(Marvel Studios 2016)

Summary: It’s 1947, one year has passed since Peggy took on the remnants of the Nazis and came out victorious. But not all wars are won after just one battle, and Peggy’s journey to build a life for herself after the war continues. This time in L.A. after a mysterious new substance called Zero Matter has cropped up and begun wreaking havoc. Agent Peggy Carter has been dispatched to find the answers behind this new threat, and along the way she is joined by old friends and new enemies. Season 2 is finally here, and what tale it shall be…

Episode 5 – “The Atomic Job”

Directed by Craig Zisk ; Written by Lindsey Allen

[SPOILERS!!]

Review: By the time you read this you will have probably seen all of season 2. However, I haven’ been able to watch the show for a few weeks now due to various obstacles and for that I have gotten rather behind. So with every review you read from this point on please just know I am doing the best I can to get caught up and I am choosing to treat each review as if I just watched the latest episode right after it had aired.

With The Atomic Job Agent Carter sees yet another paradigm shift in quality of story. Whilst I felt Whitney Frost had really stolen the show last episode and was rather excited to see what they were going to do with her this week the writers chose to push her to wayside yet again. Watching her and her husband shuffle around trying to act the villains and the sneaks continues to come off as completely awkward and dare I say boring.

I find no pleasure or entertainment in their relationship that shifts back and forth between mastermind and bumbling idiot and every Whitney scene just feels completely stiff and unnatural. It’s a complaint I had in previous episode reviews and the problem continues to persist. However they’re not the only character’s built to feel stiff and boring. Wilkes as well. Though he exists only for a few scenes in this entire episode and I mean that in two different ways. We’ll get to that other meaning in a bit though.

While the Whitney and the Wilkes scenes continue to feel stalled, stiff and mannequin built, it’s all of the rest of the episode that had me feeling like I was finally watching an Agent Carter episode again. Thanks to the strength given to Peggy, Sousa and the rest of the agents seen this time around we finally get an energetic and fun time. Filled with the kind of action, wit and character drama that doesn’t feel forced but natural. Smart not novice.

Watching Peggy, Sousa and their ragtag team of spies out to save the world – made up of Jarvis, Rose! and the resident lead scientist Samberly – was so much fun! Rose takes no one’s shit and Samberly is such a sweetheart finally get to prove his mettle in the field just as he always wanted to. The best acting of the episode however comes from Jarvis whose made to disarm two Atomic Bombs on the fly and the absolute sheer terror before, during and after is so pure. This is what I expect from this show. It’s what we got in season 1 and there’s no reason we can’t get it week-after-week with season 2.

Even Sousa gets his moments. Sure they’re mostly tied to his new lady love who is a bad-ass in her own right but we get true and natural character moments from Sousa’s awkward and adorable marriage proposal to later in the episode when she’s – her name is Violet – is smart enough to figure out that Sousa still has feelings for Peggy, feelings he’s going to have to come to terms with in order to keep or lose Violet depending on the conclusion he comes to.

I am glad they’re addressing that storyline early on like this and in a much more natural way. I think having Violet figure out based off human interaction between both Sousa and Peggy is great writing and helps support how strong of a character she is. Hell the girl sews Peggy up after she gets impaled with a rod which I will admit was great shock to me whilst watching the episode. The impaling that is, because hot damn. It sucks for Peggy but surprises like that for a viewer like me are bread and butter.

And finally getting back to Wilkes and even Whitney as the two draw ever closer to the power source of the Zero Matter I find myself interested and yet not about the whole mystery behind Zero Matter. Currently the Zero Matter storyline itself feels so oddly paced and placed within the season. At this point I’m more curious about what grand curtain will fall to reveal all about Zero Matter an how it will fall rather than what answer will lie beyond it.

However, the mystery is definitely upped and the end of this episode when Wilkes ceases to exist at the end of this episode. See, I told you only existed for a few scenes this episode. I am curious to see where they’re going with this but I grow ever more skeptical if the end result will be worth the road oddly taken.

Overall a pretty fun episode. Except for 3 particular characters this episode felt like an Agent Carter episode. And that’s all I can really ask for this late in the game, now can’t Ii?

Final Score: 3.5 Atomic Bombs 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