Time waits for no woman in Marvel’s Agent Carter, and if its double-length premiere is proof enough, Peggy Carter’s proven more than capable of making the show her own. With the brains, brawn, and charm of an even posher Carmen San Diego – it’s little wonder what Marvel’s star-spangled super soldier saw in her. I’ll admit that I might be falling for this show with equal measure. All the better that Time and Tide keep up Agent Carter’s seeming winning streak. A more casual affair than its predecessors, Ms. Carter’s latest mission carries her confidently onward without missing a beat.
As you’d hope would be the case, this week’s Time and Tide certainly wastes none of its namesake getting to the business at hand. Howard Stark’s still on the lam and Jarvis is taken in for questioning as his accomplice and threatened with deportation for treason. It’s up to Carter, then, to botch the interrogation to save our intrepid butler. With Jarvis a free man, the two set out to retrieve the stolen technology aboard the slyly named S.S. Heartbreak (calling Captain America) as they inch one step closer to cracking the mysterious handwork of “Leviathan.”
This episode in particular sees James D’Arcy in fine form once again as Edwin Jarvis. D’Arcy, who’s wit is already one of his many gifts to the series, is quite eloquent in the hot seat at the SSR. His back and forth with Thompson, compounded with an amusing death ray quip (It’s in Nevada!”) made for a splendid battle of wills in the small space it occupied, if not a great stress test for our rough-and-tumble SRR boys. I rather like Jarvis as a character here, but if his and Peggy’s developing friendship is a clue, I’m starting to wondering whether he’s harboring deeper feelings beneath all that gentlemanly demeanor. Maybe I’m wrong, but it does add another potential layer to the man.
Of course, it’s not about one or the other – rather, I’m inclined to believe it’s gradually becoming about both of them. A sewer escapade allowed the two one genuinely heartfelt moment concerning Jarvis’ wartime service and the price he paid for his marriage. That they both see something of themselves in each other’s pasts is a smart bit of characterization. For, Jarvis it’s his wife that keeps him going, and Peggy, that last dance with Captain America. Neither seem to have come home from the war and both have a bit of a wounded warrior in them. With what The Winter Soldier tells us, Peggy did find a life with someone special eventually. I’ll be curious to find out who it was.
On a dimmer note, Dooley and Thompson are finally being fleshed out as Peggy’s office life takes shape. I’ve complained about Kyle Bornheimer’s Krzeminski feeling like another tough guy too many, especially given he was the most buffoonish. “No woman’s gonna trade in a red, white and blue shield for an aluminum crutch,” he tells Sousa, regarding his prospects with Peggy. Jerk.
In a morbid twist, it’s Krzeminski of all characters who *ahem* “checks out” thanks to Leviathan as if the show was reading my mind like Prof. Xavier and I’ll admit – it was effective. Not only did Leviathan seem even more real than ever, but it brought to light just how trying death is on our spies. Peggy’s surprise at her own brief, yet sobering response was an honest touch that drove home a poignancy to the matter. Even the dead deserve to be remembered.
That’s not to say that Time and Tide didn’t give us any fun to be had. The episode’s ship boarding produced another entertaining fight full of fisticuffs and broken plywood that, albeit it with some choppy camera cuts, bought Peggy just long enough for Jarvis to save her and for her to save Jarvis, aided by some Stark tech. The action’s a bit conventional thus far, but it keeps everyone on their toes and keeps the spy bits in tune to their comic roots.
Back at home (or where the curling irons are, at least), Peggy seems to be getting comfortable. Her dry “Next one over” to a guy clinging to her balcony trying to find his girlfriend was generally amusing to boot. On that note, Lyndsy Fonseca’s Angie always brings a smile to my face. She and Carter continue to have a great energy together – so much so that I’m glad to see them begin to share secrets, or just shoot the breeze about anything, really. Here’s hoping they had that rhubarb pie Angie suggested.
Before they do, let’s talk about Fonseca, shall we? As well as Bridget Regan joining Agent Carter as Peggy and Angie’s new neighbor, Dottie, I suppose. When Fonseca was announced for this series, it seemed mighty unlikely they’d cast someone in a Marvel series who’d just come off of four years doing so much action work on Nikita as just a simple waitress. Then they announced Legend of the Seeker’s Regan as just another gal pal of Peggy’s. Surely something’s afoot.
Both of them seem pretty genuine, and we can’t rule out either actresses simply trying something new. But it just seems like, in this world, you’re either a Marvel comics character or you’re a killer spy in disguise. If I was a betting man, I’d bet on Dottie as the rat – Hydra, Leviathan or otherwise. If so, then Marvel, you owe me a Loki cameo since it’s Ragnarok’s – and Norse mythology’s “Leviathan” – that we’re teasing here. Please?
Time and Tide might not have given us answers to those kinds of lingering questions, but at three episodes out of this eight-episode mini-series, we’ve likely got plenty of time to down the rabbit hole. Instead, it’s soothing that the show’s already earned the time to be this thoughtful. I feel like I’ve already gotten to know this Peggy Carter over the years in a way I can’t say of most leads these days. I’m dying to know what Steve Rogers’ lady did leave behind seventy years before the Avengers assembled, because Peggy’s deserved something of a fresh start.
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Marvel’s Agent Carter airs Tuesday nights on ABC at 9/8 central and returns in two weeks. Catch all the latest episodes on ABC.com and all the latest reviews here at BagoGames.
Agent Carter: Time And Tide
Pros
- Some Surprisingly Thoughtful Moments
- More Interplay Between Carter & Jarvis
- Leviathan's Feeling More Like a Threat
Cons
- "Spy" Plot Devices Remains So-So
- Action Sequences Feel A Bit Choppy
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