Marvel's Agent Carter: "The Blitzkrieg Button" Review

Howard Stark returned to shake things up in this week’s episode of Marvel’s Agent Carter as the S.S.R. inch closer to the truth behind the elusive organization, Leviathan.

Carter and Jarvis infiltrate a train yard to find Howard Stark smuggled into the country in an appropriately lavish train cart. Stark needs Peggy to recover one of his inventions, the titular Blitzkrieg Button, from the S.S.R., but it became obvious pretty quickly that both he and Jarvis were withholding information. This created some nice tension for the episode as well as some internal conflict for Peggy. With Captain America out of the picture, Peggy is led to believe that Stark is the only person who believes in her. Setting up the plot so that this foundation was shaken was a clever move; breaking her down will allow her to build herself back up.

In the meantime, Chief Dooley travels to Germany to follow a lead on two Leviathan operatives. These brief diversions from the events in New York were less-interesting than the Stark/Carter scenes, but necessary to the plot, I suppose. Dooley discovers that an unknown force was responsible for a massacre in the German state of Finow – how this will affect the hierarchical plot remains to be seen.

The other big reveal this week surrounded the new tenant at The Griffith, Dottie, who takes down the criminal who smuggled Stark into New York in a pretty badass hallway brawl. Miriam would not approve. Assuming Dottie is actually an agent of Leviathan, her introduction is very important for the show. Up until now, Leviathan has only had one face (and a broken voice box). Introducing Dottie gives us the opportunity to peek behind the curtains of Leviathan, instead of merely accepting them as “the bad guys.”

With Dooley out of town, Lieutenant Thompson is left in charge of the S.S.R. He promptly assigns Peggy to order lunch for the office, but unlike the small demonstrations of male supremacy we have seen in previous episodes, discrimination becomes a more prominent theme this time around. At one point, Thompson pointedly says, “No man will ever consider you an equal.” In this episode, oppression of women becomes less of a thematic undertone to establish setting, it becomes an overt, integral ingredient to Peggy’s arc about trying to survive a “man’s world.”

These things are all well and good, but show-stealer this week was the Stan Lee cameo in the scene at the shoe shining booth. (Has Agents of Shield gotten one of these yet??)

Stan Lee made his customary cameo appearance in this week's episode.

Overall, “The Blitzkrieg Button” was a solid halfway point for Marvel’s Agent Carter. The S.S.R. is coming closer to unraveling Peggy’s treachery, and the curtain is beginning to be pulled back on the mystery of Leviathan.