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Marvel’s Agent Carter Recap – “A Sin To Err”

By Christina Roberts

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From last week’s preview, I assumed this week’s episode of Marvel’s Agent Carter would be nothing but her running from her SSR compatriots. Of course, we do get some exposition beforehand where threads start to come together. I have to say, it’s probably the best episode of the series so far. Onward!

Not-So-Short Summary: Not surprisingly, we start with a flashback of Leviathan recruiting, Dottie being the muscle, and it turns out to be our Doctor, who was saved last week by Agent Carter and the Howling Commandos. Doc is being interrogated by Dooley, Thompson, and Carter. Peggy presses about the school for gifted youngsters little girls, so much so that Dooley pulls her from the room to scold her. She is under the idea that the little girl they encountered in Russia–or a similar one, you know–grew up to kill Krzeminski–hey! Just like we all thought! Dooley gives Agent Carter permission to follow her gut and see if it leads anywhere.

All the while, Dottie breaks into a dentist’s office across from the SSR HQ.  After killing the dentist, she sets up a sniper rifle. While Dooley and Doc are bonding over broken relationships with spouses, Dottie sends a light signal in Morse code to the Doc, receiving one back from him: He needs more time to get “item;” her new directive is to kill Agent Carter.

Peggy and Jarvis meet up for the first time in weeks at Angie’s diner. They are still working towards a common goal: getting Howard out of hot water. They swap stories–her about the young Russian women, him about Dooley finding him on the street and pressing him for the truth. Peggy wants to track down every girl Howard has been with in the last six months, because she believes the Russian girl schmoozed her way into Howard’s life. Conveniently enough, he buys every girl a diamond bracelet and it’s a way for Agent Carter and Jarvis to track them down…ignoring the famous actresses. One of the last women–Ida–has scratches on her bedpost and is long gone. (Hey! Were we two for two on those Dottie theories?! Internet high five to you all!)

All the while again, Sousa heads to the prison to meet with the man Peggy singlehandedly beat up and tied to a chair way back when Leet Brannis was still a thing. He confirms to Sousa that it was Peggy who beat him up.

And we get a great bit of hand-to-hand combat choreography. Agent Carter and Jarvis meet up at Angie’s diner once more to reconvene and find that their leads have led them nowhere, pun intended. The room clears out and Peggy immediately knows that the SSR is closing in on her and Jarvis. I didn’t think I needed a fight scene set to a Peggy Lee song, but there you have it.

Carter and Jarvis escape out the back to come face-to-face with Thompson. Peggy gets to sock him in the face and knock him out, telling Jarvis a meet-up point for later. But first she has to get Steve’s blood. Sousa awaits her at the end of the alley, trying to tell her to turn herself in or he’ll know she’s guilty, but she can’t do that. And he won’t shoot her.

Neither Thompson nor Sousa can believe Peggy hid this from them, and they’re on the chase, heading to her apartment, where she is already there, grabbing Steve Roger’s blood. She’s out on the building ledge, precariously balanced. And Angie saves the day. She covers for Peggy, giving catty responses to the SSR agents, and as soon as Thompson gets close to the window, she breaks down into tears and makes both Thompson and Sousa uncomfortable. Remember, these are the same agents who got uncomfortable when Peggy alluded to having cramps in one of the first episodes, so them being awkward with a crying woman makes complete sense. Plus, it’s pretty funny.

Angie hooks her up with her brother’s car to get her out of town. Apparently the smartest thing is to go out the main entrance, because Agent Carter decides to just head down the normal stairs and encounter Dottie, who gives her a hug goodbye and then kisses her–wearing Peggy’s “Sweet Dreams” lipstick that knocks her out. Thompson and Sousa rush in before Dottie can slice her neck, and traipse her through the front entrance for everyone to see.

Back at HQ, it’s Sousa vs. Carter. He puts the infamous picture in front of her of the blonde at the night club and the ball that contains Steve’s blood, and we fade to black.

Badass Moment of the Week: I’ll go with a different breed this week and say Angie’s performance with the SSR agents. I was cracking up at how uncomfortable her crying made both Thompson and Sousa. And how readily Thompson said his grandmother’s name was Gam Gam with a cute little smile on his face. Glorious.

Best One-Liner: “How can he possibly meet this many women?” Carter asks.
“Well the Academy Awards are a very busy time…” Jarvis muses.

The second-best line of the evening was Agent Carter’s utterance of, “You think Ginger Rogers is a Russian assassin?!” This is something that needs to happen. Whether it’s a fanfic or some sort of fake biopic, I think we need this twist on Ginger Rogers’ life.

The Russian Doctor had very minimal to do with the main storyline, relegated to a C-plot (or even D, depending on how you want to break everything up). We find out that he is fully on board with Leviathan and attempting to get the SSR agents under his hypnotic spell to lead him to the treasure trove of Stark inventions. Leviathan has to have a bigger evil plot than just getting Howard Stark’s stuff, right? Oh, plus he makes that SSR agent walk in front of a truck to kill himself.

Of course now that Peggy is a threat to her coworkers, she gets treated like an equal. It stays in line with the characterization of her cohorts when Dooley spits out, “Don’t go easy on her just ’cause she’s a girl,” but it still infuriated me. That’s the point of having it set in this era, isn’t it? Agent Carter has only ever wanted to be seen as an equal, and now she gets it. Apparently it takes her beating up multiple SSR agents and their backup for them to consider her a threat.

Before I fail to mention…Later that evening after Agent Carter has been arrested, Angie needs to get Dottie down to the mess hall. When she doesn’t answer, Angie butts into her room and finds everything empty, nothing left. So much for the ballet dancer from Iowa cover.

With only two episodes to go, I can’t imagine these next few weeks are going to be anything of a let-down. Keeping this series to a short episode order (much like the first season of Sleepy Hollow) keeps the plot moving, the action flowing, and doesn’t let too many things dawdle. While I wish this show would never end, the eight-episode order is the perfect fit. I’ll take this every year, wouldn’t you?

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