"I never told my ambitions and efforts and failures to anyone. I listened unmoved to the sneers and ridicule of various relatives who thought my scribbling rank folly and waste of time. That never disturbed me at all. Down, deep down, under all discouragement and rebuff I knew I would arrive someday." - Lucy Maud Montgomery

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Wednesday, February 18, 2015

"Reports, Coffee or Lunch": Marvel's Agent Carter 1x07- "Snafu" Review




Agent Carter a favorite from the Captain America movie. Happy to see Dominic Cooper back as Howard Stark, even if only for the "Previously On" bit at the start of the episode.

By the way, a quick historical tidbit: SNAFU is a WWII military slang that meant "Situation Normal, All Fucked Up (or Fouled Up). Which is basically, what happens on this episode.

Russia 1943 - Like I always say history makes everything better and a series set in the 40s made it one of my favorites before I had seen a single episode. At this point, I'm not paying a lot of attention to what their saying. We are in a medical camp in a Russian front line and they have to amputate a young soldier’s leg. And immediately we get a flashback in a flash back and already I'm wondering where Peggy Carter is. She was arrested in the last episode and I don't know who any of these people are.

Patience is not one of my strong suits.


And they cut his leg off and he is not even flinching.

Okay back in 1946, Agent Sousa is questioning Peggy. They accuse her of killing one their own. She looks gorgeous with her perfectly curled hair and red lips. She is having none of his shit. Ah, yes the Russian mind-controlling therapist is there watching the whole thing. What could possibly go wrong? He looks so trustworthy. Anyways, everyone looks sharp. Sleek hair, check. Pressed suits, check. Sexist comments, check.

Oh, no they didn't. They are insinuating that Peggy had a fling with Howard Stark and that's why she is friendly with him. Oh, no they didn't... typical. Peggy is done with this shit. "I am no more what you guys have created" she says. A kitten they need to protect or a girl that suddenly became a backstabbing whore. Oh, snap! She tells them the woman they are looking for is out there while they're wasting their time.

Jarvis is here and he looks like Benedict Cumberbatch's brother, though I 'm not sure which one is the older brother and which one is the younger one. He says Stark wants to come clean (except he is in Greenalnd, or somewhere far away, of course.) Ugh, now they are calling Stark her boyfriend.

Peggy is free from prosecution and she is out of the SSR. (Isn't it a little bit close to the USSR?) Jarvis admits to her that he wrote the confession himself because Stark never answered his calls. They're in big trouble now.

And Peggy's old boss Chief Dooley is now begging his wife for forgiveness over the phone. Kind of reminds me of the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Mr. Grant always had issues with his wife. But that's another review. I guess he's become besties with the Russian therapist. No conflict of interest there.

Creepy Russian Therapist is communicating through finger-tapping morse code by the window to the woman assassin that everyone is looking for. And she is right next door. Right under their noses. Peggy catches him sending messages, although she doesn't realize to whom yet. Leviathan is coming in 90 minutes. A room full of SSR agents, and Peggy is the only one that sees. I'm sure the agents will totally believe her.

Peggy comes clean with everything she's done since episode one. She needs their trust and warns them about Dr. Ivchenko. But Mr. Grant vouches for him 100%. Nobody listens to her. They ask her why she did everything secretly, why she couldn't come to them from the beginning. And she gives throws them a cup of reality tea: unless the agents need reports, coffee or lunch, she is invisible to them. And now the icing on the cake, she shows them the vial Steve's Rogers' blood she'd been hiding. It's her second chance of keeping Steve safe, she says. Which is really adorable, as keeping a deceased boyfriend's blood goes.

Ironically Sousa, after bringing Peggy down and ending her career, is the only one who believes her now . Mr. Grant walks into his office and Ivchenko is STILL standing by the window. He morse-coded an entire novel for all we know. Ivchenko quickly tricks Mr. Grant and gets inside his head.

Handsome Blonde Detective believes Carter now, too. That didn't take long.

Mr. Grant pulls a gun on Peggy and Jarvis and locks her in his office.  It's basically the plot of the Naked Gun but in the 1940s. Dr. Ivchenko is Ricardo Montalban and Mr. Grant is Priscilla Presley. I sit here waiting for Frank Drebin to save the day.

It's Sousa vs. the Black Widow's grandma and she kicks his ass and escapes. And I thought a detective with a broken leg was going to take the life-long assassin down. I guess not.

These SSR people are really terrible at catching the bad guys. No, really. Grandma Black Widow drives up casually, Ivchenko gets in the car and they drive off into the sunset. Meanwhile, Carter and Jarvis are locked inside the interrogation room. They work together to smash a table through a mirror so they can escape, and Jarvis talks way too much through the whole thing. It's all part of his British charm, I suppose. Or maybe part of the writer's trying to be funny. But Jarvis is too sweet for it all to be a big bother. In any case, they finally smash the mirror, although now they realize are still are handcuffed to the table. Welp.

Mr. Grant is in Lala Land imagining things with his family and even in his imaginary state his wife is being bitchy about him and his job. They start making out and he is probably getting a boner. He is asleep on his desk and everyone interrupts his boner by banging on his door. And I mean everyone. He wakes up and everyone sees he is wearing a glowing explosive vest. It looks like the inside of a toaster. Finally he realizes Ivchenko played with his mind. It might be too late. He's about to be... toast. Get it?

Mr. Grant does the "tell my wife" bit. Then he goes 180 and trusts Peggy completely and asks her to get the son of a bitch that's been causing everything. He sacrifices himself by jumping out the window and boom! Mr. Grant bits and pieces all over the street. I guess... he went out with a bang? Get that one? (I hope they bring a new boss for Season 2 and that the new boss is Tommy Lee Jones, please, please, please.)

Agent Sousa appears and asks what happened. Isn't it obvious? The boss was brainwashed and controlled by the psychotic Russian scientist who stole a bomb vest created by Stark and the boss jumped out the window and exploded in order to save everyone. I mean, it's so clear...

Peggy says it's her fault. Jarvis is pissed, says it's the fault of Stark's inventions. They search the lab and Ivchenko stole something called Item 17 and nobody has any idea what it is. Dottie sets the weapon off in a movie theater. Everyone inside start going crazy and beating each other up. They all end up dead. At first I thought they were just watching "50 Shades of Gray", but no.

One more episode until the season finale. Hopefully not the series finale and we get a season 2. I'd love to see more of Agent Carter and the creation of S.H.I.E.L.D. We'll have to wait and see.


I give this episode 4 out of 5 vials of Steven Rogers' blood.

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