy the Black Widow program. After all, neither of them has been in communication with other Leviathan agents, only working with each other.

Possible Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. tie-in

In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent 33 was brainwashed using the "Faustus method", and as of the season 2 midseason finale, she still feels loyal to the now-deceased Daniel Whitehall. The season finale of Agent Carter may end up uncovering a method for cancelling out Dr. Ivchenko/Faustus' hypnosis abilities, which S.H.I.E.L.D. agents may later use to bring back Agent 33.

Sousa is a mole.

At the end of SNAFU, Sousa finds Dottie's rifle and papers, one of which says "Kill Peggy Carter." However, he doesn't mention any of them to the other agents. Chances are he is the Russian soldier getting his leg amputated in the first scene of the episode, which is when Ivchenko took control of him.

• Jossed in the finale. Ivchenko tries to brainwash him into killing Thompson but Sousa knocks him out. He was wearing earplugs at the time.

The ring Ivchenko keeps playing with is a Mandarin ring, the "Mento-Intensifier"

It allows him to amplify his personal hypnosis skills to considerable feats. He can pick up on details of people and work them with cold-reading techniques, but the ring is always used when using his "Focus" talent. There seems to be a strong paranormal, quasi-psychic component to whenever he uses it.

Item 17 is responsible for the Battle of Finow.

What might have happened was that a bit of the gas got released in the area, and promptly all the Russians there slaughtered each other in a drug-induced rage. When Howard Stark found the general who caused it, they got into a fight and he refused to use Item 17 any further.

• Confirmed in the Season 1 finale!

Angie's family has mob (or perhaps Maggia) ties.

Angie says her cousin was hit by a bus after he "knocked off" a news stand. Her brother also just happens to have a car available to loan to a complete stranger on the run from the law. She sure has a lot of criminals in her family.

Leviathan murdered General McGinnis

General McGinnis, the man who ordered the use of Midnight Oil on Russian troops, and therefore, the one directly responsible for the Massacre at Finow, conveniently died a year before the events of the show. Given how many survivors of Finow were involved with Leviathan, killing McGinnis would’ve been high on their list of priorities.

Dottie was matched up with her friend in that flashback duel deliberately

They were friends, and their teachers didn't want any of their Widows to have loyalties to anyone outside the state. So they arranged for the two to fight each other to the death.

Post-Season 1 theories

Angie will get an acting job in season two

As the new voice of Betty Carver on the Captain America Adventure Hour, to Peggy's utter horror.

Dottie will reappear in the next season but not as an antagonist.

Her last lines in season one imply that all she really wants is to be free from Leviathan's control and live her own life. Now, with Fennhoff behind bars, she can do that.

• Confirmed. Peggy springs her from jail in an Enemy Mine bid.

The penultimate episode of season two will be named FUMTU

The penultimate episode of season three will be named FUBAR. As the two levels above SNAFU (Which was the penultimate episode of season one), this is the natural progression of how serious things are getting.

Dottie was working for Fennhoff under hypnosis.

Dottie's final monologue doesn't make much sense. She evidently believes that after defeating Peggy, she'll be able to take on whatever identity she wants, even an SSR agent. But if she had won the fight, she'd still be under Leviathan's control. She'd have to take on whatever identity they chose for her rather than one she chose for herself. The only explanation is that she was also hypnotized and the illusion she saw will be explored in Season 2.

• Jossed. She's still as loony as she was.

The reason Thompson tried to claim credit for stopping Leviathan isn't as selfish as Sousa assumes

We've previously seen that Thompson, while a bit of a sexist dick, has no issue giving Peggy credit where it's due (as seen when they report on the Russia mission). So why would he withhold credit here? Well, be honest, does that politician he was chatting with come off as the kind of guy who'd believe that a woman had anything to do with it? Thompson probably just figures that this guy will think he's being humble or lying or something, so telling him the whole truth is pointless.

• Jossed. The showrunners have noted that he made the conscious choice to take the credit because it benefited him.

Bucky will show up in Season 2 and work with the SSR.

• Possiblity 1: Bucky survived the fall due to enhancements from his time as Zola's prisoner but lost his memory and his arm. He still has his dog tags so he returns to New York where he gets a prosthetic arm from Stark, slowly recovers his memory, and starts working with the SSR. Unfortunately, this is also the time the US government starts recruiting ex-HYDRA scientists. HYDRA gets access to Bucky and fakes his death, setting him on the path to becoming the Winter Soldier. It also explains why his name is on the memorial at the SHIELD academy in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
• Possiblity 2: he's in coma somewhere at the Soviet Union, and Zola through Fenhoff will find a way to go there and enact his "improvements".

Some of the initial HYDRA infiltrators will be brainwashed by Fenhoff to obey Zola.

This would go along way to explaining how Zola was able to establish the new HYDRA within SHIELD. He didn't have to get his own people inside the Agency, he just turned the ones who were already there into his people. Surely there are plenty of people with family issues, self-esteem issues or something else that Zola can use to help them "focus".

John McGinnis isn't dead, and will reappear as the Big Bad of season 2.

He REALLY seemed like a bastard based on what we've heard of him. Although he's supposedly dead, it could turn out he faked it and will return in season 2 to cause more trouble.

Leviathan as a whole will be explored more in season 2.

While it seemed like this was going to be the case for season 1, Fennhoff's infiltration of the SSR meant that he was not merely The Mole for the villains, but the Big Bad himself with his own motives being completely personal and possibly separate from Leviathan as a whole. It will be similar to how season 2 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. delved more into HYDRA as a whole rather than Garrett's own splinter Centipede faction of it, season 2 of Agent Carter will deal with Leviathan as a whole.

• Jossed.

The Black Widows were expected to steal food

If the Black Widows were malnourished as children, they would either die or, if they did survive, would be decidedly shorter than their growth potential. But the Black Widow seen in this show is not a short woman. But their Leviathan handlers aren't the type of villain to just give the girls enough food: when one is in a foreign country, or on the run, one may be forced to steal to get by, or to complete one's mission, and that's even without taking into account Leviathan wanting to deliberately weed out weaker members of the Black Widow class and thus leave only the best in every way alive. They could have learned from something that was practiced in Ancient Sparta: young trainees were deliberately given much less food than they would need to survive, especially with the rest of the Training from Hell they were going through at the time, and were expected to steal the rest of their food without being caught. If they were caught, they were punished not for the theft but for failing to evade capture. Given that the Black Widow program is designed to make Child Soldiers into the most badass adult Action Girls in the setting, and have been shown to not mind weaker recruits dying because of their training, it would fit their needs too. Strong, sneaky girls steal food and survive. Weaker, less sneaky girls fail to steal food, and die of starvation, or become weaker and can't keep up and are killed in training.

Fenhoff will use hypnosis to turn Angie against Peggy.

Angie will be tricked into thinking she's in a play with a murder scene and Peggy is another actor.

There's already a HYDRA mole in the SSR.

• Zola's work building the new HYDRA has already started, even before the founding of SHIELD. He has managed to pull someone's strings from inside his cell and manipulate the SSR. This would make the decision to put him and Fenhoff in the same cell a lot more understandable. He just said "Let me speak to the hypnotist" and his mole made it happen.

Angie will get involved in Peggy's missions

By the first season finale, Peggy has probably explained everything about her work to her, and the two are living in the same house, so it'd be both proof of mutual trust and useful to live with someone with whom Peggy can share details of her secret life. Plus, Angie's acting skills could be helpful in the field.

• Jossed. Angie appears in a single Dream Sequence, despite Season 2 being set in Hollywood.

The kid Jarvis encountered really will grow up to be a Mafioso

Specifically, Don Rigoletto.

Dottie will be subject to the Deliver Us from Evil trope

Which is why the later iterations of the Black Widow program are so savvy about it.

• Jossed.

Jack Thompson is Flash Thompson's grandfather.

He's the SSR equivalent of a Jerk Jock but capable of sympathizing with & helping the people he typically picks on, much like Flash. They also already share a last name.

• Given the fact Peter Parker (and by extension Flash) will still be in high-school as of the events of Civil War, great-grandfather will probably be more accurate.
• Jossed. He dies in the season finale.

Pre-Release Season 2 Theories

Peggy will meet her future husband in Los Angeles, who happens to be none other than ... Wonder Man.

From Hollywood? Check. Not totally unlike her previous flame? Check. Tangentially involved with Stark Industries, allowing him an insert into the MCU? Check. He's not a character who was around in the 1940s Marvel Universe, but that doesn't mean he can't be here.

Angie will move to Los Angeles with Peggy and become the MCU's equivalent to Millie the Model.

She'll relocate with the intention of becoming an actress, but end up attaining fame as a pinup model, perhaps even adopting "Millie" as her stage name.

• There was talk of a movie interest in Millie. It's unclear now if there are still plans, and whether or not if it'll take place in the MCU and if it'll take place in the present. If the latter is true, Millie could be a descendant of Angie.

Possible "diverse" additions...

Since the show will be looking to address their common criticism of the first season:

• Isaiah Bradley, introduced as an attempt at recreating Steve's super-serum, which Peggy conveniently disposed the last of in the season one finale.
  • Could also be another means of setting up a Young Avengers movie at some point, after Cassie Lang's inclusion in Ant-Man.
• Jimmy Woo, as an SSR agent or from a different agency.
  • Jossed. He appears in Ant-Man and the Wasp.
• Union Jack — possibly James Montgomery Falsworth (a Howling Commando from Captain America: The First Avenger) composted with his son, Brian (who is gay in the comics), inspired by Captain America's efforts to become his British equivalent.
• Arnold Roth: A childhood friend of Steve Rogers in the comics and one of Marvel's first openly gay characters.
• Latina/Hispanic Maria Cerrera (later Stark), as she was in Ultimates.
• William Burnside, a die-hard Cap fan who was turned into the 1950s Captain America to hunt down communists. Peggy working with a man who looked exactly like Steve but wasn't like him at all would be interesting. And the insanity from lack of vita-rays, government propaganda and schizophrenia that lead him to become evil would make him a pretty scary villain.
• The Hood, or Parker Robbins, Madame Masque's boyfriend in the comics and one of the most popular villains in Marvel History. He has ties to the Maggia as well and his addition could let Marvel implement some of their most obscure costumed criminals as part of his army.
  • All Jossed, although a minor Golden Age character, Intangible Man, gets a Race Lift and a less villainous backstory.

Angie will eventually die

Angie is Maria Stark

She'll move to L.A. with Peggy and try to break into the film or modelling business, and whilst doing so find out that a lot of the girls have stage names. She decides to do the same, and comes up with Maria. Later on, when she meets Howard Stark at a time when he's not on the lamb, the two will have better chemistry and fall in love.

Cosmo the Spacedog will appear or be mentioned.

Peggy is going to LA because she's been Reassigned to Antarctica.

Thompson is now the Chief of the SSR and now probably views Peggy as a rival for his career so he sends her to LA to get her out of the way.

• Confirmed.

Heinrich Zemo will appear.

To tie in with Helmut Zemo's presence in Captain America: Civil War.

• And he will look exactly like his classic counterpart.

Molecular Nitromene is a precursor to the Pym Particle

It's a substance that causes implosions, much like the one that destroys Pym Labs in Ant-Man. Howard could meet a young Hank Pym and the two could collaborate, with Pym eventually discovering other ways to use Nitromene and developing the particle from that. Howard mentions in Ant-Man that the two have known each other for a long time.

Bucky's transformation into The Winter Soldier by Zola and Fennhoff will be the focus of an episode, or even a season.

Phineas Horton will make a guest appearance in Season 2

And his robotics work will lay the groundwork for the Ultron Program.

Peggy will eventually help create and lead The Invaders.

They'll be the prototype for the Avengers themselves (hence Ultron mentioning that Invaders create Avengers in AoU). And for bonus points, they'll start off with 6 members that have similarities to the original six:

• Peggy leading the group, of course.
• Jim Hammond/The Android Human Torch will fill in for Iron Man's role. He'll first appear as a cop like he was in the comics, assigned to tackle the most dangerous jobs or tasks too difficult for the other police to handle. He will be capable of flight, complete control of fire (perhaps being able to control the temperature like in the classic comics, hide in flames like his Golden Age days and even modify the radioactivity of his flame like in All-New Invaders), the ability to disable or completely control enemy machinery and Nigh-Invulnerability, being an android and all. He will also have the power to issue anyone parking tickets if they piss him off.
  • Similarly, if they can't get Jim, Blazing Skull would be ideal. He could have limited control over fire, strength honed from years of training with an underground race of "Skull Men", investigative skills from his former identity as a journalist and ridiculously high endurance. He would be a great source of comic relief, too, as his questionable sanity once lead him to mocking Hitler until the dictator burst into tears.
• Namor could be shown as a darker counterpart to Thor. He will have Super-Strength, flight, complete control of water and the ability to summon Atlantean craft/warriors as well as giant sea Kaiju. However, he will be prone to violent mood swings from oxygen imbalances, resulting in attacks on humanity and will be willing to anything to protect Atlantis, no matter how many people die or how much destruction is caused. His origins could be explained in the MCU by having the Atlanteans as experimental underwater Inhumans or experiments who broke free and headed into the ocean.
• The Mighty Destroyer/Roger Aubrey will be The Big Guy, with massive Super-Strength, lots of guns and a near-perfect version of the Serum (that excludes the anti-aging bit). He could be an interesting character, as he was Falsworth's boyfriend in the comics and also half German, so he would have to put up with prejudice similar to Peggy's.
• Falsworth returns as Union Jack, now with a proper costume and armed with his Sten Gun and his Webley MK VI, as well as a Fairbairn-Sykes knife. Unlike the others, he's a Badass Normal with plenty of experience from the war. He might have become the British Cap in honor of Steve. His relationship with Roger and the fact that the Union Jack identity was first donned by his father in World War I could make interesting plot points. As well as that, his absence from the Howling Commandos could be that he'd already become Union Jack and Pinkerton was recruited to take his place.
• Finally, Spitfire, or Lady Jacqueline Falsworth Crichton, will appear as the group's speedster and a potential love interest for Jim. Alongside super speed, she could also have enhanced durability, immortality and other powers from her attack by Baron Blood, as well as several vampiric abilities. As she's an extremely good pilot as well, she could transport the team when Namor's personal aircraft isn't available. Her struggle to keep her vampirism under control and her reluctance to use the skills Baron Blood accidentally gave her would be interesting plot points too, as well as her adjusting to life as a vampire.
  • Future members could consist of:
    • Thomas "Toro" Raymond, the Human Torch's protege and sidekick. He was recently revealed to be an Inhuman who could mimic Jim's powers, so seeing an early Inhuman in action would be pretty fun. He could be in training for most of the season, and show up in the finale with his powers fully developed.
    • Golden Girl/Gwenny Lou Sabuki and Davey Mitchell/The Human Top, two teenagers who gained powers (Beam Spam for the former, Super-Speed for the latter) from accidental exposure to radiation. They could be the SSR equivalent of the Maximoff Twins, and could form the Kid Commandos with Toro.
    • Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne will show up much later.
    • The Angel, one of the three original Golden Age heroes, a Guns Akimbo detective who fought crime dressed in a superhero costume and with amazing parkour skills. Although the costume could be changed a bit to be more Civvie Spandex than colorful, he'd make a fitting addition to a show that's already steeped in film noir. Perhaps he could be one of the main forces battling the Maggia...
    • Electro, a Golden Age giant robot who was also one of Timely's most prominent creations. He could be an interesting addition, battling Iron Cross or Arnim Zola's robot form if they ever appear. He could even be a creation of Howard's and act as an inspiration for his son...

Dottie will return and form a Big Bad Duumvirate with Madame Masque

Big Bad Madame Masque will be revealed to have been a former heroine

The show's creators have said that they have drawn inspiration from Hedy Lamarr for their Madame Masque, both as an actress and as a scientific genius. Lamarr developed a Secret Communications System to help combat the Nazis in World War II, which is obviously heroic. Madame Masque will have a similar backstory, only she went through a Face–Heel Turn at some point.

• If this is true then Madame Masque could act as an Evil Counterpart to Peggy as an effective, intelligent agent who found herself overlooked and relegated to "hot Hollywood actress" after the war which left her bitter and caused her Face–Heel Turn. Essentially, she is a reminder of what Peggy might have become had she not had her friends or her inner strength to get past the sexism of her surroundings.

If The Invaders do appear, some of their arch-enemies will appear too.

And they'll all be working for Russia. Some of them could be:

• Agent Axis, who could very well end up as Peggy's nemesis.
• Baron Blood, who would personally battle Union Jack and Spitfire.
• Master Man.
• Warrior Woman. Perhaps Dottie could become her?
• Lady Lotus.
• U-Man, although looking way less silly this time.

Angie will get an acting job along Madame Masque.

If Madame Masque is indeed an actress (or at least has a cover as such), having Angie get a role in the same Hollywood production would be a good way to bring her to Los Angeles. Angie could be a fan of Madame Masque, but after discovering she's a villain, would help Peggy in missions against her.

One of the episodes will be centered around the historic duel between Namor and the Torch.

It's already one of Marvel's most famous battles, and was already presented as an Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny in Marvels. Oh, and instead of Betty Dean stopping the fight, perhaps Peggy or Angie will convince the two to work together, and Howard will be the one to make a meter to warn Namor of any future oxygen imbalances.

Dottie is Tania Belinskaya.

Nick Fury did, in fact, exist around WWII in the Cinematic timeline

The modern day Nick is a Life Model Decoy, he's immortal, time-shifted, etc.

• Or an Identical Grandson who shares the name with his ancestor.
• Jossed. A younger Nick Fury initially ignorant of extraordinary activities appears in Captain Marvel.

This is the series in which Kang the Conqueror will appear

It could be as an actual time-displaced maniac. It could be something more subtle, like a con man using sleight of hand. Or it could simply be a character made up for the Show Within a Show Captain America radio series.

Dottie will eventually perform a Heel–Face Turn with Peggy's help

Peggy is aware of how the girls in the Black Widow Program were mistreated and brainwashed, so it's not far-fetched to think that she may hope to help Dottie post-Season 1. Peggy could be sent on a mission to kill Dottie but make a different call. Or perhaps Dottie may even begin to snap out of it herself and seek Peggy's help.

Dottie is actually Decomposite Character from Comics Natasha

Since MCU Natasha didn't exist yet during 1940s.

Angie will play Betty Carver in a film adaptation of the Captain America Adventure radio show, and it won't be terrible

In Valediction, the show's cast and crew are reenacting Peggy and Steve's last conversation before his famous death, so they can't move the story forward, but they'll decide to make a movie of the events they've already told. Angie will get the female lead and Peggy will be dismayed at first, but since Angie actually knows her (and presumably has been told about her real role in the war) she will convince the producers/writers to change the character to one closer to Peggy's actual personality/job/etc, which will improve the fiction.

Howard's movie studio's film will be ridiculous

A Cliché Storm with several cases of a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment combined with Bad "Bad Acting", Dull Surprise, and What The Hellis That Accent, to be precise. The comedy for this season has to stem from somewhere!

Post-Release Season 2 Theories

The organization tied to the lapel pins is another branch of HYDRA

The inverted V with the two arcs on either side looks like one of the variant HYDRA logos from across history as shown in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 3.

• While this seems like a very common fan-theory, it was ultimately Jossed in an Entertainment Weekly interview with Michelle Fazekas and Tara Butters, who have said that the Council of Nine is actually the MCU equivalent of the Secret Empire from the comics. Of course, this could be a case of Lying Creator.
  • Moreso Exact Words. The only mention of HYDRA in the interview:
  Natalie Abrams: It almost looked like that original Hydra symbol we recently saw on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Does it have any connection to that?
  Michelle Fazekas: No, I would not say that.

The Zero Matter is responsible for Donnie Gill's powers in Agents of SHIELD

It gave some people minor, uncontrolled freezing effects on their surroundings. Donnie's machine either utilized or unwittingly manifested Zero Matter during its malfunction, giving Donnie a very basic aspect of the material's capabilities - namely, freezing things.

Violet will turn out to be another Black Widow

Sousa's new girlfriend seems nothing short of perfect, almost too good to be true. On top of that she is played by too recognizable an actress for such a small part. So she will eventually be revealed to be another Black Widow sent to infiltrate the SSR indirectly.

The Black Dahlia murder will figure into the plot

Los Angeles. 1947. Film Noir themes. Serial Killer on the loose who targets women. It'd would be more surprising if the murder of Elizabeth Short didn't somehow figure into the plot. Admittedly, the murder took place in January of that year, and the show takes place in the summer, but the Lady of the Lake Killer is still out there, and although Short's murder doesn't fit his modus operandi, she could still be conceivably worked into the plot.

alternatively, the Lady in the Lake killer will show up again

Maybe not even until the very end of S2, or the beginning of S3 as a mythology hook. Or even turn out to have gone inactive because they ran afoul of Dottie/Leviathan, before the Stark robbery? (Dottie being targeted by the Lot LK would certainly be a deliciously up to eleven example of The Dog Bites Back.

Vernon Masters has one badass relative

And said relative is none other than Tony Masters.

Wilkes isn't dead. He's turned invisible.

Just like his Comic book counterpart.

• Confirmed!

Zero Matter is the same substance that forms Monolith.

When Jason Wilkes was seemingly vaporized by the explosion, he's actually teleported to the planet of Maveth to be an unwilling sacrifice for "It".

• Jossed.
  • possibly delayed: in 'Smoke and Mirrors' (ep 2x04), the person above starts having visions of the Zero Matter 'tear in space' that showed up in that experimental record footage, and talks to Peggy about feeling like they're 'being called from far away' and 'it would be so easy to let go'. Poor Wilkes might eventually get sucked back into that tear in space... and the other end could very well be on Maveth.
    • Nope, Jossed. When Wilkes gets sucked into the tear in space and then chucked back out in Episode 9, he later says that on the other side, there's nothing but black void.

Zero Matter is Gravitonium.

It certainly seems to share the black, perpetually flowing appearance as well as the gravity-warping powers of the substance later manipulated by Ian Quinn and Franklin Hall. The larger size of their orb probably means that more was obtained on Earth between the 1940s and the modern day, and the fact its actions seem so random here in this series is because the apparatus to control it (rather than just hold it) had not yet been invented.

further to the above; with all the rats/people/maybe even other things Whitney Frost absorbs, she is eventually going to overload into a big ball of Zero Matter that will become the Gravitonium deposit Ian Quinn discovers.

how she gets to wherever Quinn finds that deposit, I frankly dunno. Maybe an experimental Howard Stark device to attempt to restore Jason Wilkes to tangibility is involved, in a last-ditch improvised effort to stop Whitney from becoming a new rip in space-time? (which turns out to lead back to Maveth; see above.)

Sooner or later the SSR's "talent agency" is going to have to actually refer somebody to a studio.

At which point Peggy's close friendship with Howard Stark will come in handy, as he owns one. Bonus points if the someone who gets the referral is Angie from Season One.

The "Council of Nine" is the Ancient Society that is HYDRA.

The parallels seem too prolific for this not to be the case, including their introduction in the same season as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. making the initial revelations about HYDRA being an ancient cult.

One of the Council of Nine has a code designation ...

Would he perhaps be "Seven of Nine, tertiary adjunct of unimatrix Zero-One"?

Council of Nine might be HYDRA, but not related with Red Skull's HYDRA.

And moreover, there are more than just one organization that claim themselves to be HYDRA in MCU throughout the years.

I want to point out that Modern HYDRA is not only different than Red Skull's HYDRA because they've moved on beyond its Nazi roots, but also their obsessions. Modern HYDRA claims that they continue the ancient incarnation's goal: Inhuman and, possibly by extension, Kree. And what is the obsession of Red Skull's HYDRA? Asgardian, or at least their powerful magical artifacts. Not to mention Red Skull's plane is named "Valkyrie", a title for various female Asgardian warriors in the comics.

As far as we can tell by seeing interaction between Sif and Vin-Takk, Asgardian and Kree respectively, from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., they are not only two different alien races, but they're also not in friendly terms. Is it just pure coincidence that Red Skull's HYDRA and Modern HYDRA have very different obsessions that could be contradict against each other? Sure, they unlikely know anything about unfriendly relation between these two alien races, but regardless, it's just very odd.

Meanwhile, we all know from The Winter Soldier that Modern HYDRA is, essentially, founded by Arnim Zola. But isn't Zola from Red Skull's HYDRA? True. But he might be not as loyal to Red Skull as one might think. He might be know about both Asgardian and Inhuman (and/or Kree). But he, knowing Red Skull's instability, decide to not being entirely honest. For Zola, it's more than enough that Red Skull learn about Asgardian artifact because if he ever found out about Kree/Inhuman, Skull's obsession can lead to an even more danger. Seriously, think about it, if Skull found out about Inhumans, he would've made good use of them to be his HYDRA soldiers. Is there any brilliant diabolical mastermind who doesn't want an army of superpowered soldiers? Of course not!

And it's not only Zola who keeps secrets about Inhumans, but also Werner Reinhardt a.k.a. Daniel Whitehall. He obtained the Obelisk in the 40's, right? But for an apprentice of Red Skull, he's quite indifferent to his mentor's supposed death. So it's possible that he knows about non-Asgardian artifact (although he doesn't seem to know that the Obelisk is Kree/Inhuman artifact, either) without telling Red Skull about it. This further cemented that how Red Skull is only feared, but not respected by his subordinates.

Then, after Skull has disappeared and Zola himself is eventually recruited into newly-formed SHIELD, Zola used this chance to secretly rebuild HYDRA from within SHIELD. This time, he gave no crap about random alien artifacts that Skull was hunting possibly for most of his life. Zola wishes to return to organization's original goal and obsession: Retrieving the ancient Inhuman from Maveth. However, he isn't entirely trustful to these new HYDRA yet. Keep in mind that Gideon Malick once said that he doesn't think very highly of other leaders such as Daniel Whitehall or John Garrett. So, keeping secrets from each other doesn't seem to be uncommon among HYDRA leaders. The same thing can be said about Zola, he only shares his knowledge about Inhumans and ancient HYDRA's original goal to certain people and told them to pass this knowledge only to those who are reliable or trustworty. This is why the likes of Whitehall or Garrett are seemingly oblivious about HYDRA's true final goal for the ancient Inhuman. Garrett only cares about saving himself from death, only join HYDRA when he's disillusioned by SHIELD, and is ultimately never really loyal to HYDRA. Meanwhile, Whitehall hunts Obelisk, but ultimately he never knows what it really is and even needs Calvin Johnson to show him how it functions. No wonder Malick has no respect to them, because he is one of very few who knows about HYDRA's original and true goal. Another small evidence that HYDRA isn't just one group is, in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., that Ward's HYDRA and Malick's HYDRA were initially separated factions with different goals, too. Ward's HYDRA's is built for petty reason: destroying SHIELD to avenge Ward's girlfriend's death, while Malick's HYDRA only sees SHIELD as mere obstacle and sticks with their original goal. Eventually, of course, Malick decides to combine their factions after he decided Ward is worthy enough.

As for this show, Council of Nine could be "transition" between Red Skull's HYDRA and Modern HYDRA. They still work involving a possibly-alien thing, Zero Matter, to build weapons, just like what Red Skull's HYDRA did with Cosmic Cube. It's shown that they use the symbol that isn't from Red Skull's HYDRA's, but instead from ancient HYDRA's.

• To put a simpler way, we know from the symbols Fitz found the HYDRA was once one organization that evolved into two: the ram and the octopus. The Octopus became the Red Skull's HYDRA, then Zola's, and now Ward's. The Ram became the Council of Nine/Arena Club (aka the Secret Empire) and eventually Malick's HYDRA. And now the two have rejoined.

Whitney is going to have an incident with her powers on stage

She's a beautiful woman starring in what appeared to be a love movie. She appears to have developed the ability to absorb people by touching them. Put these together and it's practically begging for her to kiss her costar while filming the climax, resulting in his horrific death on camera.

• Jossed. : Whitney learns how to control her power pretty quickly.

This Whitney Frost isn't the MCU Equivalent of Madame Masque.

The Whitney Frost we see in Agent Carter is a certifiable genius as well as a talented film actress. She also now appears to have powers due to her exposure to Darkforce energy. None of these traits particularly reflect the comic book version of Madame Masque, and when you add to that a lack of her iconic look (so far), a lack of connection to Maggia (so far, again. Though a member of Maggia is confirmed to appear at some point this season), and the fact that comic Madame Masque is a contemporary of Tony Stark's, we're left with only one (or more accurately two half) similarity/similarities — Comic Whitney's intelligence is high but not genius level, and comic Whitney's name is also an assumed alias, though comic and MCU Whitney's real names differ.

With that being said, what if MCU Giulietta Nefaria, (the real name of Comic Whitney) is a character in the modern day? What if she really is a criminal mastermind with connections to Maggia who uses a golden mask to hide her scarred face? And what if, in a past bid to hide her connection to one of Maggia's most prominent members, Nefaria decided to assume the name of her favorite actress, Whitney Frost?

To finish out this WMG, I'll add a point about Agent Carter's Whitney Frost. What if she is a reimagined version of the New Warriors villain Asylum? In the comics, the original version of Asylum was an unnamed woman with Darkforce-based powers. So, plenty of room to expand and alter the character because the comic version has a very limited backstory and vaguely defined powers. Why, though, would the writers choose to use the name Whitney Frost? Perhaps it's because much like Madame Masque, Asylum's most recognizable feature is her gold mask.

Whitney Frost's face is going to fall off.

We've seen that every time Whitney absorbs someone with her Zero Matter powers, the black scar on her face starts to grow larger and appears to be following the outline of her face. Knowing the extra-dimensional properties Zero matter, what if the "scar" is actually a fissure between our world and wherever the Zero Matter came from? If she keeps this up then it's possible that the scar will continue to spread completely around Whitney's face until it essentially becomes a black hole. This would give new meaning to how her face is the mask that covers her true persona if it literally became a mask.

• Jossed. If she returns in season 3, she may tear it off, but she loses the Zero Matter before her transformation is complete.

Whitney Frost will repurpose a movie prop as the Madam Masque mask

The Zero Matter continues to deteriorate Whitney's face every time she uses her new powers. It will eventually get so bad that she will try to cover it up and will use a prop from the movie she's shooting... The Woman with the Golden Face.

Michael Carter will turn out to be alive; Peggy's mother received the telegram after he went MIA, not KIA

Depending on where he was fighting, it's perfectly possible for Michael to be captured by the enemy and held captive. Also that Peggy's mum would take 'MIA' to be no different from 'KIA', explaining her reaction.The reason for this theory? What about Sharon Carter?? We know that she's Peggy's niece (or, more accurately, great-niece), but Michael is the only sibling Peggy has (at least, there's no evidence of another Carter sibling in ep 2x04). If he was married, then surely Peggy would have mentioned it, during the talk they have at her engagement party. So if he died during the war, presumably without a wife or issue, where did Sharon come from?

• It's possible that Michael was a bit promiscuous, which certainly wasn't uncommon among the military, and after he died his parents took in a bastard child to raise in his honour. Or he might just not mentioned his wife during his conversation with Peggy, there's a number of reasons why she wouldn't come to the engagement party (didn't get on with Peggy, fighting with her husband, etc).

Peggy fell pregnant to Steve during the war, and her baby was adopted as her 'sibling'

The other suggestion for Sharon's existence. In the MCU, Sharon has Steve's coloring, and a facial structure very like Peggy's. If Michael Carter did die in 1940 (see above), then who was Sharon's ancestor? Since her surname is Carter, it's not through Peggy's husband.Alternatively, Steve and Peggy hook up during the war (the night of Bucky's wake is my personal bet), and Peggy doesn't find out about her pregnancy until after Steve's 'death'. Knowing how many people would love to get their hands on Steve's DNA, (the fuss over the vial in S1 illustrates the dangers vividly) Peggy hides the very idea of Steve having a child. She gets her parents to adopt the baby, claiming it as their own, so she can still be a part of her child's life. One of the reasons she comes to the US after the war is to distance herself enough from the baby that no one thinks she's oddly maternal over the child, and starts thinking about the implications.

• Alternatively, to avoid squick because comic Sharon and Steve are romantically interested in each other, Peggy and Steve's child could instead be a male, and the MCU version of Ultimate Steve Rogers' son, opening the door for a second Red Skull in the modern day without having to bring the less-than-enthusiastic Hugo Weaving back or recast.
  • I was actually referring to Sharon being Peggy's great-niece (or in this case, grand-daughter or great-grandaughter). So yes, Peggy and Steve's child would almost have to be male in order for Sharon's surname to be Carter as well. As for the Squick-avoidance (which is a very fair point); Sharon and Steve don't show any signs of being romantically interested in each other in the MCU. There's a few hints, but these could just as easily be interpreted as platonic... especially on Sharon's part. Because she was part of Steve's protection detail... or because she knows that they're related?
    • After Civil War, their interest in each other is most certainly romantic.

Peggy might not get together with her husband in S2, but he will be positively identified by the end of this season

Why? Because it seems to be all but officially confirmed that Peggy's death, or at least her funeral, will take place during Captain America: Civil War. Peggy's progressive enough to only use her maiden name for work, but surely they'll give her married name during the funeral or on the headstone?

Zero Matter really does come from another dimension, and this will tie in to Doctor Strange (2016).

Wilkes hypothesizes that zero matter comes from another dimension, and since becoming invisible he's felt like he's been "pulled" away from the world. In an interview posted on the show's Facebook page, a scientist they consulted for the show said that he conceived of Wilkes' intangibility/invisibility as being due to him existing halfway in the dimension that zero matter comes from, not moving in the usual three-dimensional way.

Now, given that (1) Marvel is treating magic as simply highly advanced or exotic science, (2) they like to tie in all of their different franchises, and (3) the dimension-hopping Doctor Strange is getting his film debut later this year, I think it's likely that the dimension zero matter comes from is a hint of that new part of the MCU, and we'll be getting a glimpse of it by the end of this season. In addition, zero matter may reappear in Doctor Strange, possibly under a different name so as not to alienate new viewers.

Additionally, should Wilkes not be returned to normal by the end of the season and get pulled all the way into another dimension (see below for another theory of mine about this), he may have a brief appearance in Doctor Strange, in the other dimension itself and/or in S.H.I.E.L.D. records that reveal how they're already aware of other dimensions thanks to Wilkes.

• The connection with Doctor Strange (2016) movie is, at least, confirmed.

Wilkes will make a heroic sacrifice at the end of season 2 to defeat Whitney Frost.

They both got their powers in the same accident, and in the superhero world that ties them together. If all else fails to stop her, it will likely fall to Wilkes to be the one to do it. Hopefully the heroic sacrifice won't entail his death but rather his passage to the dimension that zero matter comes from (see above for my theory on that). I kind of hope this doesn't happen because Peggy needs a break from losing her love interests, but from a narrative perspective it would make sense.

• Different editor adding to this theory, Wilkes' disappearance untangles Peggy's love triangle, letting her stay with Sousa. As noted way above in a WMG this editor wrote last year, Sousa fits some of the known criteria for being Peggy's eventual husband: he was a soldier in Europe, possibly saved by Steve at some point. Wilkes wasn't a soldier that we know of, thus disqualifying him from the running. For bonus points, Wilkes' last words will be giving Peggy and Sousa his blessing.
  • Jossed, as Wilkes attempts a heroic sacrifice, but it doesn't work. Instead he gets to live on and is hired by Howard Stark, and I have never been so happy to be wrong.

The Council of Nine will team up with/give an assist to the SSR to take Whitney down.

At the end of 'The Atomic Job' Chadwick knows the SSR was there to stop them from stealing the bombs, at the end of the ep he makes a phone call to get an emergency meeting of the Council. Either he's going to try to get them on Whitney's page, or beg for help in taking her down.

The Council whose already been shown to take extreme actions to get anything and everything on Zero Matter buried, know that letting Whitney continue is a BAD idea, and they now in a way owe the SSR, if they hadn't gotten to the bombs first Whitney would be in the test site setting them off and it's game over. Previews for the next ep show Peggy recruiting Dottie to help take down Whitney. Last time we saw Dottie she was in FBI/Council custody, so they on the sly arrange for Peggy to take custody of Dottie and allow Peggy more or less free reign to take Whitney out.

Council has the best shot of staying ahead with this plan, they can remain hands off and let Peggy go at it. If she fails...nothing lost from that end, if she wins then they have one less loose end out there to worry about.

• Jossed; Vernon Masters attempts to team up with the SSR, but does so without Council approval.

The Council will indirectly cause the formation of SHIELD

A major conspiracy managed to penetrate the government to the point where every attempt to investigate it could be hamstrung by people they had influence with. The counter the government comes up with? A new agency that exists outside of standard channels so they can't be bullied or blocked from doing what is necessary to complete their mission.

Of course, this will eventually backfire because the same setup that allows them to investigate anybody makes it difficult for anyone else to investigate them, but nobody will realize this for decades.

Sharon Carter is Peggy's granddaughter.

Occam's razor, everyone. Unless I missed the creators confirming otherwise, there's no need for elaborate theories about missing siblings or children raised as nieces/nephews, Sharon's just Peggy's granddaughter rather than her grand-niece. It's not a huge change from the comics, I could easily see them doing it. Sure, it might make a Sharon-Steve romance a teensy bit squickier, but looking at how packed Civil War is going to be, I think their "romance" may consist of just bonding over Peggy's death and having a few touching moments. And if that's the case, her being her granddaughter would actually make those scenes more heartwarming.

• Jossed. In Civil War, Sharon explicitly says Peggy was her aunt.

Dottie will kill Whitney Frost

Because however much she might want to kill her, Peggy's priority will be to expose Whitney and bring her to justice for her various crimes (the first of which is framing an innocent man for the zero matter explosion which kicked off the whole mess), despite how unstable and dangerous Whitney is. Cue Dottie, who will be coming after Whitney for making her talk during torture, probably the first time she's ever done so since her training. So when Peggy's got Whitney locked away (possibly in an upgraded version of the same device Wilkes built to make himself tangible), Dottie will break into the facility, deliver an appropriate Pre-Mortem One-Liner and finish Whitney Frost once and for all.

• Jossed. Whitney survives the season, although she winds up in an asylum.

The Council and not Hydra is the cult that worships the Inhuman.

Red Skull founded Hydra and originally it never had anything to do with the Cult, the a council is really the cult from Agents of Shield. Rather Zola recruits the Council or what is left of it into Hydra and they secretly keep up the work their Cult has been doing for ages. Only then did Hydra become the latest incarnation of the Cult, the two organisations merged into one.

The LA Branch of the SSR is due for a cleaning

The legalities behind Masters taking control from Sousa are kind of ambiguous, but virtually everyone there took it without question, and two people were even willing to accept orders to summarily execute a coworker and their former boss. If the SSR can be compromised into obeying illegal orders that readily, then the agency has problems.

• Confirmed at least partly; we see Thompson and Sousa rounding up SSR members near the end of the season.

Ana will take the news of her injuries much better than Jarvis did.

Admittedly this is more a hope than a prediction, but Ana's a tough cookie - she was a Jewish woman living in Hungary at the start of the Holocaust for crying out loud! - and her first words to Jarvis after he confesses will be to reassure him that this isn't the end of the world and there's more to their marriage than having children.

• Half confirmed. According to Jarvis, they had a "bit of a cry" together but afterwards Ana returns to her normal self and decides that she's still happy with her life.

The redacted file Thompson obtained is actually on Peggy's brother

Every time we see him in flashback or Peggy mentions him, it's very positive and establishes the fact that he's pretty much the only male role model she ever had who encouraged her to be who she is. Plus, the file just says 'M. Carter.' While it could stand for 'Margaret,' it's obvious that it stands for 'Michael.' Peggy would have to integrate the memory of her beloved brother with this new information on the things he did. It would also be a way for her to acknowledge that sometimes, good people have to do bad things for the greater good.

• This could mean he faked his death, which would allow for Agent 13 to still be her niece, as mentioned in The Winter Soldier.
• And if he's still alive, then it makes sense for him to shoot Thompson at the end of season two. After all, he did take what didn't belong to him.

Zero Matter comes from the Cancerverse

Wilkes did say that it consumed everything on its side "like a cancer".

Whitney was never and will never be formally charged for anything

If word gets out that America's Sweetheart is being charged with multiple felonies, there will be a public uproar. Especially since there isn't much physical evidence, and eyewitness testimony (Which is known to be unreliable) will be tainted by a need to keep Zero Matter a secret and the fact that one key witness is a black man who was framed for treason. So what the SSR did instead was tell the public that Whitney Frost was unable to deal with the grief of losing her husband and suffered a massive breakdown (Something any outsider who sees her addressing open air as her husband will likely believe), and that her being confined to the mental hospital is for treatment rather than the incarceration it really is. That will keep the public happy until Hollywood anoints a new pretty face as America's Sweetheart (1-2 years, tops), at which point the world will forget about her.

Post-Season 2 Theories

Who shot Thompson

• Vernon Masters
• Arnim Zola
  • He was in The Stinger for the S1 Finale. Perhaps Toby Jones wasn't available?
• Dottie
  • She was the last mysterious assailant.
• Hugh Jones
• A MI6 Agent
  • They discovered the missing file and tracked down the agent who gave Thompson the file, so they tracked Thompson down to kill him and recover the M. Carter File
• The pretty much alive Michael Carter.

The new "project" Stark is working on with Wilkes will be the basis of S.H.I.E.L.D.

If for no other reason than that we'll be deeply lucky if we get a third season, they have to move on to the creation of S.H.I.E.L.D. soon. It would make sense for Stark to start recruiting scientists for his organization, eventually selecting Peggy as the director once it's up and ready.

• It could also be the massive arc-reactor from the first Iron Man.

Sousa is Peggy's future husband.

It seems up in the air whether or not the show will get a third season. It was mentioned this season where Sousa was when his leg got injured, and this could be where Cap saved him (I don't recall the place.). But given that this whole show is a Foregone Conclusion, it seems believable that she would marry Sousa and have a happy ending.

• Sousa lost the use of his leg during the Battle of the Bulge, which is in the right timeframe and theater of the war for Cap to have turned up to help save the day. Between that and Danny and Peggy's last scene of season two has them making out, it seems at least plausible.

the cliffhanger, along with other things, will be answered in a one shot comic book tie-in

Now that the show has been canceled, a comic called something to the effect of "Agent Carter: The Big Finale" will feature Peggy, Jarvis, and Sousa finding out and capturing Thompson's assailant. Then it will skip forward to show what happened to the characters. This will entail the canon detailing of Jarvis's death, what Wilkes did with his life and what he ultimately accomplished with his research, Sousa and Peggy's relationship, Zola infiltrating the SSR, Angie and Peggy meeting back up, and Peggy interacting with a child version of her niece Sharon Carter. Give this stuff closure, Marvel!

Michael Carter's arc for Season 3

Hayley Atwell indicated that the potential story for Season 3 would have involved examining her past and having some focus on her brother^note Article contains autoplaying video. Assuming this confirms the guess that Michael Carter never died, this might have led to the following possibilities:

• Michael Carter faked his death to join Leviathan. Rather than being a broken pedestal to Peggy, though, it will turn out to have been an assignment from the SOE to infiltrate the group.
• If he was a double agent in Leviathan for the SOE (or which ever group took over after the war finished), he would have learned that the "M. Carter" file was removed, and tracked the agent that took it to LA. To cover for his presence in America (since Leviathan is supposed to be a Russian intelligence group), he claimed that he was going to extract Dottie Underwood, after receiving intel that she escaped FBI custody.
• Michael would have been the shooter behind the police officer that was last seen watching Dottie, and Jack's killer in the cliffhanger.
• Barring the possibility of unseen siblings (related or adopted), Michael would live long enough to have a child, which would line up with Sharon Carter being Peggy's grand-niece.

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