Series Rewatch – Agent Carter: Time and Tide – Allies and Enemies

By Patti Aliventi on June 6, 2021 • ( 2 Comments )

Written by Andi Bushell, Eric Pearson, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby
Directed by Scott Winant

The third episode of the series brings in significantly more character development for the peripheral characters in the series, as well as propelling the story arc of Howard Stark’s missing technology along.

Now living at the Griffith Hotel for Women, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) has some challenges including the other residents and the house mother. Meanwhile, her colleagues at the SSR are trying to put together just who Leet Brannis was. They have his typewriter that he was using to communicate and have traced the license plate found at the plant explosion to Howard Stark. They arrive at Stark’s home while Peggy is there. She’s working with Jarvis (James D’Arcy) to try to figure out how someone broke into the supposedly impenetrable vault.

The SSR Agents haul Jarvis down for questioning. Peggy helps him out, but at a cost to her own standing in the SSR. The two then trace the path of the thieves to the pier where they find a boat with the same symbol Leet Brannis was drawing when he died. They find the stolen Stark technology and tip off the SSR.

Unfortunately, there are still dark forces behind the scenes. Their only witness on the boat is killed along with Agent Krzeminski (Kyle Bornheimer). The Chief, Roger Dooley (Shea Whigham) places the blame squarely on Howard Stark.

For the most part, Time and Tide is furthering the characters along. There’s some intrigue being set up with Peggy’s relocation to living at The Griffith. Peggy is getting closer to Angie (Lyndsy Fonseca), but is that a good thing? I have my suspicions about the women around her at the hotel. Peggy struggles with how much she can reveal about herself to a “friend” since she is so used to relying only on herself and keeping everything close to the vest.

There’s also quite a bit more character development for Jarvis, as we learn how he came to be in Howard Stark’s employ and what motivates him. This helps see the kinder side of Howard Stark as well. Jarvis and Peggy really bond, though, over their past experiences, so it’s easy to see why Peggy would let herself look incompetent to her work colleagues to help Jarvis at that moment. Yes, she’s saving herself as well, but I don’t think that was her primary motivation.

The tunnel beneath the safe is a kind of poor plot device. I know there were lots of tunnels underneath NYC – subway lines that were abandoned, water tunnels, and the like, but it’s just a little too convenient that it’s in the perfect spot and the bad guys know about it.

However, that does lead to the one bit of action in the episode, on the pier between Peggy and the suspect, and later Jarvis. There’s a good fight scene where Peggy holds her own until Jarvis arrives and the two of them manage to subdue the suspect. Unfortunately, after they leave things don’t go as planned. This serves to ratchet up the danger levels of Leviathan, making it more of a threat than it seemed before. It also forces Peggy to think long and hard about what she’s involved in.

This is a well-written episode that really does a lot for the characters we’ve gotten to know so far. The acting is great all around as everyone seems more comfortable in their roles. The male colleagues Peggy finds herself surrounded by aren’t bad people, they are just men raised in an era when women existed mostly to serve them and see Peggy through those filters. Some of them are really nice guys who just don’t know any better, and others are real jerks, but they are becoming more fleshed-out with a lot of depth.

All in all, I’m enjoying the series at this point as a great coda to the Captain America story in World War II that keeps the character of Peggy Carter continuing the work we saw her doing in that film. It’s well worth investing the time in the series, and since it’s a story arc you need to start at the beginning.