Agent Carter Episode 6: A Sin to Err

Recap: The shit has hit the fan.

Previously: there are little Russian girls that kill people.  Peggy brought home a pet Soviet Shrink.

1944, Russian, four men are unbagged, and informed that they have been selected to join Leviathan.  If any wish to decline, “The time to speak is now.”  One dude says he’s got a wife and four daughters, and respectfully requests to decline.  Dottie stabs him in the throat, and everyone else is told that his family will be joining him.  One of them is the Soviet Shrink.

We cut back to the Russian Shrink telling DoucheBoss and Peggy all of this, and that Leviathan is in the business of creating weapons- “Including girls trained as weapons?” “What the fuck, Carter” DoucheBoss says (paraphrased) “you think they’re training assassins?”  “It did kinda look like a classroom” says JackOff.  Peggy asks more logistic questions about the little girl assassins, and DoucheBoss finally loses what little patience he had, and hauls her out of his office.

“This is my op, and you’re distracting him with irrelevant questions!” “I think the little girls are relevant, because I think one of them grew up to kill Douche Number 2!” Peggy outlines a bunch of evidence pointing to a woman being the killer, and also a woman being involved explains how Howard Stark got involved.  DoucheBoss goes okay, chase it. See what you find.

At the Automat, Angie is performing an audition monologue, which Peggy and others loved, but the producers at Angie’s latest seven auditions did not like.  Angie’s father sent her money for secretarial school.  Peggy says they’ll talk about it tonight, but Angie belongs on the stage!

Jarvis shows up, and gives Peggy the rundown on what DoucheBoss asked about the battle of Finow (look, I have no idea if I’m spelling that right, but y’all know what I mean).  Peggy gives HIM the rundown on young women trained as assassins, and Jarvis gets it immediately- Howard’s weakness is young women, so Peggy asks for maybe a list of all the women Howard’s been involved with in the past year?  “Not enough ink in the world.” Six months?  “Fine, let’s start with the western hemisphere.”  Jarvis’ eyeroll is as eloquent as Peggy’s.

Dottie comes up out of the subway across from the phone company, and enters a dentists office.  The dentist asks if she’s there for the interview- no one else is in the office, so they “won’t be bothered.”  Dottie locks the door.

At the jail, Sousa meets with Sheldon (the dude Peggy beat the shit out of in episode 2), and Sousa wants info on what lady beat him up, and offers a somewhat reduced sentence.  Sousa shows Sheldon a picture of Peggy, and and Sheldon’s like yup, totally her.  “Are you sure? LOOK.”  Yep.  “She’s a cute broad, when she’s not punching me in the face.  Who is she?”  Sousa sighs.  “Not who I thought she was.”

At an upscale jewelry store, Peggy and Jarvis examine the “Stark Special” a bracelet specially designed for Howard to give to his paramours after they’ve parted ways.  Peggy quickly declines to try it on, and is handed the list of all the women that the store has delivered on to in the past six months.  “Oh, it’s shorter than I thought it was!”  Jarvis Britishes.

Peggy makes a judgey face, and starts crossing off names- women who are too famous and have been in the public eye too long to be a Russian assassin.  Jarvis suggests that Ginger Rogers not be crossed off- “you should have seen her face when I escorted her from Mr. Stark’s villa.  Darkest depths of the abyss.”

The dentist tries to hit on Dottie, and it doesn’t go well for him- she punches him out, than uses his drill on his eyes.

Peggy and Jarvis begin their investigation- Jarvis doesn’t want to go meet the women on the list; he’s usually the one who gets to do the breaking up because Howard Stark has no spine.  Peggy just wants to see the wrists of the women involved- the shackles would leave scars.  Cue a montage of women slapping Jarvis’ face but no scars.  Poor Jarvis.

Ida Empky is next on the list; she’s a dancer who’s close by.

DoucheBoss and the Soviet Shrink are still debriefing, and they share a scotch.  The Shrink posits that DoucheBoss is having trouble at home- he’s got a blankie and pillow, and a turned down picture of his wife.  Dottie assembles a rifle with a scope, and opens the dentists window.  The Shrink opens the window in DB’s office, remarking on the view and the height of all the buildings.  Dottie aims, and then reflects light off her scope, which the Shrink sees, and then taps out something with his hand.  (During all of this he and DoucheBoss carry on a conversation about King Kong).  Dottie writes out the message she’s given: kill peggy carter.  She packs up the rifle, and leaves.

At Ida’s apartment, there is no answer, but the door is unlocked.  Jarvis is set as sentry, and Peggy enters to find the apartment cleaned out and mail on the floor.  A child happens on Jarvis, and stares at him, while Jarvis tries to shoo the kid, no avail, then gives the kid a quarter to go on his way.  Peggy finds scratches on the bedpost, from the shackles.  She’s going to check with the neighbors, and Jarvis is to meet her back at the automat.  “We’re close, I can feel it!”  She’s super excited.

DoucheBoss is slightly sloshed and muttering about his messed up marriage, and his wife who cheated on him while he was at war.  JackOff and another agent, hence forth named Beta Agent, talk about how DoucheBoss is being weird, but JackOff says DoucheBoss is doing his thing, so back the fuck off.  The Shrink starts playing with his ring, and has DoucheBoss almost asleep when Sousa comes in with something that just can’t wait.

At the Automat, Peggy gets some food, and neither she or Jarvis were able to get any information on Ida.  Peggy realizes that something gone wrong- all the customers have been herded from the Automat, and everyone left inside are SSR agents.  She tells Jarvis to block the door, and brawls her way to the backdoor, taking down four agents.

Out the backdoor, she finds JackOff, who runs down the list of evidence they have against her.  “Come back to the office, tell me all about it.”  She punches HIM out, which was satisfying for me and probably satisfying for her.  She tells Jarvis to get a car and meet her back at the Griffith.  He points out, not unreasonably, that going to the Griffith is a TERRIBLE idea, but Steve’s blood (not his butt) is there, and she won’t leave it.  Sousa stops her at the mouth alley, and snaps “MARGARET CARTER YOU ARE UNDER ARREST.”  She says, “You won’t shoot me, Daniel” and he doesn’t, but he begs her not to run: “If you run I’ll know it’s true.”  She apologizes but runs off, thanking Past Peggy for wearing pants that morning.  (seriously her suit this episode?  STYLISH.  I want it.)

DB sends people out to hunt Peggy, giving a really sad version of the Tommy Lee Jones speech from The Fugitive.  DoucheBoss sets Beta Agent to watch the Shrink while everyone else gives chase.  Beta Agent tries to convince himself that DoucheBoss trust him with protecting a star witness, and that it’s not a babysitting job.

JackOff and Sousa head to the Griffith after giving each other shit for failing to catch a girl.

The Shrink chats up Beta Agent, saying that Beta Agent just needs to be confident.  He starts playing with his ring, saying “You just need a focus.  Simply focus.”

Peggy sneaks into the Griffith, gets into her room and pulls down the wall.  The Boys show up, demanding to know where Peggy’s apartment is.  The Dowager tries to refuse, but they steamroll her.  Happily, she’s loud in her objections, and Peggy gets a five second warning.  She’s vanished, while the boys start bagging her stuff (while the Dowager blithers about “those girls from the phone company”).  JackOff says “She’s here, I can tell” and sho nuff, Peggy is on the ledge outside her window, trusting pre-war masonry.

Peggy inches her way over, and a bit of ledge breaks, alerting Angie.  Angie’s like “WTF r you doin’ Peggy” as the Boys knock on Angie’s door.  “They’re here for me” Peggy says, praying that Angie will help.  Angie answers the door, saying “You don’t LOOK like federal agents.”  She’s full of sass disguised as empty-headedness.  “You’re friends with Peggy Carter?”  “Yeah, we’re friendly.  She complained about her fat-head male co-workers a lot.”

Sousa questions her further, and Angie’s like nah she left, said she wouldn’t be around for a while.  JackOff goes to the window.  Angie says that Peggy was going to visit her sick grandmother, and starts crying.  The boys freak out- crying women are not a thing they were trained for!  Angie goes on and on, escalating her tears about how lovely Peggy’s grandma is, and how sad it is, and the boys are like “omg we must leave.”  Angie sniffles and delivers the coup de grace- “What’s your grandmother’s name?”  JackOff softens and says “Gam-Gam.”  Sousa’s like duuuuuuuuude and JackOff gets the “If you share this was anyone I will kill you” face and I paused on that and laughed for about 20 minutes.  The boys leave, with a last “there there” and a pat on Angie’s shoulder.

The Dowager blithers at them until Jackoff has her taken to her office.  Sousa has the boys canvass the building, and Angie helps Peggy into her room.  “Angie you’re AMAZING.”  “I KNEW you didn’t work at the phone company.”

Back at the SSR, the Shrink tries to get Beta agent to take him to the lab where Stark’s toys are. Beta Agent can’t do that- DoucheBoss put everything on lockdown and there’s no access.  Fine, the Shrink says.  How about showing me the access points on a map?  Now I need your complete focus.  Take your stuff, go to your local bar, get a bourbon, then walk in front of a truck.

Angie arranges for a ride for Peggy, and Peggy’s like you’re the fucking best ever, you perfect mermaid, also you’re an amazing actress, please stay with it.  Angie says she’s looking forward to hearing all about WHAT THE FUCK JUST WENT DOWN.

Peggy leaves and runs into Dottie, and Dottie kisses her.  Peggy realizes she’s been hit with the knock-out lipstick, and has just enough left to pull up Dottie’s sleeve and find the shackle-scar.  She knows she’s fucked, as Dottie pulls a switchblade.

Before Dottie can cut a Peggy, Sousa finds them, and Dottie turns on the Iowa farmgirl.  “My friend Peggy fainted!”  The boys handcuff Peggy and haul her away (she’s conscious enough to stagger kind of) through the lobby and into a car.  This is clearly the most exciting thing to happen at the Griffith ever.

Back at the office, Peggy says she can explain like, EVERYTHING.  DoucheBoss is not impressed.

Angie tries to get Dottie to come to dinner, and finds Dottie’s apartment cleaned out.

Peggy is shackled to a table, and she tries to say it’s not necessary.  “You put three SSR agents in the hospital, so yeah.”  The boys lay out the sphere with Steve’s blood and the picture from the club, and DoucheBoss leaves, saying “don’t go easy on her just cuz she’s a girl.”  “Lets get started” Sousa says.

Reviews:

Carrie:

OMG Angie.  I love her like I love those little mini chocolate Twix bars (a lot).  Angie’s sobbing quotes from Ibsen to foil the FBI was must-see TV.  See, Peggy, I TOLD you not to underestimate your roomies, which leads to the other moment of must-see TV, “You’re wearing my brand.”  Oh, Dottie, you super creepy sicko.  I could watch you all day.

In general, this was my favorite episode so far, even more so than the one with the Howling Commandos, which was like a vacation to another show.  Everything about this episode was just sublime – it was funny, the action was terrific, it was intense and horrifying and suspenseful, characters revealed new sides to themselves without ever actually falling out of character, and all the weird plot stuff is coming together in an insane but deeply satisfying way.  Of COURSE the imprisoned shrink is evil and is hypnotizing everyone with his ring.  I’d expect no less.  Of course he and Dottie are in cahoots.  Of course Dottie just killed a misogynist dentist.  I don’t actually see these things coming but when they do I’m all, “Oh, hey THERE you are!”  which is the sign of good, if somewhat insane, plotting.

Meanwhile Haley was acting up a storm and punching people in the face and just generally being fabulous, plus she was wearing some of my favorite outfits this week.  Her problems of being underestimated and ignored by her peers seem over.  Of course, now they think she’s evil.  So I expect everyone to be shooting for the Emmy next week.

Other things to love – poor, stricken Sousa, Jack and his Gam Gam, The Greek Chorus of Jilted Women, Jarvis’s delight at doing well in a fight, the fact that Angie totally got that Jarvis and Peggy are having meetings at the Automat…oh heck I loved it all!

RHG:

The shit and the fan!  I really thought she was going to make it!  I really did!  DAMMIT DOTTIE-OR-WHAT-EVER-YOUR-NAME-IS.

I love Angie even more than I did before, and that was a lot.  Crying women make G-men uncomfortable!  Angie, if you don’t make it as an actress, I bet the SSR could use a woman like you.  Once Peggy gets herself out of trouble.  I hope that’s not that last we see of Angie and her perfect starfish self.

Poor Jarvis.  I really hope he’s very well paid, because Howard is a pain in the ass to work for.

My main quibble with this episode was why did Dottie need to assemble a rifle and practice terrible gun safety with her finger on the trigger to send a coded message to the Shrink?  I mean, OTHER than audience fake out?  She could have used a mirror.  Or a flask.

This is an episode that feels like you’ve had an intense trip to the top of a roller coaster, and now we see over the edge and it’s a long way down.