Marvel's Agent Carter: "Bridge and Tunnel" Review

“Bridge and Tunnel” is the second part of the two-part series premiere of Marvel’s Agent Carter. You can read my review for the first episode here.

The seeds for Peggy Carter’s character arc this season were planted in the murder of her roommate, Colleen, in the first episode. It’s so heartbreaking to see someone
so strong and confident push people away. It might be a common character arc in entertainment, but it makes Peggy relatable nonetheless. And who knows, maybe Lyndsy Fonseca’s character, Angie, who offers to hook Peggy up in her apartment complex, will get pulled into the messy situation with Leviathan.

Haley Atwell was at the top of her game again. Carter and Jarvis’s relationship is really fun to see, and the “you’ve popped a button” scene was a highlight. I also loved seeing her get in disguise to infiltrate Daisy Clover Dairy. Whether she’s acting as a secret agent, hunting for an apartment as a meager telephone operator, or pretending to be a health inspector, Atwell shows off all of her acting chops.

The production value was high once again, especially in the climactic brawl atop the milk truck filled with nitramine bombs. If there was a green screen, I couldn’t tell. And just like in the previous episode, we got to see a massive nitramine explosion. The special effects team did a top-notch job with all of these.

I must complain, very briefly, about the show’s villains. The Leviathan henchmen speak but once or twice throughout the episode, giving no hints to their employers’ motivations. Interesting villains are ones whom an audience can sympathize with – ones who are not merely one-sided “bad guys.” This is only Agent Carter’s second episode, so it’s forgivable for now, but I’d love to see Leviathan, ultimately, fleshed out with relatable flaws and ambitions.

This episode works fantastically as an episode. The first scene depicts a radio drama (I would totally listen to Captain America Adventures!) about Steve Rogers rescuing a damsel in distress, and more scenes punctuate the episode at appropriate times. In one expertly cut-together scene, Carter fights a bad guy with the radio drama playing in the background, and the scenes juxtapose each other really well. Ultimately, the episode shows Peggy taking her first steps towards overcoming her fear of hurting people close to her when she moves into the same building as Angie. I can’t wait to see the two of them getting more screen time together.

“Bridge and Tunnel” was a great episode to cap off the series premiere. Despite some lacking development around the show’s antagonists, there were a lot of great character moments for Atwell and the supporting cast (because, let’s face it, Atwell is the star of the show), and the production value was, once again, very high. I’m in this for the long run now. (And I can’t wait to see Carter’s next disguise.)