Following an excellent season premiere, an enjoyable follow up, and a week off, ‘Agent Carter’ returns with a brand new episode that features a cameo from the legendary Stan Lee and the reunion of Peggy and Captain America… but definitely not in the way that she and the fans were hoping.
In the fourth episode of ABC’s latest look into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Howard Stark returns to New York City in order to retrieve one of his inventions from the SSR that has the power to shut down the electricity in the tri-state area. However, when Peggy snuck into the SSR labs to retrieve the weapon, she learns that Howard and Jarvis aren’t telling her the whole truth.
Since the show started, one of the best things about ‘Agent Carter’ has been the action. But this week, the ass kicking mostly took a backseat to emotional turmoil as Howard and Peggy’s relationship is strained due to Iron Man Sr.’s actions. When we learned that Howard was actually after a vile of Steve Rogers’ blood and not a weapon called the Blitzkrieg Button, the dramatic tension between the two friends hit us as hard as Peggy hit Howard in the face. The scene packed such a punch because Hayley Atwell and Dominic Cooper have such great chemistry together. We haven’t really gotten to see much of this in the series so far since he’s been traveling the globe to dodge those pesky treason charges, but when we do, it does not disappoint.
Though the whole business with Stark is the main roadblock for Peggy, Agent Thompson and his blatant sexism is a whole other problem all together. Damn, I just wanted to punch him in the face when he confronted Peggy in the interrogation room, especially when he called her “Marge”. Since we met him, we’ve known that he was a jerk, but this exchange took it to a whole other level. I understand that both the scene with Thompson and the scene with Howard were meant to show that Peggy was truly on her own, but actually seeing these events unfold was hard to take. With this episode marking the halfway point of the series, I’m hoping that Thompson gets what’s coming to him at some point before the finale, but more importantly I’m looking forward to seeing how our hero bounces back from this.
Speaking of the finale, it’s right around the corner and it feels like we haven’t progressed in the plot as far as many would have thought by now. That could attribute to the ratings slipping over the past few weeks after such a strong start, but there was a huge revelation this week that will hopefully bring the audience back (or at least motivate them to watch the show through legal means). In this episode, we learned that Peggy’s new neighbor Dottie Underwood is also keeping a pretty big secret. Since she was introduced on the show, she’s just been a bubbly presence that provided some comedic relief (pickles anyone?), but now we know that there’s actually more than meets the eye. When Mr. Mink came looking for Peggy at the Griffith, Dottie dispatched the villain with Black Widow-esque moves. She’s clearly a trained warrior of some kind, but who is she working for? Considering that Russians are involved in the storyline and next week’s episode looks like it features deadly young girls, it’s very possible that Dottie is actually Yelena Belova, the other Black Widow from the comics. If this turns out to be true, then True Believers will definitely be getting what they want with more Black Widow. It may not be in the form of Agent Romanoff, but this still has the potential to be very cool.
Overall, even though the antagonist of the episode was pretty weak and the story still doesn’t seem as progressed as it should for an eight-episode limited series that’s four episodes in, ‘Agent Carter’ is a great show all around. It’s touching on a number of things that it’s audience definitely want to see these days in terms of themes and characters, but let’s hope that the slow-burning story arc ultimately brings us something worth the wait, similar to what we got in the first season of ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..’ I mean, next week we’ll be seeing the Howling Commandos, which is something that I’ve been waiting for since the show was announced, but I’m thinking something even bigger than that is on the way.
Final Score:
‘Agent Carter’ starring Hayley Atwell, James D’Arcy, Chad Michael Murray, Shea Whigham, Kyle Bornheimer, and Enver Gjokaj airs on Tuesdays at 9:00pm on ABC.
