Posted in: Movies, TV | Tagged: Agent Carter: Iron Curtain, entertainment, marvel entertainment, tv

'Not Bad For A Girl' – Recapping Agent Carter: 'The Iron Ceiling'

By Amanda Gurall

Russia, 1937. Deep blue eyes flash open and we see a girl (Veronika Bonell) handcuffed to a metal bed in a room full of such girls. A stern and silent woman uncuffs them and the girl sneaks some bread from under her pillow to share with her hungry bunk mate, they smile sweetly at each other.   What's with this show and females stealing food? At least in this context it makes perfect sense.  The girls watch and do a robotic voice over to the film Snow White which was not released in Russia until 1955 and in fact not widely released in the US until 1938 so not only is this a cruel place for children the people running it must be quite powerful.  The girls recite the lines from the movie, "If you let me stay I will wash and sew, I will cook and clean for you" which means they are learning English at the same time they are learning to be perfect subservient women. Then the intense combat training starts and the fighting gets real.  Our blue eyed girl has her friend in a choke hold and when the teacher gives her the sign she actually snaps her friend's neck with no hesitation. Grown up blue eyes flash open and we find Dottie Underwood (Bridget Regan)who is preparing to meet up at the diner/automat with Peggy (Hayley Atwell).

The women are discussing Dottie's sightseeing plans after Dottie offered Peggy some bread (bad idea). Dottie is very convincing as a naieve hayseed but Peggy is distracted when she finds Jarvis' business card and is lost in a moment of sentimentality.  She tells Dottie to start with the people of the city and not landmarks like the Statue of Liberty because it is the spirit of liberty that lives in it's people.  "Wow, you sounded just like Captain America just now!" Dottie says with wide eyes.  Peggy does not brush this off but revels in her new mission to get back to her honorable goals of being more Cap like. Unfortunately this distracts her from noticing that Dottie knocks Peggy's purse off the table and takes her room key.  As soon as Peggy leaves Dottie's eyes go dead and her face is literally twitching with intensity, a spider spinning her web.

Agent Carter is off into the rain with no umbrella for some reason and she runs into Jarvis (James D'Arcy) at a newsstand. Let's look at the newspaper headlines displayed here.

"German Reparations Considered"

"Sudden Tourism Increase"

"Mysterious Crime Boss Death Baffles Police"

"League of Nations Replaced by U.N."

"Nuremberg Nazi Convictions Continue"

"Apartment Building Fire Devastates Community"

" Missing Woman's Body Found in Woods"

"Costa Nostra Families' Influence Growing"

So there are some real life headlines mixed with fictional ones.  I have not read the comics so I cannot comment directly however the attention to detail in the design of this show leads me to assume some of these will link directly to MCU or comic events.  Jarvis tries hard to convince Peggy to help Stark (Dominic Cooper) even admitting what a cad he is and she does not relent even though we all know she eventually will.

Carter gets to the office and finds a sniveling code breaker (Jared Gertner) completely flustered by the message that they found on the mysterious typewriter that morning.  Peggy takes a look and immediately recognizes it from her time at Bletchley as a one-time pad system in Russian because Of course she does, She's Agent freaking Carter. The message is this: map coordinates leading to a forest in Belarus.   Purchase confirmed, exchange at 0800 April 27th. Leviathan to acquire prototype havoc reactor. Payment of $100,000 dollars american upon delivery payable to Howard Stark.

Did I just see a spark of admiration in Agent Thompson's (Chad Michael Murray) eyes? Captain Dooley (Shea Wingham) tells the team there is rumor of a group called Levathian who was trying to buy weapons to use on allies after the war ended. It seems very clear to them that this is their chance to nab Stark and Dooley gets a team together to go to the drop point.  Of course we know this is most likely a trap as does Peggy but she uses her code breaking to not ask but tell Dooley she is indispensibe to the mission and she will be going.  Spark of admiration long forgotten, Agent Thompson is furious that she may go on the mission and they have a great three way argument in which the men belittle Carter's accomplishments  during the war and captain Dooley explains that though she seems qualified if he sends her there and she died it will be received as a big PR issue back home because he sent a woman into combat.

Carter mentions the 107th regiment and is told if she can get them to be part of the mission then she can go. She excuses herself to call her old friends and Dooley tells Thompson that he has the Vice President asking him when they will deliver Stark and a Nazi war criminal who told him Stark was involved in a massacre so he doesn't have time on his docket for Thompson's little crush on Carter.  Finally someone said it! Thompson is the little boy who pulls your hair and runs away and Dooley called him on it perfectly at the same time as he makes the difficult decision to put mission and country above petty sexism.  Carter returns and smugly lets them know the 107th will meet them at the Polish side of the Russian border so it's go time.

Peggy has to use the same locker room as the boys since there is no room for the one woman working at the SSA. Thompson and the other agents have some back and forth in which Thompson actually ends up defending her place in the mission but this is short lived while he and carter flirt on either side of a row of lockers while undressing. I am torn between wanting the character of Peggy Carter to remain untangled in a romance because it is wholly unnecessary to the plot and reinforces the idea that we do not expect a male character to fall in love and we should not expect a female lead to do the same.  On the other hand the character's loss of Steve Rogers is so deep and sad that I want her to find happiness. I just don't know if Thompson is the right one she seems deserving of so much more.  We have also never seen her have the slightest interest in him so it's a bit odd.  The guys trick hapless Sousa (Enver Gjokaj) into walking in on Peggy as she's in a black slip.  He is completely embarrassed but does notice that she has two small wounds on her shoulder which registers as something he should remember.

The four agents are next seen on a plane preparing for their drop into Poland. Thompson is very nervous and Carter immediately senses this, tries to comfort him a bit.  She is so clearly the one in control that even his weak attempt to disparage her by saying he already has a mother does nothing to change the tone of the group. Thompson is clearly out of his element and absolutely terrified but he makes the jump.   This show has pretty high production value but we were reminded that this is a television miniseries when we do not see even a glimpse of the team jumping out of the plane, it's just Geronimo! Then show them rolling up the parachutes.

No harm done though because we are about to see the 107th at the meet up.  The entire team assembled is Carter, Thompson, Mike Li (Eddie Shin), and Rick Ramirez (Greg Serano) joined by Dum Dum Dugan (Neal McDonough) Junior Juniper (James Austin Kerr), Pinky Pinkerton (Richard Short) and Happy Sam Sawyer (Leonard Roberts).  Dugan is warmed to see Peggy and it is clear he has the utmost respect for her and is just tolerating Thompson who is essentially point man in title only. They take trucks across Lithuania to their target and Peggy uses the time to share bourbon with Dugan and fill him on the Leviathan trap. She assures Dugan that Stark is not involved because while he is an "utter wanker" he is stil one of them. The duo has a sad moment remembering Captain America and we cut back to the SSA offices.  Sousa is the only one in the office late at night and he has Peggy's company file.  He sees that her shoulder scars match those on the blonde woman from the club that he has been obsessed with.  Oh Sousa what to do…

The 107th plus four are around the fire and Peggy asks how Thompson received the Navy cross.  He was in Tsuken island in 1945 asleep on his watch post when he wakes and finds six Japanese soldiers walkng into camp, one leaning over his sleeping commanding officer.  Thompson snapped to and shot them all in the back, saving his company.  This seems to be the first time Thompson has been authentic with Peggy and it looks like they have a little shared moment.

Dooley is still at work meeting a journalist friend at a bar to get more information about Finow and Stark.  The journalist confirms that 247 Russians were massacred in a battle nobody wanted credit for and his story about it was nixed by his scared editor.  He claims that Stark was brought in for the clean up of the massacre and he got in a physical altercation with General McGuiness.  The general "wiped the floor" with Stark but resigned his post a week after. Stark then gave up his seven figure R&D contract with the army, cutting all ties.  Something the government was planning absolutely terrified him. Now McGuiness has recently died of a heart attack and we all know Stark is public enemy number one. Somebody knows the real story and is keeping it a secret, but not if Dooley gets his way.

The Howling Commandos, specifically Dugan and Carter have such great chemistry and are so fun to watch I could do so all day long. Every time Thompson gives an order they look to her first, as they should.  They are real soldiers who know that Peggy is their equal and sometimes their better in the field.  They enter a large government building and are shocked and thoroughly creeped out to find an elementary classroom with wooden desks, maps of the world and a sign listing the health rules: exercise, fresh air, personal cleanliness, rest and sleep, correct posture, rid body of waste and proper diet. There shall be no constipation in the Red room!  The room has other similar posters and on a shelf we can see cowboy hats and busts of Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson so the kids are being taught american culture.  Again the production design team has fantastic attention to detail and if you stop to notice it enriches the storyline as it should.

Agent Lin accidentally turns a projector on and we see an animated cartoon however Carter sees subliminal messages right away, because of course she does! While the film played the kids were told to "instill fear" at this brainwashing academy.  A child cries and they go to the macabre  dorm room of sadness.  Someone asks why are there shackles on the beds? Dugan replies, "It's Russia, man." I love this glorious mustachioed bastard.  He finds a girl cowering on the floor and lets his guard down just in time for her to stab him in the chest though luckily his vest takes most of the damage. The girl goes on the attack with his gun and shoots Junior Juniper fatally. Carter stops Dugan from pulling the pin on a grenade because "she's just a little girl" to which he replies, "she's anything but that." He is right but he does not send the grenade after the girl.

Back in NYC Dooley is pursuing the case by checking in with Jarvis on the rainy street (again with the rain!). And he asks Jarvis about the fistfight with the General. Jarvis starts to tug his ear and stops himself but continues to lie and says he knows nothing. Dooley tells him to relay this message to Stark. "There are three sides to any story, Mr. Jarvis. Your side, my side and the truth. Tell Stark I am not interested in any witch-hunt I just want to get to the truth. If he's willing to tell his side of the story I'd really like to hear it."  Captain Dooley is definitely wearing the white hat here and attempting to solve this mystery I am relieved he is not another meathead or ego driven SSA agent as he may be Peggy's only chance in the department depending on what Sousa does with his new knowledge.

Back in Belarus the team is going through the compound and they find two men in a cell.  One of them steps forward and says he is Dr. Ivchenko (Ralph Brown) and he acts as therapist for the other who is a brilliant engineer named Nikola (Alex Veadov). Apparently Nikola needs a therapist because he sees the world in another dimension, everything he experiences he does so in terms of biology and photochemistry, etc. Ivchenko keeps his gifts from overwhelming him.  This sounds like Nikola could be an inhuman which would tie nicely into S.H.I.E.L.D. though this is pretty inconsequential to our story.  Levithian has been forcing him to decipher Stark's stolen plans and build a photonic amplifier which would be used to amplify light protons and used as super lasers or stealth communication. This is an actual thing people are working on today and was also referenced in two episodes of Star Trek. I appreciate that the writers are not simply making up words. Nikola makes it clear that Stark has nothing to do with Leviathan just as soldiers start to attack.  They release the jailed men and run through the halls now in a firefight with Levithian soldiers. It seems all too easy that they found these men so I am going to assume one or both of them are actually Leviathian?

Dottie has broken into Peggy's bedroom and searches it, finding a hidden compartment in the dresser and the white jewelry box we saw in the first episode. Inside there are the photos of Stark's weapons and Dottie is thrilled, she takes one photo of a crate from the heartbreak ship with a Stark shipping label on it. She picks up Peggy's photo of Steve Rogers and looks into the vanity mirror with her psychotic face on and does a spot on mimic of Peggy's voice.  She picks up a lipstick about to wear it (gross) and notices it says "102 sweet dreams" and smells like some sedative she must recognize because it looks like she pockets the lipstick before leaving the room.  Too bad all of that creepy training didn't teach her to look under picture frames, eh? It seems that the only thing she is after was sitting right in Peggy's wall.  Incidentally if you remember in the first half of this season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. They find lots of secrets hidden away in the old SSA office's walls and they reference how many things Carter hid this way. I guess that is her M.O.

The team is in a dire situation with no exit but Carter is taking down man after man. Agent L I is killed while yelling at the engineer and Thompson is huddled against the wall completely freaked out.  Whether this is cowardice or PTSD I feel bad for the guy he is no Captain America.   Nikola takes Sawyer hostage and Peggy has almost talked him down when Dr, Ivchenko shoots him in the chest. He may have cried out after doing so but I find him extremely suspicious.  In any event Thompson's panic attack is going to get them killed, Carter is radioing Dugan desperately and they are out of ammo.  The wall blasts in and Dugan strolls through with his guys, saving the day like only Dum Dum can.  Thompson is unable to move and Peggy snaps him out of it and helps him escape. There is only Dugan and Carter holding off the soldiers, Dugan tells her to go because what would Cap say if he left his best girl behind? She replies seriously, "He would say do what Peggy says". So he does, and she kicks more ass making a break for the truck.  They help her inside, she collapses  breathless on the floor and Ivchenko says "not bad for a girl."  She smiles and says, "I hate you all."

The team is at their plane about to go back to NYC and although Dugan wants her to stay she has to go back and lead the fight in America starting with proving Stark's innocence.  Fond farewells done and Peggy offers Dr. Ivchenko a position working with the SSA.  On the plane carter checks in with the miserable Thompson who thanks her and is generally in awe of her work.  He feels extremely low about his failure on the mission and admits to her that the soldiers he killed in Okinawa were carrying white surrender flags.  He shot before realizing it so he buried the flag and has held onto this shameful secret and upheld this false hero status he was given. Peggy is the first person he has told and she does not shame him. Now they have an authentic moment.

Exhausted from her spy escapades Dottie is in bed sweetly cuffing her own wrist to the headboard. Is the body of Mr. Mink still under it?  Back at the SSA Carter and Thompson are debriefing with Dooley.  Agent Carter gives Thompson equal credit in their extraction of Ivchenko  and escape which is either an honorable kindness or is enabling his issues.  This is most likely going to come back to bite her in the ass.  Carter and Dooley seem in agreement that Stark is innocent at this point but unable to see big pictures or subtlety Thompson disagrees.

Carter has proved herself to Dooley and just about everyone else whether they admit it or not.  She speaks to pensive Sousa and Thompson actually invites her out with the boys!  She happily goes but it seems her joy will be short lived as Sousa looking at her photo is the last thing we see.  I think patriotism and his sweater vest sense of the black and white nature of the world might mean that Sousa is about to turn Peggy in and if so her accomplishments and respect will vaporize and she will instantly be seen as a Mata Hari unless Dooley or Thompson step in. I assume she will need the help of Stark and Jarvis and I am looking forward to seeing them teamed up again.

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