This week we get to see Agent Carter get his first action as part of the SSR and it doesn't even involve fetching coffee. Last week at the end of the episode we watched as the type writer started to type up a message while in the SSR possession. Also, Carter cut her ties with Stark in the last episode and is now more determined than ever to make her mark on the SSR and we discover her neighbor is a dangerous spy. Agent Carter gets her big shot by deciphering the secret message from the typewriter after the SSR's best cryptologist failed to do so. The message was instructions to set up a meet between a terrorist organization and Howard Stark. Agent Carter request permission to join a task force to raid this meeting and is only allowed to join after securing the help of the infamous Howling Commandos. After Carter and Agent Thompson depart for Europe, Agent Dooley starts to have his own suspicions of Starks guilt because of some information a respected informant gives him.
Once Carter and Thompson arrive with their team in Europe they are met by the Howling Commandos. The way the Commandos treat Carter as one of them starts to earn her some respect from the other SSR agents. While around the campfire they all share some war stories and we lean that Agent Thompson earned the Navy Cross in the Pacific by shooting eight Japanese soldiers who had entered his camp because he fell asleep on watch. The way he tells the story shows the shame he feels for shooting them in the back and his honesty earns him a nod from the Commandos and Carter. Meanwhile, back in New York Agent Dooley confronts Jarvis on the street and tells him he wants to hear Stark's side of what happened if he wants to tell it. Dooley claims to not be interested in a witch-hunt but instead wants the truth. At the same time Carter's neighbor (Dottie) breaks into her apartment and starts going through all her stuff. We get to witness a flashback from Dottie's youth that shows her being brutally trained in a foreign land and her killing another girl at a very young age.
Carter and company raid Leviathan base to discover they have been training young girls to be sleeper agents in America. While further searching the base they discover two scientists being held captive but before they can make an easy escape they encounter the guards and a firefight ensues. Pinned down by enemy fire Carter and the Commandos fight back while Agent Thompson freezes and goes into a panic. Carter rescues him and gets him out the building safely risking her own life in the process. Once safely reaching the extraction plane the Commandos offer Carter a chance to join them but she turns it down saying her front line days are behind her. On the plane Thompson thanks Carter for saving his life and confess a secret to her that the soldiers he killed in his camp where carrying a white flag of surrender but he noticed it too late and hid the flag in shame.
At SSR headquarters Carter finally starts to get respect from Dooley and the other agents and gets invited out for drinks for the first time, Thompson even claims to owe her bourbon. Agent Sousa looks troubled and we learn that while the team was away he discovered that Agent Carter has been working against the SSR on the Stark case and that she is the mysterious woman who had been one step ahead of them. Next weeks teaser shows that he turns her in and she will be hunter by the SSR as a traitor after finally earning a little respect.
Episode Review:
This was the most intriguing episode of the series aired to date. For the first time I never found myself watching the episode just because it was part of the MCU but instead because he story line held my attention for the full sixty minutes. The Cameo of the Commandos helped the show feel my inline with the rest of Marvel's movies and shows and it was nice to have a more fast paced episode that wasn't just Carter sneaking around while the SSR almost catches her. Next week's episode appears to build on the intensity in the teaser and the show my finally get a more Marvel feel to it.
Episode rating: 9.5
