Agent Carter - 'SNAFU'

The plot thickens.

“I conducted my own investigation because no one listens to me. I got away with it because no one looks at me. Because unless I have your reports, your coffee, or your lunch, I am invisible.”

Handcuffed in the interrogation room, Peggy Carter is submitted to every approach at the SSR's disposal, to little avail. The men she has worked with think that they can get to her because they know her, but she knows them much better and she knows their methods.

“To you, I’m a stray kitten left on your doorstep to be protected. The secretary turned damsel in distress. The girl on the pedestal, transformed into some daft whore.”

Enter Jarvis, bearing Howard Stark's confession in return for Carter's freedom. It's not exactly flattering for her to be 'saved' by a false confession which paints her as "A patsy? A doe-eyed idiot who succumbed to the charms of America’s mustachioed Casanova?" but it turns out that it isn't even real; Stark is still unreachable, but Jarvis has finally decided that his loyalty to Carter outweighs that to his employer and the partnership that emerges from the deception and its later abandonment is stronger, richer, and quite utterly delightful.

Carter warns that Leviathan is coming, after spotting Ivchenko signalling in Morse across the street. Dooley is under Ivchenko's mesmeric sway, but Thompson and Sousa are persuaded to search the building opposite, finding 'Dottie' but failing to capture her. Dooley secures Carter and Jarvis and helps Ivchenko to steal 'Item 17', leaving Dooley strapped into a prototype armoured vest that was abandoned on account of its tendency to explode. Dooley gives his life for his people, after charging Carter with running down his killers, but Dottie and Ivchenko are already moving, deploy Item 17 to cause a theatre full of moviegoers to turn and slaughter one another.

Jarvis: “What if there are people behind this mirror we’re breaking?”
Peggy: “Then they may get hurt. There will be a spray of glass.”
Jarvis: “What if those hypothetical people behind the mirror have guns?”
Peggy: “Then we may get hurt. There will be a spray of bullets.”

The penultimate episode of Agent Carter is possibly the best yet. Charming, quirky, yet still powerful; the danger to Agent Sousa when he tried to take Dottie alive and the Chief's ultimate sacrifice were no hollow gestures. The gender politics achieved a new level of subtlety as well. Thompson is aware enough to still respect that Carter saved his life, and to warn Sousa of Dottie's likely capabilities, although he tellingly refers to the Leviathan proto-widows almost as animals, and the eyes of the SSR are slowly opening despite their ingrained prejudices.

Most importantly, however, Haley Atwell and James D'Arcy sparkle throughout the episode. It's almost impossible not to adore them, and they carry us through any wrinkles created by the necessarily swift approach to next week's resolution. Atwell also delivers the critical rebukes to Carter's colleagues without seeming strident, which takes some doing when addressing 70 year old gender politics, however little may have changed in real terms.

I ma both really looking forward to the finale, and a little misty eyed to see the series go. I can only dream that they will learn some lessons from the success of the series and bring some of its verve to the next season of Agents of SHIELD.