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| Image Courtesy www.screenrant.com |
Agent Carter is
really doubling down on the weird in this week’s episode. Remember how last year the most unusual
elements of Agent Carter were a preteen assassin and hypnotic
suggestion? That’s definitely not the
case this time around! We’ve gotten
extra-dimensional substances, frozen bodies, invisible scientists, an actress
who can make her pervy director disappear, and an over-caffeinated Howard Stark
(okay, that’s not all that unusual!). And
that’s just in the first three episodes!
I get the feeling this is going to be a “weird” season—and that’s
perfectly fine with me.
The episode begins
with Sousa and Peggy looking for evidence at Wilkes’ house which they can use
to restart their Isodyne investigation—at this point their only lead is the tie
pin. Of course Peggy discovers a hidden
compartment within 5 minutes which holds pretty much everything they could
possibly need to make the case that Wilkes was a Russian spy (money, plane
ticket, Russian passport, in addition to the same kind of gun that was used to
kill the 2 S.S.R. agents in the previous episode). However, considering how obvious all of this
is, it’s no surprise that Peggy is unwilling to accept it at face value. Instead, she and Jarvis visit the set of
Howard’s latest movie, which is evidently a terrible comic book movie that he’s
only making as a tax write-off (Can you say “Uwe Boll”? How about “meta-commentary”?). Howard is able to identify the tie pin as the
symbol of the “Arena Club,” an exclusive club consisting of wealthy white men
(evidently Jarvis isn’t even white enough for them; he’s 1/16th
Turkish).
On returning to the
S.S.R., Peggy and Sousa find Thompson waiting for them. Evidently he came out to California on
Masters’ instructions to cover up the incident at Isodyne Energy. He tries to press Peggy into signing an
incident report which accuses Wilkes of being a Russian spy and blowing up
Isodyne, but Peggy refuses. She tells
him to watch the Isodyne film, which he eventually does before Masters comes to
see him at the office. Masters is
looking for sensitive material that Wilkes supposedly stole, which turns out to
be the film. Thompson hands it over to
him, though he doesn’t mention having seen the footage. I definitely find Thompson’s story in this
episode to be rather interesting, as he is still helping Masters, but he
doesn’t seem to trust him entirely.
Going forward I am very curious to see what Thompson will do—will he do
the right thing, or will he keep looking out for himself—especially now that he
knows Masters’ group is involved in shady dealing like election rigging.
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| Image Courtesy www.mcuexchange.com |
Peggy comes up with a
plan for Howard to help her infiltrate the Arena Club and plant some listening
devices by throwing the club doors open and inviting a couple dozen women
inside. Peggy sneaks in, plants a couple
devices, and finds her way into the Council meeting room as they are leaving a
meeting with the other candidate running for the same Senate seat as Chadwick
(in which they forced him to withdraw from the election). Peggy enters the room and tries to plant a
listening device, but it runs into some form of feedback interference which
alerts security. Peggy is able to escape
from security, but not before seeing the next day’s newspaper headline which
reveals that Chadwick will be running unopposed—the Arena Club (specifically
the Council of Nine) are rigging the election.
I enjoyed this part of the episode, particularly Howard making some
“modifications” to the club! I did find
it unusual that the Council could deactivate Howard’s listening devices,
particularly at this point in history, but I guess it would make sense,
particularly if they are connected with the Ancient Hydra organization—unlimited
resources.
Peggy and Sousa bring
Peggy’s evidence back to Thompson, but he does not believe any of their
accusations against the Arena Club. This
gets Peggy all heated against him, to the point that she throws his guilt over
the Silver Star back in his face.
Thompson gets steamed at her and orders her back to New York (obviously
she’s not going to obey that order until she’s cleared Wilkes’ name and solved
the case). While it is easy to blame
this on Thompson looking out for himself, Peggy’s evidence is pretty flimsy and
unsubstantiated since she doesn’t have any working listening devices or a
newspaper. If he had clear evidence in
front of him and refused to listen to Peggy, then it would be an issue; as it
is I think he’s being over-cautious.
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| Image Courtesy www.mcuexchange.com |
Peggy is still steamed
at him, and Sousa tells her that he supports her. However, while the two of them are standing
by Peggy’s desk, they notice her keys and a few other knick-knacks floating in
the air above the desk. This freaks them
out, and Peggy immediately takes Sousa to Howard, who discovers that not only
is there some sort of gravitational anomaly around her which allows small
objects to float, but the air around her is about 7 degrees cooler than the
ambient temperature. Howard mixes
together a solution which should cause the gravitational anomaly to become
visible and sprays it in the air near Peggy.
And what does the anomaly turn out to be? None other than Wilkes, who apparently was
closest to the Zero Matter when it exploded and had his body converted into
ultraviolet light. Howard’s solution
bonds to the light, makes it visible to the human eye, and can also give his
vocal chords enough mass to vibrate so he can talk. I think this is the point when Zero Matter
stops having an easy scientific explanation and starts to slide into the realm
of magic. I am very curious to know
whether Howard will succeed in fixing Wilkes and making him permanently
corporeal. As it is I really like the
dynamic between Wilkes and Howard, who are probably two of the three most
intelligent characters this season (the third being Whitney Frost). As Peggy points out, “[Wilkes] managed to do
what few have done: [he’s] impressed
Howard Stark.” Hopefully when Howard
gets back from Peru (where he’s tracking down an old professor, Abner Brody),
we’ll get to see more of that dynamic.
Meanwhile, there are
some interesting developments with Whitney Frost following her Zero Matter
exposure at the end of the previous episode.
Peggy sends Sousa to look through the S.S.R.’s files to find information
about her while she goes to talk to her in her dressing room at the movie
set. Sousa eventually discovers that
Frost is the stage name of Agnes Cully, a scientist who innovated the method by
which the Allies could send coded messages across enemy lines during the
war. This explains at least some of how
she is able to claim that she knows more about Zero Matter than even Wilkes. This also implies that Frost is more
intelligent than Peggy. However, Peggy
does have one definite advantage over Frost:
she doesn’t react rashly. After
Peggy’s visit, Frost pushes Chadwick into sending the Council’s hitman to kill
Peggy. Though he does not succeed, the
fact that he’s there does tip Peggy off that she is on the right track.
The fight between
Peggy and Mr. Hunt is the biggest action sequence of the episode, though it’s
not terribly exciting. Of course, the
action in Agent Carter really is not intended to be exciting for its own
sake; it is intended to help develop the characters involved. Hence, right before the fight we see Peggy
taking out a lot of pent up frustration on a punching bag. We also get to see Jarvis rescue Peggy,
though he doesn’t do a ton of good before getting knocked away. However, this sequence does give us a fun
Easter egg the morning after when Jarvis demonstrates the house’s new security
system, which includes his disembodied voice warning intruders that they do not
belong. Among other things he tells
Peggy that he does not want to spend all of eternity as a disembodied
voice. Ironically, that’s exactly what’s
going to happen: Howard’s son creates an
artificial intelligence, names it “JARVIS,” and makes it his disembodied
security system. Of course, Tony
eventually puts the disembodied Jarvis inside an android body to create the
Vision, so I guess it all works out for him in the end!
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| Image Courtesy www.mcuexchange.com |
All of this pales in
comparison to the last scene of the episode which picks up with Frost in her
dressing room. Her director walks in and
explains that the studio tried to have her replaced with a younger actress but
that he went to bat for her so she could keep her role. Frost is at first very appreciative, but her
tone quickly changes when the director starts getting a little carried away
looking for excess affection from her (“quid pro quo”?). While she’s trying to pull away from him, her
hair gets pushed back from her forehead, revealing the Zero Matter cut. He starts demanding to know what happened,
and she panics. Seemingly without
meaning to do so, Frost engulfs his body with Zero Matter from her palm and
then sucks the Zero Matter back into her palm.
This is a rather surprising development, though I was expecting
to find out just what the Zero Matter had done to Frost this week. Thus far we’ve seen three different uses of
Zero Matter in Agent Carter:
absorbing heat (freezing stuff), turning Wilkes incorporeal, and
absorbing the director. I really want to
know what other powers they will display using Zero Matter.
As a whole I really
enjoyed this episode. I was a little
confused by the antagonistic relationship between Sousa and Thompson,
particularly after they appeared to be in a better place than that after season
1. Of course, since Thompson appeared
unexpectedly and demanded that they drop a big case, I think his and Sousa’s
disagreement makes sense this episode. However,
I do want to see their relationship get to a better place this season.
Howard Stark added
some definite levity to the episode, particularly at the Arena Club. I really want to see more of Howard and
Wilkes playing off each other!
What did you think of
the Zero Matter abilities shown this episode?
Do you think Howard will succeed in getting Wilkes back to normal? Let me know in the comments!
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