Marvel Studios 2015

Summary: It’s 1946, WWII is over and Agent Peggy Carter finds herself working for the SSR. Begrudging the position of a pencil pusher, stranded in an era where the male presence runs basically everything, Carter secretly attempts to continue doing what she does best: being a secret agent. But everything comes at a cost, when Howard Stark appears to be selling his most dangerous inventions to the black market, Peggy is hired on to clear his name at all costs – even if it brands her a traitor. In the ensuing battle a new enemy arises, and those dear to Peggy continue to get hurt. How much of it can she take before she breaks?

“Time and Tide”

Directed by Scott Winant; Written by Andi Bushell

Review: Three episodes in, and Agent Carter continues to impress as a show willing to throw the punches and keep viewers on its toes. In this episode we get to see Carter being really proactive – something that has come to help define her character, and an incredible trait addition for her – and taking the fight to Leviathan. While we still only have an inkling as to who they really are, and what their ultimate goal is, I’m assuming from the events of this episode she’s thrown a huge monkey wrench into their planned operations.

Speaking of the villains for a second, Marvel has done a good job at making sure that Leviathan remains mostly in the shadows and at the tip of the SSR’s fingertips, so close yet always so far away. It makes them more menacing and intriguing. Especially with the assailants they incorporate into the field. We honestly get very little of Leviathan in this episode and I liked that. Instead we focused heavily on the characters for this episode, and in fact there’s only one fight scene in the entire episode. Jarvis gets some wonderful character growth, and we even get to see the SSR men being, what is this, really good at their jobs. I was highly impressed both ways.

That being said, the episode isn’t without its detraction. There’s a scene in the episode where Carter makes mention of figuring out how Stark’s technology was stolen from his home, and we’re led to believe that the event left nearly untraceable marks. But later in the episode her and Jarvis enter a room where there’s a huge, gaping hole in the ground leading to the sewers and its played off as if everyone has known about this obviously unmissable hole the entire show. It wasn’t handled incredibly badly, to the point to where there must’ve been a scene where Carter finds out abut the hole and gives Jarvis a talking to for not telling her, only to be cut from the episode entirely. If not, the the big gaping hole in the floor now symbolizes the big gaping hole of bad writing that this episode suffer from thanks to the two scenes.

For me, given how crucial both scenes were for both the series and the episode to work, this leads the episode to be the weakest of the series so far. Despite having wonderful character moments for Carter, Jarvis, and the SSR guys. Where the SSR is concerned, I wish we were given more reasons to actually like them. I know they’re supposed to be misogynistic assholes, but if something bad happens to them I need to be able to feel the sadness seeping so wonderfully off the characters effected. Everyone does a good job selling how effected they were by a bad occurrence, but unfortunately I couldn’t put myself in their shoes on this one. That being said, I applaud Marvel for making the scene a big deal about a pretty nobody character. That was a good move.

The episode is good, but it’s not the best. That being said, the show hasn’t had an overall bad episode so far and if Agent Carter can keep that gold standard going that it’ll rack up there as one of the many small screen greats.  And I’d surely love that.

Final Score: 3 Friendly Neighborhood, Wall-Crawlin’ Boyfriends out of 5

Derrick is a born and raised otaku with a love for comics, anime, manga and movies. The full list is pretty long, but that’s just the basics. Stories set in space are his bread and butter.
You can find more of his writing at IndieComix.net
@KazekunForever