This week we go to Russia! But first we flashback. To Russia! The mysterious Dottie has a past. That past seems to include being handcuffed to a bed as a child and forced to recite Disney movies. Yes, it sounds like a weekend at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch but it is in fact less sinister than that. We are introduced to Leviathan and what seems to be the precursor to the Black Widow program or is perhaps actually the Black Widow program. Little girls fight each other to the death and just to show how cold blooded Dottie is she shares her stolen bread with one of her fellow widow’s and then snaps that same girls neck later on after a fight in the courtyard. It’s intense. Agent Carter manages to insert herself into a major op happening to track the origins of the typewriter telegraph machine we saw back in episode one. She snags the Howling Commando’s and her and Agent Thompson, the biggest douche in the SSR, take redshirts of their own to meet up with them. It’s nice seeing Dum Dum Duggan again as well as the cheaper Howling Commando’s, or at least their non-union look a-likes, again.
The episode zips right along leaving little time for anything on the side. Most of the episode focuses on the infiltration of the Leviathan camp which is mostly empty save for one crying little girl. A crying little girl that manages to stab Duggan, kill one Howling Commando and shoot another in the leg. They do find captives that deny Stark’s involvement which will probably move towards Stark being able to come back and take over. At first I was a little confused as to where the series fit compared to the one-shot but now I’m certain that this is all a prequel. The head of the SSR branch is acting shady so I have a feeling he will be replaced by the guy we know in the one-shot. Howard Stark and Dum Dum are going to show up as the heads of SHIELD and poor Peggy will end up essentially right where she was when we started the series. Until the events of the one-shot shortly after.
The episode does a good job setting up a future conflict between Peggy and Dottie and it delivers some nostalgia in the form of the Howling Commando’s. It gives one of the most poorly written shout out’s ever when Dum Dum awkwardly calls Peggy Miss Union Jack and provides some momentum going forward as one of her co-workers starts to figure out Peggy’s role in all the recent events. All in all I’m looking forward to seeing how all this plays out.
Score: 3/5
Catch the remaining episodes of Agent Carter on ABC