Agent Carter - S1E4 - The Blitzkrieg Button
“The Blitzkrieg Button” opens with our esteemed Jarvis negotiating terms with a surly pair of gentlemen who don’t take kindly to him. Naturally, when you feel you’re being lowballed, you pull out your gun and threaten people. After clearing the area, Agent Carter breaks up the party and saves Jarvis’ skin (for the umpteenth time so far). Turns out the now-unconscious brigands were smuggling in Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) from parts unknown. He charges Peggy with a new mission: retrieve a device known as the Blitzkrieg Button. According to Stark, if activated, it could irrevocably destroy New York City, if experimented on by the SSR’s charmingly bumbling science department.
While Peggy’s guilt builds, due to her continued subterfuge, Sousa (Enver Gjokaj) begins to put the pieces together as to the identity of his Mystery Woman. Although he seeks the help of a recalcitrant veteran, Sousa has no success playing to the man’s better nature. Instead of bonding through shared hardships, the witness would rather eat and drink his sorrows away, which Agent Thompson readily enables. Obviously, Thompson is a character we’re meant to hate, but with Chief Dooley giving him command of the office while he’s away? He’s gone full blown d-bag on everyone. Each week, Chad Michael Murray has incrementally expanded upon Thompson’s bloated self-importance and open disdain for Sousa and Carter; however, he definitely shows his ass now that he has a taste for authority. Surely Thompson is in for a world of trouble, be it from the SSR, Leviathan, or Peggy herself, if he continues down this path. In fact, later in the episode, he only gets worse.
Speaking of the Chief, he flies to Germany to have a one-on-one with Ernst Mueller (Jack Conley), a Nazi colonel convicted of a number of war crimes including the Finow massacre, which is linked to the pair of Russian assassins featured in the premier. According to Mueller, he committed many heinous deeds during the War but wasn’t responsible for Finow; everyone was totally dead way before he and his master race arrived. For his trouble, Mueller was given a breath mint believing it was cyanide. Oh, that sneaky Chief Dooley! The massacre… was it Leviathan? A potential tie-in to SHIELD’s current Inhuman storyline? Something else entirely? More mysteries abound!
While all of this is going down, a determined and very blonde killer named Mr. Mink has his sights set on eliminating Stark and Company for denying him his payday for smuggling Howard back into the States. Armed with his wits and his Mini Gatling (weird, yet awesome), Mr. Mink easily traces their steps to the Griffith. Mr. Mink is dead set on ambushing Peggy, until intercepted by her new neighbor Dottie (Bridget Regan). Without batting an eyelash, Dottie proclaims she wants his gun and literally climbs the walls to break Mr. Mink’s neck, leaving him a crumpled pile in the hallway. Where did that come from? Who is this woman? How awesome was that?! Considering this is the halfway point in the limited series, many if not all, of these questions will be answered by season’s end.
Pilfering the dreaded Blitzkrieg Button from SSR HQ, Carter confronts Stark, having opened the device before leaving the offices. Knowing its true contents, she has a very emotional confrontation with Howard AND Jarvis about their lies upon lies and how they don’t uphold any of the values she adheres to and continues to strive to be the person Steve fell in love with. Heavy stuff.
Out of all that occurred in ‘The Blitzkrieg Button’, none of it was as profound and damaging to Peggy’s sense of the world than her brief interaction with Agent Thompson. With whiskey bottle in hand, Jack confronts Peggy about her place in the SSR and why she even works for them when she’s nothing more than a glorified secretary. Carter can usually take such harsh criticism from any man, as it’s nothing that hasn’t already been said to her. Yet, with her regret in helping Howard retrieve his items and Jarvis’ uncharacteristic deception, it was more than she could bare at the moment. Agent Carter believed she was doing the right thing in helping her old friend, but what if she’s wrong? Does she even belong in the SSR? How can she possibly accomplish anything if everyone else has an agenda that keeps her in the dark and belittles her responsibilities? It’ll be very interesting to see how Peggy overcomes these personal obstacles and eventually founds SHIELD.
With everyone thrown askew, they hide their respective secrets (and corpse) until needed again. Chief Dooley returns to the SSR just in time to witness the typewriter activate and send a new message to its former owner. What was it typing? Where was Angie? Is Stan Lee a Time Lord? TOO MANY MYSTERIES.
Why must you do this to me, Marvel!?
Anyway, what did you think of the episode? Comment down yonder!
Starring: Hayley Atwell, Dominic Cooper, James D’Arcy, Shea Whigham, Enver Gjokaj, Chad Michael Murray, Bridget Regan
Director: Stephen Cragg
