2x04 Smoke and Mirrors

The backstory episode is kind of a cliche. Take one of two characters; intersperse scenes from the past that inform scenes from the present; show the contrast between who a person is now who they were along the journey to become that person. But it's a trope because it's effective.

It's nice to know where Peggy Carter comes from. Hers was the better of the two parallel stories, which contrast the ways in which Whitney Frost tried to be something different and was taught to be something traditional, and the ways in which Peggy Carter tried to be something traditional and was taught to be--true to her nature--something different. Peggy's mother and brother are sketches, with thumbnail personalities that feel more fleshed out than they are through the roles they play in her story. Peggy's mother is the standard mom of a precocious young girl, chiding her to be more ladylike and apparently forgetting her handkerchief across decades. And Peggy's brother is the standard sibling tormentor who, as revealed by his recommending Peggy for field work and encouraging her not to live the life that her mother expects her to live, sees who she is deep down.

It's a bit pat, to be sure, but it's also the most impactful element of her story. It would be easy to make Peggy Carter someone who was fully-formed from the beginning, a bold and talented agitator from the word go who cast of the shackles of tradition and expectations from the beginning. But the idea that the smart, strong woman we've seen since The First Avenger was always within Peggy, but had been muted by the world in which she grew up, and it took the recognition and death of a loved one to motivate her to find it again, is deft stroke from the folks behind Agent Carter. True, the death-as-catalyst concept is a cliche in and of itself, and the imagery of the engagement ring and recruitment letter is far from subtle, but for a show that hews toward popcorn, it was a strong story.

The dark parallel to Peggy, as shown in the flashbacks to Whitney Frost's upbringing, were not nearly as well-crafted or interesting. The idea of the bright young girl who sees her mother valued by a male-dominated society for her looks, and is taught to suppress her intelligence for her more aesthetic qualities is a hoary tale as well. What's more, Whitney's flashbacks are much louder about driving this point home than were Peggy's. On the other hand, showing how Whitney split the difference, how she learned to use her pretty face to take advantage of men like her would-be agent, or Calvin Chadwick, makes her an interesting shaded reflection of Peggy.

The show quite consciously draws a parallel between the two of them, and shows how each found a different path to utilizing their talents in a world that undervalued them. The connection carries to the present, where Peggy proves effective in interrogating Chadwick's henchman through her wits and intuition, and Whitney handles the same fly in the ointment in much deadlier fashion. Each is faced with a similar challenge, and while they find differing solutions to the problem, the show sets up the reasons for their different approaches quite well. I just wish the execution--replete with Jessica Jones-esque encouragements to smile, had been a little less tidy and on-the-nose.

But even when this show leans into holding the audience's hand through the themes it's drawing out, the comedic rapport between Hayley Atwell and James D'Arcy sustains it as a reliably enjoyable part of every episode. Peggy and Jarvis have a wonderful chemistry together, with Jarvis's shock at the realization that Hans was their near-assassin, and Peggy's almost annoyed bemusement that he keeps recovering from being tranquilized were highlights buoyed by the pair's timing and shared rhythms. It's clear that the series would not work nearly as well without their shared talents.

Were that the romantic elements of the show were anywhere near as successful. Wilkes continues to be a fairly bland presence this season, and he and Peggy don't have nearly the shared smolder that the overbearing score attempts to impart for them. The idea that after his incident, there is a void, or something other, calling to him, is an interesting one, but the character himself isn't all that compelling. On the other side of the coin, Sousa's puppy dog act with Peggy grows tiresome as well. Sousa's not a bad character necessarily, he's just kind of there, fulfilling a very specific, but not all that intriguing role as the big hunk of white bread with a barely suppressed crush on the series's lead who believes in her without (explicitly) betraying his feelings. Neither of these nigh-love interests detract so much from the story, they just feel like unnecessary detours between Peggy unraveling this year's mystery and going on much more entertaining misadventures with Jarvis.

That's the clear strength of Agent Carter. It has the strongest lead in Marvel's television offerings, and lets Atwell carry the show, in both its comedic and dramatic moments. There's a crackle to Atwell's performance, both in the scenes where she's finding out how to get her captive to talk, or making off-the-cuff excuses for the odd sights and sounds coming from her car, or breaking down at the death of her brother. Wynn Everett performance as Frost can't quite match her heroic counterpart's talents, but she still sells the balance of her characters fears, scars, and convictions.

Again, providing backstory to the big villain and the big hero at the same time is nothing new. But Carter and Frost are two of the show's strongest characters, and taking some time to examine how they became the effective, yet very different women they are today is a fruitful exercise on the way to the pair's inevitable confrontation. Each found themselves with talents that didn't fit the expectations of their gender at the time. One found encouragement from a loved one to be true to herself, while the other was taught to use her more gender-normative qualities to her advantage. It's a nice contrast, and while neither plot broke any new ground, and the story beats were not terribly nuanced, the different roads these women went down, and how it brought them to day, is a story worth telling.