Reviewed By Katy Rex. ‘Blitzkrieg Button’ has Peggy navigating moral ambiguity and who to trust, it´s almost the overarching theme of the episode, but it seems like the show runners are really trying to hammer home concepts of privilege in society. And Agent Carter is the perfect vehicle to discuss who is included and excluded — not only is it set in an era pre-Civil Rights, notorious for a strict social class system, but the post-WWII government angle gives them ample opportunity to bring up Nazis as often as possible.
Tonight is perhaps the most disheartening hour for Agent Carter’s character, as with every turn her position as a woman in a male-dominated social structure is reinforced. She still does her signature Peggy move, allowing herself to be underestimated and using it to her advantage. But where there had previously been a tone of hope for the future, this week Agent Chad Michael Murray literally says to her that the Natural Order of the Universe is that no man will ever consider her equal.
Agent Susan also has his chance to confront privileged experiences this episode, as he doggedly pursues the leads he believes in regardless of the agency’s lack of faith. He’s such a likable, relatable guy, it’s really hard not to cheer for him, even though we know he’s (unknowingly) trying to foil Agent Carter. He’s the least villainous antagonist we’ve encountered in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His lead starts to pan out, he finds a bum who may have witnessed the anonymous tip that Jarvis called in last week, and then we get an amazingly touching character development scene in which Susan tries to relate to the bum, one broken veteran to another.
Even effing Howard Stark, at one point in the episode, goes off about the ways the world is weighed against certain people based on race, gender, or socioeconomic status, and that growing up poor left him with a complex. That’s a bit far, don’t you think? Come on.
The thing is, the trust/morality/loyalty theme is maybe less obvious, but it’s way heavier this episode. Stark’s face is charmingly covered in lipstick marks from a different woman every time we turn around, which he clearly thinks is roguish and cute, but you can see Peggy’s patience wearing thin. This is where she has placed her loyalty– but was it the right thing to do? The way she’s questioning authority in this episode actually is very similar in tone to the way Steve Rogers himself questioned the moral right of authority in Winter Soldier.
Not everything about this episode was strong; there was absolutely not enough Angie in this episode, for one, but you can’t have it all. But, Peggy’s weird apartment situation gets more and more interesting each episode, as evidenced by a truly bizarre conversation the girls have about stealing food from the main room and having a special pocket built into a sweater to smuggle chicken. And the new girl, Dotty, we were wondering about last episode? Hold on to your butt, Peggy, because maybe you’re not the only pretty girl who’s being underestimated around here.
Also, I won’t spoil why specifically, but I might have squealed a little when Stark and Jarvis got their shoes shined. You’ll get it when you see it.
What did you think of ‘The Blitzkrieg Button?’
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Katy Rex writes comics analysis at endoftheuniversecomics.com, comicsbulletin.com, and bloody-disgusting.com. She also writes scholarly articles for various academic journals. She really likes butt jokes, dinosaurs, and killing psychos and midgets in Borderlands 2. She has a great sense of humor if you’re not an asshole.