Marvel’s Agent Carter has always been a show on a mission from her series’ debut, but this week, its leading lady is one on the run. A fugitive Peggy Carter was hardly an unlikely scenario in a world of super spies and similarly super soldiers, but far be it that Agent Carter should get comfortable showboating the inevitable. We’ve known that something was up at the Strategic Scientific Reserve and maybe something bigger in the greater Marvel universe still. A Sin To Err sees our favorite agent with nowhere to run to but the perplexing finale we seem to be building to. Call me intrigued and excited.
To their credit, it didn’t take long for our boys at the SSR to figure Peggy’s off-hour escapades and our lady in blue is one hanging on a ledge before she knows it outrunning her coworkers. Peggy, they suspect, is the Leviathan sleeper cell they’ve been waiting for. Little do they know that it’s her perfect next-door neighbor that has them in her scope. Meanwhile, Howard Stark’s the only man that can clear her name. But he’s a hard man to find in a sea of men with secrets to hide.
International intrigue that followed Peggy home from her mission to Mother Russia, it came through loud and clear in the episode’s first few minutes. Last week, we watched two schoolgirls battle to the death. This week, we see three wartime Americans brainwashed at gunpoint by some sneering Russian officer in only the most brutal means TVPG can allow. Flash forward a few years, and the guest star of the hour is The Iron Ceiling’s Dr. Ivchenko – a man with a panache for suggestion with a wave of his watch.
Betrayals were far more telegraphed this episode than previous, though that’s not to say the show doesn’t sell it candidly. Ivchenko’s hypnotic powers are a bit more allowable in a Cold-War period piece than otherwise in line with the Soviet-era super-soldier recruitment. Ivchenko is as fittingly diabolical as Dottie is deadly for the first time we’ve seen her – it was creepy to see her exercise her training on an equally creepy dentist.
It’s extraordinary how difficult it is to pull in and out of the dark territory the series is dabbling in these past few episodes, but Agent Carter’s balanced it brilliantly for the production it is. In spite of her ‘bout at playing fugitive, Peggy and Jarvis still spend some quality time together locating Stark. Stark is, of course, a hard man to find and a harder man to sleep with by the state of his conquests. Suffice to say, the two of them have a rather amusing time questioning every one of his old flames and slaps are given, namely to Jarvis for his boss’s, err, “slip-ups.”
A cornered Peggy is the coolest Peggy. Caught at the show’s increasingly familiar café set, it’s a fantastic musical montage of attacking SSR agents that ensues and our favorite agent holds her own. Jarvis even gets in on the fun, glass in hand. It’s fun times like these that keeps Agent Carter fresh and necessarily so when you need to come down from life-and-death stakes.
Even the women of Peggy’s boarding house, who’ve served as little more than running gags until now, got their due of sorts. Lyndsy Fonseca’s ever-adorable Angie lends her usual quick wit this episode and just in time with regards to aiding and abetting her super spy roommate. Her “performance of a lifetime” in the arms of Agent Thompson won some laughs and it’s gratifying to know that she’s smart enough of a pal to be in on her pals’ secrets. I think I’m liable to believe Melanie about the phone company girls too.
The episode could only get so wacky though, and had a bit of handholding I could do without. It’s doubtful that the audience need know that our villainess aims to kill our protagonist, much less that Dottie herself keeps a logbook of “well duh” chores to do such as, say, “kill Peggy”? By contrast, I thoroughly admire the show’s dedication to maintaing the symbolism of the series’ Black Widow legend, Dottie’s lip-lock of death included. Let’s admit to ourselves that it’s simply an easy means of stealing the first same-sex kiss in the MCU, because surely poisoned lipstick is harder than a snap of the neck – something Dottie demonstrated her proficiency in only a week ago.
Nevertheless, even these sins were largely forgivable in the larger picture. Another Peggy and Jarvis romp combined with heightening tensions back at the SSR made for another exciting entry in the series’ dark march to its finale. Fewer revelations and a couple strange plot holes couldn’t hold this week back too much and it only seems to be getting more interesting from here. Peggy’s in a rather big snafu – one I’m eager to see her escape.
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Marvel’s Agent Carter airs Tuesday nights at 9/8 central on ABC. Check out all the latest episodes on ABC.com and all the latest reviews here at BagoGames.
Agent Carter: 'A Sin To Err' Review
Pros
- Tensions are Mounting Stupendously
- Peggy and Jarvis are Great Together as Always
- Light and Dark Tones Mesh Well
Cons
- Betrayals Were Far Less Surprising
- A Few Quirky Plot-Holes Too Many
