Agent Carter, Episode 5: The Iron Ceiling

Recap: HOWLING COMMANDOS

Previously: Peggy found out that Howard has a vial of- I swear it sounds like he says “Steve Rogers’ butt” and I have to say, that is an OBJECTIVELY FINE BUTT- anyway, it’s Steve’s blood, and Peggy is finally over Howard Stark’s shit.

We open on a young girl, shackled to her bed, in a room full of young girls being woken up by a matron unlocking them them all.  She exchanges a smile with the girl next to her.  They all watch Disney’s Snow White, reciting the lines along with the movie, and then we cut to a training yard, where the girls fight each other.  The girl we opened on gets her friend into a headlock, and at a nod from the matron, snaps her friend’s neck.  Dottie’s eyes open, and she does a round of sit ups.

Dottie and Peggy are in the Automat, where Dottie gives Peggy her itinerary to get to know New York (Central Park, Empire State Building, Trinity Church, and the Statue of Liberty).  Peggy looks at Jarvis’ calling card with deep disappointment, and tells Dottie that all those places are tourist traps, and if she wants to get to know New York, she should get to know people ofNew York, and to start with Brooklyn.  “I want to see the Statue of Liberty” Dottie pouts.  “Oh, she’ll still be there.  But what she represents, the spirit of liberty is found in it’s people.”  “You sounded like Captain America just now!”

Dottie OH SO SUBTLY knocks over Peggy’s purse and everything spills out.  Dottie helps her pick it up, and as Peggy leaves, we see that Dottie has swiped Peggy’s room key.  Peggy stops by a newsstand, and Jarvis meets up with her to try to apologize again, and explain that he just didn’t think it was possible to explain the reality of what was going on.  “How can you ever say “Howard Stark wants you to steal Captain America’s blood.’ OH LOOK ‘tis possible!”  Her face is just perfection wrapped in British anger.

Jarvis tries to explain that Howard is inconsiderate, vain, childish, but he’s a good guy, and he needs Peggy.  Peggy says that what Howard needs is a servant, and he has that, in Jarvis.  “And what does the SSR have in you?”  “I AM A FEDERAL AGENT.”  “Yes, well trained in the art of fetching coffee.  They’ll never respect you.”  Peggy tells him to fuck right off with her eyes.

Peggy comes into the office to find everyone hopping because the typewriter spit out a message.  They have a codebreaker up from DC, but it’s not a German system so the Turning method doesn’t work.  JackOff is being a HUGE bully and throwing the guy’s book around, and Peggy picks it up and says, “Oh, I saw this at Bletchley, it’s a one-time pad system.”  Codebreaker guy says he TRIED that, and it didn’t work, and Peggy says well of course not, it’s in Russian, not German.  And promptly decodes and translate it on the fly.

Um.  No.  NO.  THAT IS NOT HOW A ONE-TIME PAD CODE WORKS.  How it works is, I am sending you a message.  I have a pad with different codes on each page.  You have an identical pad.  I cypher the message using the code, you decipher it, and you’re the only one who can because you have the only corresponding code.  We both eat the pages with the codes on them, and the next time I need to send you a message, we use the next page.  As long as it’s used correctly, it is theoretically perfectly secure.  No one can just go “Oh, it’s a pad system!” and translate it and COME ON I KNOW I KNOW BUT STILL.

Sorry, I needed to get that off my chest.

Anyway, Peggy deciphers and translates the message without breaking a sweat.  The men in the room bow down to the goddess in their midst.  It’s map coordinates in Belarus, a date, a time, and a price for an exchange.  It also mentioned Leviathan, which the Old Boys Club hadn’t heard of before now, but DoucheBoss has- a covert Russian group trying to buy weapons to fight the Allies.  Also, the message says, the money is payable to Howard Stark.

JackOff is delighted, and is told that he should take Lee, Ramirez, and head off to Belarus.  Peggy says “Lee, Ramirez, AND CARTER.”  She translated the message, she’s been there, so fucking take her, dammit!  DoucheBoss is not amused as Peggy informs him that “I am going to Russia.”  Her body language- direct, open, powerful is challenging and delightful.

In DoucheBoss’s office, Peggy and JackOff present their cases: if Leviathan continues to communicate in code, they’ll need a codebreaker.  However, if something happens to Peggy, DoucheBoss is going to get it from all side for putting a woman in harms way.  Also JackOff doesn’t think this is a knitting circle.  Peggy’s experience in the mud and blood of the European theater would make her invaluable, she says.  Yes, experience surrounded by our best MEN, JackOff retorts.  DoucheBoss is actually listening to this and hearing it, which for him is impressive.

Peggy says what would you say if I can deliver the 107th?  “I’d say pack your bags, but that’s not gonna happen.”  Peggy strides over to her phone.  JackOff and Doucheboss discuss the pressure a bit- VPOTUS is calling DoucheBoss looking for Howard, and okay, here’s the plan; we’ll land on the Polish side of the Russian border, and- Peggy struts in, saying that the 107th will meet them on the Polish side of the Russian border, as that IS the most obvious plan.

Peggy struts into the boys’ changing room, since the only ladies room is public.  Lee and Ramirez are not totes amused that Peggy is going with them, and the locker room banter is kind of delightful?  Peggy is showing that that she can take the punches and give as good as she gets.  Peggy and the boys are separated by a bank of lockers, so they don’t need to be traumatized by her bra, and Sousa comes in with a field report.  JackOff asks Sousa to grab his compass, which is in one of the lockers in Peggy’s bank, and Sousa is suitably mortified, but then sees the gunshot wound scars on Peggy’s back shoulder.  The music tells us this is important.

On the plane, Peggy is chilling, but JackOff is tense and rubbing his hands.  “Relax!  you’ll sprain something!”  JackOff has never done a real jump, just training jumps.  She tries to buck him up, but he’s not having it.  On the ground, the Boys walk through the woods for a bit before there’s a crunching branch and then “Emu!  um…ostrich?  PEGGY! DUGAN FORGOT THE PASSWORD AGAIN.”  Peggy signs, but fondly.  “The password is ‘eagle’ you apes.”  “Oh, hi Peggy!” Dugan smiles brightly and I ship it a bit.

Peggy performs introductions (Junior Juniper, Happy Sam Sawyer, Pinky Pinkerton, and Dum Dum), and Lee and Ramirez are in puppy worship awe.  “You’re the Howling Commandos!”   “You fought with Captain America!” “Yeah,” Dugan says, “But not as much as she did.”

I ship it more.

The Commandos have trucks to bring them all across Lithuania into Belarus (I checked the map, it works) and in the back of one, Peggy gives Dugan the bourbon he asked for.  Poor man has been living on German beer all this time.  Peggy gives him the rundown- the SSR is convinced that Howard is selling out to Leviathan, she isn’t.  “He may be an utter wanker, but he’s one of us.”

“So it’s a trap.”  Dugan puts a cigar in his mouth, and Peggy grabs it and throw is out of the truck.  “HEY.”  “You smell bad enough.” “And you used to be fun!” “Yeah, once upon a time.” He looks at her, with a lot of things on his face. “Yeah, I miss him too.”

Planet Ship, population me.

DoucheBoss is hanging around the office pacing irritably, and Sousa gets Peggy’s personel file which has the location of her scars.  He checks one of the photos of the blonde from the jazz club, which clearly shows identical scars.  He sits back in disbelief.

Sitting around a campfire somewhere in Belarus, Peggy and the boys exchange stories about the time Pinky swears he saw a Yeti (Dugan is lounging at Peggy’s feet).  They try to get JackOff to tell a story, and he tries to demure, and Peggy says, “They don’t give out Navy Crosses for digging a lot of trenches.”  He reluctantly tells a story about in the Pacific theater, when 4 Japanese soldiers walk into camp, and when one of them was leaning over JackOff’s sleeping CO, he shot all four before anyone else woke up.  Peggy looks at him speculatively.

DoucheBoss meets with some reporter guy in a bar, looking for info on the battle of Finnow- he wrote an article for the Times on it, but it was killed by his editor- the article implicated Howard Stark and the Army in a cover-up in the battle.  Apparently Howard and a 1 Star general got into a fistfight there, but no one knows about what.  The general resigned, and Stark walked away from a $7M R&D weapons contract.

At the location for the exchange, JackOff gives his orders, and the Commandos look at Peggy for confirmation.  “Agent Thompson’s lead” she says, while rolling her eyes just enough to say that she’s not impressed with his plan.  They split into two teams of 4, as Peggy suggested, and the soundtrack becomes male Russian chorus.  Peggy’s group with Dugan, Lee, and Junior find the classroom and the realize that the reel-to-reel film of an American cartoon has subliminal messages in it- “Instill fear.”  They hear a crying child, and everyone looks suitably spooked.  In the dorm with the bed with shackles, they find a little girl crying.  Dugan goes to talk to her, and when she expresses interest in his hat, it distracts him enough so the girl can stab him with a three inch knife.

The girl grab’s Dugan’s sidearm, shoots Junior, and runs off.  Dugan is fine- his vest took the blow, but Junior is dead.  The other team with JackOff runs in, and Dugan’s like “We need a back door” and goes to make one.  Peggy says they need to find out what the hell is going on before they leave.

DoucheBoss finds Jarvis to ask about the General Howard got into a fight with.  Jarvis reaches for his ear, then drops his hand and says, “I remember nothing about it.”  “There are three sides to any story, says DoucheBoss, paraphrasing the great G’Kar from Babylon 5.  “Your side, my side, and the truth.  I just want the truth.”

Peggy and her boys find some Russian dudes in a cell.  “We’re the good guys.”

Back at the Apartment Building of Well Defended Virginhood, Dottie opens Peggy’s door (and sees the piece of yarn Peggy put there to let her know if anyone went into her room).  Dottie quickly, tidily, and efficiently searches, and finds the pictures of Howard’s toy boxes in Peggy’s jewelry box (hidden under a false bottom in a drawer), and then the picture of Skinny Steve (aka the point at which Peggy Carter decided to eat the boy alive).  She also finds the knockout lipstick (and knows what it is by smelling it), and practices Peggy’s accent in the mirror.  Dottie leaves and is sure to put the yarn back where she found it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK: HEY JK SIMMONS I DON’T WANT YOUR INSURANCE BUT I’M ROOTING FOR YOU AT THE OSCARS)

The Russian dudes in the cell are an engineer and his doctor.  Leviathan got some schematics on the black market, and got one dude to build it, and the other one is there as his therapist/touchstone.  The weapon is a Stark thing, something about magnifying light or something?  Neither Russian has heard of Stark being there, and then the shit and the fan hit- Russians start shooting.

“Dugan, we’re in the boiler room we need an exit!”  A hard to recap firefight breaks out. And Lee bites it. Peggy is a boss, and the engineer grabs a gun and then grabs Sam and tries to use the team as his leverage to get out.  The doctor shoots the engineer, and JackOff has totally frozen.

“DUGAN I AM ABOUT GET VERY CROSS WITH YOU.” Dugan blows a hole in the wall.  JackOff is still frozen as everyone runs out.  Peggy grabs him and basically throws him out the wall, and it’s just Dugan and Peggy left.  Peggy sends Dugan out after a short argument- “What would Cap say if I left his best girl behind?”  “He would say ‘Do as Peggy says.’”  Because Dugan knows she’s right, he runs out.  They all make it in the truck, and the Russian says, “Not bad.  For girl!” Everyone chuckles and Peggy sighs.  “I hate you all.”  But it’s affectionate.

At the airfield, Dugan sends them all off, but tries to convince Peggy to stay with the Commandos.  She declines, basically saying that someone has to be a grownup running shit. He tries to sweeten the deal with a dorky nickname.  “Miss Union Jack!”  “Never speak again.”

SHIPPING PARTY OF ME.

The Russian sharks Dugan’s bourbon, and goes with Peggy and crew.  Peggy and JackOff have a chat- he recognizes that she’s awesome, and then tells her the truth- the Japanese soldiers he killed had a white flag, and he didn’t realize that they were coming to surrender until he’d already killed them, and he buried the flag.  He’s been carrying the guilt around and can’t tell anyone- but now he’s told someone, and there’s no judgment on her face.

At the ABoWDV, Dotties goes to sleep, and shackles herself to her bed.

At the SSR, JackOff gives Peggy her full due in getting intel from the doctor, and she gives them right back.  Teamwork.  She even gets a “Good work, Carter” from Doucheboss.

Sousa looks like shit, and demurs when invited out to have a drink.  JackOff invited Peggy, though, and she’s so surprised and grateful for it.  Sousa looks at the picture from the nightclub and thinks about puking.

NEXT WEEK: Peggy’s wanted for treason.

Reviews:

RHG:

You may see that your recapper has a shipping agenda in her recap? SHE DO.

I SHIP IT. I SHIP PEGGY AND DUM DUM DUGAN I SHIP THEM SO HARD WE KNOW PEGGY MARRIES SOMEONE WHO WAS RESCUED BY CAP SHE SAID SO MARRY HIM AND MAKE ADORABLE BRAWLING BABIES DO IT PEGGY DO IT.

CARRIES:

AMEM.  SO MOTE IT BE.  MAKE IT SO.  PEGGY AND DUM DUM 4EVAH.

Well, this was such a satisfying episode; I almost wish it were the last one, so we could all run around saying, “YAY PEGGY GOT RESPECT!”  But I’m sure next week everything will be back to sucking.  Loved the episode – it was by turns horrifying, hilarious, and so very joyously kickass.

When Peggy moved into the boarding house I was hoping we’d see more friendship between women, and alas Peggy is terrible at forming friendships with women (and with men – she seems to be totally cut off every since the war).  What I find interesting is that this is being presented as a serious weakness, not just personally (she’s obviously terribly lonely) but strategically.  Does Peggy think she’s the only person who has difficulty with a male boss?  Has Peggy never realized that the women who, say, work in government offices, and mad scientists’ offices, know everything that goes on?  Peggy makes a rather condescending speech to Dottie about how Dottie has to know “the people” but Peggy has cut herself off from “the people”.  In doing so, she misses what’s right under her nose – the fact that she so thoroughly spaces out on Dottie and doesn’t take her seriously is what allows Dottie to steal her keys.  Peggy is underestimating her roommates the same way her male co-workers underestimate her, and it’s pretty clever of the show to have that bite her in the ass.

The only thing that disappointed me in this episode was that we finally got some minority characters but they were kept in the background.  To be perfectly honest, I didn’t even notice how white this show is until people on social media started pointing it out.  “Well,” I thought, “At least the Howling Commandos are diverse.”  And they are, but the focus stayed very much on Peggy, Thompson and Dugan (not that I don’t adore Dugan with every fiber of my being).  If the show comes back next year I hope they take the comments on social media to heart and bring more diversity into the show.  On the whole this episode was like a present all wrapped up with a bow because we got to see Peggy come out on top for once.  Team Peggy!

Back to RHG:

Oh, Peggy.  It’s such a relief for her to be around people who take her seriously, who respect her and how competent she is.  The Commandos see her as second only to Cap, and while they will protect her, they will also listen and they know that she can take care of herself.  I think it was really good for JackOff to see what it looks like to professionally respect a woman.  DoucheBoss is like, within football throwing distance of there, but JackOff doesn’t even think it’s possible.

The look on her face where she’s just so GRATEFUL for getting a “good job” and “come out with a drink with us” shows how shitty she was feeling.  I had a job for a long time with a boss who didn’t say good job, like ever, who punished anyone taking initiative, and when I went to a new one where “good job!”  “That’s a great idea, do that!” was a regular part of the work day, I was so pathetically thankful that someone actually appreciated what I did.  That’s what her face looked like to me.

One more thing on why I have jumped ship from Peggy and Jarvis to Peggy and Dum Dum: he already respects her on her own terms, and he knows what she lost in Cap.  She knows what HE lost in Cap.  They can forge a new and different relationship based on that, and they LIKE each other.  Not like, LIKE-like, but they genuinely enjoy each other as people.  They’d honestly have a relationship of equals that she would never have in JackOff or possibly even Sousa.

Now, Peggy, you go find Dum Dum Dugan and you bang him like a screen door in a hurricane.  That boy will never know what hit him.