Marvel Agent Carter 'Pilot, Bridge and Tunnel' Recap

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Marvel's latest episodic installment, Agent Carter, premieres, tonight, January 6, on ABC with an epic two hour premiere--and we couldn't be more thrilled for Marvel's first female-led adaption starring Hayley Atwell reprising her role as Peggy Carter.

The television series is inspired by the films "Captain America: The First Avenger" and "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." The story takes place in 1945, and centers around leading lady, Peggy Carter, who is portrayed by British actress Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The Winter Soldier; The Duchess).

Her task is to balance her day-to-day administrative work with secret missions with Howard Stark.

The series opens with Agent Carter reminiscing about her time with Captain Americas while settling into single life in 1940s New York City.

She steps out and starts her day fabulously adorned, sporting a crisp, bright blue skirt suit with a bright red hat. Carter is clearly not your ordinary woman as she walks in to work at the Strategic Scientific Reserve.

Her first case? Howard Stark, Tony Stark's father, is considered a fugitive from justice, and is charged with treason. Agent Carter, who worked with Howard during her days with Captain America, tries to object the accusations against Stark.

"I knew Howard Stark during the war. His help was invaluable," Carter said, but faced with a male-dominated patriarchy, her support went unheard.

Agent Daniel Sousa (Enver Gjokaj) spoke up in defense of Carter, but Carter puts him in his place. She affirms she does not appreciate his input, and can take care of herself.

Carter finds herself in the local diner, reading the newspaper. The newspaper headline reads: "Stark Manhunt in 2 States." She lamented to Angie the waitress about her current situation.

"During the war, I had a sense of purpose, responsibility," Carter said. Angie consoled her, telling her that we all have to pay our dues, and Carter reluctantly acquiesced.

She stepped away from her booth to grab a slice of pie, and upon returning, found a note written on a white napkin. The napkin reads: Meet in the Alley in 5 Minutes. Carter goes to meet the mysterious caller in the alley, when a man approaches her.

"Have we met?" she asks. "You're coming with me," he says--but Carter has other plans. She knocks him away, pulls her gun, escapes around the corner, and bumps into none other than Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) himself.

"They're calling you a traitor," she says.
"I'm calling it a set-up."

Stark informs Carter of a vault where he kept his "bad babies"--inventions too dangerous for anyone.

When he returned from a bout in Morocco, he found a hole in his vault, and concurred they were stolen, and sold around town. Stark approached Peggy to clear his name.

"I'm gonna need someone on the inside, someone I can trust," Stark said.
"Howard.

You're asking me to become a traitor in order to prove you are not one," she says, but of course, agrees. Before leaving, she meets and plans with faved Stark family butler, Edwin Jarvis (James D'Arcy).

Peggy goes to The Martinique disguised as a blonde bombshell looking for one of Stark's missing weapons, and affections of one Mr. Spider Raymond.

"You are the proud owner of a certain chemical formula, aren't you?" she flirted.

He prematurely went in for the kiss, he was promptly put to sleep with one taste of Carter's toxic knock-out lip stick. This gave her time to reach the safe, and take the vial of the dangerous chemical.

When Mr. Raymond comes to, he rushes to the safe to find the bottle gone, and a tall blonde gunner putting a bullet through his head.

When Peggy arrives home, safe and sound, she bids goodnight to her sick roommate Pauline, and goes to open the mysterious bottle in her bathroom. Suddenly, she hears something stir outside, and upon investigating, finds Pauline dead in her bed, and the tall blonde gunner in the mirror.

The pair engage in a battle to the death, and Peggy wins with one swift toss of the man out the window.

Yet, when she looks out, he's gone, and surely will be back. Carter laments the death of her poor roommate.

Jarvis and Carter meet at a cafe in secret, sitting back to back in separate booths. Carter explains the death of her friend, and feels guilty for being the cause of it.
"Ms. Carter.

I've read your war record. You are a credit to your profession," Jarvis said. He assures her she did what she thought was best, and did what was right.
"But was it worth it?"

Agent Carter brought the substance to a scientist, and learned the substance was powered by Vita-Rays, which were part of the Super-Soldier Serum that sped up the potions effects on Captain America.

Meanwhile, the mysterious tall blonde gunner sits in a darkened room, speaking covertly through a typewriter, and receives permission to terminate Agent Carter.

Jarvis and Carter go to Roxxon Oil Company to find the source of the Vita-Ray capsule, and Carter infiltrates the building.

There, she finds scientists hard at work with the same glowing substance--but Jarvis accidentally gives Carter's location away when he pages her.

In quick haste, she chases down a scientist, who opens up the back of a milk truck stocked full with weapons.

"Who are you?" Carter asks.

The man puts a speaker to his throat, and through it, speaks in a robotic tone.
"Im an independent businessman just trying to make his mark," he says.

He says he doesn't kill people, he just sells to the people who do, and mentioned the name "Leviathan."

He smashes a weapon to the floor, and Carter has mere minutes to escape. She leaped to the hood of Jarvis' car, and they very nearly escaped as the company building exploded and imploded in a fiery vortex of doom.

"It would seem it works," Jarvis observed.

The pilot episode ends with a cordial meeting between Jarvis and Carter at their usual cafe. Jarvis leaves, but waits in a car to watch Carter depart.

He speaks with Stark, and says there's no way she'll be suspicious... which leaves us to believe he is up to something suspicious.

To kick off Episode 2: Bridge and Tunnel, Jarvis invites Carter for an overnight at the Stark mansion.

Meanwhile, the mysterious tall blonde gunner speaks covertly through the typewriter again, and admits his plans to locate the thief Leet Brannis.

His correspondent writes "Leviathan grows impatient." He interrogates a man who doesn't know Leet Brannis, but does provide other necessary information.

Back in Agent Carter's world, Carter is at search for the driver of the milk truck, and goes under cover to search for Vita-Ray radiation. But at the office, she learns Agent Sousa is investigating the blonde at the scene of the crime of Spider Raymond's murder--herself.

In a panic, she asks if she can help, but is worried. Left in the office to perform menial admin duties, Carter devises a way to rid the evidence against her, and all traces of Vita-Ray activity.

Meanwhile, Agent Jack Thompson (Chad Michael Murray) questions Roxxon, who fell out of ways with Howard Stark. The man admits that Howard is working on a molecular formula, with roots in vita radiation...

Thompson calls Agent Carter in to bring files on Vita-Radiation, and they fill her in on plans to scan everyone for traces of vita-radiation. Carter scans everything of hers for possible radiation, and rids herself.

While performing routine scanning, she comes face to face with one of the scientists she met at Roxxon--though found him to be cleared.

She then suggested to officials that the clothes the men wore this morning should be checked, and the man made a run for it. But, classy as always, Carter cut him off.

The scientist is interrogated, and the agents want to get a name out of him, but he doesn't talk. So Jack Thompson takes over, and has more brutal methods of getting information...

Meanwhile, Agent Carter narrows down the driver of the milk truck.

"Where is Stark's inventions?" she demands.

She learns he went to rob Howard Stark's vault for Leviathan. The driver asked for protection before he admitted to any more about Leviathan.

In a stunning and glorious win, Carter cornered the mysterious tall blonde gunner on the roof of the milk truck, stabbed him in the hand, and flew the truck off a cliff.

The truck exploded, along with the lake it landed in.

When she pulled Jarvis from the truck, he brought thief Brannis with him, but unfortunately, Brannis was too injured to live.

"Leviathan is coming. Help me stop them," she begged the dying thief. In his last moments, he drew a mysterious, heart-shaped symbol in the dirt.

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