There was an interesting piece of casting news this week, a wonderful news for one woman but potentially terrible news for many geeks. That is that our resident Peggy Carter, Hayley Atwell, has been cast as the lead role in a new ABC legal drama pilot, Conviction. While we wish Hayley all the best (she’s a stellar actress and absolutely deserves it), it does pose a worrying question over the future of Agent Carter. If her new show gets picked up for a full season, despite Agent Carter’s lesser episode run, it would be problematic at best to make the schedules of make shows successfully co-exist and the bigger project Conviction, would of course, take priority. Could our time with the SSR’s first lady be numbered? Ironically, at the same time as making us worry over one of its go-getting gals, the show out of nowhere, delivers us an exciting new one. There’s a new badass in LA, and her name Rose Roberts (yes.... the one at the office entrance).
The Atomic Job – Both Dr Wilkes and Whitney find themselves drawn towards any remaining traces of Zero Matter. When Whitney learns that finding more increases her power, she’s determined to kick-start mass production with another nuclear test. The SSR team must beat her to the bombs before this all blows up!
Now, if there’s one thing this season has lacked so far, it’s an extended field team of featured SSR members unlike the larger ranks of season 1. We’ve mostly just seen Peggy, Jarvis and occasionally Sousa on missions, but in this episode, we see the membership expanded in the final act operation at a Roxxon facility, and the results energize the episode well, giving a great ensemble team feel. There’s a connecting theme to both the new recruits of not judging a book by its cover. The less familiar face is Samberley, the resident LA office science/tech guy. He’s had some good comic relief moments in the past (which doesn’t stop here) but here, we dig further into his character as the believing difference maker overlooked by Sousa as just a guy in a lab coat. Yet we see firsthand that with the right motivation he’s capable in the field and resourceful with both his tech knowhow and gadget toys.
Then, there is the episode MVP herself, Rose, who under our very noses, manages to embody the show’s core ethos of men, foolishly underestimating how capable a woman can be. It’s fair to say that even viewers cheering Peggy on from day one will never view Rose in a physically capable capacity from her larger build to her quieter less confrontation personality. In both seasons, she’s presented as an older Bond film equivalent of Moneypenny, a pleasant face minding the front desk that nobody would ever think to send in the field. Her arc actually becomes less about her capability and more Sousa’s journey of acceptance, to view her with the same level of confidence and respect he shows to Peggy.
When Rose is first suggested, Peggy has to remind him that she’s passed all the same agent tests as his male colleagues. Then of course, both he and the viewers see for ourselves that she is full-blown card-carrying badass as single-handily takes out a huge armed thug, even with ample time to joke about his little pricker, “Uh, I’ve seen bigger”. Through the whole Roxxon operation, she becomes the driving force and even gets some great comedy in as she works Samberley’s clear feelings for her into bestowing him with confidence. Despite proving herself to Sousa, at no point does she ask or expect any praise or recognition. Just like Peggy in her infamous end of Season 1 speech, she knows her value and couldn’t care less whether or not others feel the same.
Overall, this is a primarily light-hearted and joyous romp of an episode. Some of Whitney’s moments take more serious approach but generally, the preference is for lighter comedy, some which is pure brilliance. The memory blocker device (a 2-minute neutralizer) sequence is possibly the funniest the show has ever done from Atwell’s incognito dippy accent to the genius jazz-accompanied montage of Peggy repeatedly zapping Hugh Jones into probable brain damage. But please give the guy credit for his seemingly bottomless stack of suggestive co-worker comments as he keeps getting re-introduced to Peggy. Then, there’s a nervous Jarvis forced into bomb disposal, which is less plutonium and more gold as maintains that, despite their promises, it is nothing like baking a soufflé. Even Sousa’s long-awaited proposal turns into a comedy of errors but both he and nurse Violet are quite adorably together as they make the best of things. Finally, even the show’s latest comics casting brings in laughs as he has a sudden spout of public rage on one of his goons. That is Joseph Manfredi, AKA Blackwing, played by Ken Marino (Wet Hot American Summer). His position here as a pivotal figure in the criminal underworld ties into later incarnation as a crime lord rather than a trainer of mutated bats. In his first appearance, he shows great menace and charisma and will hopefully a great rogue 3rd party in future episodes.
Even the struggling Dr. Wilkes character becomes a meaningful part of the plot this week in what’s definitely this season’s most enjoyable episode to date. It sees Whitney take some key strides towards master villainy as she grows in power. If this turns out to be Agent Carter’s last season (it’s not yet been renewed for a 3rd), that would most certainly suck, but as this season continues to perform strongly, at least it will go out on a high.