“Publically revealing these items won’t clear Mr. Stark’s name. They’ll only place you under suspicion along with him. If you wish to clear Mr. Stark’s name, you must do so from the shadows.”
- Jarvis
Now that we are in the thick of things, we get a little voice over from Peggy giving us a recap thus far without it being a “previously on” segment which I really liked. While Peggy adjusts to her new living situation (including a guy trying to climb up the side of the building to visit a girl in 3F, Thompson and his gang are searching the hotel where Mr. Brannis supposedly was staying (James Frain’s character that is). They tear apart some furniture and find some cash and various passports with different names on them. They take it back to the chief and Thompson reveals that he learned that the real Brannis died in Germany two years previous. He also gets assigned to show the faces on the passports to his contacts in Moscow (apparently they aren’t Mr. Fake Brannis). Sousa pops by to let them know that the bumper and license plate they pulled from the debris of the implosion belonged to Howard Stark but it’s not likely he was driving, being on the run and all. I can just tell this isn’t going to end well for Jarvis, poor old chap.
Peggy goes to pay Jarvis a visit to share her latest theory inspired by her bitchy landlady) that if they can figure out how the thieves got into Stark’s vault, they might be closer to finding out where they went with all of Stark’s various inventions. Clearly, she’s not working on the assumption that Fake Brannis and the other guy in the truck were the real thieves. Anyway, they barely have a chance to chat about the dismal weather on the night in question and Jarvis’ susceptibility to sleep via candle light and rain, than Thompson and Sousa show up. Jarvis tries to shoo them away by telling them about the missing car report he filed several days ago linked to the car with the missing bumper but they are rather insistent on taking him down for questioning. Like I said, he’s in for a bad time poor guy. Peggy gets to the office in time to see some of the interrogation and she and we learn some not so flattering details about Jarvis’ past. He was charged but not convicted of treason and dishonorably discharged from the British military. Thompson threatens to deport Jarvis and his wife if he doesn’t cooperate and give up himself and Stark. Peggy does a little sleight of hand to nab the “lost” police report and then pops by with it, claiming she accidentally took it within earshot of Jarvis as the chief is about to go interrogate Jarvis some more. It’s a close call and boy does it get Peggy reamed out by the chief. I understand why she did it and I think she’s tougher than any of those jackasses give her credit for, but getting a dressing down by a superior is never a fun experience.
She’s not particularly in a chatty mood when Angie stops by to gossip about her crappy day and only getting 50 cents in tips. Angie takes it personally and storms off, even after they meet newcomer Dotty (played by Bridget Reagan of Legend of the Seeker and White Collar fame). I can’t get a real feel for her yet but I can guess there’s more to her than just a pretty ballet dancer. Somehow, Peggy ducks out of the building and avoids curfew so she and Jarvis can go back to investigating the thief’s exit plan. This involves repelling down the giant hole in the floor and into the sewers. While they search the sewers for where the water from the thunderstorm would have carried Brannis, we learn the truth behind Jarvis’ treason charge and his dismissal from the military. He was in Budapest before the war where he met Ana, his wife. She was Jewish and while his superior had letters of transit that would have allowed her to safely get to allied soil, his superior refused to sign them. It wasn’t bad enough that Jarvis forged his superiors name on a document, but he filed them and that’s what did him in. Of course the treason charge was dropped immediately and thanks to Stark’s interference and influence, Jarvis and Ana got out of that mess intact. I suppose that’s a good thing, even if Mrs. Jarvis doesn’t know what her husband is presently doing for his employer.
They make it to the end of the sewer and spot a boat with the symbol Brannis drew on the side of it and on some crates. But it looks like the boat is being watched, though it’s not clear who is doing the watching. I’m pretty sure it’s not SSR yet, although Thompson did learn that the other guy in the truck was using the name of another dead guy from Germany. Interesting. They also surmise that the typewriter is actually a long range communication device (though I’m guessing not quite as long-range as to cross dimensions). I have to say I do really like the serialized aspect of this show, especially since it’s only 8 episodes. It keeps the plot moving and engaged the whole time (much like the first season of Sleepy Hollow). And I still adore the Peggy and Jarvis dynamic. Things get a little tense between our duo though once they actually locate the missing inventions (including a device that was meant to be used for back massage that causes crushing involuntary muscle spasms and breaks bones). Peggy is dying to call it in and get the credit so all the misogynistic prats in her office will finally respect her. But after some rapid fire questioning from Jarvis, no doubt meant to mimic her colleagues, she realizes she can’t do it because it will only put her in the crosshairs; so she has Jarvis call since Sousa is working and give him the tip. Jarvis does a passable New York accent and then dashes off.
Unfortunately, I have a feeling Peggy is going to cut it very close to missing her co-workers when she turns around a big burly guy rushes her. It takes both her and Jarvis to take the guy down (though Peggy does hold her own quite well). They get away before Sousa shows up and he does take the credit for finding the inventions but he’s got a bad feeling about the whole thing. He has a reason to be worried because at a railroad crossing someone rear-ends the car with the guy who got beat up (and his arm broken with one of Stark’s inventions) and both he and the annoying SSR agent get shot, hit man style. Peggy’s upset by the news when she goes into work the next day and ends up venting to Angie at the diner. I’m most worried about Sousa getting onto what really happened because it’s clear he likes Peggy and is a good guy. I’d be sad to see them come to blows. But the mystery continues and I can’t wait for the next new episode.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Monday, January 12, 2015
The Librarians 1.08: "And the Heart of Darkness"
“This house doesn’t grant wishes. It helps people in need. It was built as a refuge. No one expected a serial killer to find it.”
- Cassie
And just like that we go from ancient sorceresses mucking about with science fairs to creepy haunted houses in foreign countries. A young girl, Katie, stumbles out of a house and happens upon our gang in the middle of a forest in Slovakia. They’ve been on a mission to locate some broken ley lines and Cassie figures out they’re pretty much right where this supposed haunted house is. She’s got some anchoring scrolls that should at least keep the lines fixed for a while but she’s not happy when Eve tells her to stay behind with Katie while the rest of them venture into said creepy abode. Zeke manages to get three of the scrolls set before all manner of shaking and crashing dishes sends them running out of the house. But at least the house doesn’t disappear on them. That’s a plus I suppose.
Unfortunately for our team, just as Eve is delegating tasks again and leaving Cassie out of things (again), Katie goes racing back into the house, bringing all four of our team in with her. They hear footsteps on the upper floors and still Cassie is left to babysit Katie. Yeah, as much as Eve is trying to keep them all safe, she just alienating a member of her team. She, Zeke and Jake go to investigate the rooms but don’t find people. They do happen to find the same picture in each room they look in. Naturally, Jake is interested in the historical aspects of the house and Zeke is just trying not to freak out about being in a haunted house. Eve finds some clothes and then sees who she later learns are Katie’s friends. But Jakes and Zeke didn’t see anyone and when Katie sees her friends’ clothes she rushes off all distraught and a pissed-off Cassie has to go calm her down. Meanwhile, Jenkins fills the gang in on the fact that every story about bad things happening in haunted houses is based on the house they are presently standing in. Well that’s not good.
The news just keeps getting worse as Jenkins deduces which haunted house they are in. It’s the shatter box and it takes victims and then moves on to another place. Very helpful, Jenkins. Or, you know, not. But apparently there is a way to keep it from moving on and taking more victims. They have to find the heart of darkness within the house and destroy it. Eve sets Jake and Zeke to this task which again miffs Cassie (although she’s managed to calm Katie down enough for her to explain why she and her friends had stopped at the house and she mentions that the “he’ is a shadowy figure with a hammer or an ax). As Jake is searching the room he was in earlier, a bright light flashes and Zeke goes missing. He reports in to Eve and after some creepy music plays and Katie’s name is burned into the wall, Eve sends Cassie and Katie back to the Annex for protection. Understandably, Cassie is not happy about this assignment, claiming it’s because she’s so fragile and they still don’t trust her from betraying them to the Serpent Brotherhood. But Katie puts it in perspective. Eve trusts Cassie enough to get Katie out of there, not one of the guys. Which would be great expect the shadowy specter of Death with his hammer starts pounding on the car and busts it so they can’t get away, forcing them back into the house. Don’t think they were counting on that little hiccup.
Jake and Eve are searching upstairs when Jake disappears too, into a dollhouse. And I’m probably not the only one who was reminded of an episode of Charmed where the sisters got shrunk inside a replica of their house. Anyway, we learn some pretty important details as Zeke enjoys some beer and Xbox. The house has existed for a long time and used to have happy families in it until something bad came along. That something turns out to be Katie. There’s a reason the house wants her. I’m thinking the shadowy figure is trying to protect the house and it put the guys in the dollhouse to protect them from her. Cassie now knows the truth with Katie starts talking about other people and places and her eyes glow white. I have no doubt our team will work through it kick her evil ass but they are going to have some trouble getting to the finish I’m sure.
Not surprisingly, Cassie is the one who gets to save the day since she’s been griping about being left out the whole episode. She learns that Katie has been killing people for years and the house is magic. Well Cassie being the brainiac that she is uses that to her advantage and angrily exclaims that Katie isn’t death or the Angel of Death, Cassie is because she’s known since she was 15 that she was going to die and she’s been seeing death in the mirror for years. It turns out the house doesn’t grant wishes but it helps people in need. Which is convenient since now Cassie needs to get her friends out of the dollhouse so they can go home. She’s freed the true spirit of the house (and Jenkins got it wrong, it was the House of Refuge. And it seems that as the gang heads back to the Annex, the dollhouse materializes in the backseat. I guess they’re taking it along for the ride after all.
I have to say episodes 7 and 8 were vastly different but I liked that Cassie got some character development since we’ve spent the last few episodes focused more on Zeke. I’d like some Jake-centric episodes but that’s probably the Christian Kane fan in me. Next week is the two-part season finale. No word yet on if the network is going to renew the show but seeing as the ratings have been decent, I’m pretty confident we’ll be seeing more adventures from this motley crew.
- Cassie
And just like that we go from ancient sorceresses mucking about with science fairs to creepy haunted houses in foreign countries. A young girl, Katie, stumbles out of a house and happens upon our gang in the middle of a forest in Slovakia. They’ve been on a mission to locate some broken ley lines and Cassie figures out they’re pretty much right where this supposed haunted house is. She’s got some anchoring scrolls that should at least keep the lines fixed for a while but she’s not happy when Eve tells her to stay behind with Katie while the rest of them venture into said creepy abode. Zeke manages to get three of the scrolls set before all manner of shaking and crashing dishes sends them running out of the house. But at least the house doesn’t disappear on them. That’s a plus I suppose.
Unfortunately for our team, just as Eve is delegating tasks again and leaving Cassie out of things (again), Katie goes racing back into the house, bringing all four of our team in with her. They hear footsteps on the upper floors and still Cassie is left to babysit Katie. Yeah, as much as Eve is trying to keep them all safe, she just alienating a member of her team. She, Zeke and Jake go to investigate the rooms but don’t find people. They do happen to find the same picture in each room they look in. Naturally, Jake is interested in the historical aspects of the house and Zeke is just trying not to freak out about being in a haunted house. Eve finds some clothes and then sees who she later learns are Katie’s friends. But Jakes and Zeke didn’t see anyone and when Katie sees her friends’ clothes she rushes off all distraught and a pissed-off Cassie has to go calm her down. Meanwhile, Jenkins fills the gang in on the fact that every story about bad things happening in haunted houses is based on the house they are presently standing in. Well that’s not good.
The news just keeps getting worse as Jenkins deduces which haunted house they are in. It’s the shatter box and it takes victims and then moves on to another place. Very helpful, Jenkins. Or, you know, not. But apparently there is a way to keep it from moving on and taking more victims. They have to find the heart of darkness within the house and destroy it. Eve sets Jake and Zeke to this task which again miffs Cassie (although she’s managed to calm Katie down enough for her to explain why she and her friends had stopped at the house and she mentions that the “he’ is a shadowy figure with a hammer or an ax). As Jake is searching the room he was in earlier, a bright light flashes and Zeke goes missing. He reports in to Eve and after some creepy music plays and Katie’s name is burned into the wall, Eve sends Cassie and Katie back to the Annex for protection. Understandably, Cassie is not happy about this assignment, claiming it’s because she’s so fragile and they still don’t trust her from betraying them to the Serpent Brotherhood. But Katie puts it in perspective. Eve trusts Cassie enough to get Katie out of there, not one of the guys. Which would be great expect the shadowy specter of Death with his hammer starts pounding on the car and busts it so they can’t get away, forcing them back into the house. Don’t think they were counting on that little hiccup.
Jake and Eve are searching upstairs when Jake disappears too, into a dollhouse. And I’m probably not the only one who was reminded of an episode of Charmed where the sisters got shrunk inside a replica of their house. Anyway, we learn some pretty important details as Zeke enjoys some beer and Xbox. The house has existed for a long time and used to have happy families in it until something bad came along. That something turns out to be Katie. There’s a reason the house wants her. I’m thinking the shadowy figure is trying to protect the house and it put the guys in the dollhouse to protect them from her. Cassie now knows the truth with Katie starts talking about other people and places and her eyes glow white. I have no doubt our team will work through it kick her evil ass but they are going to have some trouble getting to the finish I’m sure.
Not surprisingly, Cassie is the one who gets to save the day since she’s been griping about being left out the whole episode. She learns that Katie has been killing people for years and the house is magic. Well Cassie being the brainiac that she is uses that to her advantage and angrily exclaims that Katie isn’t death or the Angel of Death, Cassie is because she’s known since she was 15 that she was going to die and she’s been seeing death in the mirror for years. It turns out the house doesn’t grant wishes but it helps people in need. Which is convenient since now Cassie needs to get her friends out of the dollhouse so they can go home. She’s freed the true spirit of the house (and Jenkins got it wrong, it was the House of Refuge. And it seems that as the gang heads back to the Annex, the dollhouse materializes in the backseat. I guess they’re taking it along for the ride after all.
I have to say episodes 7 and 8 were vastly different but I liked that Cassie got some character development since we’ve spent the last few episodes focused more on Zeke. I’d like some Jake-centric episodes but that’s probably the Christian Kane fan in me. Next week is the two-part season finale. No word yet on if the network is going to renew the show but seeing as the ratings have been decent, I’m pretty confident we’ll be seeing more adventures from this motley crew.
The Librarians 1.07: "And The Rule of Three"
“It’s a magic spell. Someone turned a magic spell into an app.”
- Cassie
This week’s case of the week takes us into the exciting world of high end high school science fairs. Everyone ends up coming into the Annex on their day off and the clippings book goes haywire after we see a kid literally freeze from the inside out. Cassie is beyond thrilled to be checking out the fair. As one might expect, she was quite the geek in high school and won lots of wards. Jake introduces them as the librarians to the foundation president who is hosting the fair which somehow makes them judges. It’s nice to see Cassie and Zeke getting some time together but it’s Eve and Jake who stumble on something potentially magical when a kid with a baking soda volcano (much to Eve’s excitement) has a huge crazy explosion that shouldn’t be possible. There’s definitely something amiss here.
Cassie and Zeke try to check out more displays to find out the source of the magic while Eve and Jake talk to the volcano kid (who has a massive crush on Eve). He explains he was the fifth alternate and at least two of the kids ahead of him came down with weird illnesses which is how he got into the fair in the first place. Zeke and Cassie find what kind of looks like an abacus and Jenkins shows up to assist randomly. It seems that the laws of reality are being bent in the auditorium. We see three kids looking kind of shady up on the balcony but it turns out they were just trying to serenade a girl into going to prom with one of the guys. The girl is way more focused on college (and I’m pretty sure it’s the actress who plays Sin on Arrow by the way). Down in the thick of things, Cassie and Zeke are trying to talk to one of the other contestants when a swarm of bugs just bursts out of his mouth (very gross and kind of plague-like).
Despite all the craziness, the head of the foundation isn’t going to shut down the fair (all the kids would lose their shot at the scholarships and stuff). They need to figure out who is wielding the magic so it can be stopped before anyone else gets hurt. Jenkins explains the rule of three (if you do something good or bad to someone, it comes back at you threefold). He’s convinced it’s a working by a small coven. I’m not sure about that one but what do I know, I’m not the writer of this episode. If I haven’t mentioned before though, I really hope this gets a DVD release and we get commentary on each episode like we did with Leverage. You learn a lot about the craft of putting together a TV show that way. Anyway, Jake goes to talk to the prom proposer (Dashiell) and learns that everyone at the fair basically hates Amy, the girl who he was asking out. She won the year before and so everyone wants her out of the running. So that would make sense to get her out of it but all the bad stuff is happening to other people so it has to be that she is involved in trying to sabotage everyone else. It would seem her mother is involved as well. Her mom is basically doing the whole project and spiel herself and Amy looks less than thrilled to be there to be honest. Zeke nabs one of their phones and they find a magical spell app on the phone. Because of course it would be on a smart phone.
With some expert hacking from Zeke and a little help from Amy (it was a very touching scene with her and Cassie bonding), we learn that there’s 27 kids using the app at the school at the moment. It means that there’s going to be a huge backlash right around the corner. But the foundation head has stumbled into the library and Jenkins needs some assistance from Eve. But things are a bit more complicated than they appear because our foundation head is none other than Morgan le Fey. I have to say I was wondering if she’d show up given we started this series with Arthurian legend (I’m still sad about Excalibur and I know it’s just a sword). I’m very intrigued to see what our typical villainess has up her metaphorical sleeve.
It seems Morgan was the creator of the spell that got put into the app on the phone and she’s eagerly awaiting the backlash. Jenkins is adamant that Eve kill Morgan but isn’t clear on why (I mean sure she kind of destroyed Camelot and murdered her own brother but that was ages ago). Back at the fair, Cassie figures out a way to protect everyone; a Faraday cage. Amy uses everyone’s dislike of her to convince them all to get in the center of the pentagram before the electricity in the room goes haywire. It seems that the day is saved until Eve shows up in a sort of void-like space with Morgan. It’s the space between seconds and Morgan warns that a war is coming and she’s got enough power now to hide away in another realm before this world goes to hell. Definitely not a good thing. And she’s got a message for Jenkins. Before Eve passes it along, we get a sweet moment with Cassie and Zeke where he gives her the stolen first place trophy. When she started having delusions her parents got rid of all her trophies for fear it would remind her of what she’d lost. Even if the trophy is stolen, the sentiment is what matters. But things can’t remain cheery for long because when Eve delivers Morgan’s message we learn that war is in fact coming and you can’t trust the hero. Intriguing indeed.
- Cassie
This week’s case of the week takes us into the exciting world of high end high school science fairs. Everyone ends up coming into the Annex on their day off and the clippings book goes haywire after we see a kid literally freeze from the inside out. Cassie is beyond thrilled to be checking out the fair. As one might expect, she was quite the geek in high school and won lots of wards. Jake introduces them as the librarians to the foundation president who is hosting the fair which somehow makes them judges. It’s nice to see Cassie and Zeke getting some time together but it’s Eve and Jake who stumble on something potentially magical when a kid with a baking soda volcano (much to Eve’s excitement) has a huge crazy explosion that shouldn’t be possible. There’s definitely something amiss here.
Cassie and Zeke try to check out more displays to find out the source of the magic while Eve and Jake talk to the volcano kid (who has a massive crush on Eve). He explains he was the fifth alternate and at least two of the kids ahead of him came down with weird illnesses which is how he got into the fair in the first place. Zeke and Cassie find what kind of looks like an abacus and Jenkins shows up to assist randomly. It seems that the laws of reality are being bent in the auditorium. We see three kids looking kind of shady up on the balcony but it turns out they were just trying to serenade a girl into going to prom with one of the guys. The girl is way more focused on college (and I’m pretty sure it’s the actress who plays Sin on Arrow by the way). Down in the thick of things, Cassie and Zeke are trying to talk to one of the other contestants when a swarm of bugs just bursts out of his mouth (very gross and kind of plague-like).
Despite all the craziness, the head of the foundation isn’t going to shut down the fair (all the kids would lose their shot at the scholarships and stuff). They need to figure out who is wielding the magic so it can be stopped before anyone else gets hurt. Jenkins explains the rule of three (if you do something good or bad to someone, it comes back at you threefold). He’s convinced it’s a working by a small coven. I’m not sure about that one but what do I know, I’m not the writer of this episode. If I haven’t mentioned before though, I really hope this gets a DVD release and we get commentary on each episode like we did with Leverage. You learn a lot about the craft of putting together a TV show that way. Anyway, Jake goes to talk to the prom proposer (Dashiell) and learns that everyone at the fair basically hates Amy, the girl who he was asking out. She won the year before and so everyone wants her out of the running. So that would make sense to get her out of it but all the bad stuff is happening to other people so it has to be that she is involved in trying to sabotage everyone else. It would seem her mother is involved as well. Her mom is basically doing the whole project and spiel herself and Amy looks less than thrilled to be there to be honest. Zeke nabs one of their phones and they find a magical spell app on the phone. Because of course it would be on a smart phone.
With some expert hacking from Zeke and a little help from Amy (it was a very touching scene with her and Cassie bonding), we learn that there’s 27 kids using the app at the school at the moment. It means that there’s going to be a huge backlash right around the corner. But the foundation head has stumbled into the library and Jenkins needs some assistance from Eve. But things are a bit more complicated than they appear because our foundation head is none other than Morgan le Fey. I have to say I was wondering if she’d show up given we started this series with Arthurian legend (I’m still sad about Excalibur and I know it’s just a sword). I’m very intrigued to see what our typical villainess has up her metaphorical sleeve.
It seems Morgan was the creator of the spell that got put into the app on the phone and she’s eagerly awaiting the backlash. Jenkins is adamant that Eve kill Morgan but isn’t clear on why (I mean sure she kind of destroyed Camelot and murdered her own brother but that was ages ago). Back at the fair, Cassie figures out a way to protect everyone; a Faraday cage. Amy uses everyone’s dislike of her to convince them all to get in the center of the pentagram before the electricity in the room goes haywire. It seems that the day is saved until Eve shows up in a sort of void-like space with Morgan. It’s the space between seconds and Morgan warns that a war is coming and she’s got enough power now to hide away in another realm before this world goes to hell. Definitely not a good thing. And she’s got a message for Jenkins. Before Eve passes it along, we get a sweet moment with Cassie and Zeke where he gives her the stolen first place trophy. When she started having delusions her parents got rid of all her trophies for fear it would remind her of what she’d lost. Even if the trophy is stolen, the sentiment is what matters. But things can’t remain cheery for long because when Eve delivers Morgan’s message we learn that war is in fact coming and you can’t trust the hero. Intriguing indeed.
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Galavant 1.02: "Joust Friends"
“There’s going to be some pretty legendary hero-ing happening around here pretty damn soon.”
-Galavant
The second episode of any television show is always where we begin to get a sense of what that show is going to be like on a week-to-week basis. “Galavant” is a limited run show, so this is less of an issue, but it still provided some clues to what we can expect going forward. Galavant and his friends had to complete a specific task that would ultimately help him in his ongoing quest to win back Madalena and save Valencia from King Richard. I presume that’s how many of the episodes will be going forward, with Galavant working on side missions until the final confrontation. The episode was a fun watch, and I still appreciate that the show doesn’t take itself especially seriously. The songs were amusing, and so was Galavant’s predicament.
The episode opens on a dream sequence, although it’s not clear right away that it’s a dream sequence. Galavant, Isabella, and Sid are traveling through the woods when they are attacked. Galavant fights admirably and saves them all single-handed. Later in the episode, it will be even more obvious that this must have been a dream! Galavant himself realizes he is dreaming when Madalena and King Richard appear to taunt him. He wakes up to Isabella and Sid packing up camp so they can begin their travels for the day. As they travel, they sing a fun little song called “Off on a Hero’s Journey.” It is one of the catchier tunes of the show thus far, I think.
Meanwhile, in Valencia, we learn that King Richard is not even capable of feeding himself. Chef spoons the food into his mouth, baby-style, complete with airplane games. Madalena is disgusted and leaves the room without even touching her supper. Gareth tries to explain to King Richard that Madalena is perfectly justified in being disgusted. Chef sort of backs him up, but he doesn’t say much, I guess because he doesn’t want to end up dead at the hand of the King like all his ancestors. While I think Gareth has the right intention, I think he’s a bit wrong about the problem between King Richard and Madalena. Gareth things King Richard needs to act more manly. He shows the King his own bed chambers as an example, and talks about how much testosterone he has. The problem isn’t really King Richard’s manliness or lack of it. It’s that he is just plain gross and infantile. Either way, King Richard wants Gareth to teach him how to be more manly so that Madalena will be even more impressed when he finally kills Galavant.
Galavant and his friends want to spend the night at a tavern, but they have no money. Sid thinks he has solved their problem when he finds a flyer for a joust. Surely the celebrated Sir Galavant can win the joust! First, the group has no entry fee, but that problem is solved when Sid hands over the Jewel of Valencia as collateral. This really pisses off Isabella, by the way, because it’s her only ticket to saving her parents’ lives. The other problem is a long-time rival of Galavant’s, Jean Hamm (played by John Stamos) who has also entered the tournament. I thought the modern pop culture reference (to Jon Hamm, obviously) was a little on-the-nose. Anyway, Jean is a ladies’ man and seems to have a thing for Isabella. Isabella, for her part, just cares about getting the Jewel back, so she convinces the tournament organizers to advance Galavant to the final on merit so that he has an extra day to practice.
Because the Jewel is so important, Isabella also tries to train Galavant. At first, Galavant is dubious, but Isabella explained that her father had no male heirs, so he sometimes treated her like one (and taught her to fight). What follows is a parody of an 80’s movie training montage, complete with a song. Galavant does actually get better and stronger with practice, and eventually, Isabella thinks he is ready. Meanwhile, Jean advances to the final as well. Isabella wants to be absolutely sure there is no way Jean will win, so she visits his tent to seduce him. While she is there, she has him drink absinthe. Presumably, he’ll be too hung over to fight the next day.
Meanwhile, King Richard has taken Gareth’s advice to heart. He puts on quite a show for Madalena at dinner. He commands her to sit down, drinks ale, and burps. I think it’s kind of gross, but Madalena is impressed for some reason. They have a real conversation over dinner. King Richard remarks that he’s impressed by the way Madalena just eats whatever is in front of her, considering he’s kind of finicky himself. Madalena says it’s because her parents made her cook and eat her pet goat as a kid. King Richard also talks a bit about his childhood. He didn’t interact with his parents much – he mostly just talked to his servant, Pearl. There’s a kind of sweet duet with King Richard and Madalena and Galavant and Isabella called “Maybe You’re Not the Worst Thing Ever,” which features awesome lyrics like “you’re growing on me just like mold.” Madalena ruins the moment, though, by telling King Richard that Pearl didn’t love him; she was paid to spend time with him. Low blow, Madalena!
On a lighter note, the big joust is absolutely hilarious. Jean is indeed incredibly hung over, and when he stumbles out of his tent, he immediately vomits on the field. Isabella thinks she’s got this until she sees Galavant’s condition. Apparently he trained to hard the day before and now can barely move. Isabella asks how he was able to get on his horse, and Galavant replies that he slept on it. What follows is what could possibly be the slowest joust ever, with Jean and Galavant approaching each other at snail speed. It doesn’t take much for both to be simultaneously knocked off their horses. The judge declares that whoever gets up first will be the winner (even if he probably doesn’t deserve it). Isabella has been telling Galavant all episode that real heroes get back up when they’re knocked down, so Galavant musters up the strength to stand up, and he wins the tournament. He feels pretty proud of himself afterwards, more than he probably should after that rather pathetic performance! Joshua Sasse is still adorable, though, which is all I really need in “Galavant.”
Selfie 1.10: "Imperfect Harmony"
“Since you dumped me, I’ve been falling apart. I’m in deep Eliza Dooley withdrawal, and only by the grace of ‘Backdraft’ reruns on the USA Network am I standing here before you now.”
-Freddie
This particular episode of “Selfie” dealt with the aftermath of Eliza getting naked in front of Henry. Not surprisingly, the whole thing is a mess. It’s way too early in a show’s typical run (if “Selfie” hadn’t been cancelled) for Eliza and Henry to actually get together, but the extent to which Henry is just a complete idiot is rather frustrating. Freddie is kind of having a breakdown over Eliza breaking up with him, and I was a bit surprised that, knowing that, Henry would listen to anything Freddie had to say about Eliza. I didn’t really like how this episode treated Eliza. On top of that, there was a KinderKare Pharmaceuticals karaoke party that just gave me crazy embarrassment squick. On the whole, I would not say this was one of my favorite episodes of “Selfie.” Not by a long shot.
This episode, like I said, picks up in the aftermath of Eliza getting naked in front of Henry in the elevator of her apartment building. Eliza has resolved to try and win Henry, and when she goes into work in the morning, she’s super chipper because she thinks she’s in love. Eliza shares all this with Charmonique, who is dubious. She actually gets up to start doing her typical “block,” but Eliza begs her not to. Charmonique still isn’t thrilled about the idea of an Eliza and Henry relationship, but she agrees to back off. She does, however, plant the idea in Eliza’s head that Henry might not actually reciprocate Eliza’s feelings. Meanwhile, Henry goes to talk to Raj in HR about the incident. Raj seems pretty unphased. Eliza has a huge HR file thanks to all her office dalliances. KinderKare policy is that if you have an approved relationship agreement, you’re good to go. Raj tears up the Eliza and Freddie agreement and gives Henry a blank relationship form. Henry’s shocked at how chill the company is about such things.
At a staff meeting, Sapperstein announces that since KinderKare met their sales goals, it’s time for the annual company Karaoke party. Performance is mandatory, which like I said in the introduction, would just make me incredibly uncomfortable. That’s the kind of thing that would make me quit a job. I get incredibly self-conscious about singing. Eliza keeps trying to get Henry’s attention during the meeting, but he keeps ignoring her. Sapperstein makes a comment about how Eliza and Henry should perform a duet at the party. After the staff meeting, Eliza confronts henry in his office about how he has been avoiding her. He says he needs time to think about his feelings, so Eliza leaves him to it. Outside of Henry’s office, Eliza runs into Freddie. He is a mess thanks to the break-up. He has let his workout go, and his physique is deteriorating. Eliza really hopes he doesn’t lose his Adonis Belt. She doesn’t care enough to agree to go out with him again, though. She says her heart belongs to another.
Eliza solicits advice from Charmonique while doing her laundry, and Charmonique basically tells her to go all Left-Eye Lopez and burn Henry’s house down. Bryn hears this conversation and has to interject. She advocates for a more stalker-y approach, which really isn’t all that much better. Charmonique and Bryn have never met before, but they don’t like each other at all. They insult each other’s lack of experience with relationships repeatedly, and at several points, they get into full-blown physical altercations. Which I thought was just a kind of dumb sight gag with Charmonique and Bryn a little more beat up every time we see them. Eliza has enough and decides to just approach Henry at the Karaoke party and ask him how he feels.
Henry, for his part, is extremely conflicted, and we learn the details of this through a conversation he has with Raj about what Karaoke song he should perform. He’s torn between Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” (apparently the “dangerous” option that is the Eliza analogue) and a more conventional Billy Joel song that is the stand in for his relationship with Julia. I do think it’s kind of crappy that Eliza is asking Henry to break up with Julia. I suppose it’s better than asking him to cheat on her, though. After thinking it through, Henry decides he’s going to go for it, presumably with both singing “Hollaback Girl” and a relationship with Eliza. Henry starts to doubt his decision when he has a conversation with Freddie, though. Freddie wants to know if Henry has any insight on why Eliza broke up with him. Freddie mumbles about how he thinks Eliza was just afraid to commit because she’s a man eater. He then proceeds to do a Karaoke performance of “Man Eater.”
Eliza arrives at the party, dressed only in bicycle shorts and a tee shirt (because she was in such a rush), and she confronts Henry. She says all she wants to know is how he feels about her. She and Henry then go into Henry’s office. He starts preaching about how he’s not very good at accessing his own emotions, but he thinks he understands what is going on with Eliza. He thinks Eliza pursued him to sabotage her relationship with Freddie because that relationship was getting too real. Eliza is upset and (understandably) offended by this, and she swears that she is not afraid of relationships at all. She then starts to storm out, and she sees Julia waiting in the hallway. Julia has obviously heard at least some of this conversation, and Eliza tries to play it off like she was just rehearsing for a play. Julia clearly knows better, though.
Eliza starts to drink, and when she next encounters Henry, he claims that Julia is waiting for him downstairs. Eliza doesn’t believe him, and she asks Henry to love her. Henry just leaves. It is then time for Eliza’s Karaoke performance, which is a surprisingly good rendition of Sia’s “Chandelier.” Who knew Karen Gillan could sing? When she’s done, she drinks even more, and she ends the night in bed with Freddie. Which seems vaguely rape-y to me. Julia apparently wasn’t waiting, because we end the episode with Sapperstein and Henry talking after the party has wound down. Henry didn’t do his mandatory performance, and apparently all Koreans love Karaoke, so Sapperstein makes Henry get up to the mic. Instead of singing either of the songs that were contenders earlier, he sings “Wild World,” and it’s quite sad. So we end on a downer.
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Marvel's Agent Carter 1.02: "Bridge and Tunnel"
“Your line of work requires support, people who care about your well-being and who are there to stitch up your wounds.”
- Jarvis
Things pick up pretty much right where they ended in the pilot. Well except that we get some pretty funny bits with the “Captain America Adventure Hour” radio program where we see the voice actors reading the lines and such. It’s pretty ridiculous and Peggy is rather annoyed by the portrayal of herself. Elsewhere, the creepy green suited guy with the throat scar (who is apparently not in fact Leviathan) gets orders to track down James Frain’s character and the bombs. He ends up killing the guy from the diner who was being really rude to one of the waitresses. Meanwhile, Peggy’s in the market for a new apartment and Jarvis and Stark insist she uses one of Stark’s non-primary residences. It’s quite swanky and she agrees to stay one night but she’s not letting Jarvis join her on her missions to search for the milk truck full of explosives. She’s quite good at doing different accents I must admit and she snows the milk distributor guy into letting her look at all the trucks. She’s got one missing and I’m betting it’s the one she’s looking for. Meanwhile, Thompson and his boss get what is left of the facility where the bomb exploded and one of the lesser agents is assigned to pull it apart. Back at the office, Peggy is heading out to find the driver of the missing truck when photos come back from the party she was at (pretending to be blond). Seems like she might get caught after all.
She gets a reprieve when said lesser agent order Sousa to go pull the wreck apart. He locks the photos in a desk drawer and so now Peggy has to find a way to get to them (via a lock pick hidden in a broach) before anyone notices. Unfortunately, Sousa comes back and the chief calls after a meeting with the owner of the facility that imploded. They want Peggy to test the female employees to see if any of the radiation is still lingering on them. Of course that means that it’s still lingering on Peggy. But at least she’s gotten Jarvis to get rid of Stark’s car that also has radiation still on it. She scans herself in the bathroom and finds her watch is what’s still radioactive so she ditches it. In the process of the scanning the employees she comes face to face with the guy who was making the bombs and after she points out that they should check the clothes the people wore to work that day, he bolts and Thompson gives chase. Quite calmly, Peggy heads down to the lobby and knocks the guy down as he’s running with a briefcase. We then get a rather stereotypical good cop, bad cop routine completely with an actual stick and carrot. Kind of ridiculous really.
Peggy heads to the diner to wait for Jarvis to pick her up and the waitress, Angie, insists that Peggy move into the vacant apartment in her building. But knowing how dangerous her profession is and still reeling from her other roommate getting shot in the head while she slept, she’s hesitant to take the place. Understandable, really. Peggy gripes a bit more about the Captain America Adventure Hour as they head out to find the milk truck driver. It seems to be a race now between her, her SSR colleagues and the man in the green suit working for Leviathan. She gets there first and after telling Jarvis to go home, she knocks the truck driver around a bit. She’s barely had time to partially handcuff him to a chair when the thief tries to steal the truck full of bombs. But Jarvis didn’t go home and he sabotaged the engine. Peggy orders him to fix it while she tries to get some answers and she learns that Leviathan is an organization that he used to work for but he double-crossed them. Before she can find out what they were really after, Jarvis reports the truck driver is missing and once on the road, the guy hunting the thief jumps on top of the truck. Well, damn. Things are heating up quickly. Let’s hope those bombs don’t go off!
Peggy gets into quite the fight with the green-suited guy and she eventual stabs his hand to the top of the truck before diving off along with Jarvis and an unfortunately dying thief. The truck goes into the water and explodes because in the commotion one of the bombs came loose. Peggy tries to get answers on what Leviathan wants and all she gets before the thief dies is a weird drawing in the sand. Thompson and their boss arrive on scene shortly after Jarvis and Peggy get away (they picked up the truck driver still cuffed to the chair). They are still trying to figure out how Stark is connected and they think the blond from the club is their next link. Lucky for Peggy she was good at dodging the cameras and never showed her face. Unfortunately, during the scuffle she dropped her hotel key and got shot. As Jarvis is stitching her up, he suggests that she needs to be more reliant on people because no matter what she thinks, she can’t save the world herself. Even Captain American couldn’t do it. In fact, according to Jarvis, Cap relied on Peggy for his strength and support. How touching. And, given that she needs a place to live, she ends up taking the vacant apartment at Angie’s building. The landlady is kind of obnoxious but Peggy gives all the answers that mollify her into offering the place.
As the episode comes to a close, one of the SSR agents who is pulling apart the wreck that was once the facility, he finds the bumper form Stark’s car (which is likely now stolen after being left in Hoboken with the keys in the ignition) and the license plate. Peggy was right to ditch the car but it isn’t going to look very good for Stark going forward. I have a feeling that this is going to be the running theme of the remaining six episodes. I think with such a short episode order a more serialized element is a good thing. We’ll see if the ratings agree going forward and if ABC decides to bring it back next year to bridge SHIELD’s hiatus.
- Jarvis
Things pick up pretty much right where they ended in the pilot. Well except that we get some pretty funny bits with the “Captain America Adventure Hour” radio program where we see the voice actors reading the lines and such. It’s pretty ridiculous and Peggy is rather annoyed by the portrayal of herself. Elsewhere, the creepy green suited guy with the throat scar (who is apparently not in fact Leviathan) gets orders to track down James Frain’s character and the bombs. He ends up killing the guy from the diner who was being really rude to one of the waitresses. Meanwhile, Peggy’s in the market for a new apartment and Jarvis and Stark insist she uses one of Stark’s non-primary residences. It’s quite swanky and she agrees to stay one night but she’s not letting Jarvis join her on her missions to search for the milk truck full of explosives. She’s quite good at doing different accents I must admit and she snows the milk distributor guy into letting her look at all the trucks. She’s got one missing and I’m betting it’s the one she’s looking for. Meanwhile, Thompson and his boss get what is left of the facility where the bomb exploded and one of the lesser agents is assigned to pull it apart. Back at the office, Peggy is heading out to find the driver of the missing truck when photos come back from the party she was at (pretending to be blond). Seems like she might get caught after all.
She gets a reprieve when said lesser agent order Sousa to go pull the wreck apart. He locks the photos in a desk drawer and so now Peggy has to find a way to get to them (via a lock pick hidden in a broach) before anyone notices. Unfortunately, Sousa comes back and the chief calls after a meeting with the owner of the facility that imploded. They want Peggy to test the female employees to see if any of the radiation is still lingering on them. Of course that means that it’s still lingering on Peggy. But at least she’s gotten Jarvis to get rid of Stark’s car that also has radiation still on it. She scans herself in the bathroom and finds her watch is what’s still radioactive so she ditches it. In the process of the scanning the employees she comes face to face with the guy who was making the bombs and after she points out that they should check the clothes the people wore to work that day, he bolts and Thompson gives chase. Quite calmly, Peggy heads down to the lobby and knocks the guy down as he’s running with a briefcase. We then get a rather stereotypical good cop, bad cop routine completely with an actual stick and carrot. Kind of ridiculous really.
Peggy heads to the diner to wait for Jarvis to pick her up and the waitress, Angie, insists that Peggy move into the vacant apartment in her building. But knowing how dangerous her profession is and still reeling from her other roommate getting shot in the head while she slept, she’s hesitant to take the place. Understandable, really. Peggy gripes a bit more about the Captain America Adventure Hour as they head out to find the milk truck driver. It seems to be a race now between her, her SSR colleagues and the man in the green suit working for Leviathan. She gets there first and after telling Jarvis to go home, she knocks the truck driver around a bit. She’s barely had time to partially handcuff him to a chair when the thief tries to steal the truck full of bombs. But Jarvis didn’t go home and he sabotaged the engine. Peggy orders him to fix it while she tries to get some answers and she learns that Leviathan is an organization that he used to work for but he double-crossed them. Before she can find out what they were really after, Jarvis reports the truck driver is missing and once on the road, the guy hunting the thief jumps on top of the truck. Well, damn. Things are heating up quickly. Let’s hope those bombs don’t go off!
Peggy gets into quite the fight with the green-suited guy and she eventual stabs his hand to the top of the truck before diving off along with Jarvis and an unfortunately dying thief. The truck goes into the water and explodes because in the commotion one of the bombs came loose. Peggy tries to get answers on what Leviathan wants and all she gets before the thief dies is a weird drawing in the sand. Thompson and their boss arrive on scene shortly after Jarvis and Peggy get away (they picked up the truck driver still cuffed to the chair). They are still trying to figure out how Stark is connected and they think the blond from the club is their next link. Lucky for Peggy she was good at dodging the cameras and never showed her face. Unfortunately, during the scuffle she dropped her hotel key and got shot. As Jarvis is stitching her up, he suggests that she needs to be more reliant on people because no matter what she thinks, she can’t save the world herself. Even Captain American couldn’t do it. In fact, according to Jarvis, Cap relied on Peggy for his strength and support. How touching. And, given that she needs a place to live, she ends up taking the vacant apartment at Angie’s building. The landlady is kind of obnoxious but Peggy gives all the answers that mollify her into offering the place.
As the episode comes to a close, one of the SSR agents who is pulling apart the wreck that was once the facility, he finds the bumper form Stark’s car (which is likely now stolen after being left in Hoboken with the keys in the ignition) and the license plate. Peggy was right to ditch the car but it isn’t going to look very good for Stark going forward. I have a feeling that this is going to be the running theme of the remaining six episodes. I think with such a short episode order a more serialized element is a good thing. We’ll see if the ratings agree going forward and if ABC decides to bring it back next year to bridge SHIELD’s hiatus.
Marvel's Agent Carter 1.01: "Pilot"
“During the War, I had a sense of purpose, but now I connect the calls but I never get a chance to make them.”
- Peggy Carter
So while our current day Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are on break, we are getting a glimpse into the past with “Agent Carter”. As you likely know, Peggy made her debut in “Captain America: The First Avenger” and she was Cap’s girlfriend. Of course, we know he went down in an iceberg and was lost for like 70 years but that’s how things go. We find Peggy now in 1946 in New York and she’s working for the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR), the precursor to SHIELD. Her friends think she works at the phone company but she’s really an agent. Unfortunately, now that the war is over and men are returning, the women who worked in all of these typically male-oriented positions are being pushed to the sidelines and treated like dirt. This is especially clear when the agents get called into a briefing because Howard Stark (Tony Stark’s father) is being accused of selling weaponry to the enemy and now he’s missing. A real hotshot agent, Thompson, is assigned to hunt Stark down. Clearly Peggy is not happy about this given her close connection to Stark during the war and his efforts with the super soldier program. But it’s a real boys’ club and they treat her like a secretary. She’s got one guy in her corner, Agent Daniel Sousa (played by the ever versatile Enver Gjokaj whom you should know from his days in the Dollhouse). Obviously, Peggy doesn’t need a man to defend her but she appreciates that he feels offended on her behalf. That night, she’s at a diner when someone slips her a note to meet in the back alley. A handsome Brit approaches her and when he says she’ll be going with him, she beats him up and shoots out the tire of the oncoming car only to realize it was Howard Stark trying to get her attention.
Stark thinks he’s being framed and he explains to Peggy en route to the docks that he came back from a trip to find his super-secret vault with a giant hole in it and all his bad inventions (the ones he can’t help thinking up and creating but that he couldn’t sell because of the negative repercussions) were gone. Some have already been sold in Europe and some are still trying to find buyers in the US. Stark tasks Peggy with finding the real bad guy and clearing his name. This of course means working a bit counter to her SSR colleagues which could be dangerous. She’s a very good spy though. She finds Sousa the next morning looking at photos of Stark and a woman on a boat. Peggy convinces him that Stark can’t swim and is afraid of the water so getting on a boat is the last thing he’d do (which we obviously know is a big fat lie). And Thompson is having a briefing on a fence who he thinks is going to snap up one of Stark’s inventions. Peggy inserts herself into the meeting via coffee and when she’s learned who they are going after and his preferences in women (he likes blonds) she excuses herself with a “woman’s issues” excuse and gets dolled up for the night. She worms her way in with her feminine wiles and then uses some paralyzing lipstick (did she steal that from Captain Harkness during the War?) and breaks into the vault where she finds a little shiny and glowing device which I’m guessing isn’t what she was looking for but it’s good she’s found it. Oh and the thief who took all of Stark’s inventions is played by the ever nefarious James Frain. Seriously, I can’t think of a role he’s played recently where he wasn’t evil (or creepy at least…I guess he turned out to not be evil on Sleepy Hollow).
It turns out, as Thompson and his guys show up, that what Peggy found is the formula that Stark had developed put into practical use and weaponized. She calls Jarvis for help and luckily Stark left some handy notes on how to handle and dispose of it. She heads home with it and has to do some quick thinking on the dance floor to avoid her co-workers seeing her. And it seems that James Frain’s character has goons who are cleaning up messes including the fence. Peggy manages to get home and successfully diffuse the bomb but no sooner has she done that than her roommate is shot dead and two gunmen surround her in her apartment. Oh dear, how is she going to get out of this?
As we know, Peggy is no pushover in hand-to-hand combat and after some improv she manages to best the guy and toss him out a window. She’s devastated over losing her roommate though and she feels responsible. Jarvis tries to cheer her up but she’s not having it. At least not until the mission is done. Jarvis has an idea of where they can go to get the answers they need on how the device was made and it turns out it likely came from a nearby factory and the device is still letting off a certain type of radiation which was used in the super soldier program. While Peggy is at work retrieving a device and recalling her last conversation with Steve, the guy she tossed out the window is using a very Fringe-like typewriter to get permission to kill Peggy to salvage their operation. I like how they are weaving in bits from the first Captain America movie (and I’m sure Chris Evans isn’t complaining either since they probably have to pay him some sort of royalty to use the footage).
Peggy and Jarvis head to the facility and she is pretty badass breaking in and taking out one of the guards. I have to say though I don’t see why she didn’t take the guy’s weapon. Also, Peggy and Jarvis are hilarious with their banter. I quite enjoy them. It turns out the radiation bomb devices are being mass produced and James Frain’s character has a truck full of them and apparently he’s got voice issues and speaks like Steven Hawking. The other scar-throat guy isn’t with him and calls him the Leviathan. Cryptic. The facility ends up blowing up and imploding so there’s no building left. Thompson and Sousa and their boss go check it out while Peggy heads back to work and Jarvis shares a very cryptic phone conversation with Stark in which it really sounds like they’re secretly Hydra which would piss me off to no end.
For a pilot episode, I thought it was pretty well done and it introduced us to our lead heroine and gave her some interesting (if chauvinistic) supporting characters) to work with. Let’s see how the rest of the season progresses. I do hope we get a complete story with these eight episodes.
- Peggy Carter
So while our current day Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are on break, we are getting a glimpse into the past with “Agent Carter”. As you likely know, Peggy made her debut in “Captain America: The First Avenger” and she was Cap’s girlfriend. Of course, we know he went down in an iceberg and was lost for like 70 years but that’s how things go. We find Peggy now in 1946 in New York and she’s working for the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR), the precursor to SHIELD. Her friends think she works at the phone company but she’s really an agent. Unfortunately, now that the war is over and men are returning, the women who worked in all of these typically male-oriented positions are being pushed to the sidelines and treated like dirt. This is especially clear when the agents get called into a briefing because Howard Stark (Tony Stark’s father) is being accused of selling weaponry to the enemy and now he’s missing. A real hotshot agent, Thompson, is assigned to hunt Stark down. Clearly Peggy is not happy about this given her close connection to Stark during the war and his efforts with the super soldier program. But it’s a real boys’ club and they treat her like a secretary. She’s got one guy in her corner, Agent Daniel Sousa (played by the ever versatile Enver Gjokaj whom you should know from his days in the Dollhouse). Obviously, Peggy doesn’t need a man to defend her but she appreciates that he feels offended on her behalf. That night, she’s at a diner when someone slips her a note to meet in the back alley. A handsome Brit approaches her and when he says she’ll be going with him, she beats him up and shoots out the tire of the oncoming car only to realize it was Howard Stark trying to get her attention.
Stark thinks he’s being framed and he explains to Peggy en route to the docks that he came back from a trip to find his super-secret vault with a giant hole in it and all his bad inventions (the ones he can’t help thinking up and creating but that he couldn’t sell because of the negative repercussions) were gone. Some have already been sold in Europe and some are still trying to find buyers in the US. Stark tasks Peggy with finding the real bad guy and clearing his name. This of course means working a bit counter to her SSR colleagues which could be dangerous. She’s a very good spy though. She finds Sousa the next morning looking at photos of Stark and a woman on a boat. Peggy convinces him that Stark can’t swim and is afraid of the water so getting on a boat is the last thing he’d do (which we obviously know is a big fat lie). And Thompson is having a briefing on a fence who he thinks is going to snap up one of Stark’s inventions. Peggy inserts herself into the meeting via coffee and when she’s learned who they are going after and his preferences in women (he likes blonds) she excuses herself with a “woman’s issues” excuse and gets dolled up for the night. She worms her way in with her feminine wiles and then uses some paralyzing lipstick (did she steal that from Captain Harkness during the War?) and breaks into the vault where she finds a little shiny and glowing device which I’m guessing isn’t what she was looking for but it’s good she’s found it. Oh and the thief who took all of Stark’s inventions is played by the ever nefarious James Frain. Seriously, I can’t think of a role he’s played recently where he wasn’t evil (or creepy at least…I guess he turned out to not be evil on Sleepy Hollow).
It turns out, as Thompson and his guys show up, that what Peggy found is the formula that Stark had developed put into practical use and weaponized. She calls Jarvis for help and luckily Stark left some handy notes on how to handle and dispose of it. She heads home with it and has to do some quick thinking on the dance floor to avoid her co-workers seeing her. And it seems that James Frain’s character has goons who are cleaning up messes including the fence. Peggy manages to get home and successfully diffuse the bomb but no sooner has she done that than her roommate is shot dead and two gunmen surround her in her apartment. Oh dear, how is she going to get out of this?
As we know, Peggy is no pushover in hand-to-hand combat and after some improv she manages to best the guy and toss him out a window. She’s devastated over losing her roommate though and she feels responsible. Jarvis tries to cheer her up but she’s not having it. At least not until the mission is done. Jarvis has an idea of where they can go to get the answers they need on how the device was made and it turns out it likely came from a nearby factory and the device is still letting off a certain type of radiation which was used in the super soldier program. While Peggy is at work retrieving a device and recalling her last conversation with Steve, the guy she tossed out the window is using a very Fringe-like typewriter to get permission to kill Peggy to salvage their operation. I like how they are weaving in bits from the first Captain America movie (and I’m sure Chris Evans isn’t complaining either since they probably have to pay him some sort of royalty to use the footage).
Peggy and Jarvis head to the facility and she is pretty badass breaking in and taking out one of the guards. I have to say though I don’t see why she didn’t take the guy’s weapon. Also, Peggy and Jarvis are hilarious with their banter. I quite enjoy them. It turns out the radiation bomb devices are being mass produced and James Frain’s character has a truck full of them and apparently he’s got voice issues and speaks like Steven Hawking. The other scar-throat guy isn’t with him and calls him the Leviathan. Cryptic. The facility ends up blowing up and imploding so there’s no building left. Thompson and Sousa and their boss go check it out while Peggy heads back to work and Jarvis shares a very cryptic phone conversation with Stark in which it really sounds like they’re secretly Hydra which would piss me off to no end.
For a pilot episode, I thought it was pretty well done and it introduced us to our lead heroine and gave her some interesting (if chauvinistic) supporting characters) to work with. Let’s see how the rest of the season progresses. I do hope we get a complete story with these eight episodes.
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