Last night on Agent Carter, literally everything that could go wrong goes wrong. Will our beloved heroine make it out alive? Find out next week on Agent Carter!
In the meantime, here are five thoughts on last night’s rather tense episode. Spoilers follow.
1. The Doctor is In
Last week introduced us to Doctor Ivchenko, a seemingly innocent man locked up in a Leviathan jail cell that Peggy Carter rescued and brought back to the States for debriefing. Of course, as we learn in this episode it’s not even remotely that simple, as apparently Ivchenko is either some kind of psychic capable of mind manipulation or just a really good hypnotist (I’d bet on the latter) — and, well, also kind of a jerk. Turns out Ivchenko is a bad guy in the traditional comic book sense, and either I haven’t been paying close enough attention or I’m just not cynical of new people anymore because I didn’t see it coming.
The question then becomes: who is Ivchenko? “Ivchenko” is not a Marvel character in the 616, but it seems like a waste for him not to be almost. I guess Leviathan in the comics is pretty thin in terms of stuff to pull if you’re not going to make them as baller as they are in the comics, and we’ve already seen Daniel Whitehall in Agents of SHIELD, so I don’t know. But the show does seem to be implying that he’s not just a Leviathan agent, but someone high up as he can give orders to Dottie.
Which brings us to our next topic.
2. I’m a Loner, Dottie, a Rebel
Dottie went from “that girl from Idaho” to easily the scariest character on the show, and it’s a pretty impressive heel turn. While the show has been good about not just coming out and saying “SHE’S THE PROTO-BLACK WIDOW!”, it’s very clear through every action she’s taken that Dottie is a product of the same environment that gave us Natasha Romanoff, except Dottie is arguably more heartless (something that probably came after year’s of recovery for Natasha).
Thing is, when Dottie shows up on the screen now things automatically get tense. Whether she just spots Peggy in a corner or is carrying a sniper rifle through a dentist’s office, Dottie brings a sense of dread with her — and I’ve gotta admit, that whole sniper rifle scene was really rather intense! I was impressed. And Dominatrix Dottie of Leviathan? I’d be terrified if I was in that room.
3. Peggy Carter vs. the SSR
So now that we’re two episodes away from the finale, things start really getting tough for our heroine: the SSR has finally caught up, the FBI has gotten involved, and all her friends have gone back from worshiping the ground she walks on to talking down at her and scowling again. Last week I was worried that all the good will built up by Peggy in the previous mission would be lost by this transaction, but I don’t think it’s necessarily true which is a relief; while the male agents of the SSR are clearly frustrated, the dialogue refrains from some easy character assassinations that it could’ve and it seems like the other agents are interested in solving the mystery and not just knocking her down a peg (I’m so sorry, I couldn’t resist).
But it’ll be interesting to see what this plays out with, because now the SSR has everything: Captain America’s blood, Peggy Carter and a higher office calling out for blood. You know Peggy will make it out okay because we’ve seen Peggy in the future and also this is a comic show where the good guys traditionally “win” per season, but I am curious to see how it will all shake down in the interrogation room; Sousa and Sad Michael Murray (I don’t care about his character name, honestly) vs. Peggy Carter? That should be fun.
4. Coming Up, on Agent Carter
This week is a little lighter in the commentary because this week’s episode was a little light on the content. That’s not inherently a bad thing; we’re very much getting to the “point” of the show where a lot of the plots are converging towards the center. Given the shorter nature of the program as an 8-episode season on network TV we do eventually get to the point where things are a bit streamlined.
Continued belowSo as long as we’re out of other things to talk about, I’ll note here that as we near the end of the show I’m still rather fond of it. To be honest, I have to admit that it has let me down a little bit; I think that the show could’ve probably benefited from being more over the top, closer to the vibe of the first couple episodes where Peggy had to don wigs and infiltrate nefarious dance halls, but the show has woven a fairly smart and twisty spy mystery. If the show’s DNA rests in the type of comic books that Steranko used to make for Marvel (like Agents of SHIELD somewhat does), then it succeeds in being a fun and family friendly 1940’s Marvel romp.
That said? If the show gets renewed — and I hope it does — I think that it needs to set its sights higher. Perhaps the fact that SHIELD doesn’t exist yet is limiting, but Agent Carter deserves the Agents of SHIELD Season 2 treatment in that it’s a big event spread out over several episodes in a way that’s anything but streamlined. SHIELD is all over the place, which it can do because it has the cast to do so; given our singular focus on Peggy this show can be a bit narrow, but I have no doubts that Peggy Carter could have larger than life adventures as best as any of the boys in tights on the movie screen. Hopefully they’ll get a second season with which to do so.
I think Agent Carter is a pretty good show. It wouldn’t be too far of a leap to make it a great one, though. Still: watch it.
