Agent Carter "The Blitzkrieg Button" & "The Iron Ceiling" (REVIEW)
written by Omar Castillon (@omar_castillon)
Mr. Mink, Dottie and Peggy Carter walk into an apartment building, one dies, one escapes and one is oblivious. These are all things that happen throughout the fourth episode of Agent Carter. As we see Peggy and Jarvis fight a bunch of arms dealers in the beginning, who else but Howard Stark himself shows up in a boxcar practicing his pool game. Pretty classy for a guy who is the most wanted man in the United States. Howard then appoints Peggy with another mission involving his inventions. She gets to use a nifty photo pen bordering on the James Bond level of gadgets. The SSR have other plans following a battle that “never happened” between the Soviets and the Nazis during the war. This connection comes at the cusp of the two dead witnesses that said the words Leviathan.
Once Peggy gets the photos of Howard’s gadgets from the SSR, Howard then gives Peggy the real mission of retrieving a “bomb” that only he can deactivate. Howard says it’s an EMP sort of weapon but it turns out to be something a lot more valuable. Peggy of course discovers this before delivering it to Howard. She then feels a sense of betrayal once she realizes what she has in her hands. Long story short, this is essentially the big Marvel Cinematic Universe connection that we have been waiting for since the start of the franchise. I’m sure you can make the connection as to what the object could be that would make Peggy so aggravated with Howard for hiding it from her all of those years.
As for Dottie (who was the new resident to move into Peggy’s building) she is more than she appears to be since her and Mr. Mink (who is our mysterious Leviathan henchman) get into a short but sweet fight against each other. The move Dottie makes in order to take down Mr.
Mink is similar to another character in the MCU. Let’s just say that Black Widow is not the only Black Widow if you know what I mean.
This leads to the fifth episode where Peggy and her SSR comrades keep following on the lead from the automatic typewriter that has been communicating with the Leviathan agents. One thing to note first is the opening sequence where a group of little girls are handcuffed to their beds and forced to learn English and fight to the death. This is where the lovely Dottie was raised and trained. It’s pretty surreal seeing such strange conditioning for a person that young.
Back to the agency at hand, the secret message is then presented to the men at SSR but eventually Peggy outsmarts all of the members and deciphers the message. This leads to an arms deal under the name of Howard Stark in Russia. Immediately, Peggy insists that she be placed on the field mission since she has connections from back in the war as well as experience in the region. Peggy, Thompson and two others go on the mission to Russia to investigate the deal. Meanwhile, Dooley goes on his own mission to get some more clarification on the battle that never was between the Soviets and the Nazis.
As Peggy and the crew make it to their mission, we get a surprise welcome in the form of the Howling Commandos. The Howling Commandos for those that don’t know are the same crew that fought with Captain America in the first film featuring the Cap. It’s a nice touch seeing them interact with Peggy like one of the guys. Her SSR comrades look at her in a bit of confusion but go with the flow nonetheless. There is one scene before the big mission where the Howling Commandos and the SSR agents are at a camp site telling war stories. Thompson then goes into his war story involving his tour in the Pacific. It’s pretty tragic and yet it makes him a lot more human as a character.
As the soldiers move on to a base that is close to the coordinates that Peggy deciphered, we see an abandoned building. This building is the very same one that Dottie used to live in back when she was a child. So with that being said, Leviathan and the Black Widow project are one in the same organization. After this realization, the troops get into a nasty fire fight with some Leviathan soldiers and a Black Widow soldier. In the mix of the firefight, Thompson freezes up. Peggy in her most heroic manner fights back the enemy and for a moment Thompson has some respect for Peggy as an equal member of the SSR. Unfortunately one of the SSR agents dies in the battle. In the end, Peggy and her awesome friends part ways while gaining a scientist that was connected with Leviathan’s research team. One thing that is left in the dark is Sousa and his investigation of the picture that was taken of Peggy during the episode where she went undercover as a blonde. The two bullet scars on Peggy’s shoulder are a dead giveaway that Sousa noticed early in the episode. Who knows what will happen in these last two episodes of the series.
At this point we are getting to the end of the series. It’s both a blessing and a curse since there is that craving for more episodes but also comfort that it does have a short life. I am glad that this series did happen but sad that it will just sort of end. Here’s hoping that the finale will satisfy fans and maybe set up a connection with either the MCU movies or Agents Of Shield if at all possible.
