The third episode of theDisney Plus seriesThe Falcon and the Winter Soldierdropped on April 2, and finally introduced a character that fans have been waiting to see. Despite not being a massive fan favorite and a so far very minor character to the MCU, the new Agent Sharon Carter is sure to win over a good amount of her haters. Her previous appearances had her relatively subdued and living in the shadow of her aunt, but her return has her at the best she’s ever been.
Agent Sharon Carter, also known as Agent 13, was introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe inCaptain America: The Winter Soldierand also appeared inCaptain America: Civil War. She’s an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and was originally given the undercover job of protecting Steve Rogers, but becomes a small love interest to the character and is later revealed to be the great-niece of Agent Peggy Carter, who is Captain America’s main love interest. The last time viewers saw her before her appearance inThe Falcon and the Winter Soldier, she was about to go into hidingafter helping Captain Americaby giving him the location of Bucky Barnes inCaptain America: Civil War. It is revealed inAvengers: Endgamethat she was a victim of the Thanos snap.
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Carter appears about halfway through the latest episode ofThe Falcon and the Winter Soldierand is shown to have been taking refuge in Madripoor.She helps Helmut Zemo, Sam Wilson, and Bucky Barnes find the scientist who has made the new Super-Soldier serum and it kind of seems like she may be returning to America with a pardon but of course, nothing is confirmed. Viewers knew that Carter would be appearing in the series, she was announced as part of the cast pretty early on, though what exactly her place would be was unknown. It ended up being surely better than anyone would expect, because the new Sharon Carter seems to be pretty cool.
It’s not like the way Sharon Carter was written before was necessarily bad, it’s just that she was kind of nothing. She wasa brief love interest to Steve Rogers, but it was kind of obvious that they wouldn’t end up together. And then it got kind of weird when it was revealed that the real love of his life was her aunt. Besides that, and some good fighting, she never really had any character development and was mostly there to aid Steve in his tasks. Now that Steve is gone and she’s a woman on the run, things seem to be a little different.
The new Sharon is intense and angry. She has resentment, especially towards Zemo, andshe’s also suffering from grief. Her time in hiding has clearly hardened her. Her dialogue is full of bitterness, and her latest appearance really humanized her as the sadness and pain she’s going through are so clear. This is a side to her that hasn’t really been seen before because she simply hasn’t really been an important character up until this point. All of this is on top of how insanely talented and cool of a fighter she is now. She was an agent before and could clearly hold her own, but her latest fights are brutal and she pulls off some amazing moves.
All of this is of course aided by the very clean acting of so far underrated actress Emily VanCamp. She delivers her now more developed lines with a lot of contempt and emotion and plays her part very believably. She also nails what looks like some very tough and precise fighting choreography, and makes all of it look very real.In the scope of the MCU she’s been a lesser-known facecompared to many of the other stars, but her performance in this series has the potential to change things.
It’s unknown so farwhat the future of Sharon Carter’s character will bein the MCU, but if the plan is to include her in future projects they so far seem to be on the right foot. It’s nice to see some previously overlooked characters getting some attention and development in this phase of the franchise, because with so many characters introduced all the time it’s easy for some of them to get lost in the madness. It’s also nice to see this group of characters, who had arcscompletely dependent on Steve Rogers, really come into their own and set out on their own paths after his loss. Sharon’s character before this series potentially suffered the most from its dependency on Captain America driving her story, and her appearance here was a really good start in breaking away from that. Hopefully, the trend continues.
