Agent Carter 2.10: Hollywood Ending

60 Seconds ago: Jack has pulled his gun on LabGuy, and LabGuy fixed the bomb. Peggy pulls her gun on JackOff to keep him from detonating the bomb, and he’s like, “You don’t have it in you” and she’s like, “That was true. Not anymore” but before he can hit the button, there’s an explosion that knocks them all down. Peggy and Sousa glare at JackOff, and JackOff protests his innocence. “Wasn’t me.”

In the lab, they pick through the debris, and see a great deal of Zero Matter littering the floor. Gamma cannon is fine, and they find Jason under some stuff. Jason says first that it’s not safe, but then realizes that he feels pretty good. He’s weak, and hungry, but he’s okay. Jason seems to have managed to expel the Zero Matter, and as Peggy gets him up, the Zero Matter oozes over towards Whitney, who absorbs it all. “There. Everything is where it’s supposed to be.”

Peggy tells JackOff that shooting Whitney will do no good, and they have to run. Outside, the car (and LabGuy) are missing. “Just pick a direction and run!” Whitney comes out and hollers that running will do no good, she knows where they’re going. She continues to monologue, but is flattened by a car.

Howard opens the door. “Jarvis! You just hit a woman with my car!” “I know sir.” “She’s a two-time Oscar nominee!” “Miss Frost is quite resilient, she’ll be fine.” Lab Guys pulls up behind Jarvis, and everyone piles into the cars and they drive away. Whitney gets up and glowers after them.

At SSR headquarters, Sousa is taking one of FBI!Red’s lackeys to the holding cells, and JackOff says that the other ones are giving up all of Vernon’s buddies. In the lab, Jason describes the other side of the rift as a vast nothingness. Howard is disappointed that it’s nothing, but Jason says it’s basically an active nothing (like in The Neverending Story, yeah?) that wants to consume everything, and if Whitney loses control of it, it’ll consume everything on our universe. Howard declares Jason to be free of Zero Matter.

Jason doesn’t think that he’ll ever get back to his old self. “The things I’ve done…” he apologizes for threatening Peggy’s life. Howard shrugs, because Peggy’s life is always getting threatened. Jarvis and Peggy just look at him and he’s like, “What it’s true.”

In her room, Whitney is scribbling diagrams and formulae. Joseph comes in and tries to get her to take a break and eat something. “What are we working on today?” Whitney wants to open a new rift. Joseph takes her by the arm and tries to steer her towards the door, and she grabs his arm threateningly. “Don’t touch me while I’m working.” He leaves. Wisely.

In the living room, Joseph complains to his mother that Whitney isn’t the same girl that she used to be. He waxes poetic and his mother chuckles. He always gets poetical when he’s miserable. He grouses that she spoke to him rudely and sharply, and his mother tells him that she speaks the way that he allows her to speak to him, and if it were up to her (his mother) she would cut out Whitney’s tongue. (It sounds great in Italian.) Joseph shakes his head, and says that he is just not being herself, it’s like something has got a hold of her. ”Jospeh, do you truly love this woman?” “With all my heart and soul.” “Then you must make a deal with the devil.”

At Stark Manor West, Jason, Peggy, and Howard are having lunch. Jason is staying at Stark Manor West until he figures out what he’s going to do. Howard yells for Jarvis to bring mustard. Jason asks if there is a portrait of Howard in every bedroom.  “Art makes a house a home.” Whatever, Howard.

  

Peggy asked if Jason can build a new gamma cannon, and Jason says that he’s been thinking about it and doesn’t think a gamma canon is the best solution. If they separate the Zero Matter from Whitney,  they will still have the Zero Matter in the world to contend with. Howard asks Jason to whip up a new containment unit, so they can study the Zero Matter safely at Stark Labs. He is not amused by this idea and tells Howard that he’s just looking out for his own profits. ”That stings.” “You’ll heal.”

Howard hollers for the mustard again, and Jarvis walks in with his hands over his head, holding mustard. Joseph is behind him with a gun. Howard has Jarvis put the mustard down, and Joseph says to Peggy that if he sees a gun then Jarvis will see heaven. Howard is very put out. “You can’t just walk into a man’s home, and take his butler hostage.” Joseph retorts, “You can’t steal a man’s skivvies.” Jarvis, Jason, and Peggy are all very confused ( justifiably so) while Howard tells Joseph that  you can’t wear skivvies with something I didn’t quite catch. They laugh. And embrace, because Howard knows everybody.

Jason is understandably grumpy. Joseph did after all kidnap him and strap him down and allow Whitney to torture him. Joseph apologizes, mea culpa, but Whitney Frost is why he’s here.

Joseph and Howard reminisce over the old days, and Peggy cuts to the chase: what does he expect them to be able to do? “Help her.” Well, she is kind of a murderer and terrorist, so…. “That’s not her! That’s the stuff inside her. You know,” he says to Jason. Jason shakes his head. Whitney is willing accomplice, not a victim. Joseph tells them that Whitney hasn’t been sleeping, or eating, and that she’s writing on the walls. Howard perks his ears. Writing what? “I don’t know, formulas and stuff. About opening the rift again.”

“She can’t! The last of the Roxxom uranium was used up in the desert.” Jason thinks they shouldn’t underestimate her genius. Peggy’s like, fine, we’ll just have to beat her to the punch. They need to open the rift themselves and send the Zero Matter back. Jason’s like, “So that’s impossible, since the rift was a fluke the first time.” Howard beams: “You kids are so cute. I bet you crammed for your finals and everything.” Peggy: “What are you nattering on about?”

“How do the most successful scientists get results?”

“Drinking copious amounts of alcohol, and cavorting with loose women,”  Jarvis mutters.

“By getting smarter people to do the research, and then stealing it from them.”

Howard thinks they should just go steal Whitney’s research. Joseph says that she never leaves the room, and Peggy’s like, well you’re just going to have to get her out of the room, won’t you?

That night, Joseph goes into Whitney’s room where all the furniture is piled on the bed, and Whitney is frantically doing math on a piece of paper taped to the wall. He tells her that he wouldn’t interrupt her if it wasn’t important, and she says that nothing is more important than this. Even me? She takes a long time to answer. He needs her help to get some information out of one of his guys. “So I’m your muscle?” “The most beautiful muscle there is.” She grudgingly agrees.

Outside of Whitney’s room, Peggy and Sousa come around the corner and Joseph gestures that Whitney is still in the room. They hide. In the living room Joseph brings in one of his guys who is understandably unsure of what is going on. Joseph tell him to just play along, and he’ll make it up to him later. Whitney comes in and Joseph starts questioning the guy about how long he’s been working for one of his rivals. The guy’s like, I work for you? This goes on for a while.

In Whitney’s room, Souza and Peggy look at all of the notations taped to all four walls. Sousa: so she’s real crazy. Peggy: she’s a genius! Souza: can you decipher it? Peggy: I don’t speak megalomaniac, but fortunately for us Howard Stark does. They begin taking pictures. (no flash, no lights, so….) Sousa snaps a picture of Peggy as a souvenir. He tells her that he’s glad they got to work together again.

In the living room, the interrogation goes on. Whitney tells Joseph that he seems to have this all under control, and that she is going back to work. Joseph asked her to do the thing. Just a little bit. She walks towards Hank and Hank starts screaming that they threatened his family, and he had to start cooperating with the feds. Joseph is surprised and kind of annoyed because now he really does have to kill Hank. But he ends up running after Whitney.

In Whitney’s room, Peggy and Sousa have just finished up when they hear Joseph yelling for Whitney to wait. They run for the window, but Sousa runs back to change a number. “That’ll slow her down a bit.” They make it out the window and shut it just before Whitney comes in. “No more interruptions.” and Whitney gets back to work.

Cut to the SSR. Lab guy, Jason, and Howard are arguing. Peggy asks Jarvis how things are going, and Jarvis says that they have figured out that it’s a machine that opens the rift, and now the discussion has turned to naming rights. Whitney has designed a machine that deals with two different 4-dimensional models and opens the door between the two.

Stark: “If she weren’t a homicidal maniac, I’d be in love.”

The concern is how to prevent more Zero Matter from getting into our universe. “I’d like to postpone armageddon if possible.” Peggy turns on the flattery: “There are many obstacles, but I am standing in front of three of the most radiant minds on the planet.”

Jarvis: “I believe you can actually hear the sound of their egos growing.”

It works, though, and they begin throwing out ideas and technobabble a solution. They need an empty area, though, and Stark says that he’ll give everyone the day off at Stark Studios. Whitney will sense that they’re opening a rift, and she’ll come, according to Jason. Peggy move towards the door and turns back and says,  Oh, it’s called a rift generator.

Rose helps assemble things, and Howard hits on her, much to LabGuy’s discomfort. Everyone is helping- Jason tries to apologize to Sousa, and Sousa asks why Jason held the gun on Peggy. Jason: I knew you’d fold. Sousa’s like, everyone can tell I’m in love with her? (YES THEY CAN.)

Peggy asks how Ana is, and Jarvis tells her that she’ll be coming home in a few days, and they had a good cry over what could never be. JackOff comes in and offers his help. Peggy tells him that someone needs to collect the dinner orders. JackOff calls her Marge, and then says that he will do just that. As he hangs up the phone, he notices a breifcase that used to be FBI!Red’s. In it is the file on Peggy he acquired, and an Arena Club pin. Which is also a key.

On the studio lot, the crew lays out the plans, and Jason figures out that the zone of things that will get sucked into the rift when it closes is 20 feet, so no one better be in that radius when they close it. They turn it on, the rift opens, and across town, Whitney knows.

At the studio, they’re waiting for Whitney, and Howard is kiling time by driving golf balls towards the rift, and he cannot get the balls to go in. Jarvis suggests a 7-iron (I would have gone with a pitching wedge, myself). LabGuy is having some gastro distress, and they are still waiting on Whitney.

JackOff decides this is time for a heart to heart: how long does he have before he’ll need to clean out his desk. Peggy tells him that she has no intention of turning him in for siding with FBI!Red. FBI!Red saw JackOff’s boundless ambition and exploited it. “You are a good man, Jack, I know it.” Jack gives her the arena club pin, and shows her how it becomes a key. ”You were really going to shoot me, weren’t you, Peg?” Peggy shrugs, and JackOff shrugs as well; he doesn’t really want an answer to that question.

Peggy and JackOff hear a scream from lab guy. Sousa radios that he sees Whitney heading towards of the rest. Whitney was right in front of the gamma cannon, thrilled to see that the rift is open and her machine worked. Jarvis hits the trigger on the gamma cannon and the black matter exits Whitney’s body through her hands and goes back into the rift. Peggy and JackOff walk up to her with shotguns trained on her, and Peggy announces that Whitney is under arrest. JackOff scoops up Whitney, puts the handcuffs on her and says,  “Would you look at that! Your face is fixed.” Whitney screams to be let go.

But there’s a problem! The radio control for the rift generator is no longer working and the only option to turn it off is the manual override. Problem is, the manual override is of course on the device itself. Everyone argues about who is going to be the one to go into the no go zone to turn off the machine and while they’re arguing, Sousa ties a hose around his waist and onto a pole and goes to turn it off himself.

Sousa makes it to the crank, and while it’s closing, Howard thinks about options, and Jarvis has a thought and runs off. Sousa starts levitating, and the hose unties. Peggy grabs the end, and she, Howard, Jason, and JackOff try to keep Sousa from being sucked into the rift. Jarvis comes back with the car, and says that the core of the gamma cannon could be detonated from inside the rift, so he and LabGuy arm it and send the hover car into the rift to explode. It works, and everyone crashes to the ground.

Peggy and Sousa share a moment, and then Sousa flops back down.

In the morning, Peggy and Howard are arguing over breakfast (Peggy is wearing the most ADORABLE dress), and they are joined by Jason. Jason has been offered a job by Howard in Malibu. Howard leaves to take a swim (and warns Peggy that he feels that bathing suits cause too much friction). Peggy is heading back to New York very soon, and Jason muses if only they’d just met under different circumstances. Peggy says that she’s learned to not dwell on might-have-beens. He’s just sorry that they never really did get in dinner and dancing. “We did have one dance. Well, half a dance.” Working your way up there, girl.

  

Outside Stark Manor West, Peggy is bringing out her bags when Jarvis and Ana drive up. Ana is furious that Peggy was about to leave without saying good by. Peggy was concerned that Ana didn’t want to see her and that she is so sorry that Ana got shot in all of this mess, and Ana’s like, bullshit. I am home and safe and I have this dorky husband I adore, so I’m good.

Jarvis says that he’ll get Ana settled, and then he’ll drive Peggy wherever she needs to go. Peggy: I’ve rung for a taxi, so I’m okay. Jarvis’ face falls, and glumly takes Ana’s bags into the house, and Ana, who knows her husband quite well, begs Peggy to let him drive her one more time. “We shall never hear the end of it.” Peggy, who was just trying to do Jarvis a solid, agrees. “SPLENDID,” and Jarvis darts from the house.

In Whitney’s dressing room, she’s back to staring at herself in the mirror, saying that everything she’s worked for is gone, and what should she do? Chadwick appears in the mirror, saying he’ll fix it. “I don’t think that’s possible. They took it away from me!” He soothes her and says that they’ll figure it out, like they always do.

The camera pans behind the mirror, and around the other side, we see that Whitney is not in her dressing room. She has scratches down her face and messy hair and no makeup, and she’s staring at a window, still talking to Cal. She’s in a straightjacket, and through the window into her room, Joseph watches sadly. He’s brought flowers, but the attendant tells him that she can’t give them to her – she’ll just use them to claw her face open. He hands over the flowers and goes in. “Hey! There’s my beautiful girl!”

Jarvis drops Peggy off at the SSR office- she insists that he needn’t take her to the airport after she’s finished up the paperwork. He also suggests that she carry on her overcoat, as it is cold in NYC (“ah”) and hailing (“…oh.”) No worries, summer’s just around the corner….in several months. Jarvis offers that LA seems to have agreed with Peggy – does she really need to go?

“Are you trying to convince me to stay in a city that you claim to detest? The preposterous palm trees? The heat? Terrible drivers?” Jarvis says that he does like some things about LA, like tacos. (truth) “Perhaps all you need is one compelling reason to stay.”

In Sousa’s office, he signs off on the last form and report. The Isodyne case is officially closed. Sousa needs to discuss one more thing with her though: her actions at the rift. She says there’s no need to thank her.

He says that her actions were irresponsible and ill advised and hypocritical in the extreme. She talks a pretty good game when her life is on the line, but when it’s someone else’s, it’s another question entirely. She stares at him, mouth open. He smirks, no witty comeback? She has one though and she launches herself and fastens her lips on his until he falls down in his chair. “Good point.” They make out as it fades to black.

On the phone, JackOff says, “She’s taking more vacation? I guess I’m flying back alone.” There’s a knock on the door, and when he opens it, we see a gun with a silencer, and he’s shot once in the chest. We only see the feet and torso of the person holding the gun (wearing large men’s shoes and a grey suit), as they walk in past his body, grab the SOE file on Peggy, and leave. END SEASON.

CarrieS: That was all very satisfying – almost too satisfying. Everyone gets a happy ending except my beloved Whitney (and Jack, who I never cared about that much, sorry Jack). I know Whitney is a mass murderer and completely insane but I just want her to have a nice planet somewhere to rule, is that so wrong? She could rule over a planet of paper and ballpoint pens. With absolute power. And every now and then Dottie would show up and try to overthrow her, and then they would make out. This is canon in my head.

It’s nice to see that Jason got his groove back. Welcome back, Jason. Oh, and hey, welcome back Howard and above all WELCOME BACK HOVERCAR.

When Peggy told Ana she wasn’t sure if Ana would want to see her I died a little.

Where’s Dottie? I never said a proper goodbye to Dottie! I felt this last episode did a great job with tone (as they all have) with mixing funny, exciting, goofy (HOVERCAR) and tragic. But it also felt rushed – one more episode might have been good. On the other hand, I like the pacing of the series overall – it moves fast but with time for character moments. The Jason/Sousa conversation, Peggy/Ana, Howard/Rose conversations were gold.

If we don’t get a Season Three I’ll be quite put out and if it doesn’t have Angie as a regular I’ll be furious. However, this is a lovely wrap up to a lovely season.

RHG:  Welp, I knew that my dream of Peggy and Dum Dum Dugan wasn’t going to play out this season since Neal McDonough is busy being the bad guy on Arrow. So I’m okay with that resolution, THOUGH I WANT MORE SARAH BOLGER IN ALL THE THINGS.

This season was solid, and I hope hope hope it gets renewed. We have things left unanswered, like what does the Arena Key unlock? What chaos is Dottie causing? Will Sousa be okay living in a triad with Angie? THE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW.