Marvel's Agent Carter: "The Iron Ceiling" Review

Marvel’s Agent Carter sends Peggy to Russia in an episode that smartly connects the series with the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). A great team-up between Peggy and Lieutenant Thompson not only brings some welcome depth to the duo’s relationship, but also forces Peggy to face gender inequality in the workplace head-on.

In last week’s episode, Peggy discovered that Howard Stark was keeping secrets from her, and with her secret mission to clear Stark’s name on pause, Peggy finally decides to address the discrimination she has been subjected to by agents of the S.S.R. It was so much fun to see Peggy decode the Leviathan encryption in front of Dooley and Thompson, but their yeah-so-what expressions came as no surprise.  Of course Peggy won’t get off that easy!

Peggy convinces Dooley to let her accompany Agent Thompson on a mission to a Soviet military complex to follow up on a lead surrounding Leviathan. We’re introduced to the Howling Commandos, only one of which we actually had time to really connect with. These scenes were really rewarding to watch; we have seen Peggy suffer the loss of Steve Rogers, the murder of her roommate, and the betrayal by Jarvis and Stark, so it was high time Peggy got a win. Finally getting to see someone treat Peggy right was highly satisfying, and made for a nice exploration of Peggy’s “fun” side. 

Neal McDonough guest starts as Dum-Dum Dugan.

Later, when Lieutenant Thompson froze during the firefight, we got to see Peggy take charge in a way we haven’t seen her do before. Seeing her bark orders to the Commandos as well as defuse the hostage situation with rescued prisoner speaks volumes about her capabilities as a leader. This show gets props for finding and executing creative plot points to explore the many different sides of Peggy’s character without ever feeling like her character development has paused or stagnated.

“The Iron Ceiling” revealed a major MCU connection, this week: Dottie Underwood is actually part of the early Black Widow program. The episode opened with a montage of her early training days at the facility – the flashbacks were intriguing yet chilling. I hope we get to see the program explored a little more, and I’m excited to see if there’s a connection between Dottie and Leviathan.

Back at the S.S.R., Agent Sousa makes several connections that lead him to the startling truth: Agent Carter has committed acts of treason. This will be a fun plot point to see unfold in the next episode, as Sousa has been one of Peggy’s only advocates within the office. Hopefully since he was the first to support her and the first to discover her, he’ll also be the first to hear her side of the story, as well. (Are we shipping these two, yet??)

These week’s episode saw Peggy take a much-needed vacation from the drama in New York. The scenes between her, the Howling Commandos, and Lieutenant Thompson stood out this week, and the clever connection to the MCU was a fun little twist. Peggy had better have enjoyed her little outing, because a storm is rolling her way, and her secret, it would seem, is inevitably going to come out.