[Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers for the season finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier]

The MCU has never figured out what to do with Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp). She’s an ally in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a resource and then oddly a lady to kiss in Captain America: Civil War, and then she shows up again in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as a well-connected fugitive. The finale also chose to reveal that she’s also the Power Broker, although the motives and goals of the Power Broker beyond “power and brokering” are incredibly unclear even as the show comes to a conclusion.

In the mid-credits scene of the finale, we see that Sam (Anthony Mackie) has delivered on his promise and got Sharon a pardon for her crimes. Setting aside why Bucky (Sebastian Stan) could secure a pardon for decades of murders as the Winter Soldier but Sharon couldn’t for the crime of helping Captain America (Chris Evans), Sharon seems to get what she wants: her old life back. However, after she receives her pardon, she walks outside and talks to someone on the phone and recounts how while they no longer have access to super soldiers, they now have access to government secrets and other goodies. The implication of the scene is that the Power Broker isn’t going anywhere, has only gotten stronger, and Sharon will be a formidable foe in the ongoing story of the MCU.

Anthony Mackie and Emily VanCamp in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Image via Disney+

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The problem, as was frequently the case with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, is that everything is so poorly defined. The Flag Smashers are bad guys except when they’re delivering food and medicine to refugees, but also, they burn people alive for reasons. John Walker (Wyatt Russell) is a symbol of white supremacy and America’s militarism, except at the end where he’s now an ally and has a fancy new costume. Sharon is a friend and fellow fighter except she has her own agenda which is… what, exactly? Is Sharon only in it for herself now? Is being the Power Broker her true calling? And if so, what does the Power Broker want? Is it only to amass power and do deals, or is it to destabilize governments like the government she felt betrayed her?

That’s the issue with trying to set Sharon up as a new threat: we don’t know what she stands for, so we don’t know why she’s a threat beyond being an insidious player. It’s one thing if you’re Val (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) who’s keeping her cards close to the chest, but we’ve known Sharon since 2014 and still can’t explain much about her, even when she seems comfortable in this new role as Power Broker. If she’s a threat, then why is she threatening? If she’s turned, why does that turn have weight?

Obviously, these are all things that can be explained and explored in a future season, but they could have been explained and explore in this season. They had six hours to tell their story but were so intent on making the Power Broker’s identity a secret that they once again failed to make Sharon a well-defined character that’s worth caring about.

KEEP READING: 'Falcon and the Winter Soldier': How the Flag-Smashers Highlight Marvel's Problem with Sympathetic Villains