– Spoiler Review –
The team behind Agent Carter are really giving these 8 episodes everything they can it seems, constantly pushing forward and not affording time to look back. It makes for a refreshing pace, considering by the end of “The Blitzkrieg Button” we now know Howard Stark’s true intentions for hiring on Peggy for help, which is what Leviathan might be after, and my suspicions about a newer character look to be coming true in a very unexpected but exciting way.
Agents Sousa, Thompson, and Dooley get expanded roles this week, with Dooley’s segment being the most interesting. Dooley visits a Nazi on death row who might have information pertaining to a thread the SSR has been investigating: the battle of Finow, the supposed site for the deaths of the two Leviathan agents Peggy dealt with in the previous episodes. Colonel Mueller reveals Finow wasn’t a site of any battle, as far as the Germans were concerned, since they showed up and everyone was massacred. And for the first time all (short) season, Dooley begins to question his conviction about Howard Stark when all the US government’s files on Finow are redacted and flight records show Stark supposedly showing up in Finow around the same time as the ‘battle.’ What this thread all means remains to be seen, but we’re already half way through so I don’t doubt answers are just a few episodes away.
Sousa sniffs out a possible lead on the events surrounding the boat, bringing in a homeless man for questioning. His scene trying to convince the bum how alike they are, both being veterans who returned with the lack of respect they deserved, has certainly shaken my theory he would turn out to be an inside man for Leviathan in the SSR. While it’s not until Thompson brings in food and liquor that the bum opens up, the information they get from him isn’t very helpful, until Sousa brings drawing dark hair over their picture of Peggy as the blonde at the nightclub. Should be interesting when Sousa figures it out…
But the big event this week came in the form of Howard Stark sneaking back into the country now that all his stolen gizmos have been found again. After Peggy frees him from the clutches of Mr. Mink’s henchmen, the guy who imported Stark, he quickly tasks her with another mission to take pictures of which weapons the SSR has. When he realizes they have a dangerous electrical weapon which could put New York back in the Stone Ages, Peggy and Jarvis are sent out to acquire it. After all the trust building Peggy and Jarvis have built up in the last three episodes, it was sad to see them have a friendship breakup here once Peggy cues in on Jarvis (way too obvious) lying tell. Suspicious of the device, Peggy risks blowing up the power grids to test her theory, only to find a vial of blood inside the device. I think we all knew who’s blood that was the moment we saw it. The emotionally charged scene between Howard and Peggy where she confronts him about the vial was one the best scenes all series so far and it’s both satisfying and funny to have Peggy punch Howard about it. Both these actors give it their all and it was hard not to feel for Peggy, even if Howard had slightly decent intentions with Captain America’s blood. But what an organization like Leviathan might want it for…that’s the bigger issue and neither Peggy nor Howard know it yet.
While it was surprising to see Mr. Mink be taken care of so quickly, it’s hard to complain about it since it reveals something far bigger. In the previous episode, I theorized Dottie was the killer of Agent Krezminski and while that still might be open, she certainly was the killer of Mr. Mink. I was expecting her to pull a gun on Mink, so I was surprised when she took him out in such a familiar, but deadly way. While it wasn’t mentioned in the episode, the creators of the show have revealed that Dottie is part of what will eventually become the Black Widow Program, something that gives us Natasha Romanoff in the later MCU. What Dottie’s mission is and what it’ll mean for Peggy should be awesome to watch unravel as we head into the final episodes.
Here are a few other things:
- Out of all the Stan Lee cameos in all the Marvel properties, I think this one had to be one of the better ones.
- Colonel Mueller, at least in the comics it seems, was under Baron von Strucker’s command, a name we’ve heard in Agents of SHIELD and who we last saw on-screen in Captain America: The Winter Solider. Look for him in this summer’s Age of Ultron.
- “Then why is your mustache so sad?”
- Wonder what that typewriter message was at the end!
With the SSR getting closer on whatever Finow is or was, Peggy unburdened by working as a double agent for Howard Stark, and Dottie showing her true colors, “The Blitzkrieg Button” wrapped up some of the hanging threads from the first half of the season and got us ready for the second half. And as exciting as this show has been so far, just imagine where it’ll go as we near its season finale.
+ Howard’s true intentions (and emotional strife caused by it)
+ Peggy being on top of nearly everything
+ Dottie’s reveal
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
MARVEL’S AGENT CARTER REVIEWS:
Season One: 1.1 This is Not the End/1.2 Bridge and Tunnel | 1.3 Time and Tide | 1.5 The Iron Ceiling | 1.6 A Sin to Err | 1.7 SNAFU | 1.8 Valediction
MARVEL’S AGENTS OF SHIELD REVIEWS:
Season Two: 2.1 Shadows | 2.2 Heavy is the Head | 2.3 Making Friends and Influencing People | 2.4 Face My Enemy | 2.5 A Hen in the Wolf House | 2.6 A Fractured House | 2.7 The Writing on the Wall | 2.8 The Things We Bury | 2.9 …Ye Who Enter Here | 2.10 What They Become | 2.11 Aftershocks | 2.12 Who You Really Are | 2.13 One of Us | 2.14 Love in the Time of Hydra | 2.15 One Door Closes | 2.16 Afterlife | 2.17 Melinda | 2.18 The Frenemy of My Enemy | 2.19 The Dirty Half Dozen | 2.20 Scars | 2.21,22: S.O.S.