Agent Carter S:01 E:04

Episode Title: The Blitzkrieg Button

Original Airdate: 1-27-15

‘Agent Carter’ returns after a one-week break with an episode that is hopefully setting up the remaining half of the 8-episode mini-series. One of the more slow episodes of the Season thus far, The Blitzkrieg Button focuses on Howard Stark’s return to New York in order to check out which of his inventions the S.S.R has confiscated, while the officers of the S.S.R. follow their leads to get further clues about the mysterious villains introduced in earlier episodes. This episode is much lighter than the others, especially when you see Stan Lee make an appearance, and not a lot happens until the last 10 minutes, where a lot is set up for future episodes.

Stark’s return rubs one of his more shady associates the wrong way, who starts hunting Carter and Stark down, while Stark stays with Carter in her apartment building exclusively for women. During their slumber parties, Stark instructs Carter to retrieve one of his inventions, which he tells her could cause a lot of damage and destruction. However, Jarvis‘ inability to lie well tips Carter off that there is more than what Stark is telling her, and she discovers that the ‘invention’ is actually a cryogenic storage for the last remaining vial of Captain America, Steve Rogers’ blood. This discovery sours things between the two as Carter feels betrayed and doubts Stark’s intentions for holding onto the blood of her former love. She makes the betrayal felt loud and clear to both Stark and especially Jarvis, who is just as remorseful for his part in the deception.

This plot was really interesting as it plays into an encounter that Carter has with Chad Michael Murray’s Agent Thompson, who, after having a couple of drinks, smacks her with a truth beat down about her being a woman and never being respected by anyone in a man’s world. It’s one of those deliveries that makes Murray so good at being a dick. Carter has a realization that she will no longer be Stark’s puppet, but I don’t really know what she means and where she’s going to go from here, given that exposing Stark exposes her as well. But this could be seen coming since we knew from the Pilot episode that Stark & Jarvis were hiding something from her, but the real question is, was this it, or is there more?

During all this, Enver Gjokaj’s Agent Sousa makes his own progress finding an eye witness who saw Jarvis and Carter leave the boat where Stark’s inventions were found, which seems to motivate him to continue pursuing the leads. And speaking of leads, the most interesting plot of this episode came from the previously established moronic men of the S.S.R. Shea Wingham’s Chief Dooley travels all the way to Germany to speak to someone with information regarding those non speaking, electric voice box bad guys we saw in the first two episodes. The two men were supposedly Russian spies who died in a battle during the war that the German man was present at. But after some persuasion, the man reveals that there was no battle, but rather a massacre. One where hundreds of people were ‘ripped apart’ by some mysterious force. A phrase that we last heard in Marvel’s ‘Agents Of S.H.IE.L.D.’ when describing what happened to the village where Skye was found as an infant. Could Dooley be hunting down an Inhuman connection? I already theorized that the man from the mid-season finale of ‘Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ with no eyes could easily be connected to the men who can’t speak. See no evil, speak no evil?

While this episode had some interesting elements, it was over all slower than the rest. This is understandable when you realize all the possible set ups that happened within the last act. The souring of the partnership between Jarvis & Carter. Sousa’s eureka moment about the blond in his crime scene photo which was actually Carter. Most notable of the set puts had to have been the revelation of Carter’s ballerina roommate Dottie being some kick ass action woman, who took out that guy hunting Stark from earlier in the episode without even blinking. I theorized in the comments of one of the earlier ‘Agent Carter’ Reviews that she could be a double agent of Agent of H.Y.D.R.A., given the actress’s previous roles, who is Bridget Regan who was seen last year on ‘White Collar’. I’m not doubly excited to see whom she ends up being and how she fits into the whole thing.

The Blitzkrieg Button does end on a cliffhanger with Dooley noticing the ‘Fringe’ typewriter that the bad guys were using, starting to type on its own. While I didn’t like the episode as a whole, the pay out of all the various set ups that should be seen to fruition in the remaining episodes is very exciting and revs up the intrigue and pace for the rest of the season, especially given that the Howling Commandos seem to be coming up next week!