Agent Carter 2.03: Better Angels

WHERE IS ANGIE?

A sunny morning in L.A., Peggy and Sousa exit a car and walk through a line of press surrounding Jason’s house. In his house, there’s a lot of lab equipment (Wine? Whiskey? Wodka? Who knows!) (THAT WAS SO TOO A FUNNY JOKE), but nothing, Sousa says, that explains why people were shooting at him the previous night. Peggy is sad that she apparently did the “killing off Jason” job for them. Sousa is like it was an accident, and Peggy responds that the only lead they have is the same kind of tie pin Dottie was trying to steal.

Walking through the house, they find a secret compartment under hollow sounding floor boards with $50K in cash, a plane ticket to Moscow (one way), and a Russian passport. Agent Baker (I think he’s one of Sousa’s shiny new agents) says it’s obvious Wilkes was a Russian spy, what with all that stuff and the Russian-made gun under his bed, the same kind of gun that killed the agents last week. So OBVIOUSLY he’s a spy. “A spy who hides every bit of incriminating evidence in an easily discovered place?” Peggy is kind of insulted that the SSR thinks so little of the abilities of Russian agents. She thinks Jason’s been posthumously framed and now someone is trying to get the SSR to do the dirty work.

On a movie set, a pair of cowboys are prepared to engage in a shootout, when a voice calls “HOLD IT! You’re in the shot!”

It’s Howard Stark, pretending to be a director, and he asks Peggy if she’d like to be in pictures. She’d like to be the cowboy, and while he likes it, he doesn’t think that the audience is ready for it. “But they’re ready for a movie based on a comic book. Sounds like a dreadful idea.” (Cutting a bit too close to the cutesy there, show. That was actually twee.) Howard is gross, and Peggy smacks him: “Do you have time to talk about the real world?”

Howard watches the film of the Zero Matter explosion, and basically gets a science boner right then and there. Peggy wants to clear Jason’s name, and Howard finds the stick pin – it’s the insignia of the Arena Club, a private club that likes its ranks so “male and pale” that even Jarvis isn’t white enough for it (“I’m one-sixteenth Turkish.”) It’s a social club for the powerful and the influential, and they’ve been trying to recruit Howard. So Jason proooooobably wasn’t a member.

Peggy tells them that Dottie Underwood was trying to steal the same pin not long ago. “Who the hell is Dottie Underwood?” Howard asks. Jarvis reminds him that she kidnapped Howard, tried to kill him and stuff, and Howard’s like nope, I got nothing. “You were wearing your brown mohair jacket.” Howard snaps his fingers. “The Russian knockout with the killer backhand. What the hell have you gotten yourself into, Peg?” “I don’t know, but at least I know where to start looking.”

Whitney is in her dressing room (which I covet, BTW), poking at the bit of Zero Matter at her temple. Some of it absorbs into her finger, and then Chadwick burst in, excited that the story about Jason being a Soviet spy is on the front page – the plan worked! Whitney called in sick to work this morning, and she asks him what he would think if she retired from acting. “You mean after the campaign, of course.” He doesn’t want anything to overshadow the campaign, and once he wins and they end up in Washington, “You can retire and have all the babies you want.” Ummmmmmmmmm somebody is not long for this world. I’m guessing you’ll be dead by episode 7.

Sousa is super mad over the newspaper story, and who is in Sousa’s office but JackOff. “Jack, what…” “an appalling surprise.” Sousa and Peggy do have great timing. Jack is here to fix everything, and he’s edited Peggy’s incident report to reflect the “fact” that Jason was a spy. Peggy’s piiiiiissed. JackOff wants to cover the SSR’s behind, and keep people from getting the idea that Peggy is a Communist. Peggy won’t sign it, so JackOff forges her signature in front of them. Sousa is like um, I’m the boss here. Peggy tells JackOff to watch the Isodyne film and see for himself. “I read the book, and it stunk.” That pretty much ends negotiations for the scene.

Jarvis and Peggy come home to Stark Manor West, where the pool is full of girls and Howard is grumpy the sun is up. “Are you finished fannying about? We have work to do.” Peggy wants to know about the Arena Club – who’s a member, how do you get in, etc, since her grand plan is to plant listening devices and let them incriminate themselves. Peggy then swipes Howard’s Bloody Mary and coaxes him along to get down to work by holding it in front of him and saying “Who’s a good boy? HOWARD’S a good boy!” Howard is not amused but he follows her, so….

JackOff watches the video and realizes that maybe Peggy was right. Again. A knock on the door, and it’s FBI!Red, who was the one who summoned JackOff out there. JackOff almost has the reports that neatly pin everything on Jason ready to go, “very uncontroversial.” FBI!Red says that Jason stole some “sensitive materials” and he would like it as soon as the SSR finds it. JackOff says that the SSR isn’t really in the habit of handing over evidence, but FBI!Red says that it’s a matter of national security, and there are bigger fish to fry than just the SSR, so play ball, JackOff. They end on a politely detente, but JackOff is maybe starting to think that something else is up.

At the Arena Club, Howard is being given a tour, and Howard is like where’s my fucking martini, and also you are all fucking boring. Let me help you with that, and Jarvis opens the door to admit about 40 women. The maitre d and several other men have a collective heart attack while Howard demonstrates his ability to give no fucks.

Elsewhere, Peggy sneaks into the library, leaving bugs around. The secret door to the secret meeting room for secret council business happens to open while she’s hiding, and she sneaks in (secretly) to the secret meeting room for secret council business, and sees a newspaper for the next day with the headline set. She tries to plant a bug in there, under the table, but it emits a terrible feedback and she has to smash it. The secret door to the secret meeting room for secret council business opens, and a goon comes in. DUN DUN DUN commercial.

Oh, he’s got a gun. Cool, cool. Peggy sneaks out from under the table, and does something with the bug and a fabric flower from her dress (If somebody knows what that was about, tell me?) while he calls for security to come down. He hits the button to close the door and she sneaks out when he isn’t looking.

Out in the hall, a security guard stops her, and she is rescued by Jarvis who reminds her that the powder room is “that way.” “Oh! I am so sorry, I get really confused around books.”

Howard admits that he might have been a little hard on the Arena Club. “Your little club isn’t half bad.” Jarvis walks by and gives the signal, and Howard turns around. “Your club is terrible. COME ON GIRLS.” And everyone sashays out.

OKAY WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PEGGY’S DRESS HERE IN THIS SCENE AND THE REST OF THE EPISODE BECAUSE OH MY GOD I NEED IT LIKE I NEED AIR OR CAKE.

JackOff is (and I will admit that he’s kind of right…) super mad about the total disregard for search warrants and the 4th Amendment as a whole. Also the bug in the secret meeting room for secret council business isn’t operational, so…. Peggy tells him that she saw the next day’s newspaper with the headline: “Anderson Ankles Election” (JackOff: “What does that even mean?” Sousa: “It means he’s stepping down….I speak Hollywood now”).

JackOff doesn’t want to open that can of worms. Peggy wants to dig deeper, and JackOff pulls out the grenade: “I think your emotions are clouding your judgement.” “YOU’RE BEING A COWARD. You are so afraid of ruffling powerful feather that you’re doing what you always do: burying an ugly truth and hoping someone pins a medal on you.” JackOff swallows tightly and tells her that she’s going to be on the next plane to New York.

Peggy stalks out and Sousa follows her to calm her down or whatever, but it becomes moot when they notice that things on her desk are floating. Peggy tells Sousa not to touch her, since it’s a side effect of Zero Matter. “We have to do something.” “I agree.” And they both run to Stark Manor West.

Howard tests the limits with pens and whatnot, but the field does not hold up a full bottle of scotch that crashes to the floor and breaks (much to Jarvis’ pain). Howard is thinking at a million miles a second. Sousa: WHY AND HOW. Howard: The air around Peggy is about 7 degrees cooler than the rest of the room. Peggy: Shit I’m gonna freeze like Jane Scott and that detective who’s name no one bothered to remember. Howard: No, you won’t, because you’re not contaminated with Zero Matter. Anyone know why?

Jarvis has a hypothesis: There’s a disruption in the gravitational field near Miss Carter. YUP. Howard sciences about using the same idea that gets pictures developed (so making light visible) to see what’s up around Peggy. Sousa sciences back at him and when everyone is like “What?” Sousa points out that it IS the Strategic SCIENTIFIC Reserve. Howard mixes up chemicals with Silver Nitrate and puts it into a sprayer thingie. He sprays, and IT’S JASON! YAY! Peggy’s emotions are in her eyes, but she can’t touch him – he’s now visible, but not corporeal. Or something. I don’t know. My cat is snoring.

Oh, TANGIBLE is the word. He can’t talk, until Howard sprays the stuff in his throat. Jason has been following Peggy since last night (creeper) and Howard starts working on the science to make Jason like, real again. Sousa and Peggy immediately start asking the smart questions: what the fuck happened? Jason explains that Whitney Frost was there (“The actress?” “More importantly though her husband is running for Senate, so that’s probably relevant”) to get the Zero Matter.

Peggy realizes that if Whitney was caught in the blast, then maybe she’s not so healthy, and Jason says that he took the brunt, and then he flickers out of sight again. Howard tries spraying some more, and then yells for Jason to just hang around, he’ll figure this out.

Howard rattles off a list of things for Jarvis to pick up – lab equipment, chemicals, and that cheese I like. “Velveeta?” “Yeah! Velveeta!” (Oh, HOWARD) “I’ll get two bricks.” Howard also notes that he’s seen that Jarvis is much peppier with Peggy around, and asks that Jarvis let him know should there be a change in employment desired. Jarvis is like what are you talking about. “I am perfectly happy in my position, sir.” “I know. I’m GREAT…but so is she.”

Howard tells Peggy that he’s gonna work day and night to figure this out. Peggy says that Jason deserves a better fate than that. Sousa is sad because his inertia has kept him from declaring his love for Peggy and it’s own damn fault. Peggy asks Sousa for help figuring out what the deal is with Whitney Frost. “You think she survived the explosion?” Peggy’s like seriously if Whitney Frost was dead, we’d all know. Even in this pre-TMZ era. Sousa says he will dig up the info, and Peggy is going to “poke the bear.”

In Whitney’s dressing room, Peggy introduces herself, and after some polite banter, Peggy asks about Isodyne. Whitney’s like, that was horrible, isn’t it incredible that one of THEM could just waltz in and infiltrate? She doesn’t know ANYTHING about the lab or the work – whenever her husband starts talking about it and she gets a TERRIBLE migraine. Peggy asks why she was at the lab, and Whitney says she wasn’t – Peggy’s information is wrong, and papers lie. Peggy says she relies on her instincts and neither one of them believes the other. Whitney is called to set.

Jackoff gives FBI!Red the film of the Zero Matter explosion, and tells FBI!Red that he didn’t watch it. “I trust you.” FBI!Red says that the history books won’t remember this meeting, but he will – “If it were up to me, I’d give you a medal.” JackOff makes pretty and sends FBI!Red off on his way, and then looks troubled. JackOff has layers, y’all.

That evening, Peggy comes into Howard’s lab, where Jason is visible, and thanks to Howard, permanently so, but not yet corporeal. Howard is still working on that (and basically promises Jason a job when they make him corporeal again), and in a manic phase, rushes off to find coffee.

Jason is not certain that he can fix himself, but Peggy is confident in his abilities. He’s impressed Howard Stark and Peggy herself, so there isn’t anything he can’t do. Howard walks through Jason muttering that he couldn’t find coffee, which is a cheap gag but still funny.

Sousa is rummaging through files, and JackOff says he’s almost sorry that he’s bringing Peggy back to New York, and that it looks like Sousa and Peggy have repaired whatever it was that sent Sousa to L.A. “Only thing that brought me out west was a promotion.” “Sure it wasn’t a broken heart?” Sousa is all “don’t know where you got that idea from.” JackOff wants to go get a drink, and Sousa’s like I have work, but next time. JackOff heads off.

Whitney rants to Chadwick about Peggy, and tells him to DO something about her, something unofficial. Like have the Council’s guy take Peggy out. Chadwick doesn’t want to, so Whitney cries and wails that Peggy is dangerous, and knows things and pulls out the big gun: “She’s using me to get to YOU and I would HATE IT if it came to the Council’s attention.” She tearfully hiccups until he’s well out of the room.

At Wayne Manor West, Peggy is working on a punching bag, and Jarvis offers to help – including “if you need a sparring partner…” – she viciously backhands the bag – “…I am sure Mr. Stark would be happy to hire one.” She bids him good night, and he goes inside.

The Hitman comes behind her and tries to use a garrotte to strangle her, but she fights back until they fall into the pool. They fight across the courtyard, and Jarvis runs out and gets a few punches in, which is enough distraction for Peggy to get her gun, and fires off a few shots, which makes the Hitman run away. Jarvis helps Peggy up.

The next morning, Peggy is generally cheerful, and Jarvis is installing new security measures – if the door is opened without proper something, Jarvis’ voice says…something indistinct. Peggy: “Terrifying.” He does not relish the idea of becoming a disembodied voice in a house. Cute.

In the lab, Howard hasn’t slept (“No, no sleep. Coffee.”), and he’s going to Peru – they need a guy who’s an expert in subatomic whatever, an Abner Brody. Jason is going to crunch the math while Howard goes to Peru. “Where’s my passport?” Peggy shrugs. Jason feels that Howard is brilliant, but also a danger to himself and others. That’s accurate. But Jason thinks that Howard is a good person – he invited Jason into his home and lab without a hesitation.

Peggy apologizes for getting Jason hurt, and Jason is like uh it was my lab and my work that got us into this, so don’t apologize for that. He also says he’s going to leave and go somewhere else because people are trying to kill Peggy because of him. Okay, but no one knows you’re not dead, and you leaving won’t change people trying to kill Peggy, and where else are you going to find people who can cope with your lack of corporealness? Nowhere. That’s a dumb plan, J.

Peggy needs him to stay, because if Whitney is the expert in Zero Matter that she claims, well…. they need Jason, and he needs them, so he’s not going anywhere. He still thinks that he’s a danger, but Peggy doesn’t want him to leave, so he won’t leave. Good enough reason for him.

At the SSR office, Peggy proudly shows off her strangulation bruise (Sousa: “Usually you have to go to France to get a hickey like that!”). He offers her a security detail, and she just wants to get back to work – she’s missing her flight to New York. Sousa gives her the rundown on what he found. A physicist named Agnes Cully during the war put Isodyne on the map, and he found Agnes. Stage name: Whitney Frost. Hiding her genius in plain sight. (I am hoping that Carrie will wax rhapsodic about Hedy Lamarr.)

JackOff and FBI!Red walk into a lounge – JackOff’s flight is in an hour, so he has time for a drink – you know before security lines and check in and boarding groups and fights over the carry-on space (Seriously, more people should gate check their bags. It saves time and gets the plane off faster and just be a person, okay?). FBI!Red just wants JackOff to understand how much everyone appreciates his help. FBI!Red then introduces JackOff to Chadwick, and that JackOff should get used to calling Chadwick “Senator.” He also mentions that Chadwick is the youngest member of the Arena Club, and shows JackOff the newspaper, which says exactly what Peggy told him it would say. JackOff covers his reaction well.

Whitney is back in her dressing room when Ken (studio guy?) comes in, and tells her that the studio wants to replace her with someone younger, but he defended her and told them he would walk if they fired her. They fold, and she thanks him and he holds the hug she gives him for way too long. She extracts herself, but he grabs her face and says, “You are so beautiful” (while she is squirming in generalized discomfort) and he brushes her hair away from her temple, and sees the Zero Matter scratch. “WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FACE?” She says that it’s nothing. He yells that it’s NOT nothing, and she grabs him in desperation, and he sort of… dissipates and dissolves into her hands? And now the scratch is bigger, so that’ll end well.

CarrieS:

OMG Peggy you are the cutest, with your whole “I play with my earring an attempt to appear nonchalant” thing. How I love you. Seriously, in this season she’s like a super smart, super badass Muppet. Also, I can’t begin to say how much I adore the fact that Whitney Frost is basically an evil Hedy Lamarr, except I would love to have a character that’s a non-evil Hedy Lamarr. It works so well thematically, though, because Dottie, Whitney, and Peggy are this glorious trifecta of patriarchy smashers who just happen to be on opposing sides, largely because Whitney and Dottie have no morals whatsoever. Seriously – none. So much amorality in such a short show.

My boyfriend Jason is back, so YAY. I miss him being all excited and dweeby like he was in episode one though. He’s gotten pretty suave since then and if I want suave, I can get it elsewhere. More geeking, please. I had a moment of horror when Howard started babbling about science and I became momentarily madly attracted to him, but thank goodness he mentioned that he loves Velveeta cheese and the spell was broken.

All in all, not an amazing episode, but a solid one that propels the plot along nicely. It’s a little too meta for me. You gotta pace yourself on the meta, show. Take it easy.

RHG

I am most distraught that I cannot find a picture of the blue and red dress for y’all because I need. That. Dress. I need it. NEED.

I like that they’re really emphasizing Peggy’s rage at the world this season, and how she copes with it. I think most women feel that rage and some don’t even recognize that it’s what they are feeling, and here is Peggy, feeling all of those feels out loud.

When watching live, Carrie made a comment to me about how Howard is gross when he’s being Howard Stark, indiscriminate playboy, but then he turns around and becomes Howard Stark Science Guy, and suddenly he’s irresistible, which, YEAH.  Anyone else feeling that way?

WHERE IS ANGIE. I MISS ANGIE. I WANT ANGIE.