Agent Carter 1.03

[selenak]

Continues to be fabulous, and what's this I hear about no episode next week because of some presidential address? Woe!



The Peggy & Jarvis combination continues to be of utter win. Loved the backstory we're getting, and the fact it exists, that Jarvis is his own person with a pre-Stark history. And of course this makes the still unseen Mrs. Jarvis into a person as well instead of a plot device to signal there won't be any romance between him and Peggy. I do wonder, though, why they're so pointedly keeping Anna off screen so we only hear her voice - that looks like the set up for a revelation when we do see her, presumably in the last episode or so. Maybe she'll turn out to be someone already known to the audience in another identity? Though with the time frame, I can't imagine who it could be. Alternate possibility: considering Anna is Hungarian, and we've just learned the operated on assassins/weapons stealers were originally Russian, and considering we're in a spy show, I think it may also be possible it will later be revealed that some of Anna's family is still in Hungary and she got blackmailed with their lives into enabling the weapons stealing. And/or she'll also turn out to be one of the girls at Peggy's new place of living, if she can fake an American accent better than her husband; after all, we don't know what she's doing when Jarvis is off working with Peggy. It's the Le Carré reader in me that can't help speculating in this direction, sorry!

Anyway, back to Peggy and Jarvis - love the back and forth. She helps him out during the interrogation, even though that means utter ridicule and humiliation for her, but she's not giving her loyalty blindly, she does want to know what he did. Conversely, later when Peggy at first wants to report the discovery of the Stark weapons herself because she's so tired of being dismissed as Captain America's squeeze by her co-workers and finally wants some respect for what she does, Jarvis provides the necessary reality check in reminding her what this would actually result in - herself as a suspect/traitor, not a valued agent.

Angie and Peggy are also made of win, though I have to say, I don't get why Angie was so insulted early on when Peggy wasn't available for a chat; sometimes you're just not in the mood, even if you're not a secret agent who needs to be elsewhere. Anyway: lovely reconciliation scene at the end of the episode.

Blond agent played by actor whom I was told is famous for being in a soap some years ago continues to be revolting while Souza continues to be sympathetic. Otherwise, no opinion on the SRR agents.

Trivia point: I appreciate that the episode makes a point of letting Peggy dress sensibly before investigating in tunnels instead of letting her to so in her normal office costume.

Comments

[likeadeuce]

I noted the 'letters of transit' reference in the backstory, which I recall hearing is something that was invented for 'Casablanca'? In this case, that seems like a deliberate case of 'setting this in the world of war movies moreso than actual history' rather than 'not doing their research and getting an idea from a movie' -- though I'm not sure how conscious it was.

There's definitely something up with the new housemate. Hmm.

[selenak]

Yes, they were invented for Casablanca (what was necessary in rl as far as I recall were visa plus in the case of the US a guarantee by an American employer he'd give you work), and like you I assumed this was a deliberate reference. (Can't decide whether I want Casablanca to exist in the MCU as a film or whether I want it to have happened so Peggy could have known everyone involved.)

[selenak]

Oh, and speaking of world of world war movies, I just realized that while Captain America: The First Avenger actually went out of its way to NOT mention the Holocaust (and I understand why), Agent Carter now did reference it, however briefly.

[likeadeuce]

Oh good point!

[jesuswasbatman]

Completely irrelevant to this post, but you may be interested to hear that Russell T Davies was interviewed in the issue of the Radio Times that came out today, and described The Good Wife as "the best show in the world". (No expansion on that, he was mainly talking about his new TV project, two linked one-off dramas about modern gay male life called Cucumber and Banana, and yes, the phallic symbolism is deliberate.)

[monanotlisa]

TGW IS the best show on network tv, that one's for sure -- gah, can't wait for the second half of the season!

[selenak]

I don't have a "best show", but it's certainly one of the most consistently good and able to recharge itself in its later seasons - I'm not surprised he likes it! Good to know he's back to writing for (non-children) tv; I've been wondering whether the Queer as Folk article in the Guardian recently was some sort of preparation for an announcement!

[minim_calibre]

Chad Michael Murray. Was on One Tree Hill. Famous for cheating on Sophia Bush after their marriage and hooking up with the definition of barely legal.

He's apparently taken the method master class in grossness, and is doing very well playing it on TV.

[monanotlisa]

Ah, thanks for the actor background; I blithely ignore most celebrities (and to this day don't really know who Kim Kardashian is).

[minim_calibre]

This is where I confess that I know this from lurking at the edges of CW rpf fandom a few years ago. I am vaguely ashamed.

[monanotlisa]

this makes the still unseen Mrs. Jarvis into a person as well instead of a plot device to signal there won't be any romance between him and Peggy

True, and making me a little sad; I really enjoy them together for all the obvious reasons.

I do wonder, though, why they're so pointedly keeping Anna off screen so we only hear her voice - that looks like the set up for a revelation when we do see her, presumably in the last episode or so. Maybe she'll turn out to be someone already known to the audience in another identity?

There may be something up with Anna -- if this isn't a gimmick, the only reason to keep her off-screen would be because we already know her face.

Peggy and Jarvis - love the back and forth

Yes; they really work for me on all levels.

I don't get why Angie was so insulted early on when Peggy wasn't available for a chat

Someone, perhaps in Victoria P.'s journal, suggested that Angie is sensitive due to their class differences, blue collar vs. white collar. I don't think they've got the dynamic quite down yet, but I'm eating it up with a spoon, predictably.

[selenak]

if this isn't a gimmick, the only reason to keep her off-screen would be because we already know her face.

Precisely, and at this point, it's been so deliberate that I don't think it's a gimick anymore. If Anna was simply Jarvis' wife, they'd have shown her to us by now. Plus, again, Hungary, i.e. a country at this point behind the Iron Curtain, as a country of origin.

Peggy & Jarvis partnership: I could watch them fighting crime together for many seasons more. They're golden together. And my gen loving self hopes for many case fics, at least.

Angie sensitive to class differences: you know, that actually makes sense!

[selenay]

Class difference makes sense, yes! I was reading it more as Angie being unsure about their friendship and whether to keep making overtures, because Peggy is so obviously reluctant to get closer. Something that's been building for a while, and Peggy's highly unconvincing "I'm having an early night" moment made more apparent than ever, and Angie felt rebuffed again and it came out as a kind of cold anger rather than the hurt she was really feeling.

I might be reading way too much into it, though :-)

[liviapenn]

And/or she'll also turn out to be one of the girls at Peggy's new place of living, if she can fake an American accent better than her husband; after all, we don't know what she's doing when Jarvis is off working with Peggy. It's the Le Carré reader in me that can't help speculating in this direction, sorry!

That actually makes a lot of sense; the blonde "new girl" we met in 1.03 seems like a likely Leviathan candidate, since there's not really any other reason to introduce her at that point. Plus, now that I think about it, of course -- she's a blonde woman, so she'll probably be the one who takes the blame at the end for everything Peggy's doing -- being the blonde at the night club and so on. I really hope she isn't Anna! Poor Jarvis.

[selenak]

Good point about taking the blame for being the mysterious blonde at the night club etc. The thing is, I really can't think of a reason why they wouldn't have shown us Anna by now UNLESS she's familiar to us in another identity, and this would also explain how the thieves knew exactly where Howard had his not-for-sale inventions stashed.