Another week, another great episode! While I really enjoyed the first season, even ranking it as one of the for comic book television this past year, there’s a definite jump in quality this year. The show isn’t showing its seams in terms of budget anymore, the actors are 110% comfortable in their roles, and the writing has thus far been great.
This week saw Carter digging deeper into the mystery surrounding the explosion at Isodyne and Wilkes’ disappearance. It also found her finally catching on to the secret organization, Secret Empire, that is behind it all. The latter incident sadly also came with Whitney Frost being made aware of the danger that Carter represents, forcing her to make her husband send an assassin after her. Naturally Peggy was triumphant (with the help of Jarvis) and injured the brute, but the attack definitely woke her up to the stakes at hand.
Meanwhile, we have the slimy Chief Jack Thompson finally beginning to wake up to the corruption that is going on within the government. Will he fall in line, like he has so many times before? Or will he finally find a line that he is unwilling to cross? I wasn’t all that fond of the character or his arc in the first season, but I’m beginning to come around on him this year. The deeper shades of grey make Thompson an interesting element within the series, so here’s hoping they continuing pushing him away from the caricature that he kind of was in Season One.
It was also nice to finally see Dominic Cooper’s Howard Stark manically interact with everyone again. I realize that Cooper has mostly been busy with his other comic book series, AMC’s “Preacher“, but I do wish we could see more of him and more often. I suspect he’ll pop up at least once more before the season ends and I’m very much looking forward to that.
On the Madame Masque front, Whitney Frost is a fascinating character so far. Fiercely intelligent and diabolically manipulative, she’s an even better foil for Carter than Dottie Underwood could ever hope to be. The fact that she now has superpowers only increases the immense danger that she presents. I’m super curious to see how her abilities increase as the season continues and what their true nature holds.
