Agent Carter Review: The One With All the Backstory
There was a lot to love about this episode, but the flashbacks were what really set it apart from a typical hour of Agent Carter. We finally got a look at who Peggy Carter was before she met Captain America, and I was beyond happy with the result.
I loved the way the flashbacks were framed, alternating between Peggy and Whitney as kids, teenagers, and young adults. Doing it this way highlighted that they actually have very similar origin stories, which makes the idea that one of them turned into a hero and the other a villain even more interesting. Both women dealt with misogyny, both were told to smile and be ladylike, sadly often by their own mothers (though it did give us that great transition to Peggy wolfing down a burger).
Despite facing similar obstacles, each woman ended up in a vastly different place, largely, I think, because of whether or not they had someone to champion and support them. Peggy had her brother in her corner, a man who knew her well enough to know that she had something to offer as a spy, that she was made for more than a marriage that she convinced herself she wanted. It was heartbreaking that he didn’t make it through the war, especially given all the loss that Peggy’s already endured, but she handled it exactly how I would have expected, because that’s what Peggy does. Instead of freezing in the face of loss, she uses that loss as motivation, to push herself further than she ever thought possible. It makes total sense that while Steve’s death pushed her to become the best S.S.R. agent of all time, her brother’s convinced her to become a spy in the first place.
In contrast, Whitney had no one who supported her true self, who valued her for her intelligence rather than her beauty. And most likely because of that, she turned to using that intelligence for evil rather than good. Honestly, as heartbreaking as Peggy’s pre-war story was, Whitney’s may have been even sadder. For me, the best villains have backstories that are so tragic that you nearly want to root for them, mostly because you understand how they ended up as villains, and Whitney definitely falls into that category. But of course, much as I feel for her, this episode proved that she’s pretty unhinged at this point, sucking their hired thug up right in front of her husband and truly believing that her dark matter powers are a gift. In addition to being creepy as all get out, that ending was also interesting because now Whitney’s husband knows her secret. I’m curious to see if he’ll follow along with her or just get in her way. Either way, her actions this episode showed that Whitney is even more dangerous than Peggy and her team expected, giving them even more reason to stop her as soon as possible.
Trying to do so gave us a nice balance of my two favorite team-ups: Peggy and Jarvis and Peggy and Daniel. Peggy and Jarv as the worst kidnappers ever gave the episode a nice bit of levity, from Jarvis’s continued menagerie woes, his terrible fake cop voice, and the fact that Peggy contributed to such a hilariously ill-advised plan. I also loved that we established here that Peggy’s an amazing spy but apparently a terrible liar.
That lie led to the other partner team-up this episode: Peggy and Sousa. As someone who’s definitely rooting for these two, it was great to see that Sousa still respects the hell out of Peggy on a professional level, having her lead one of the teams on the raid, completely trusting her intel, and generally proving that he sees her as an equal. But he also showed that he cares about her on a personal level, insisting that she keep him in the loop on stuff, willing to risk his job for her and their pursuit of justice. That also proved once again how well-matched they are; both were unwilling to let the conspiracy go, showing their unwavering sense of right and wrong.
Like her team-up with Jarvis, Peggy’s interrogation with Daniel led to a couple of fun moments. The head cold bit was hilarious, and I loved how they played good cop/bad cop to convince the thug that it was really malaria.
My only real complaint about this episode is that it made me a little more conflicted about the character of Wilkes. I still really like the guy and enjoyed his chemistry with Peggy in the premiere, but in an hour that featured Peggy and Daniel’s partnership so prominently, her scenes with Jason paled in comparison. It’s pretty clear that Peggy and Sousa are end game (which I’m totally fine with), but it’s a bummer that a great guy like Wilkes got caught up in the middle of it. But hey, the good news is that even being a fully-functioning human again is a win for Jason at this point…
