Agent John Flynn is the head of the Strategic Scientific Reserve's New York office and Peggy Carter's dismissive boss. He runs the post with an easy, sexist condescension. He keeps Peggy chained to code-breaking and paperwork while insisting the fieldwork belongs to the men. When she notes she has gone three months without an assignment, he tells her to relax and reminds her the war is over.
His contempt turns openly cruel when Peggy completes a solo mission without authorization. He accuses her of ignoring protocol. He claims aloud that everyone knows she was only kept on out of pity for her grief over Captain America. The tables turn when Howard Stark phones in. Ordered to inform Peggy that she will co-run the newly formed SHIELD, Flynn must deliver the news himself and is even told to say he is honored to bring it. He offers to carry her things to her car, and she leaves him standing there, refused.