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A lot happened in yesterday’s episodes of Agent
Carter, including the payoff for several running plotlines. Jarvis in particular benefited from some
major development, perhaps more than he received over the previous 1¾
seasons. I was also a little surprised
that Joseph Manfredi received some character development; I think he’s now a
better-developed character than Chadwick was before Frost sucked him up! Oh, and the Zero Matter powers (and increased
effects budget) are on full display!
The first episode opens with a
flashback to Ana returning from an evening art class while Jarvis is explaining
Howard’s instructions for disabling the bombs from the first episode of season
1. Ana is curious to learn more about
who was on the other end of the phone—Howard’s new associate. Jarvis tells her a little about Peggy,
including the surprising fact that Howard actually respects her (as
compared to all his other female… “associates” I suppose). Ana is concerned about Jarvis getting
involved in Peggy’s mission, but he assures her that “Miss Carter won’t
interfere with our lives in the least.” I
tell ya, Eddie needs to stop saying things like that!
Naturally, it cuts straight to
Jarvis sitting at Ana’s bedside and looking absolutely terrible. This scene probably only takes place the
morning after the last episode ended, but Jarvis looks like he hasn’t slept or
moved since last week, as if it were taking place in real time! It is actually quite touching to see such a
change in Jarvis over the last couple episodes since Ana got hurt. Jarvis is no longer simply looking for
adventure; the adventure nearly cost him the love of his life—and it did
cost them the opportunity to have children—and he is suddenly very
serious about it.
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Meanwhile, Wilkes is in Frost’s custody,
and she has been observing him to see the effect that Zero Matter has had on
him. She’s specifically been testing the
effect of her regular Zero Matter transfusions on him. This gives us an opportunity to learn more
about both Frost and the Zero Matter:
evidently Zero Matter is speaking to Frost because she has given
in to it. She is now channeling the Zero
Matter and essentially seems to be doing what this voice tells her to do. For his part, Wilkes strongly believes that
the Zero Matter is a curse and something that he needs to fight against. I have to admit, this whole argument sounds
like the kind of thing that will have a major payoff—if not later in this
series then in Doctor Strange. In
the comics, Zero Matter/Darkforce has a corruptive nature: prolonged exposure changes people and turns
them “darker.” We’re already seeing its
effect on Frost, and these two episodes show us even more of its effect on
Wilkes once he truly gives in to it.
For their part, Peggy and Sousa
regroup to figure out what they can do to save Wilkes and stop Frost. They realize that the best way to do it will
be to draw Frost out by proposing a trade:
the uranium rods for Wilkes. They
pass the message along through Manfredi (Sousa knows the Hollywood gossip of
the two of them being an item at one point), and Frost accepts. Samberly conjures up some phony uranium rods
that read like the real deal, and they make the exchange. However, when the rods fall out of their case
and nothing happens, Frost realizes the con and the shooting starts. Peggy, Sousa, Jarvis, and Wilkes escape, but
Wilkes reveals that he was a Trojan Horse all along: he grabs Sousa’s gun and uses his love for
Peggy to force him into revealing the location of the real rods. And then I finally get that crazy display of
intangibility as Wilkes just phases his way through the containment chamber and
out of the truck. Because Wilkes has
embraced the Zero Matter, he can control his intangibility at will. Unfortunately we don’t see him use it anymore
this episode, but that was still a pretty cool moment.
Thompson has a very interesting
arc in these two episodes, and I don’t think we are really sure of his
intentions until the very last moment. First
he goes all the way to London to drink with an old college buddy who can give
him Peggy’s redacted service record (which he then reads with one of those
decoder things). The file reveals some
shady dealings in Peggy’s war record, including a civilian massacre. He tries to use the file to blackmail Peggy
into returning to New York with him, but she refuses, calling the document a
forgery. She also calls him on his mistrust
in fearing that she would reveal his secret (the highlight of his WWII service
is actually something of an accidental war crime). Finally she tells him that he’s better than just
doing Masters’ dirty work. This gives
Thompson something to think about while showing the file to Masters. Masters scoffs at the idea of the record
being forged—as long as it’s on paper it’s “true” regardless of whether or not
it happened. This is the moment when
Frost calls Masters with the location of the rods and asks him to retrieve
them, and Thompson listens in on the call and confronts Masters in the
lab. However, Masters uses the memory
wiping device to make Thompson forget what happened and gets away with the
rods. It does seem a little convenient
that Thompson had written down the coordinates where Masters was supposed to deliver
the rods, but I suppose the story had to move forward somehow.
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Peggy and Sousa aren’t too keen
on bringing Thompson with them, but they decide to after all since they don’t
really have competent backup. The three
of them collect Samberly, Jarvis, and the “gamma cannon” whose design Howard
had “faxed” them, and they all head out to the desert to stop Frost from
detonating a nuke and reopening the Zero Matter rift. Unfortunately they are too late and the rift
opens and draws Wilkes in—to Frost’s dismay.
When Jarvis thinks that Frost will get away he drives into the blast zone
to get her, followed by Peggy. Meanwhile,
Sousa aims the cannon at the rift and they use it to close the rift, which
leaves Wilkes lying in the divot it left behind. Jarvis rather abruptly shoots Frost
while Peggy checks on Wilkes. Fortunately
he’s alive; unfortunately so is she. And
then Peggy and Jarvis get knocked out and captured by Manfredi and his men.
The second episode begins with
the two groups trying to get out of their own respective sticky
situations. Thompson, Sousa, and
Samberly are stuck in the wilderness without any means of transportation when
an SSR car with 2 of Masters’ men drives up.
They are there to kill all three of them, but Thompson and Sousa manage
to convince them to bring the three of them in for Masters to interrogate. Thompson then convinces Masters that he can
use the gamma cannon to kill Frost and restore order, and that Sousa can be
trusted to help them. The hope of
getting out from under Frost’s thumb is quite tempting for Masters and he
agrees.
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Meanwhile, the first scene of the
episode is a dance number inside Peggy’s subconscious. It starts off black and white with Peggy
sitting in the deserted S.S.R. Her
brother Michael appears next and the two of them talk about how Peggy got into
this situation—partly because he wanted it and partly because she did. The colors slowly fill in—green, then red,
then blue. Peggy’s in the Automat ordering
from Angie, and Wilkes is there. The two
of them dance, and then Sousa comes in, tosses his crutch away, and starts
singing and dancing with Peggy. It actually
took me about half the dance number to realize that the whole point was Peggy’s
subconscious trying to choose between Wilkes and Sousa. I actually thought that it was very well done
and a nice homage to the main sets from season 1 (the S.S.R. and the Automat)
as well as a nice welcome-back to Angie.
However, near the end I did notice that Angie wasn’t really as committed
to the choreography. The number ends
with Jarvis telling her to wake up and Rose slugging her into consciousness.
Once they are both awake, Peggy
uses a “hotwire” sewn into her belt to melt through the chain locking them in
the back of their truck and they bail out in the middle of the wilderness. The two of them start walking toward town,
but Jarvis is very short and angry with Peggy—and this gives both of them some
very good character development. Jarvis
accuses Peggy of doing exactly what he did when she went back for Dottie—kind of
hypocritical of her to get upset with him when he attacked Frost. And then he takes it too far: “Everyone around you dies.” This is when Peggy finally lets him have it…
in a very calm and collected manner. She
realizes that he considers what they do to be little more than consequence-less
adventures, while she has suffered the consequences of her actions on multiple
occasions. She then tells him that he
can go back to his normal life without consequences, but he reveals that Ana
can’t have children anymore because of the gunshot. All in all, this was a really great
interaction between the two of them—I think it was actually their biggest fight
of the series and did a lot to further develop both their characters,
especially Jarvis.
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At this point Manfredi realizes
that they escaped and sends the truck back for them, but Jarvis and Peggy trick
the 2 thugs in the truck, retake the truck, and drive back to the S.S.R. When Peggy gets to the S.S.R., she
immediately storms into Masters’ office and starts beating him senseless
demanding to know what he did with Thompson and Sousa—both of whom immediately
enter to stop her! That was pretty much
hilarious and might have been the most fun moment of the entire episode! The five of them (with Samberly) decide to
work together to repair the cannon so they can use it on Frost (although Peggy
is unhappy to be working with Masters).
However, this is where Thompson’s character takes a huge turn: he volunteers to tell Frost that the cannon
won’t be ready in time, but instead tells her that Masters is planning to use
the cannon on her. Then he cuts the fuel
line on Peggy and Sousa’s car so they can’t follow him and Masters to the
meeting. It’s at this point that
Samberly reveals that Thompson had switched the plan and told him to convert
the cannon into a bomb to take out both Frost and Masters. Peggy refuses to let Wilkes be killed in the
explosion (even though he was going to shoot her), so she, Sousa, and Samberly
all go to Frost’s facility to stop Thompson and save Wilkes.
Peggy immediately goes in to save
Wilkes, but he absorbed far too much Zero Matter and is struggling to contain
it. I think he finally realizes that he
made a mistake in working with Frost, now that something dark and sinister is
pressing him for release. He does not
want to be near people for fear of what will happen. When Peggy tries to free him, he resists and
locks himself inside so she will have to leave him behind. As I said above, these episodes really develop
Zero Matter/Darkforce well, both its raw power and its corrupting nature.
Thompson tries to blow the bomb
and kill Masters and Frost, but Samberly has already completed a radio wave jammer,
which disables the detonator. Thompson
forces Samberly to turn off the jammer at gunpoint, but Peggy turns her gun on
Thompson to prevent him from pressing the detonator. The episode ends with them at a stalemate
outside while inside Frost and Masters realize Thompson’s plan and Wilkes
cracks apart, spilling Zero Matter in the room with them.
These two episodes pair together
quite well, as both show different aspects of the Zero Matter. They also offer good development
opportunities to both Thompson and Jarvis.
I’m glad that they did not decide to take Thompson in the “Ward direction”
(seduced to evil by a surrogate father-figure), but I’m just as glad to see the
distrust toward him from Sousa and Peggy after everything that’s happened. I am very curious to see how the stalemate at
the end of the episode will be resolved.
By and far Jarvis was the best
character in the episode, particularly with his very realistic reactions to
everything that happened with Ana. He is
no longer the fun comic relief; he is deathly serious now that he’s experienced
the consequences of these adventures firsthand.
Ana also has a great moment near the end when she tells Jarvis that even
though she worries about him, he needs to help Peggy as much as he can. Of all the relationships on this show, I think
this is the best one.
What did you think of these
episodes? What did you think of the
dance number that opened the second episode?
How do you think this season will end next week? Let me know in the comments!
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