Welcome back to Marie Marvels, where I watch all the things in the Marvel universe in timeline order! This is a TV show recap, because there are both in the ideal Marvel timeline, and I decided to go the route of recapping episode by episode. I’m going to take the template from my Veronica Mars recaps and alter it slightly for the Marvel shows – there isn’t an episode or overall mystery, for instance, and since these shows aren’t set in my beloved early 2000s, there’s nothing that really could have aged well or not. So I’m sort of using the frame but also sort of creating a new thing. And I’m going to use some of the new categories in my movie reviews as well. Anyway, let’s get into it!
Highlights
- Peggy Carter is an agent with the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR) in New York City – apparently, one of the only women and also one of the only Brits. She is treated poorly because she’s a woman and the men are awful and think she should be a secretary. So she tends to use that to her advantage.
- Howard Stark – inventor and weapons manufacturer – is on the lamb after he was brought before Congress for selling weapons to the enemy.
- Stark seeks out Carter, his friend from the war, to help him clear his name and recover some of his “bad babies,” as he calls them. One is about to go on the black market for sale.
- Peggy fakes period cramps (LOLZ) and dresses up in a blond wig to retrieve what she believed was a formula for something very very bad – except they had already created the explosive (implosive?) out of the formula. So Peggy brings it home to deactivate it.
- Men with weird Mercedes symbol scars on their throats are following Peggy and the bomb. They want it. They also can’t talk without holding something to their necks and communicate with a higher being of some kind with a typewriter. And they killed her roommate for no real reason!
- Although she deactivated one bomb, they’re being manufactured somewhere. That somewhere is the Roxxon refinery. So Peggy and Jarvis, Stark’s butler, track it down and barely escape before the refinery explodes and then implodes.
- Jarvis talks to Stark, saying that Peggy has no idea but is perfect or something like that. Stark is up to something!
Timeline Progress
Agent Carter picks up after the end of the war, and she’s still grieving the loss of Steve Rogers. She is convinced that everyone she gets close to gets killed. But she’s really good at her job and she seems to know that it’s more of a calling than a job. So she carries on.
Connections and Easter Eggs
Since this is the first episode, there isn’t a lot to go on here. What we know? Peggy and Stark were in the first Captain America movie, and this picks up a couple years later. But I promise you, this section will be fun as we keep going forward in the timeline.
Likes and Dislikes
What I loved: Peggy is a badass. Jarvis is adorable. Stark is kind of a tool, but is super charming. And I really liked that Peggy keeps holding the torch for Cap, even though he went into the ocean and they aren’t going to fish him out for several decades.
What I didn’t love: Peggy’s dumbass coworkers. Chad Michael Murray. The speechless alien dudes!
Rating
A reminder of the (slightly altered from the last time) rating scale:
- Red = Couldn’t even get through it
- Orange = Ugh, no thank you
- Yellow = I mean, I’ve seen worse, but there were problems
- Green = This was good!
- Blue = Oh my gosh, I loved this movie/show!
- Purple = This is the unicorn of movies/shows and I will be rewatching it until Disney+ starts asking questions and EVERYONE should be watching it!
For the pilot of a show, this was stellar. It helps that we had already been introduced to some of the characters. But still, I am already just INTO this. I’m giving Season 1, Episode 1 a BLUE rating. Bring on the next episode!
Higher, further, faster, baby. #MarieMarvels
Snark & Squee 