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IMO the finale was overall pretty disappointing, the Sharon reveal is dumb as hell and makes no sense, even though it was telegraphed to hell. Like, they dropped so many hints that it was simultaneously obvious but the rest of the show as presented makes no sense if Sharon was the Power Broke all along. Just walking through the events Sharon goes through in the show:
1. She finds out Sam and Bucky have shown up in Madripoor, looking for Nagle, who is making her super-soldier serum. Presumably, she would like to simultaneously protect her investment (Nagle) while also re-ingratiating herself with Sam/Bucky, so she has their informant killed, puts out a bounty on their heads, and then kills a would be assassin to save them. Alright, that basically makes sense so far. Overly convoluted but sure.
2. She finds out Sam and Bucky have Zemo with them, known to be incredibly dangerous and unpredictable. Even so, she leads the three of them directly to Nagle's laboratory, her most valuable asset. She does not take them to a fake location, nor does she have Nagle moved (maybe leaving equipment behind to get Sam/Bucky/Zemo thinking that they're on the right trail). She just leads them to the actual laboratory and lets them walk in to do who knows what, which leads directly to Nagle's death. None of this shit makes sense.
3. While the three investigate Nagle's lab, Sharon single-handedly fights off and kills numerous assassins looking to collect the bounty. She does not call off the bounty, or send out a false lead to get them onff her back, nothing. She doesn't even hire anyone to protect her, maybe a sniper that could've taken out every assassin trying to approach her, or some shit. But there's just absolutely nothing. She just goes out and risks her life multiple times against people she hired and is in control of for no reason?
4. All of this is presumably towards the goal of getting an official pardon and hopefully being reinstated as a CIA agent. But the amount of she gave up to get there just doesn't make any goddamn sense: she could've had an army of super-soldiers and mass-produced serum, and she threw it all away for CIA secrets? None of her actions make any sense in light of the Power Broker revelation, which is always the sign of a bad twist. It's just cheating for the audience's sake.
Anyways, overall, I thought the show was a pretty mixed bag. The solo stuff with Sam and Bucky was pretty solid, but they often felt like they were not the leads of their own show. That said, they handled John Walker's character really really well, carefully balancing his attempt at being decent while also ultimately kinda being a shitty dude who's prone to poor decision-making.
With episode 3, I was so hopeful they had finally realized they had fucked up with Zemo and were taking pains to course correct, that surely he would become the final antagonist. But instead he just spends the entire fucking series as one of the heroes's closest allies (?????) and that five second clip of him wearing his mask is literally the only time he wears it. Fuck that shit. Also, Karli and the Flagsmashers never really take off as a concept, and serve as poor final antagonists. And aside from the bad twist, the Power Broker is made into a mysterious, generic crime lord, when it didn't really need to be anything more than a dude who will give you powers (if you survive the augmentation process, of course) as long as you pay him enough money —a really cool and interesting conceit in a superhero universe. Someone selling weapons and state secrets ain't interesting!
Oh, and they killed off Batroc the Leaper. What the fuck?
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... Ugh. Wow. They really went with the absolute worse they could do with her after her role in WS and CW, and they went with it hard and without hesitation with that last line, because when you're evil that's obviously the first thing you do and the one thing on your mind. God damn.
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They're really doing her character dirty. It's a real shame; she's like the most important supporting Captain America character, his one true love, and they punt her off in Civil War (but not before using her to kiss Steve because the suits got worried about all the Steve/Bucky shipping) and then totally forget her, only to finally bring her back as a very dumb villain. I hope that Skrull theory is true!
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Oh, so she's more legit than I thought then but maybe not completely ? Weird.
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The basic deal with the Contessa is that she's a long time Nick Fury supporting character/love interest, appearing as one of the top-ranked and most trusted SHIELD agents. Over the course of
Secret Warriors, a single 30ish issue series, she "revealed" that she was actually a deep-cover Hydra agent all along, then immediately joined Hydra and took over the role of Madame Hydra (by shooting
the previous and current, more well known Madam Hydra in the face... who got better because comics). Towards the end of the series, however, she then betrayed Hydra and revealed she had been a triple agent the entire time: working for the Russian super-spy agency Leviathan.
Essentially, her backstory is that her parents were Leviathan agents who were raising her to be a devoted member, but they get killed while she's still a child. She therefore feels a sense of familial obligation towards Leviathan, and that's why she works with them. Leviathan was first introduced in
Secret Warriors, but it also ends up getting completely dismantled by the end of the series (and was mostly inactive over the course of the 20th century anyway), so she ends the series having not really done much for Leviathan anyway, and thus doesn't really do anything that morally outrageous. Moreover, as soon as Leviathan gets dismantled, she turns herself in to Interpol.
The actual ending of the series is Fury breaking her out of jail and letting her escape, with the basic setup of their current dynamic being somewhat akin to Batman and Catwoman: like sure, Catwoman will occasionally rob some stuff, but it's not that big of a deal, and is basically a heroic character. That said, we haven't really seen any of that dynamic play out, because Fury went off into space and hasn't appeared much since (Marvel wanted to push NIck Fury Jr., who looks like Sam Jackson, to better line up with the MCU). She has most recently appeared in stuff I haven't read, but seemingly is a member of some shady-sounding new organization called J.A.N.U.S., that has half of its members being full on supervillains, and the other half mostly good superheroes. Which is honestly a pretty Nick Fury move. Fury/SHIELD stuff is inherently morally grey material, so it feels in-character for her.
As to what that means for the MCU incarnation: I doubt they'll have her be working for Hydra, since that organization seems well and truly dead. Leviathan was used a bit (but not that much) in Agent Carter, so maybe that'll pop up again. But I think it's gonna be the thing everyone keeps zeroing in on: she'll be working for Thunderbolt Ross and helping set up the Thunderbolts. Which is again, a pretty Nick Fury move of her!