“Bridge and Tunnel” is episode two of season one of Marvel’s Agent Carter.
In the previous episode, “Now is Not the End”, Howard Stark had asked Carter for help. He was accused of selling his inventions to the enemy, but revealed to Carter that he had actually had his most secure vault robbed. One thing that was stolen was a formula for a chemical explosive called nitramene. Carter, along with Stark’s butler, Jarvis, had tracked the formula to a chemical plant. The ensuing explosion when one vial of nitramene had been dropped destroyed the entire plant, which exploded and then imploded. Carter had encountered two people with scars on their throats who couldn’t talk. One had escaped with milk van full of nitramene; the other had killed Carter’s roommate. The person with the nitramene, who stated he was just a businessman, had told Carter that Leviathan is coming.
This episode opens with the Captain America Adventure Program. Carter, who is listening in the diner, asks Angie to turn it off; the portrayal of Betty Carver, who is probably intended to be Carter, as an airheaded girl constantly being captured by Nazis is less than flattering. Carter is looking for a new place and Angie suggests she move into the place where she lives. Peggy sees an obituary for her former roommate in the paper and clearly doesn’t want to put anyone else at risk.
Jarvis suggests she stay at Stark’s place in the city. Carter says that Howard wanted her to clear his name; staying in one of his places would risk her being fitted for a noose as well. Jarvis says that this is not one of Stark’s primary places, but one he uses for private entertaining. It can be guessed what that means.
Peggy has not found any mention of Leviathan in the SSR files, nor has Jarvis found any reference to it in Stark’s. There are no records of people with missing voice boxes either, so Carter assumes that they are foreign. The silent killer is being given instructions to find Leet Brannis, the man who made the nitramene. It seems that Brannis has struck out on his own and Leviathan is not happy about this. Leviathan wants the nitramene back and probably Brannis dead. Carter’s first stop is the company that owns the milk truck the explosives were transported in.
The chemical refinery is now in a small bundle (yet it can be transported on the back of a truck? If it’s the entire refinery it should weigh a lot more than ten tonnes) which has been transported to the SSR for investigation. The other agents are convinced that Stark is guilty, so are following the trail to see if it leads to him. Carter is sure he isn’t, but is also ahead of them. Which makes things tricky; she is effectively working alone – although Jarvis keeps trying to help – against the other agents.