| Agent Carter: Time and Tide |
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| Thursday, 15 January 2015 20:28 |
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Much like Peggy herself last week, we got a bit carried away by Stark's offer for her to chase down his stolen tech herself. In all the excitement, none of us really stopped to consider what doing so means. This week, the initial thrill fading, Peggy has ample time to reflect on the difficult position her dual roles place her in. At one point, she even acknowledges that in a certain light, her actions are essentially treasonous. By the end of the episode, she must realize they'll only grow more so as time goes on.
The sad thing is both she and the S.S.R. have the same goals in recovering Stark's tech before it wreaks havoc on the world. What makes her actions somewhat justifiable is the S.S.R.'s single-minded focus on Howard Stark. In their minds, they already know Stark's at fault; their investigation is little more than gathering enough evidence to make it official. They're trying to shortcut their way to answers, which results in some unethical moves, like taking Jarvis in for an interrogation (without a warrant, I notice) and pretending to lose Jarvis' stolen car report to keep him there.
You have to remind yourself, however, that the report is itself a sham, a way to cover up Jarvis and Peggy's involvement in the Roxxon factory explosion and, in turn, their own secret agenda to clear Stark's name. And come to think of it, who's really to say they're going about this the right way anyhow? Let's all remember that it's Stark who decided to book it from a congressional inquiry into all this and go on the run. Why he didn't simply invite the S.S.R. to look at the big gaping hole in his house through which the perps made off with his tech—the way Jarvis does with Peggy here—is unclear. Because he didn't want the tech to fall in the wrong/government hands? Like they are right now?
Meanwhile, Peggy's eroding what little standing she has within the S.S.R. in her many efforts to cover her and Jarvis' tracks. But for Jarvis' interrogation, Peggy would have avoided a furious lashing from her boss and been able to pick up some actual field duty, albeit secondhand from Ray Krzeminski. Maybe she could've used that rare opportunity to get the sympathetic Sousa on the pro-Stark side.
Instead, she's in the undesirable position of doing a lot of dangerous work alone and with scant resources, threatened by her own colleagues on top of the real enemy, getting none of the credit for the successes and suffering all the guilt from the failures. Let this be a warning to you: this show is built on very shaky ground and if you let yourself think it through, you'll see there are bigger problems in the show than either of our protagonists acknowledge.
But it may be worth putting these niggling issues out of mind as you'll be getting a reliably entertaining show in exchange. It'll be some time before the old-school spy material loses its luster, and Jarvis and Peggy remain an engaging duo. Unfortunately, the episode has far too little of Peggy kicking butt, being more invested in revealing Jarvis' disreputable past. His near brush with treason has potential, but based as it is on his love for a woman who's only manifested herself as a pleasantly lilting voice off-screen, it's hard for us to be as empathetic as he wants us to be.
There's also the matter of Peggy's civilian life, which the show has yet to figure out how to smoothly incorporate into everything else that's going on. Compared to Peggy's struggles with the S.S.R. and Leviathan, Angie's sulkiness over their distant friendship and the Griffith's antiquated house rules seem petty indeed. Bringing in new resident Dorothy Underwood, a peppy Iowan ballet dancer who almost certainly is a Leviathan agent, will allow an intersection between Peggy's dual lives that the show inevitably needs.
Some Musings:
- Since Americans get so much flak for screwing up everyone else's accents, I'm always happy to see foreigners mangle ours. Jarvis' attempt to sound like a New Yorker is wonderfully mangled. So either D'Arcy is horrible at accents or he's amazing at it.
The post Agent Carter: Time and Tide appeared first on Weekly Comic Book Review. Read more: http://weeklycomicbookreview.com/2015/01/16/agent-carter-time-tide/ |
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