REVIEW: Agent Carter "The Lady in the Lake"/"A View in the Dark"
And we’re back. Wish I could say that it was an exciting or even expected return, but I can’t honestly. I would watch Peggy Carter read the phonebook, so another new season of Agent Carter shouldn’t be that much of a problem. The two-hour premiere, if you can last that long, is an entirely different story. Still, there’s nothing too different from last year’s two-hour premiere barring Peggy’s new location in Los Angeles. How will this season’s opening and the following sixty minutes pan out? Let’s watch.
After what has to be the longest “Previously On” I’ve ever seen on a Marvel production, we open with a kickass scene that should have, or should be, what the series is. By cosplaying as Peggy Carter, Dottie Underwood attempts to rob a vault in a bank, but the SSR cleverly catch her in the act as Peggy fights and takes her down. Unfortunately, that, like the Howling Commandoes episode last year, would be an amazing show to watch, so we quickly move to the real plot. Daniel Sousa, who’s now the chief of the SSR in Los Angeles, is working on a case of a fellow somehow freezing girls in lake ice blocks. I will try to say nothing about how this was a plot in Agents of SHIELD season one and not even the good half of it of all places and instead move onto the obvious transition to the fact that Sousa needs Peggy for this mission.
Peggy’s welcomed (and so are we) to the reappearance of Jarvis who offers to accompany Peggy on her stay while Howard Stark opens a movie studio and finds a new place for his flamingo (I’m not kidding). Honestly, the interactions between Jarvis and Peggy were always my favorite part of the series and almost the one thing I would go back and re-watch the show for if anything. His diatribe about the failings of Los Angeles including the dry heat (me being from the South only know too well about heat) is fun even if it has nothing to do with the episode. The series is pretty hit-and-miss when it comes to humor as it is, although I did think that jab about the new SSR location was great. Of course, we’re back to the real plan.
Peggy, Sousa, and new character Agent Andrew Henry explore the frozen woman’s body trying to determine whether or not her body actually coincides with the frozen lake. While that ends in a bust, they discover that the body can glow which means yes, we are watching a science-fiction show. The chemicals in the body coincide with the particle accelerator which happens to be located in the new threatening company Isodyne Chemicals. Peggy sneaks into the lab and meets the charming wine-making scientist Dr. Wilkes who recognizes the body as a woman who fraternized with the company owner Calvin Chadwick. After some oddly placed flirting which…is fine, I guess, Peggy works to confront Chadwick with the help of Jarvis and his wife.
Regardless of what I say about every character who’s not Peggy, this show seems to do its female characters right. Right off the bat, Anna Jarvis is probably one of the best characters on this show after only two minutes by passionately kissing her husband and offering Peggy a garter that functions as a gun holster. Even Dottie’s a decent character since she considers Peggy her real enemy. Or were those scenes supposed to be about Agent Thompson? Anyway, Peggy and Jarvis confront senatorial candidate Chadwick and his movie actress wife Whitney Frost while Peggy tries to gain insight on the company. That link ends up a bust as well, but it is fun to hear Peggy’s American accent.
Things take a turn for the worst when the scientist examining the body ends up frozen and then broken to pieces. In the confusion, the team learns that Agent Henry was, in fact, the man behind the lady in the lake by having a condition that freezes him from the inside out. He kidnaps Dr. Wilkes, leading Peggy, Jarvis, and Sousa on a hunt to save the scientist. I guess in the midst of that something happened to Thompson with regards to the FBI and Dottie, but even they said that Thompson was irrelevant now.
Expectedly, the team rescue Wilkes with Agent Henry being shot and disintegrating. Expectedly, the situation connects, unbeknownst to the SSR, to Chadwick’s company under the guidance of his wife. More unexpectedly is the fact that apparently Sousa is actually seeing someone, and it looks like the show might be bringing back the Gravitonium after all (or zero matter, whatever you purists want). Oh, and Wilkes is also somehow behind it. As far as season openers go, it hits all the required bumps along with the large number of characters we have to remember the names of in the long run. I am enjoying the more authoritative role to Peggy in this role though, so this show might be passing into the realms of enjoyable watching.
Unlike the two-part season finale of Agents of SHIELD, it’s a lot easier to tell these two episodes apart, and we start with a scene of Peggy and Jarvis sparring. Again, this scene has little to do with anything that happens in the episode, but it’s fun so it gets a mention here since it involves Peggy fencing. Besides, the rest of the opening is pretty lackluster in comparison to just learning that there is yet another secret organization involving Chadwick with some less than admirable goals. Honestly, SHIELD’s more of the spy show, but there’s only one evil organization to worry about when here we’ve never even closed the doors on Leviathan. In other news, Peggy has a date with Wilkes, and Sousa has a ring for his lady. Next.
I forgot to mention we learn a little more about Peggy in this nonsense such as the fact that she had a brother and was caught trying to sneak liquor with her friends at a boarding school. It’s honestly pretty hard to watch things like Wilkes and Peggy dancing when I would prefer to actually learn something and move forward, plus the fact that Wilkes is obviously hiding the Isodyne secret. I mean, a similar situation happens with Chadwick and Whitney Frost, but at least I learn something about their characters. Then again, those married criminals always have the wife as the crazy one anyway, like Bonnie and Clyde, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, or Daisy’s parents. I guess we’re not really learning things in this episode.
Eventually, Wilkes does out to Peggy that the reason he’s protecting Isodyne is the discovery of the zero matter following an atomic explosion test. This other-worldly or other-dimensionly matter is a whole new discovery that would be scrapped should Chadwick go belly-up, so Wilkes keep it secret. Peggy then decides to help him steal the matter back which leads them to being chased by unknown operatives. This also leads to Wilkes and Peggy kissing and stealing a car. I call this a win-some, lose-some kind of situation which gives me time to appreciate Peggy’s mindset when dealing with people who want to kill her and feel so dragged at the guy who just showed up and already kept secrets.
Jarvis and Sousa try to track down Peggy as she and Wilkes make it to Isodyne to secure the dark matter. Don’t ask me how, but the process takes 30 seconds. Wilkes is confronted by Whitney Frost who true to crazy wife form plans to shoot Wilkes and take the matter for herself. Peggy handles the goons outside while the tussle inside leads to the dark matter breaking through and causing an explosion and the disappearances of Wilkes and Frost. Of course, this is a comic-book show, so Frost is obviously alive with effects we can’t notice yet.
I suppose it’s both a success and a failure since my interest in Agent Carter is still relatively the same at this point. They’ve given Peggy a much more respectful role in the show, but there are still a bunch of characters with less interesting plots. Granted, I will say that these openings are usually far more interesting than the middle, so these are definitely the enjoyable episodes that make you interested in watching a Peggy Carter show. With a new setting and slightly higher risks in the dark matter, there are at least decent setups for the other eight episodes.
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