Risky Business | Agent Carter: ‘The Blitzkrieg Button’ Review

<p>It’s hard enough saving the world&period; It’s even harder trying to change it – at least&comma; it is for Peggy Carter&period; Halfway into <em>Agent Carter<&sol;em>&comma; I feel like I’m learning as much from Peggy as she still is about herself and in a line of work where no one is who they seem&comma; everyone’s a target for betrayal&period; When a seemingly life-and-death mission from Howard Stark raises a ghost of her past&comma; there’s no rest for the dead as much as there is for the wicked&period; Episodes past have seen her trudge through some tough spots&comma; but this week’s <em>The Blitzkrieg Button<&sol;em> hit some more daring notes amidst lower ones&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;01&sol;05041258&sol;Agent-Carter-Blitzkrieg-Button-Peggy-Car-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignleft wp-image-71859 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;01&sol;05041258&sol;Agent-Carter-Blitzkrieg-Button-Peggy-Car-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Agent Carter 'Blitzkrieg Button' Peggy Car BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Blitzkrieg Button<&sol;em> moves a bit clunkier than <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;ship-shape-agent-carter-time-tide-review&sol;">previous episodes<&sol;a>&comma; mainly in the first half&period; Despite its hard-hitting start&comma; including but not limited to an underworld heist starring Peggy and Edwin Jarvis&comma; the episode’s slapped together&period; <em>Agent Carter<&sol;em>’s had a pleasant sense of humor thus far&comma; but some of its gags this week fell noticeably flatter&period; Howard’s playboy hijinks with every one of Peggy’s neighbors were just a tad overblown&period; And Jarvis’ sense of ear-tugging subtlety stood in stark contrast to that straight-faced will he flew with in just the last episode &lpar;pun intended&rpar;&period; Nevertheless&comma; they’re all forgivable in the face of how likable this cast is so far&comma; and I’m tempted to say there’s&comma; dare I say it&comma; a kingship among the three of them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It’s easy to think of Peggy’s super spying as something of a double life by now&comma; if not part of her own &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;secret identity&comma;” and it’s doubly effective when put against the drudgery of her dead-end day job&period; Thompson’s disparaging monologue to Peggy on why &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;No man will ever consider you an equal” was another of the show’s thoughtful self-criticisms&period; Curiously&comma; Thompson’s one of those men he&&num;8217&semi;s speaking of&comma; yet he could clearly see the tough woman standing right in front of him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On a stronger note&comma; there were no shortage of reveals this week&comma; namely regarding what Howard himself and what hiding inside a device he claimed was a form of EMP&period; As a MacGuffin&comma; a surviving &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;piece” of Captain America’s legacy works for the universe the show depicts and gives it a tangible&comma; emotional connection – beyond Peggy herself – to one of the MCU’s key figures&period; Hayley Atwell and Dominic Cooper do well selling Peggy and Howard’s fallout over the discovery and admirably teases the hubris Howard would pass onto Tony endeavors <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;trouble-always-comes-around-age-ultron&sol;">sixty years and forty Ironman suits later<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;01&sol;05041244&sol;Agent-Carter-Blitzkrieg-Button-Susa-Crutches-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignleft wp-image-71860 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;01&sol;05041244&sol;Agent-Carter-Blitzkrieg-Button-Susa-Crutches-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"ENVER GJOKAJ" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It was also good to get to get to know some of our SSR agents a bit better&period; Sousa got his due this episode&comma; as did agent Dooley &lpar;who I swear’s increasingly reminding me of a young Joe Pesci in a good way&rpar; as the two parted ways to pursue their own casework of sorts&period; While the episode allowed Sousa a piece of the action amidst his closing in on Peggy’s off-hours escapades&comma; Dooley’s travels took him to question a Nazi war criminal awaiting his death sentence&comma; offering a mercy death in exchange for info on a wartime cover-up whose dark implications were a surprise&comma; to say the least&period; Whatever’s up with Leviathan&comma; it must have farther reaching consequences than I thought&period; Call me intrigued&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;01&sol;05041312&sol;Agent-Carter-Blitzkrieg-Button-Mr&period;-Fink-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignright wp-image-71858 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;01&sol;05041312&sol;Agent-Carter-Blitzkrieg-Button-Mr&period;-Fink-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"GREGORY SPORLEDER" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a>For all its heroics&comma; there’s been little in the way of antagonists for <em>Agent Carter<&sol;em>&comma; oddly enough&comma; but this week did give us a refreshing change of pace in the form of Mr&period; Fink&period; Bradley Whitford plays him in creepy fashion for the brief time he’s given here&comma; slyly gunning down his own toadies previewing the hopeful appearance of Captain America’s more ruthless HYDRA operatives&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As for Dottie&comma; it’s to this short series’ benefit that it only took an episode past her introduction to see she was indeed much more than she appeared to be&period; I’m beginning to think fans are right in guessing she’s Yelena Belova&comma; the other Black Widow in the comic books and from the looks of her particular set of deadly skills – it practically screams Black Widow&period; Whether she’s friend or foe&comma; she’s more than a welcome addition to the show’s cool&comma; comic-book Cold War atmosphere&comma; if not a possible connection to <em>The Avengers<&sol;em>’ Natasha Romanov&period; Could she be set up as our other Black Widow’s grand mother&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This week’s <em>Agent Carter<&sol;em> suffered from off-moments and some unkind pacing&comma; but came through with the pay-offs I’m starting to get accustomed to some&period; There was some nice character-building here and I’m liking nearly everyone I’m meeting so far&period; The Blitzkrieg Button is the first episode I’ve seen taking <em>Agent Carter<&sol;em> to the places it deserves&comma; no matter how challenging they may be&period; As we approach next week’s action-packed abroad&comma; it seems like <em>Agent Carter<&sol;em>’s counting down to something&comma; something I can say I’m excited to know&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lbrack;divider&rsqb;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Marvel&&num;8217&semi;s Agent Carter<&sol;em> airs Tuesday nights at 9&sol;8 Central on ABC&period; Catch all the latest episodes at <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;abc&period;go&period;com&sol;shows&sol;marvels-agent-carter">ABC&period;com<&sol;a> and all the latest reviews here at <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com">BagoGames<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;