Who did Peggy Carter marry? Was it Steve? Daniel Sousa? Jarvis? Different men in different timelines? We discuss the Avengers: Endgame reveals.
SPOILERS!
Yes, Agent Peggy Carter and Steve Rogers (aka Captain America) did finally have that dance. And yes, we now definitively know who Peggy Carter’s husband was, a mystery since Captain America: Winter War. And a mystery teased throughout the underrated Agent Carter series.
In a shocking twist, the final moments of Avengers: Endgame also worked as a series ending for Agent Carter when Captain America travels back in time, shares a dance with Peggy, and ultimately marries her (offscreen).
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While I’ve put off posting this romantic moment for a couple of months now – due to significant spoilers from Avengers: Endgame, I thought it was time to spotlight the epic (and long-awaited) romantic ending for Steve and Peggy.
Now, to be fair, there has been some discussion and disagreement between the directors of Endgame and the screenwriters on whether this ending was a branched reality (an idea supported by the directors – the Russo brothers) or if Steve was always Peggy’s husband (supported by the screenwriters). However, based on evidence, I’m going to have to go with the writers on this one. I’ll explain in detail below.
STEVE AND PEGGY
From the time Agent Peggy Carter and Steve first met in Captain America: The First Avenger, we all knew they were soulmates. And by movie’s end, the two were finally admitting their feelings for each other. Unfortunately, Steve sacrifices himself to save everyone, leaving Peggy behind with an unfulfilled promise to share a dance with her.
This “dance” continues as a dream for both Steve and Peggy in their own timelines. In the present, Steve never lets go of his deep love for Peggy, even after she dies of old age. And even when he begins a romance with Peggy’s niece, Sharon. Peggy remains his rock, his passion; her memory is more real than anyone else in his life. He can’t let go.
That should have been a huge clue! Especially in a Hollywood movie where female love interests interchange like socks. But in every film, Steve faithfully carries his photo of Peggy with him.
Whereas, Peggy, in her own series, and in the past, mourns Steve post World War II. She holds onto a photo of Steve pre-Captain America and places him on a pedestal above all other men. To be fair, you can’t really blame her. How can any man top Captain America?
WHO DID PEGGY CARTER MARRY?
On Agent Carter, the mystery of Peggy’s husband becomes a major intrigue of the series. Who will she marry? In the beginning, we had a few contenders. From Howard Stark to her partner-in-crime Jarvis to Jack Thompson and the most likely contender, Daniel Sousa. While I didn’t root for Peggy and Sousa (mostly because I wanted the Peggy/Steve ending), season two did end with Peggy and Sousa sharing a passionate kiss.
Still, there was no definitive answer for who Peggy Carter’s husband was. The fact that it continued to remain such a mystery should have been a massive indication that Sousa (and all the men) were red herrings. Ambiguity typically means a surprise is coming.
I recently decided to re-watch Agent Carter (it’s still available on Hulu) and discovered some interesting clues. While I always hoped for the time-travel ending for Steve and Peggy, I was never completely convinced the writers would be allowed to go through with it. But on re-watch of the series, it’s clear this is what the creators of Agent Carter wanted all along.
To explain the lead-in to this month’s romantic moment, I want to revisit some of the clues presented in both the series and the movies. I’ll only share a few though there are many more!
Clues:
If you weren’t aware, the writers and producers of Avengers: Endgame, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, also wrote Captain America: The First Avenger, The Winter Soldier, Civil War, and Avengers: Infinity War. But they also were the Creators and Executive Producers of Agent Carter and, in fact, wrote the pilot.
So, why is this a valuable clue? Well, the stories of Captain America and Agent Carter are theirs. It’s their voices behind both the TV show and all of the Captain America movies and then the final two Avengers movies. So, is it really all that surprising that they’d end their canceled too soon show with Avengers? They even made sure to have a cameo from Jarvis in Endgame.
I’d personally take the vision of the writers who started this story from the beginning than the directors who seem just as confused as many viewers by the time travel.
Time Travel Explained
As I interpreted the time travel in Endgame, Banner explains that you can’t go back in time and change the past to then change the future. So, it doesn’t work like Back to the Future. In that way, the future is also your past – if you travel to the past, that is.
The Ancient One also supports this. She explains that if the Stones return to the exact moment they’re taken in the past, there won’t be branched realities. Banner then promises the Ancient one that they can preserve a single timeline.
And that’s what I argue Steve does. He travels to the past. Yes, he’s warned about not entering alternate timelines, but there’s no evidence in the film he crossed over into one.
Instead, like what Banner and the Ancient One explains, their goal was to preserve a single timeline. Gamora, Thanos, and Loki also seem to exist in this timeline and not a branched reality.
So, while alternate timelines exist, the whole point from what I understand (and as explained by the writers) is that Steve marrying Peggy is always what happened. By returning the stones to their proper place, he preserved the timestream as Banner promised the Ancient One they would. He then traveled to Peggy in the past.
I’m not sure why he would risk entering an alternate timeline or why he would need to. The dialogue and evidence in the film just don’t support it. That would also be somewhat convoluted for him to travel back and forth between timelines when he can just stay in the one.
That all said, it seems the writers had a story in mind for Captain America and Peggy Carter from the beginning. They purposely used the promise of a dance as a cliffhanger. And then the writers never let go of it. Was it meant to be seen as a tragedy or a clue that eventually Steve and Peggy would have their dance?
Agent Carter
If you watch the pilot of Agent Carter, you’ll see just how much they purposely connect Steve to Peggy even more than before. Why bother if she’s just going to marry someone else?
The biggest clue hides in the title of the episode: “Now is Not the End.” Compare that to the title of “Endgame,” and you can see how the story comes full circle. On re-watch, it’s obvious Steve and Peggy ending up together is what they were planning all along.
But what about Sousa, you might ask? If you pay attention closely, Sousa doesn’t quite fit into the narrative or clues presented in the later movies, supporting the theory that Steve was always meant to be Peggy’s husband. Not Sousa. So, therefore, no branched reality.
Captain America: Winter Soldier
In Captain America: Winter Soldier, when Steve reunites with an older Peggy, they show a clip of Peggy talking about her husband in 1953. She said:
“That was a difficult winter. A blizzard had trapped half our battalion behind the German line. Steve… Captain Rogers, he fought his way through a HYDRA blockade that had pinned our allies down for months. He saved over a thousand men, including the man who would… who would become my husband as it turned out.”
In hindsight, this sounds more like a cover story close to the truth than the actual truth. Something we know Carter is good at as a spy.
Still, if Steve had ever saved Sousa, there were a few times when it would have made sense for that type of reveal to happen, especially when Peggy reunites with the Howling Commandos.
Plus, Sousa doesn’t seem particularly interested or connected to Steve. If Steve rescued him, I’d imagine that would have been a different story.
In this 1953 scene, Peggy also said, “even after he died, Steve was still changing my life.” I bet he was!
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Another clue is in the same sequence when Steve talks to an older Peggy.
“The world has changed. None of us can go back. All we can do is our best, and sometimes the best we can do is to start over.” Focus on “start over.” In this scene, they also want us to notice Steve looking at the photos of her children. Grrr. He doesn’t know he’s looking at pictures of his future children in the past.
But then they throw us off the scent when Peggy reverted to a past version of herself when Steve was gone. However, if you pay attention closely, the scene gives even more clues. Peggy says phrases like: “you came back…it’s been so long…” Possible interpretation: Could Peggy be reverting to a memory when Steve returns to her in the past?
Then Steve adds:
“Well, I couldn’t leave my best girl…not when she still owes me a dance.” If Steve had an option to be with Peggy, there’s no doubt he’d take it. The writers were spelling it out for us, but we couldn’t see it. The truth was in front of Steve and us all along! And it’s this pivotal scene that becomes important to the official Avengers: Endgame trailer.
The Official Avengers: Endgame Trailer
In the official trailer, Steve’s mini montage is mostly about Peggy. An older Peggy narrates talking about how you can’t go back, but you can start over. And just as her monologue ends, we see him carrying Peggy’s coffin from Civil War.
Again, we’re being reminded of the importance of Peggy with phrases connected to “time.” Soon after, Nat and Steve talk about “moving on,” and how they haven’t. They’re talking about bringing back the dead Avengers, but it’s also a clue to Peggy. He’s not the type to let go.
The Mystery Itself
One of the biggest clues to the Steve/Peggy time travel ending is the mystery of who Peggy Carter’s husband is. Why make it such a big deal? If it was Sousa, why be so secretive? And why make it a major plot point in the movies aside from the TV Show? It’s because they wanted people to be guessing, wondering.
The fact that they never said, that even on panels or in interviews after the show’s cancellation, they kept the answer a mystery open to theories and discussions. Sousa and Sharon were both red herrings, nothing more.
THE LEAD-IN
The years of build-up in Marvel movies as well as the TV shows, Agent Carter and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (yes, Hayley Atwell as Carter guest stars in a couple of episodes and there’s even a clue to the identity of her husband in a newspaper article), all led up to the events of Avengers: Endgame.
In the movie, Steve continues to long for Peggy while living in a world where many of his friends (Avengers) are now also gone.
It’s been five years, but he and Natasha haven’t given up. Ultimately, Tony and the other surviving Avengers reunite to use time travel to save their friends and the world from Thanos.
In the past, Steve even sees Peggy in 1970 when she’s the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. He stares longingly at her, clearly still in love with her after all these years. But it’s only a brief moment. His mission’s more important.
However, during the mission, Tony Stark reminds Steve to find happiness as he has. So, after they defeat Thanos and half of the world’s population returns, that’s just what Steve decides to do.
Captain America travels to the past to return the stones in their proper place in the timestream. However, when he’s supposed to return, he doesn’t appear. Instead, Sam Wilson finds an older man sitting nearby on a bench. It’s an old Steve Rogers.
THE ROMANTIC MOMENT
This brings us to our romantic moment for the month. Sam finds Steve sitting on the bench. Sam asks, “Did something go wrong, or did something go right?”
Steve then tells him an intriguing story. He says that after he put the stones back, he thought, “maybe I’ll try some of that life Tony’s telling me to get.” And that his life has been “beautiful.” After Steve passes on the Captain America mantle to Sam, Sam asks, “You want to tell me about her?”
But Steve decides to keep it a mystery just a little bit longer. “No, no…I don’t think I will.” (The writers really did want to keep this plot a mystery to the very last minute.)
We then hear old-fashioned music playing. The camera slowly zooms into a house and then into a window. There, we see Steve and Peggy FINALLY sharing a dance. They then share a sweet, old Hollywood-like romantic kiss bringing the stories of Captain America, Iron Man, and Agent Carter to a close.
In the timeline, the story begins with Steve, Peggy, and even Howard Stark (Tony’s father), so it’s fitting that the stories of Steve, Tony, Peggy, Howard, and Jarvis all come to a close in Avengers: Endgame at the same time.
THE WRITERS’ INTENT AND THE ENDING
So wrapping this all up, as to whether or not Peggy and Steve ended up together in a branched reality or if he was Peggy’s husband all along, I argue the latter. And the writers did share a definitive answer.
Plus, since the evidence supports their plan over this branched reality theory believed by the directors, I will stick with the writers on this one. It is their story, after all.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the writers adamantly stated they intended for Steve to be Peggy’s husband all along. McFeely added: “It was always our intention that he was the father of those two children. But again, there are time travel loopholes for that.”
So, there you have it. On top of all of the convincing evidence, the writers confirmed it was always their plan. The ending supports the evidence. And the end was about as romantic as any movie can get.
UPDATE (2020): A DANIEL SOUSA TWIST TO THE THEORY
SPOILERS
Enver Gjokaj guest-starred in the final season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as Daniel Sousa in another time travel twist. And still, the evidence continued to support the theory that Steve and Peggy always married because it definitively reveals that Peggy could never have married Sousa. Here’s why:
The agents travel to the 1950s to find an older Daniel Sousa than we last saw him in Agent Carter. We learn he hasn’t seen Peggy in a long time. We also learn that he died in the original timeline and became the first fallen agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
And we know that it’s not a “branched reality” because Coulson (from the original timeline) discusses his own historical knowledge. Sousa always died to inspire further agents. This man is the Coulson from The Avengers (at least his memories.)
So, by sharing this knowledge, the writers conclude Sousa could never have been the husband of Peggy Carter. How else would Coulson know?
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Thankfully, things turn out better for Sousa this time around as the S.H.I.E.L.D. team save Sousa by pulling him out of the timeline and bringing him into the future.
From there, a romance begins between Daisy and Sousa. And it’s swoony and romantic, and they fit together perfectly. By pairing up Sousa with a different woman, it further supports the theory that yes, Peggy did marry Steve all along.
Now, whether or not this Daisy/Sousa romance was planned for a while, I can’t say. But it’s darn good and makes perfect sense for both Daniel and Daisy as characters.
Ultimately, it’s lovely that Daisy and Sousa got their happy ending just as Peggy and Steve did.
Did you love the ending of Avengers: Endgame between Steve and Peggy? Were you surprised to learn who Peggy Carter’s husband was? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Featured image at top: Agent Carter and Captain America: The First Avenger. Credit: ABC/Disney/Marvel
I am so glad to learn this. I haven’t seen Endgame yet, and didn’t even bother watching Agent Carter because I hated the fact that Captain America missed that dance with Peggy. Their romance was so sweet in Captain America: The First Avenger, I nearly screamed at the TV when I saw his ship go down and saw the look on Peggy’s face. And then he wakes up years in the future? No!
But this post has convinced me to give Agent Carter a try and to make more of an effort keep up with the Avenger series. I really want to see that dance! Thank you. 🙂
If you’re a fan of Peggy and Steve, then you should like the Agent Carter series. Especially season 1. I find that while Captain America isn’t in it, his presence is always felt. And Endgame makes more sense too if you watch the series. The writers/creators really were telling a story that started with the First Avenger and then ended with Endgame.
The best explanation ever.Do you think this will be confirmed by kevin feige since he was also involved with the show?
Thanks! And I don’t know. But that would be cool if he did. 🙂
This has all been confirmed by higher ups at Marvel. However there is certain aspects of this happy ending some of those higher ups don’t agree on. Like if Steve from 2023 went back and lived his life with the Peggy of this (the original) timeline or an alternate one (there’s a couple reason why both sides can make sense). If you notice, Peggy never mentions her husbands name, nor is he present in any family photos, and there’s a deliberate reason for that. The Russo Brother said her husband and the father of her children is never seen in pictures because that had been planned this way since the brothers first started work on Winter Soldier, which is Joe and Anthony’s first gig in the MCU (I’m not positive whose idea it actually was though Joe or Anthony Russo, or maybe even Kevin Feige or perhaps someone we’ll never hear about). The Russo’s didn’t know they would end up making Infinity War and Endgame, but the set up for the eventual marriage was thought of around that time. Also if you notice, one of Peggy’s pallbearers (the one at the back left, coincidently young Steve is in the front right) is an older man with white hair, and the theory is that Old Man Steve, but there’s no confirmation on that.
This has since been disproven. Steve is shown dancing with Peggy in a sort of daydream, created by a mind-bender (I have nothing better to call her, so sue me!). By the time he was revived, Peggy was already in her 90s. Please take this down, as it is no longer accurate, and is thus leading to the reputation the internet has for being unreliable. Don’t be that website, be better than that.
Honestly, I have no clue to what you are referring but you are free to have your own theories. This is how I see the ending of Endgame and I truly believe Peggy and Steve had a wonderful happy ending based on the last movie. 🙂
YES!!! This is further confirmed in Agents of Shield when they used the same way to travel through time.
This comment is not accurate at all. If you are referencing Avatar-the last airbender, that where benders are shown, this is where this comment belongs not the MCU.
What is you are stating is not accurate.
Actually Steve absolutely has to be Peggy’s husband in the prime timeline, for one simple reason. When he came back, he was on the stone bench not the quantum tunnel platform. Had he lived an alternate timeline with her that branch would have continued on separate and the only way he could have come back would be via the tunnel. The only way he can be sitting on the bench is that he lived his life through the years in the prime timeline.
I agree! I think an alternate timeline makes no sense. And the prime timeline was the writers’ intent whether or not Marvel wants to ackowledge it or not.
Actually, when he decided to stay with Peggy & live his life with her, creating a brand new timeline, the present WE were seeing, the platform w/Bruce, Sam & Bucky became STeve’s past base point. So once he lived out his life w/her, and possibly stayed until his children died (he could have stayed for a LONG time), he could have just gone back to the past in the same timeline he had created, which would have been that scene w/the platform we saw, which was his BASE starting point for the new timeline he created. He could have easily shown back up on the bench, by just going back to the point 6-7 mins AFTER he left. He had gotten all those extra Pym particles in the 70s jump if you remember. he wouldn’t have had to depend on the platform. He & Tony didn’t when they went back to the 70s directly from 2012.
From a writer to another writer, that was an amazing article
However, as much as I love Steve and Peggy together, I don’t think they should be. If you watched Agent Carter with unbiased eyes you would have seen that she is very clearly moving on. Chief Daniel Sousa is an amazing candidate for Agent Carter. They have great chemistry. And of course we feel the presence of Steve in season 1, he was in everybody’s hearts when he died to save New York. And the travelling back in time thing just doesn’t make sense. What happens then? Does that mean Peggy didn’t really die in Civil War? And in what point of time did Steve get there? Was it after Peggy decided to stay in California with Daniel? How do we really know Steve got married to Peggy? They shared the dance, yes. But maybe as friends because Steve did promise a dance.
Im just saying that there is a lot of possibilities. This is time travel we are talking about
Thanks for your thoughts! But, I disagree. I think they made it a clear conclusion based on older Steve’s comments. And the writers certainly intended for the audience to interpret a happy romantic ending for Steve and Peggy – and have said as much in interviews. Also, the new episodes of Agents of Shield with Sousa reviving his character show that he “died” in 1955 and never married Peggy. He’s now time traveling with Shield. So, we know conclusively that Peggy and Sousa did not end up together.
How could Steve have married Peggy and lived with her, fathered her children, and nobody noticed? It doesn’t square with Steve’s personality to just hide in Peggy’s closet for years and years. He was a hero. He would have been out and about, saving people. At the very least, he would have been a very involved father, going to little league games and such. Somebody would have recognized him.
Don’t guy remember the Black widow movie when Red Guardian Said that he fought Captain America back in the 80’s and Natasha said if not possible due to Steven being frozen at the time and he could not possible for him to have fight with him.
So now we now based on Endgame movie final that Capt. America /Steve Rodgers fought with him he also mention in that scene that Capt. America Looked a little older.
Just saying.
Interesting!