”You are meant to fight.”
By Eric Goldman
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
This week offered another strong installment of Agent Carter that delved into the past for both Peggy and Whitney in a compelling manner.
After her little anecdote about her youth a couple episodes ago, we got actual flashbacks for Peggy here, giving us a lot of info on who she was before we met her in Captain America: The First Avenger. The spunky, ready to fight little girl we saw was, of course, perfect for who “Agent Carter” is, which created a nice counterpoint when she became much more reserved, hesitant young woman, who hid her true self from her fiancé (!).
There was no getting around the fact that Peggy’s brother, Michael, was obviously going to die – the fact that we’d never heard about him only would really work if he weren’t around any longer. But it didn’t stop the big scene between Peggy and Michael — as she learned he was the one who recommended her for the SOE and pushed for her to be a spy and embrace the life of adventure she craved – from working incredibly well. It was very sweet to see how supportive Peggy’s brother had been and making him the inspiration for all that followed (and that we’ve seen her accomplish) was suitably heartwarming.
As for Whitney, we learned just how utterly brilliant she was here and how much she wasn’t allowed to openly cultivate that brilliance thanks to the era she was raised in – which was only reinforced by her mother. Obviously, Whitney never really stopped using her intelligence, given what Wilkes revealed about her inventions, but just the fact that her mother would tell her no one cared about that aspect of her and she should only use her beauty was also an impactful moment to see brought to life.
With so much focus on the past, not as much was occurring in the present (of 1947, that is), though Vernon Masters took a more active role in hindering the SSR and protecting the Council of Nine – and his role with that group. Masters’ speech to Peggy was pretty heavy handed, but Sousa then revealing he also got the same speech was a great, very funny touch.
Whitney revealing what she’s become to Chadwick, via consuming Mr. Hunt (Chris Browning, who recently also fought Supergirl as Reactron and sure does die on a lot of TV shows!) looks to be a big turning point for these two – as she’s no longer hiding behind any mask (or Masque?) about who she is and what she can do.
Meanwhile, Wilkes sort of spacing out on Jarvis, and seeing the Darkmatter behind him swirling in the chalkboard, raises some big questions about just what Wilkes is capable of too, especially considering the extent of Whitney’s abilities.
In the midst of this, on the comedy side of things, how awesome was it hearing Jarvis pretend to be an American tough guy, knocking on that door? While Jarvis has been perhaps been too consistently used as only a comic foil of late, James D’Arcy sure does give his all in every respect.
It was really cool to see Peggy’s past in this episode and learn more about how she became the hero we know her to be. Meanwhile, it’s a credit to the Agent Carter team that after just knowing the character for four episodes, it was also interesting to see Whitney’s past as well. Whitney’s been a very compelling part of Season 2 and Wynn Everett’s really standing out showing all the different, complicated, and dangerous facets that are guiding her, as she becomes a pretty damn scary supervillain.
