In the sixth episode of the second season of Agent Carter, this is a great example of everything escalating very quickly. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Agent Carter.Â
Well, shit.
Aside from one bizarre moment, I am of the mind that this is the strongest entry this season. (Thus far!) It would be great if I was proven wrong and each episode after this was better than the last, but that’s a tall order. “Life of the Party†combines the greater mythology into some crushing emotional moments, and it’s also paced perfectly. As you’ll see in the video, this episode breezed by for me, and I’d like to explain why.
Logistics
I’m a big fan of continuity done right, and the writers don’t magically heal Peggy so that she’s back in the action for this episode. No, she suffered a brutal injury in “The Atomic Job,†and this shows us the ramifications of that. Peggy can’t run around, and she can barely walk for that matter. The show finds a neat way to let Peggy understand how Sousa experiences field work. It’s not the same as a permanent disability, obviously, but the circumstance allows Peggy a chance at a kind of empathy that she otherwise would not have had. At the same time, it allows the show to put Jarvis and Dottie (!!!!!) at the center of the action instead. It’s so goddamn satisfying because WHO WOULD HAVE EVER THOUGHT THEY’D BE TOGETHER.
Fuck it, let’s talk about Dottie.
DOTTIE UNDERWOOD IS BETTER THAN EVERYONE
I just… Bridget Regan is a gift to us all. I can’t handle her. She is so electric on the screen, and watching her feels like I’m seeing something I shouldn’t. The script plays up her chemistry with Peggy, but also allows for tension and humor to exist side-by-side. We never know what Dottie is going to do, and once she’s at Chadwick’s campaign party, the unknown drives the suspense even higher. She’s unattached to anyone or any organization, and thus, she becomes a wild card, a trickster set loose in an environment that is perfect for her but a disaster for literally everyone else.
I could not get enough of her.
Jack Thompson
There aren’t many flaws in this episode. I thought that one weird sequence where Peggy and Jarvis mimed a conversation in front of Dottie was tonally a mess, yet another example of the show thinking Agent Carter needs wacky humor. But the only other sore spot I saw here was in Jack, who feels very aimless as a character. He knows he’s being lied to and used, yet he still keeps talking about being the perfect errand boy for Vernon Masters and the government. Perhaps he’s confused about what he should do, but the writers don’t really convey that so much as having him drift from scene to scene without any concrete portrayal of this struggle. He’s as an antagonistic force to provide tension for Dottie and Jarvis, but he never feels significant enough to be an antagonist, either.
Whitney Ford
Part of that is because Whitney is honestly one of the best antagonists period. Not just for this show! The writers have constructed a complicated character who can be sympathetic for brief flashes of time, but who has transformed so much because of Zero Matter that she’s closer to being a monster. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her after she realized her husband had betrayed her, and Wynn Everett absolutely kills it in that sequence. At the same time, she’s out of control, consumed by the power that Zero Matter gave her as she literally consumes most of the Council and her own husband. (I honestly expected Chadwick to survive a lot longer than this. Holy shit, what a surprise.)
I find her fascinating. I don’t even know her master plan at this point, you know? She has power, she claims to want to transform the world, but I don’t even know what her endgame is. A dictatorship of some sort? An exchange? WHO KNOWS. But I want to know, y’all. WHAT IS SHE TURNING INTO. WHAT WILL SHE DO NEXT.
It was also brilliant for the writers to have Dottie witness all of this. She was already a wild card, but now??? She knows even more than Peggy, Jason, Jarvis, and Sousa. AND SHE’S BEEN CAPTURED.
Inevitable
So, the show is leading towards Peggy/Sousa, yes? We have confirmation that Melody broke things off with Sousa; Peggy and Sousa nearly kiss; Jason sees the affection between the couple and is probably going to abandon pursuing Peggy. Which is sad because I did like their chemistry! But Peggy also seems to have chemistry with literally everyone, so there’s that. I just hope these other characters don’t just disappear if Sousa/Peggy is endgame.
The video for “Life of the Party†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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