Agent Carter Season 2 Episodes 3-4 review - Better Angels/Smoke and Mirrors

Agent Carter with a terrific two episodes to open the new season, can it hold that momentum?

Better Angels

Agent Jack Thompson, this meme was made for you

Now, we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about layered characters using Jack Thompson as an example. Having someone be a personal antagonist to our protagonist is fine, but motivation is key in a multi-layered character.

Which is why the initial scene in the first episode, despite taking you out of the main story was necessary. Thompson is not a bad person, that was the key they needed to show. He’s a guy hammered by his own insecurities to their point where the only award he has isn’t, he’d desperate to prove himself worthy of a new lease of life as his old one is dying.

To that end, he lets himself be manipulated in the most obvious way I have ever seen. But you can’t help but feel sorry for him in that respect. You feel a range of emotions for that character and that’s a sign of how well written he is.

We also get the return of Howard Stark into the mix and he does what he does best, invite girls into a men-only nightclub and do sciencey things. On that note, I think it was a tad early to bring Danny back into the fray as the setup with him being blamed as a Russian spy and the guilt that laid on Carter could’ve done with a bit more on the field exploration. Having said that, this show is not one to drag its heels so it’s understandable.

Meanwhile Whitney Frost shows her skill once again as a master manipulator, using society against itself in many ways despite the fact that she is very much a victim of society. Her ability to absorb people via zero matter is actually gonna be quite interesting, given that she is Madame Masque in the comics.

I really don’t have much more to say, so... good job, folks

Rating 8.5/10

Smoke and Mirrors

Less smoke and more mirrors on this occasion

Yeah, there’s really not a lot of story progression on this one, but it’s an episode that’s more focused on developing character, particularly with Whitney Frost, our main villain for the series (probably) and how she’s kinda a dark mirror to Peggy. Her flashbacks were largely pointless (for now) but they made a point

I use the term again, but both Peggy and Whitney are made by society, a society where women are still not seen as equals and there are certain standards that they must conform to. I suppose the main difference is their mother figures. Whilst Peggy’s was at least kind, Whitney’s mother was… far as I could tell her house was in exchange for sex with the creep Whitney didn’t like and she was kicked out when he found another object to fulfil that purpose.

Both Peggy and Whitney were women ahead of their time with Peggy craving action and adventure and Whitney being a technological expert. As we all know the War brought Peggy out of her element but what we don’t know is that prior to that point she’d kinda given in and accepted her role in society. Even to the point where she’d gotten married to someone who really didn’t get her at all.

The men in their lives seem to be the prominent difference between Peggy and Whitney. Whitney had the jerk who his mother loved, the guy who got her into a career in acting and her spineless, pitiful half-wit of a husband who cares more about photo-ops than his own wife’s health. Peggy meanwhile had a fiancée that never came to be and never really knew the real her and her brother, a military man who died in battle, he ultimately knew her and was responsible for getting Peggy fieldwork, something she only agreed to do after his death

OK, I’m rambling a tad here but mostly because that’s most of the episode, not a lot else happens. They capture one of the guys who attacked Peggy, he gives some ultra-vague answers to their questions under a quite clever interrogation. He’s let loose to go back to Chadwick and Whitney kills her, her scar is getting worse every time she uses her powers, interesting indeed

When I say little happens in this episode, it’s not bad. Sometimes a show needs an episode to set things up and do character development, and breather from the usual hectic Carter pacing isn’t unwelcome

Rating 8/10

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Images/clips used in this review are from Marvel's Agent Carter and Ratchet and Clank and belong to their respective owners. All images/clips in this review are subject to fair use