Character Highlight: Daniel Sousa (Agent Carter)

Sigh… pour one out for Agent Carter – still hurts.

Given that he’s played by Enver Gjokaj, who was so utterly Everything in Dollhouse, Sousa doesn’t really live up to my (admittedly-high) expectations.  Sousa, Peggy’s fellow SSR agent and potential love interest, isn’t bad, but he’s a little generic.  Unfortunate, because I know what Gjokaj can do when he has something to really sink his teeth into (a few season 1 spoilers.)

Like I said, Sousa really isn’t a bad character.  He’s a hard-working agent with fairly solid instincts – since he doesn’t know that Peggy is running her own counter-investigation in season 1, his deduction that she’s in league with the baddies is reasonable, and props to him for following through on it even though he clearly doesn’t want it to be true.  Like Peggy, he’s used to having his talents dismissed.  While her gender keeps her on the outs of the SSR boys’ club, Sousa’s disability has his colleagues viewing him as less of a man.  He uses a crutch as a result of a wartime injury, which makes him have to fight harder to prove himself worthy in their eyes.

Because of this, Sousa is better able to recognize the unequal treatment Peggy receives at the hands of their fellow agents.  He knows what it’s like not to be judged by his merits and sympathizes with Peggy.  However, while he’s a good, decently-open-minded guy, he’s also something of a product of his time.  So, his first reaction to Peggy’s mistreatment is usually to stand up for her – on the face of it, there’s nothing wrong with that, but as someone who’s so often viewed as lesser or incapable, he ought to realize how important it is for someone in a similar position to fight their own battles.  He’d be better served by supporting her in private and letting her speak for herself in public, which he starts learning to do only gradually.

I do like him better in season 2 (will-they-won’t-they-ness aside.)  In season 1, Sousa, like the rest of the guys, don’t know what Peggy’s actually up to, which makes it much harder for him to relate to her as she really is.  When the second season rolls around, though, he’s more up to speed and they’re able to work together more than at cross purposes.  He gets to see firsthand what Peggy can do, which helps him to treat her less like a “lady” and more like an agent.

I suppose the real problem with Sousa is that he just doesn’t measure up to so many of the other male characters in Peggy’s life.  There’s Cap, obviously – Thompson needles Sousa by asking what woman would possibly go for a guy like him (ie, a disabled one) after having been with Captain America – but Peggy’s relationships with Jarvis and Howard are definitely more interesting as well.  I’ve already written about how much love I have for Peggy and Jarvis’s partnership, and while Howard is a decidedly-sexist playboy, he clearly respects Peggy’s abilities and treats her as such (at least, as much as someone so self-centered is capable of doing.)  Not that I would want to see either Jarvis or Howard with Peggy romantically, and Cap isn’t an option on the show, but I still prefer the friendships she has with these men to the maybe-thing she has potentially going on with Sousa.  That’s never a good thing, but unfortunately, Sousa’s not alone in this less-than-stellar characterization.  Provided it’s not a dual-protagonist show, being the “designated future love interest” of the main character doesn’t usually bode all that well for character development.  I think female love interests tend to get the worst of it, but men aren’t immune, either.