No matter what ‘Agent Carter’ gave us this week, it would be hard to top last week’s episode featuring the Howling Commandos. However, the limited series did its best to fill the void left by Dum Dum Dugan with way more Leviathan action than we’ve gotten so far.
In the latest adventure from the early days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Peggy Carter’s world has come crashing down around her. While investigating a lead to clear Howard Stark’s name and bring a female operative to justice, Carter is labeled a traitor when Agent Sousa reveals that she was the blonde woman that the S.S.R. had been tracking. Meanwhile, Dr. Ivchenko shows his true colors and teams with Dottie Underwood to take down Peggy and the whole operation opposing Leviathan.
The best way to describe this week’s episode is that it was a grab bag of sorts. There was a huge mix of light, comedic moments with darker, more aggressive instances. This is the sort of thing that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become known for, but it all just seemed way more prevalent in ‘A Sin To Err.’ For example, one moment we’re following Peggy and Jarvis through a montage that revisits Howard’s past lovers where the loyal butler takes a few hits in place of his boss, but then moments before we see a flashback of Dottie’s vicious recruitment work with Leviathan. The episode went from ‘Schindler’s List’ to ‘How I Met Your Mother’ real quick and I’m not sure that the blending of the two extremes worked as well as it could have. I mean, things got straight up wacky and goofy, which isn’t always a good thing.
Although, the episode took on a more ‘Indiana Jones’ tone when the duo was forced to fight S.S.R. agents in the automat because of the choice of music playing in the background and that worked great. This show has a good track record of using music well, but especially when it’s used to show the dichotomy of the cheery 40s tunes and the badass beat down being dished out.
Despite the almost disjointed feel of this episode, the individual scenes were pretty great. My favorite was when the agents approached Angie Martinelli about Peggy’s whereabouts. It was hilarious to see how ill equipped Agent Thompson and Agent Sousa are when it comes to women. Jack’s “Please stop.” was excellently delivered and it’s always great to see Lyndsy Fonseca’s Angie come to Peggy’s aid. What a great friendship. Hopefully we haven’t seen the last of them together.
Another standout scene was Dottie’s unique use of a sniper scope. The entire time I thought that she was just trying to get a clear shot at the doctor, but when it was revealed that they were working together, I think I literally yelled, “NO WAY!” There was a bit too much padding leading up to that moment, especially with the dentist and seeing her write out Ivchenko’s message, but the payoff was worth it.
Speaking of Dottie, if she got close enough to Peggy to kiss her, then why didn’t she just shoot her or stab her right then and there? Dottie is a highly trained killing machine, yet her tactics for taking down the enemy don’t seem to be as precise as they should be. I’m not saying that I wanted her to kill Agent Carter, but she could try a little harder at doing it.
Basically this week’s ‘Agent Carter’ had its flaws and some points felt like they were just going through the motions just to get to the important parts, but those important parts were worth getting to. We’re well into Act III of the season and it really feels like it. With only two episodes left, let’s hope that the remaining time we have with Peggy, Jarvis, and the whole gang utilizes the best of what we have seen so far in this show. After all, we have to see the A game so that there’s a chance that the network will green light a second season.
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‘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.
