Last night’s Agent Carter had it all: nefarious Russian acrobatics, multiple games of chess and Rose getting her chance to shine, all wrapped up with an explosive finale. Read on as I address none of those things (though Dottie is still terrifying, the chess metaphor was clever if a bit overdone and Lesley Boone’s secret gun was really well-played) while discussing a whole different set of spoilers below.
It’s all almost over.
1. Not Quite Faustus
So, Doctor Ivchenko — who is he? (Besides Doctor Ivchenko, obviously). Last week I sort of openly speculated as to who he might “really” be, as the MCU has showed us it will introduce characters one way only to have them “really” be someone else (see: Skye). And in wondering about Ivchenko, this week he did certain mannerisms that made me wonder: is this the MCU’s Doctor Faustus? Or an approximation of him?
It’s not a 1:1 fit, I’ll grant you; Faustus was Austrian, Ivchenko is clearly Russian. But in terms of power set — if we can agree that Ivchenko has special powers based on the intro of the episode and that his whole “rubbing of the ring” thing is just a weird tick — then it certainly fits somewhat nicely along the idea of Doctor Faustus. Add to that that Faustus is a Captain America villain, and it’d somewhat make sense to re-appropriate elements of him to be the Big Bad of the show starring Agent Carter.
It’s also possible that Ivchenko is just Ivchenko and I’m making a big deal out of nothing. But dammit, this is a comic book website and that’s what we do around here! Besides, it’d be a bit disappointing if the show’s only real tether to the Marvel U was the use of the name Leviathan and the characters Carter, Stark and Jarvis. That’s just a missed opportunity.
2. So What Is Leviathan, Anyway?
The other big question I have right as we’re about to see the finale: what exactly is Leviathan’s deal, anyway? Because right now, I don’t think anyone has a clue.
Here’s the thing: Marvel’s previous use of nefarious organizations has at least had some revelation towards their goals; Hydra wanted to control the world, and AIM wanted to similarly extort the world for profit via smoke and mirrors and science. So far, though, Leviathan doesn’t seem to have any goals other than to steal some weapons and be terrorists — which is fine and all, if not exactly fitting for the time period, but a bit disappointing if that’s all there is to it. The inclusion of Agent Carter herself on the Agents of SHIELD show as she tracked down Whitehall implied something a bit more grandiose in plot, at the very least.
A straight pre-Cold War spy/thriller is fine, don’t get me wrong. I’m just not sure what Leviathan’s endgame is, and it feels like in the penultimate episode that should be the single most clear thing about the show.
3. That Interrogation Scene, Though
Arguably the highlight of last night’s episode, the interrogation of Peggy Carter was perhaps the single best done sequence of the entire show. With impeccable editing and rather clever staging and writing, this one scene essentially distilled every character conflict down to its purest affectation as Peggy Carter found herself both grilled and grilling those around her for their prejudices. I loved this scene for a lot of reasons, but chief amongst them is that Carter finally was able to do what all of her fans wanted her to do — and that’s to tell the boys to simmer the fuck down and pay attention.
Granted, the show used much more clever verbage than I do here, but that’s the basic version of it. In a few quick motions Peggy dismantles everyone, knocking down their characters and pointing out that if someone would’ve paid attention to her with a coffee or food order in her hand this could’ve all been avoided, and it’s a great point to be made. Add to that Murray, Whigham and Gjokaj each getting a chance to a) represent stereotypical male attitudes towards women (Aggressor, White Knight and Nice Huy) and b) present a specific reactionary face to the revelation of how they’ve treated her, and this is a damn powerful scene to have.
Continued belowWe likely will not see ramifications of this action unless there is a second season, but I have my fingers crossed. Still, for a show that seemed to promise fans some good ol’ feminism at the core, this is a huge check on the positive column.
4. Hero After All
When Ray Krzeminski died earlier in the season, I thought it was a great move: it allowed the show to offer up dire consequences for reckless behavior as well as showed that the producers were generally unafraid to build up a character’s importance and then take them away. Last night they re-inforced this fact, and even though he spent the opening half of the episode being a huge dick, it is time to lower the flag to half mast for Chief Dooley.
Dooley’s sacrifice scene was an interesting one. Loosely but with purpose, it tied together a lot of the plots of the show to bring everyone back together; while the SSR fought each other, we had Leviathan and Howard Stark out there both doing who knows what… only to have Leviathan and Stark inadvertently bring everyone back together just in time for Dooley to realize what was important. Dooley himself may not have even realized it, honestly, as his final words emphasized the importance of his family to him — and yet, dysfunctional as it may be, the agents of the SSR themselves were a family that had similarly broken apart. Dooley stepping up to the plate and putting the well-being of those around him as he dove out of a 10 story window was incredibly heroic, and it allows everyone else to sharpen up and save the day.
So let us all take a moment of silence to recognize both Chief Roger Dooley and Shea Whigham’s brilliant portrayal of the stern and only slightly fair leader of the SSR.
5. House of Cards
This is it, gang! Next week it’s all over, as Agent Carter hits its finale: Peggy vs. Dottie! Peggy vs. Ivchenko! The safety of general New York citizens vs. Item 17! Who will survive, and what will be left of them?
Agent Carter has been a solid if occasionally uneven show, and there are quite a few plates spinning now as we prepare for next week’s finale. The finale promises a certain set of answers, but what I’m most interested to see is how this show will definitively fit into the MCU as a whole. The smart money is to bet that the finale results in the creation of SHIELD, with Peggy as a founding member and Stark as a financial backer; after all, that is how the Agent Carter one-shot ended. Then again, that might be the exact reason why Agent Carter can not end that way — your guess is as good as mine.
I’ve said it before in critiques of Agents of SHIELD, but I do think it’d be strange for the show to exist in the MCU and not contribute in a significant way. Carter and Carter herself is smart, and so are the people behind the show as they build their elaborate cinematic tapestry that informs the Marvel Universe. So here’s hoping Agent Carter has a few more tricks up its sleeve; she’ll certainly need them to take down Dottie (because seriously, Dottie is terrifying).
