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Agent Carter 1.04
In which we reach a plot turning point.
Even within an eight episodes miniseries, it was obvious it couldn't all consist on Peggy retrieving Howard's McGuffins, one step aheadof the SRR, so it didn't surprise me that we wrap up the McGuffin retrievals here. What would have surprised me, hadn't I seen the trailer for this episode two weeks ago which shows part of the final Peggy-Howard fight, was that we would do so via a fallout between Peggy and Howard. As it is, my guess was that what they would fall out about would be the revelation Howard used some recovered Hydra tech, which would have been a Stark thing to do; having them fall out about a) him lying to her, and b) that the last McGuffin in question was actually a vial with Steve's blood is better, as issues Peggy very rightly took objection to. Now consideirng she and and Howard are still going to found SHIELD together in the future, I'm assuming they will reconcile, but Howard will have to do something pretty dramatic to make it up to her and convince her he's still a friend worth having after all. (Current guess: surrendering himself to the SRR in a way that makes it look like she caught him would do the trick.)
I'm definitely on the pro-Sousa side of the force now. Love his dogged detecting. Thompson continues to be revolting though competent. Ditto Dooley. As many people pointed out, it's good that the SRR guys aren't portrayed as stupid (in addition to being sexist and ableist). Given what Peggy puts up with at work, you have to wonder, as Thompson does, why she works there at all, but it would be utterly incomprehensible if they were all ninnies in addition to everything else.
As everyone and their dog guessed, Dottie turns out to be a plant. Since she pulled off some very Natasha Romanoff looking moves, my current guess is that she's that era's Black Widow. (Since MCU Natasha doesn't seem to be as artificially long lived as comics!Natasha, but there's no reason why the Russians should have had the Red Room already post WWII. Actuallly, make that WWII, because what Dooley finds out from Müller sounds like an experiment gone horribly wrong.
Lastly, I'm with whoever said that bit of Howard's backstory now revealed - " I grew up on the Lower East Side. My father sold fruit. My mother sewed shirtwaists for a factory. Let me tell you, you don't get to climb the American ladder without picking up some bad habits on the way. There's a ceiling for certain types of people based on how much money your parents have, your social class, your religion, your sex. And the only way to break through that ceiling sometimes is to lie, so that's my natural instinct... to lie. " - sounds as if he's Jewish (perhaps even the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants?) . (The bit about religion, since he can't be confessing about being secretly a woman, and "mom and dad were poor" alone wouldn't need hiding in the 1940s US.
Even within an eight episodes miniseries, it was obvious it couldn't all consist on Peggy retrieving Howard's McGuffins, one step aheadof the SRR, so it didn't surprise me that we wrap up the McGuffin retrievals here. What would have surprised me, hadn't I seen the trailer for this episode two weeks ago which shows part of the final Peggy-Howard fight, was that we would do so via a fallout between Peggy and Howard. As it is, my guess was that what they would fall out about would be the revelation Howard used some recovered Hydra tech, which would have been a Stark thing to do; having them fall out about a) him lying to her, and b) that the last McGuffin in question was actually a vial with Steve's blood is better, as issues Peggy very rightly took objection to. Now consideirng she and and Howard are still going to found SHIELD together in the future, I'm assuming they will reconcile, but Howard will have to do something pretty dramatic to make it up to her and convince her he's still a friend worth having after all. (Current guess: surrendering himself to the SRR in a way that makes it look like she caught him would do the trick.)
I'm definitely on the pro-Sousa side of the force now. Love his dogged detecting. Thompson continues to be revolting though competent. Ditto Dooley. As many people pointed out, it's good that the SRR guys aren't portrayed as stupid (in addition to being sexist and ableist). Given what Peggy puts up with at work, you have to wonder, as Thompson does, why she works there at all, but it would be utterly incomprehensible if they were all ninnies in addition to everything else.
As everyone and their dog guessed, Dottie turns out to be a plant. Since she pulled off some very Natasha Romanoff looking moves, my current guess is that she's that era's Black Widow. (Since MCU Natasha doesn't seem to be as artificially long lived as comics!Natasha, but there's no reason why the Russians should have had the Red Room already post WWII. Actuallly, make that WWII, because what Dooley finds out from Müller sounds like an experiment gone horribly wrong.
Lastly, I'm with whoever said that bit of Howard's backstory now revealed - " I grew up on the Lower East Side. My father sold fruit. My mother sewed shirtwaists for a factory. Let me tell you, you don't get to climb the American ladder without picking up some bad habits on the way. There's a ceiling for certain types of people based on how much money your parents have, your social class, your religion, your sex. And the only way to break through that ceiling sometimes is to lie, so that's my natural instinct... to lie. " - sounds as if he's Jewish (perhaps even the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants?) . (The bit about religion, since he can't be confessing about being secretly a woman, and "mom and dad were poor" alone wouldn't need hiding in the 1940s US.
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I'm trying to process the revelations about Howard's background, which I agree must be intended to imply he's Jewish -- tho I have to confess I missed that the first time around b/c I was focused on how he'd just (basically) told Peggy he loved Steve and the only thing I could think was 'did he just come out to her as gay?'
I'm trying to figure out what this retcon actually means (how did he get sooooooo rich at a relatively young age and how/why would he hide his origins in the process? Did he game the quota system to get into the Ivy League, then sell some patents and get rich in the stock market during the war? If so how'd he get in the position to do that in the first place??? I realize we're probably not meant to think thus hard about it but the revelation must be there for a reason and it rather turns the existing assumption of at least a generation or two of inherited wealth on its head....There may actually be comics canon re Tony's dad working his way up from poverty but I've never encountered it )
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Re: coming out: as bi though (I don't think Howard is faking it with women), definitely, I agree, he did say he loved Steve.
How Howard made his money and was able to hide his origins: I'm going with "sell some patents and get rich", too, plus I don't think false identity papers would have been a problem for him to create.
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And the new info is interesting I'm just coming to terms w/ being missed re: Howard's characterization AGAIN.
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I haven't read any of the Howard Stark WWII comics stuff in long enough that I remember any of it.
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I'm wearing a little thin on this show because I hate all the SSR people, and don't like Peggy not having any friends or support, but I suppose that the change of pace may pick it up for me.
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Sousa's okay I guess (though police harassing the homeless! Yay!). I just want the show to be more about Agent Carter, which it doesn't seem to be right now, probably because it's setting up the game change, but that doesn't make the SSR or their plots more interesting to me.
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Dot: her introduction was a little too inconspicuous for her not to be a plant, I think they botched that a little bit. Liked her getting the little automatic, though.
Speaking of plants, I'd say Souza works a little too hard to solve the case to be the actual traitor. Still having my eye on Thompson, though. *side-eyes*
Since I'm not super-familiar with the Captain America background: I take it the blood is not just Type 0 negative, but already super soldier-boosted?
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