I can't figure out how Bucky could have trained Natasha. How is he still (a) alive and (b) young? Cryosleep in between missions, okay, but then he couldn't have done anything else.

Didn't Bucky get hit with a version of the super soldier serum?

Cryosleep in between missions, okay, but then he couldn't have done anything else.

This is the original version of Bucky-as-Winter-Soldier, as conceived by Brubaker. Cryosleep, wake up and kill, cryosleep, wake up and kill...that was all he did. Not sure when the training stuff would have fit in.

I'd agree that Dottie could be from the Red Room, but I don't think she's Natasha. I do wonder whether she's good or bad or in between, though. I liked that they set that guy up to be a new scary villain and then immediately offed him as a way to show how badass Dottie actually is.

I'm just tickled at Stan Lee's cameo.

When that third newspaper came down I was convinced it was going to be one of the SSR guys. I squealed when I saw it was Stan the Man.

Interesting! Intrigued about Dottie.

I was thinking Winter Soldier when Mueller was talking about all the massacred Russians.

Jarvis continues to charm me. I just love that he's not the Butler With Secret Ninja Skilz!.

What was the message on the typewriter?!!!1!

Also, one thing that I find refreshing in these four episodes is that the bad guy, so far, is simply the bad guy of the week, and not built up. There is no mustache-swirling mystery figure looming over the proceedings. I love an arc, but now that I see the lack of it, I have not really enjoyed The Big Bad of a show's season, at least when it's laid in as such. Maybe because it's too omniscient. That, if we were the characters in the story, we wouldn't know about some dude chuckling in the shadows. And also can lead to painting into corners, maybe.

Anyhow. I like that each new dude is winding up quite dead, no matter that he appeared in a major motion picture once or so.

I love an arc, but now that I see the lack of it, I have not really enjoyed The Big Bad of a show's season, at least when it's laid in as such.

I was thinking that very thing about The Librarians. I liked the whole season, the only thing that didn't work for me was the moustache-twirling Baddie in the background. I prefer the arc of the story to be about the main characters and how they develop, not How Do We Get Rid of Spike? One-off Monster-of-the-Week shows are fine with me. The Big Bad arc falls flat for me because, hell, it's a television show - I know from the start that the Big Bad won't win and the main characters are not going to die (unless it's Joss or Tim, and even then, only the secondary characters will die and not come back somehow, and the death is what matters, not the Baddie who killed them. They could die just as randomly from a Baddie-of-the-Week, or a disease. One of the most powerful episodes of Buffy, with the widest effect on the characters, involved a secondary character dying of natural causes, no Baddie needed). The Big Bad is just a plot device, and I can't get emotionally invested in a plot device.

That's actually one of the things I don't like about the show. It's clear there's some sort of Big Bad or villain or something out there (where did those mute guys come from, who's giving typewriter orders), but it's all so nebulous I can't get a handle on it. I'm much more invested in Peggy's efforts to keep one step ahead of her co-workers' investigation into Stark (and also now the idea that Stark may have his own agenda) than whoever or whatever the villain plot is. Also how does Dottie fit into this? And will Angie ever do anything?

It's not a very cohesive show, is what I'm saying.

This was why Justified season 1 was my favorite.