Valediction Review

I feel like there is great potential for the Cartinelli ship to happen after this episode. It was always fairly obvious that Peggy was going to end up with either Angie or Sousa. Well, in this episode, Peggy turned down a date with Sousa in order to move in with Angie. So she's definitely chosen her gal pal over some male coworker. Not only that, but Peggy's probably going to take the time between seasons one and two (especially considering there's supposed to be a year between seasons) to explain the whole "I'm an SSR agent and Captain America's girlfriend" thing to Angie. So after that explanation, who wouldn't want to date a kickass spy who helped win World War II?

I wonder what's going to happen to Dottie in season two. Most likely, she's going to try to continue her mission to kill Peggy. Leviathan probably wouldn't treat her nicely if she returned home to Russia without having completed her mission, so she likely won't stop her mission. However, the story I would like to see is that after Peggy beats her up in this episode, due to her brainwashing and lack of normal relationships, she develops some sort of creepy, quasi-romantic obsession with Peggy. So instead of spending the season trying to kill Peggy, Dottie spends it asking her on dates and leaving presents in odd places. Then once she finds out Peggy is sleeping with Angie, she gets really jealous, and it turns into a weird stalker-love triangle. Then there's a big fight scene where she tries to take out Angie, and Peggy has to beat her up again. After that, she gets taken to psych facility and actually becomes a normal human being.

So it appears the entire last season was undertaken as an act of revenge against Howard by Ivchenko. Howard created the Midnight Oil that some general used against the Russians that caused them to kill each other, including Ivchenko's brother. Of course, it's really the general's fault for using such a terrible weapon on someone, especially his ally. Ivchenko orchestrated the theft of Howard's equipment and left it for the SSR to recover. He then planned to infiltrate the SSR, take out their leadership, and discredit Howard using his own technology. Ruining Howard's reputation also has a strategic benefit for the Soviet Union. With his reputation in shambles, no one is going to want to buy his weapons and he'll either be forced to go out of business or start selling under the table to the USSR in order to keep up sales.