Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Marvel’s Agent Carter 1.04: “The Blitzkrieg Button”

“I knew how much Steve meant to you because I know how much he means to me. I was protecting you.”
- Howard Stark

It is hard to believe we are already halfway through with our adventure with Ms. Carter. I have to say I’ve enjoyed it thus far. It has a very different feel to S.H.I.E.L.D. and I’m glad we get to see more of how things were done back in the early days. This week we find Peggy giving Jarvis an assist as they are dealing with some smugglers. It turns out Howard has smuggled himself back into the country and they had to pay for it. But, as Peggy notes, the SSR believes Stark is responsible for their agent’s death and they’re pulling apart all of his shell companies and bank accounts and residences. So against her better judgment, she sneaks Stark into her apartment building and narrowly gets caught by the land lady. Over at SSR, the Chief is heading to Germany to talk to a Nazi that was involved at the battle where Brannis and the other Russian died (at least the real people with those names). In his absence, Thompson is in charge. I have a feeling that’s not going to bode well for Peggy.

Stark has apparently come back to assess which inventions the SSR grabbed so he can find out which are still on the black market. He gifts Peggy with a camera pen which she puts to good use at the office after Thompson tasks her with getting the lunch orders. He really is a misogynistic asshole. But she does manage to get into the lab and snap pictures of all the inventions the techs are working on. She really is a good spy. Of course the guys she’s working with are no slouches either and aren’t afraid of busting some heads. Sousa heads out to dust the pay phone for prints to try and figure out who made the call that led them to the inventions. He’s in the process of doing so when he sees a couple homeless guys playing cards. One guy says he didn’t see anything after Sousa gives him a nickel but the other guy is kind of aggressive and doesn’t like cops much. He takes a swing at Sousa who skilfully ducks out of the way and knocks him to the ground with his crutch before arresting him.

It also appears that Minks, the guy who smuggled Stark into the country isn’t pleased with his henchmen’s report of getting their asses kicked by a girl. And the scumbag has a first name to go on for Peggy as well. He’s got a tiny automatic gun that takes out two of his own guys (it’s the size of a pistol). Something tells me that Stark had a hand in that little beauty and that he’s not really jut in town to take stock of his babies.

Peggy brings the camera pen home and she and Howard start to check the photos when Angie knocks for dinner. Howard sends Peggy down with instructions to get him something to eat (oddly when he says it, it’s kind of endearing) while he develops the photos. We get a rather funny scene where all the girls are telling Peggy about the ways they smuggle food out of the dining hall. The one with the chicken pocket in her blouse is probably the funniest. When she gets back upstairs she finds Howard rather morose. One of the inventions he made, the blitzkrieg button as he calls it, needs to be stolen back from the SSR. Apparently, it kills the entire power grid in a city but he never figured out how to reverse it and turn the power back on. So he gives Peggy what he says is a mock up so she can swap it for the real one.

We quickly hop across the pond to Germany where the Nazi the Chief is going to see explains that there was no battle and no Germans or Russians fought each other. The Germans found a massacre of bodies but no German hands caused the deaths. Interesting. It kind of feels like it might be linking to inhumans or something. The Chief gives the Nazi a cyanide pill and then offers one to the guard (calling it a breath mint). Interesting that he’s covering his tracks.

Down at SSR headquarters, Sousa is trying to get the homeless guy to open up to him by bonding over being war vets. That doesn’t really do anything. Instead, Thompson comes in with a bottle of scotch and a burger and taunts the homeless guy with it, saying it can be his if he cooperates. So of course the guy starts talking. He admits he saw a well-dressed man and a dark haired woman leave the boat. Sousa and Thompson luckily don’t make the connection between Peggy and Jarvis. Speaking of Jarvis, he’s acting very odd on the drive over to the SSR. He has a tell where he kind of rubs his right ear. Peggy manages to swap the spheres but she finds a vial in the real device. On her way out she ends up accidentally hiding in Thompson’s office. It’s not really a very memorable or important conversation although he’s toned down the asshole factor a little bit. Unfortunately for our heroine, Minks has been following Jarvis and trailed them back to Peggy’s boarding house. She gets inside and Stark finally admits that the vial is full of Captain America’s blood. This, understandably, earns Stark a smack in the face.

Peggy and Stark argue over why he kept some of Steve’s blood and she rages at him for lying to her and using her. It seems they are going to have a lot to do to fix their problems. And now, in addition to worrying about getting caught by the SSR, Peggy’s new neighbor, Dottie, is totally a spy or ninja or something. Minks had left flowers for Peggy so he could find out what room she’s in and then Dottie appears, kills him and steals his pistol. Meanwhile, Peggy hides the Blitzkrieg button in her wall. The Chief returns and he and Thompson discover that Stark was on a plane that landed at the massacre site the day after the supposed battle. I don’t know exactly what that means but clearly something is going on. And as the Chief ruminates over this, the type writer begins to type.

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