AGENT CARTER: “The Blitzkrieg Button” Roundtable

Agent Carter takes to bringing back Howard Stark, raising stakes for what Peggy and Jarvis are really working towards after a few weeks. This week, new issues creep up and cause all sorts of issues.

Lexie’s deep in writing her next book, so she might not be with us for a while. We’ll miss her until she can come back.

SSR is following so many odd conspiracies I think we all might be paranoid by the end. Do you think we should all share those fears that have Dooley going to Germany?

Rueben: I’m not exactly sure what Dooley thinks he will find from his short trip to Germany, as I think the dead Russians have a very complicated backstory that is going to be scarier than any of us can comprehend.

Liz: Yes. What killed all those people? And is it still roaming the earth? What do the Russians know? I don’t think Dooley will find out anything from his trip, but Peggy will. Or Sousa.

Louise: Paranoia has some credence here, but I think Dooley and many other SSR operatives, as well as Congress, are far too nervous. Or maybe they aren’t nervous enough because we don’t know what’s coming later.

2. Sousa’s got some moves. What’s your imagined perfect team-up between he and Peggy? Is it better or worse than any partnership between Sousa and Thompson, the most annoying?

Rueben: Yes, he certainly does have some moves, doesn’t he?! Perhaps he and Peggy will be teamed up in the finale against whoever is on the other end of that crazy typewriter? Anything between Peggy and Sousa is better than Sousa and Thompson. I know Thompson is supposed to the antagonist, but he is a pain the ass.

Liz: I’d love a team up with Peggy and Sousa. The only thing I want to see from Thompson is the look on his face when Peggy kicks ass in front of him. And I think that may be coming soon, especially after her blowup with Stark. I think we’re going to see a different Peggy now.

Louise: I just want to see them together taking down a bad guy while Thompson and Dooley are outside looking dumbstruck at anyone else other than than being awesome in questioning.

3. Poor Jarvis has a bad tell when it comes to the Blitzkrieg Button. Was it worth it for him to be nervous so we could learn that the device has Steve Roger’s blood?

Rueben: I saw this as a poorly added in plot device, unfortunately, as it was way too obvious that pulling on his ear was his tell. I have a feeling that Peggy might have looked inside the “button” regardless simply because Stark wanted it so badly.

Liz: I felt like that was a bit unnecessary. Where were those tells when Peggy was questioning him about his actions before Stark found him? I would have liked to have seen that earlier on, because this just felt forced.

Louise: I don’t think it was worth him to tell Peggy that he was nervous that much when the audience didn’t know what was coming. But once it was said to be Steve’s blood, I think it was apt. Peggy has just as much stake in Steve’s legacy as Howard does, if not more.

4. So Dottie now. We should fear her, right?

Rueben: Simply put: yes. Again, I’m not well-versed in the Marvel Universe but I know that Dottie is supposedly someone of importance within that world. I think we all – and especially Peggy – has a lot to be concerned about, or at least she will have to be concerned soon enough.

Liz: What is she?!! I was stunned! Yes, I’m definitely afraid of her and concerned because we don’t know really what side she’s on. Why is she there? What does she want? Who sent her there?

Louise: Yes. Yes. YES! I saw something yesterday that Dottie is the first group that gives us the likes of Natasha Romanoff later on. That’s scary enough for me right now.

5. Stan Lee appeared. As he does often. Is this better than some of his previous cameos to you?

Rueben: There was a sneak peek photo of that scene with the three men at the shoe shine online today and I had a feeling it was Stan Lee behind the newspaper; and when the scene played out, it was just fun to see that it was him. I think it’s just as good as most of his other cameos.

Liz: He had a tad more screen time, didn’t he? I loved it but it begs the question: will be now see him on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”?

Louise: Liz, he was already in S.H.I.E.L.D back in the first season when Simmons and Coulson were on the train. That aside, I like this cameo. It’s less mocking what’s going on in the scene and felt like he was just a cool background actor than Stan Lee.

6. Favorite scene?

Rueben: There wasn’t just one for me; it was actually small little clips. When the two guys tried to tell the man with the automatic pistol that it was a girl “and 5 or 6 other guys” who took them down – when it clearly wasn’t; Sousa taking down the vagrant (slick move, really!) and Dottie taking out the guy with the pistol (she’s scary for sure, but it was yet another slick move).

Liz: I think my favorite scene was when Peggy got up in Howard’s face. She said some pretty tough things for him to hear and she was right. It was a great moment for her and Atwell was a star.

Louise: Peggy vs Howard in any and all iterations this week. That punch maybe more than any other.

7. Rate the episode, 1-5 red hats, with 5 being excellent and 1 being a major fail.

Rueben: I’m going to stick with my 3 ½ red hats; although I was really impressed with the way Peggy basically stuck it to Howard over Steve’s blood.

Liz: I’m going to give this one a 5. This episode really moved the story along even though we have more questions. I feel like they set things up nicely to get those answers in the next episodes.

Louise: I’m going with 3 this week. It felt slow in places before we found out what was in the Button and it felt like an odd lull before the bigger storm.