Agent Carter: 2.08 “The Edge of Mystery” and 2.09 “A Little Song and Dance”

The Edge of Mystery

We open in New York City in 1946. Jarvis is on the phone giving Peggy instructions on how to disarm the bomb from last season’s premiere. Ana walks in, hears the last bit, and lets him know that she is home. He says, “Won’t be a moment, darling!” In the kitchen he, asks her how her life drawing class went and she says that next week they begin drawing nudes. “How progressive.” She asked who was on the phone and he says one of Mr Stark’s new associates. Jarvis tells her the new associate is a woman and Ana’s like “OH” (not like “this woman is gonna be after my husband’s pants” but like “Howard Stark is a manslut.”) and Jarvis says that Peggy isn’t like the others. Stark respects her. He realizes that Benny Goodman is starting on the radio and Ana’s like, you’re trying to distract me. Jarvis asks her from what? “Worry,” Ana responds. Jarvis assures her there’s nothing to be worried about. Peggy Carter won’t interfere with their lives in any way, pinky swear. Ana: Don’t make promises you can’t keep.

In the hospital, Jarvis is fussing with the radio trying to get Benny Goodman on. Peggy comes in with coffee but wasn’t sure how much cream and sugar Jarvis wanted. “We have a very precise schedule. if I can just get Benny Goodman on maybe she’ll-” Jarvis looks like complete shit, and throws his coffee cup against the wall in a fit of anger. Peggy helps him to the chair next to his bed side then gently tells him that she’s out of surgery and there’s color and her cheeks and she needs him to sit and wait for her to wake up. Jarvis tremulously says that they can’t even tell him if she’s going to wake up at all.

Peggy, still gently, says that she is going to go to Stark Manor West to get a radio and clothes and toothbrush and razor so that when Ana wakes up Jarvis will look like himself.

In Whitney’s basement, Jason wakes up, chained to the wall. Whitney is sitting next to him with a notebook and tells him that he will begin to lose mass in about two minutes, and he’s like you’re studying me? “No,” Whitney says, “I’m studying us.” She wants to know what happens when he vanishes. Does he go somewhere? What happens? He’s like you have me chained to a wall and you want me to answer your questions? “Yes,” Whitney says. Physicist to physicist. What’s a little kidnapping when science is on the line?

Jason asked for a notebook and a pen so he can write down the formulas for his containment unit. Whitney says, “No, you’re killing time and if you wait long enough you’ll be able to slip through the handcuffs.” Jason: I’m hoping I disappear and don’t come back. Whitney: Bullshit. Whitney offers that they could work together and figure out how to control the Zero Matter. She stops, “Do you hear that?” She can hear a voice in her head and asks, “Am I just crazy or can you hear that?” Jason nods slightly, but it’s not clear which question he’s answering in the affirmative. She reaches out to touch him and promises that it won’t hurt a bit.

Gee, do you think promises are maybe a theme in this episode?

Outside Stark Manor West, Sousa is waiting when Peggy drives up. She tells him that Whitney has Jason, and that Ana is in the hospital. She then notices the bandages on his face and asked what he got into and he tells her that FBI!Red had him beat up. He tells Peggy that Whitney wants the uranium rods and Peggy’s like fine, let’s give them to her.

Sousa ask if Peggy is really willing to give Whitney the rods and Peggy says that she’s willing to let Whitney think that she is. She just needs to get a message to Whitney that she has the rods. Sousa thinks that Whitney’s pet thug, Joseph, is the way to go as Peggy walks into the bathroom. Sousa follows, and asks her what she’s doing. She says that she needs to take a bath before she goes back to the hospital and gestures to have him turn around and not watch her undress and his instant boner face is priceless. But he turns around. Peggy is bemused to learn that Whitney and a mobster had been an item and Joseph had gone on a killing spree when Whitney dumped him for Chadwick. “So he’s a maniac.” “He’s a man in love.” Sousa shrugs.

At an Italian restaurant, Peggy and Sousa walk in asking to speak to the cook (Joseph). In the kitchen, Joseph and his mother are having a conversation in Italian / English while through the window of the kitchen door, we see Peggy and Sousa beat the crap out of his associates, ending when Peggy throws one against the door. “Looks like we got two more for lunch.”

Meanwhile in London, JackOff is drunkenly singing with a British dude who, after some male bonding, hands over a file from the SOE detailing alleged war crimes committed by one agent M. Carter. JackOff is pleased.

Joseph serves Sousa and himself some spaghetti (Peggy doesn’t get any because Joseph’s mom thinks that Peggy is the devil). Anyway, Peggy and Sousa just want Joseph to give Whitney a message. They’re willing to make a deal, but his mother gets worked up and he tells them to leave. Sousa says that one of Joseph’s buddies is getting out of prison next week and that Sousa will quietly let this guy know that Joseph turned in the state’s evidence. Joseph: That’s a lie. Sousa: He doesn’t know that. After some consideration Joseph asks exactly what message they would like him to bring to Miss Frost.

Back in Whitney’s basement, Jason is reading her notes on her experiment and calls her a mass murder of rats. Whitney gloats that through her science-ing she has learned how to control the Zero Matter. Jason’s like, I want this gone. Whitney says his problem is that he’s trying to resist the power he could have, and that if he just accepted it he’d be able to control it. She tells him to listen to the voice and it will guide him! And he’s just kind of like what the fuck is happening right now. Joseph comes to deliver the message from Peggy and Sousa. Whitney tells Jason to close his eyes and focus on the voice while she collect her message from Joseph. Whitney is very pleased with what he has to say.

At Anna’s bedside, Jarvis is giving her a list of things that he promises to do if she will just wake up including (but not limited to) getting a Bernese Mountain Dog, not biting the fork too loudly when he eats, and to like her brown cardigan. While we are focused on his face and his voice, Ana wakes to tell him not to make promises you can’t keep and also that she woke up during the Bernese Mountain Dog part, but decided to see what else should could get. Smart girl.

Out in the hall, he’s on the phone to Peggy saying, “Yes she is awake and talking and beautiful and everything.” Sniff. As Jarvis hangs up the phone, the doctor leaves Ana’s hospital room and Jarvis goes over to thank him again for saving her life. The doctor gently tells him that there were some complications during surgery and that he didn’t know if Jarvis and Ana were planning on ever having children, but that wouldn’t be possible now due to the damage. Jarvis says to the doctor that he’ll tell Anna himself. Of course, when he goes back into her room, he tells Ana that the doctor merely gave him the laundry list of prescriptions she’ll need. “Anything else?” “No. You’re perfect.”

At Stark Manor West, Peggy and Sousa and LabGuy have faked some uranium rods with radioactive paint (very safe) and LabGuy is miffed Sousa doesn’t know his middle name. Peggy’s like it’s Herbert and they have a plan for driving the fake uranium rods out to exchange them for Jason. Jarvis comes in asking what they are doing and Peggy told him that they’re going to get Jason, and then they’ll get Whitney. Jarvis demands that he gets to help since Whitney Frost shot his wife; he’s owed. Peggy tries to convince him to go back to the hospital, but Jarvis is having none of it.

They are interrupted by a sound from Howard’s telex machine, which spits out a bunch of papers. LabGuy says it’s not a code. It’s design specifications and that Howard Stark wants him to build a machine. LabGuy is very excited at the prospect.  It’s a cannon that shoots gamma radiation which may possibly eliminate Zero Matter.

Sousa asks LabGuy if he can build it and LabGuy gives him a “who the fuck do you think you’re talking to” look. Sousa: “…I swear to god you’re on my last nerve right now.” Peggy: How long do you think it’ll take? LabGuy isn’t sure, but since they need it right away he’s going to start right now. Jarvis points out that they are going to need a new driver. Happily, he is right there.

As they are heading for the truck they find JackOff sitting in the living room? Dining room? I don’t know, the layout of this house is weird. JackOff says that he needs a word with Peggy and holds up the file. Peggy sends the boys out to the car and glances at the file while JackOff bloviate’s about how she’s got something on him now he’s got something on her, so she should listen to him now and go back to New York, like this all never happened. Peggy is unconvinced by this line of logic, and tells JackOff that he’s better than this. Peggy, your faith is admirable but possibly misguided. JackOff is a jackass.

At a warehouse, Whitney and Joseph are waiting for the rendezvous to trade Jason for the uranium rods and Joseph keeps telling Whitney that she is still as beautiful as ever and she’s like I’m fucking ugly. Joseph violently tells her that the mark on her face is power and that’s what makes her beautiful and she’s kind of into it, so that’s a little fucked up. They’re about to mack on each other when Peggy and the boys drive up. Peggy is surprised to see a solid Jason and Whitney’s like “questions later, uranium now!”

“Such a pity that two accomplished women should be standing on opposite sides,” Whitney says. Peggy responds, “Yes, you’re such a staunch defender of The Sisterhood.” The uranium registers as radioactive, and things are going swimmingly until one of the thugs drops the case. The rods roll out and it’s clear that they are fake because they don’t blow up or anything, so it’s a good thing they were fake because these people are terrible and clumsy. You really get what you pay for in quality henchmen.

Peggy, Sousa, and Jason rush into the truck and drive off with Whitney’s thugs shooting at them. In the truck, Jason is like everything is fucked up and everything is terrible and I just want to be done and Peggy’s like it’s okay, Howard sent specifications for a gamma cannon, so everything will be fine. Jarvis reports that their pursuers are keeping their distance and Jason wants the actual uranium rods to be destroyed, and Peggy’s like hold on there. Finally, Jason busts out of the containment unit and pulls a shotgun on Peggy and Sousa.

Jason demands to know where the uranium rods are and holds the gun on Peggy and she says that she will not tell him and that he’ll have to kill her. Jason goes okay fine, Sousa, you tell me or I’ll kill her, and because Sousa is weak, he spills that they are in the safe at the SSR lab. Jason phases out of the wall of the truck and jumps into the car that was following them, so that’s worked out well.

At SSR headquarters, FBI!Red is reading the file that JackOff acquired. JackOff almost reluctantly points out that he has some doubts about the truth of the information in the file and FBI!Red tells him that what is real and what is true are not always the same thing. And now that they have this file on Peggy, they can make her do whatever they want. JackOff is not comforted by this theory of life. Another agent comes in to tell FBI!Red that he has a phone call and it’s a woman who had his direct access code. It’s Whitney, of course, demanding that he get the uranium rods out of the safe in the lab. JackOff uses an extension outside of his office to listen in on the call and meets FBI! Red down in the lab to demand exactly what the fuck is going on right now.

FBI! Red offers a “sincere apology” and also a promotion and JackOff isn’t having it, for once in his life showing some backbone.

Peggy and Sousa come to the lab to findJackOff standing around kind of confused. He has no idea what he was doing in the lab in the first place. “I was in the bullpen and now I’m here.” Sousa finds the little amnesia machine that Peggy used a few episodes ago and they carefully walk JackOff back to what he could remember, and they realize that FBI!Red has the uranium rods, and JackOff noted coordinates to where they were going.

After the commercial break, JackOff is loading weapons and acting like of course he’s going to go along on this mission. Sousa expresses doubt as to JackOff’s track record of reliability and trustworthiness and Peggy points out that JackOff did try to frame her with a redacted file twenty-four hours ago. “And twenty minutes ago I was having my brains zapped.” Also their back up is a lab tech and a butler, so maybe they should accept all the help they can get.

JackOff leaves and Sousa glances at Peggy and is like well, I think he’s telling the truth and Peggy agrees. Sousa also wants to make sure they are in agreement as to the mission objectives: Jason is no longer a hostage, he’s a hostile. And he’s desperate and Sousa understands desperation. Sousa is also concerned that Peggy’s feelings might get in the way.

Peggy’s like fine you want to go, there let’s go there. “The reason we’re in this mess is because you let your feelings get in the way.” Sousa: He was going to shoot you. Peggy: Yes, he was. Sousa: And I was supposed to just let that happen? Peggy: “Yes, dispassionately. Your words.” So if the tables would have been turned, would she have let Jason just shoot him? Peggy doesn’t answer, but the look on her face is enough. JackOff peeks in and remarks, I would have let him shoot you both (the feeling is mutual), so lets go!

LabGuy is attempting to flirt with Rose and is all I totally saved the day by improving on Howard Stark’s design and Rose is like but will it kill Whitney Frost? LabGuy: What answer would you find more attractive? And then he tries to cup her cheek and somehow she doesn’t break his thumb. Jarvis comes in and asks for a word with Rose and asks her to keep an eye on Ana while he’s gone on the mission: things like how she likes her tea, and her favorite recipes, and things she likes to read. Rose is at first like how long are you going to be gone and he hands her a bundle of papers. She understands exactly what he’s trying to tell her without using his words.

Out in the desert, Jarvis and Peggy are heading toward a nuclear test site and Sousa, LabGuy, and JackOff are in a truck with the gamma cannon. Whitney and her crew have set up the bomb and she and Jason are going to drive closer than is probably prudent to the explosions so they are ready for the rift in the Zero Matter, assuming all of this works the way it is supposed to. Jason is dubious and if it doesn’t work, then he will have thrown everything away and held a gun on a woman who just wanted to help and also who he has a lot of pants feelings for. Whitney says he knows it’ll work the same way she does because the whispers in her head say that it will. Jason looks unconvinced.

FBI!Red triggers the bomb, and I expect they will all die of radiation poisoning in the next few years. As the dust clears, everyone can see that the rift is open and Whitney and Jason drive toward it. Peggy gasps that they are too late.

Whitney and Jason drive up to the rift and they’re both kind of in awe. Jason can finally hear the voice but Whitney can’t hear anything, and eventually Jason is lifted up in into the rift while Whitney shrieks, “What about me? Take me!” She is left alone.

Peggy and the boys are setting up the camera cannon and LabGuy is like maybe it’ll work, I don’t know and JackOff is like why the fuck don’t you know anything. LabGuy: “You’re asking me what will happen when something I’ve never built before hits something I never knew existed? I don’t know.” Maybe it’ll fire far enough. Maybe it’ll actually do the thing it’s supposed to do, who the fuck knows. Also they’ve only got one chance, since he only had time to charge the battery for one shot. Jarvis jumps in the car to go after Whitney, and Peggy tells the boys to shoot the damn thing and close the rift, and she jumps in the truck to chase after Jarvis, leaving the boys with no transportation at all. What to do, what to do? Sousa and JackOff:

While Peggy chases after Jarvis, the boys aim the gamma cannon involving parabolic arcs and degrees and faking being an artillery unit and they finally get the rift in the crosshairs. Sousa tells LabGuy to load it up. LabGuy hollers, “Safety first boys,” and they all put on their sunglasses like that’s going to protect them (note: no one actually covers their balls). They fire the gamma cannon and the rift immediately closes leaving a crater with Jason and his skin bubbling like slowly boiling oatmeal.

At the hospital, Ana wakes up and Rose is anxiously standing there with an apple torte, and is ready to play hangman (Ana’s favorite). Ana goes along with this, and the camera pans over to the box that Jarvis gave Rose and we see that what’s in there is his last will and testament, dated that day.

Jarvis drives up to Whitney, jumps out of the car, and shoots her point blank in the chest. Peggy runs after him and they see that Jason is still breathing but so is Whitney. Peggy says to run, but before they can get more than two steps, Joseph and his thugs are there ready to kill them for killing Whitney. Whitney wakes up just in time to holler, “WAIT!” and everyone is very confused. Whitney says that Jason has what she wants and the key to controlling him is to control the people that you love, which means Peggy and I guess Jarvis (kind of, sort of, not really) and they need to be kept alive, so Joseph’s thugs smash Peggy and Jarvis in the back of the head with the butts of their shotguns and we go to a cliffhanger.

Carrie:  OK, we need to talk about some stuff. First of all:

Whitney. That dress. That dress is the perfect metaphor for Whitney’s mental state. It’s perfectly tailored. I could write poems about the cut of that dress. The fabric flows in a stunningly graceful way. It’s the epitome of poised, ever so subtly sexy, sophisticated style. And then we have the pattern, which looks like an old couch I inherited from an aunt who ate some shrooms. That pattern is a swirly mass of insanity, just like Whitney’s brilliantly whacked out brain. Costuming department, I approve.

About representation. Sigh. I was thrilled to have a black main character in the season (Jason). And I have no problems with Jason being considerably damseled, because it fits nicely with Peggy’s character that she is constantly rescuing men instead of vice versa. But you can be in peril and not be passive, and the show has increasingly made Jason helpless and passive to the point where it’s both problematic and simply not entertaining to watch.

A lot of characters this season are ones who can be summed up with a few character traits (not unusual for such a short show, and the actors make those traits seem far more multi-dimensional than they actually are). We know that Thompson is ambitious and conflicted. We know that Violet is kind and understanding, while capable of standing up for herself. We know that Rose is a beacon of awesome who should have her own show. What we know about Jason from the outset is that he’s incredibly smart. So why is he relying on Howard (and sort of Whitney) to save him? Yes, Howard is also incredibly smart, but we know from Peggy that Jason “impressed Howard Stark,” so clearly Jason can hold his own, and seeing more of that would have been a huge asset to the show.

When he see Jason using science, which admittedly is often, it seems to be in support of Howard’s efforts and leadership instead of the other way around. His character would be so much more empowered, interesting, and human if he was the science lead (it’s his project, for crying out loud!) and Howard was assisting with equipment and advice. Let them team up, of course. It would be stupid of Jason not to seek Howard’s assistance. But Howard should not be the instant expert on something that Jason has been studying for years. It’s insulting, and worse, it’s boring.

For instance, Howard sent plans by Teletype so the team could build an amazing doohickey. There’s no reason that Jason couldn’t have made the plans and gotten kidnapped before he could give them to the team, which would find them at the same time they find the Teletype. Jason still has to be rescued by Peggy in that scenario, but he’s not a passive figure in his own storyline. Jason is so desperate that he’s not even curious anymore, and if there’s one thing most scientists have in common, it’s curiosity. The Jason we met in the first episode would have been desperate but also curious – while otherwise completely different form Whitney, Jason should have the common trait of trying to take science notes in the middle of crisis.

Rant concluded. Jarvis and Ana, stop making me cry. Now my tea is all salty.

A Little Song and Dance

Peggy wakes up in the office and it’s black and white. (I think it’s the L.A. office, but I’m not sure because all mid-century decoration looks alike to me.) The office is empty and she wonders who turned out the color. In Sousa’s office, she finds her brother Michael sitting and he’s like “Couldn’t you have made this experience a bit more vibrant?” She points out that she wouldn’t even be in this position if it wasn’t for him and his recommendation and also his getting killed. That was rather rude. Peggy: I’m only doing what you wanted me to do. Michael: No, you’re doing what you always wanted to do. She misses him, he misses her too.

The neon sign for the automat where Peggy met Angie comes on and this develops into a ridiculous song and dance number that’s kind of amazing but totally unrecappable so please follow this link and watch it for yourself several times. I did.

Peggy wakes up in the back of a truck with an unconscious Jarvis and immediately sets to untying her bonds.

Back in the desert the boys are stranded with a gamma cannon and no car, wondering if Peggy and Jarvis are going to come back for them. LabGuy says, “You’re supposed to drink your urine!” and Sousa and JackOff both look at him like he’s nuts. He’s problem solving! But then hope appears! An SSR car comes towards them but the guys in it are the guys who kicked the shit out of Sousa last week, so they’re probably not here to help. JackOff comes up with plan and says trust me. Sousa does not because he’s been in the show the entire series.

Jarvis wakes up while Peggy is untying him and attempts to explain and possibly apologize for his actions. Peggy is having none of it – she tells him to hush up while she tries to think her way out of this situation “…which is entirely of your making.”

When the car gets to our boys, Sousa is holding a gun on a kneeling JackOff, and he tells the thugs to arrest JackOff. This is not how they expected this day to go. JackOff begins some fast talking and gets the thugs on his side. Sousa and LabGuy throw down their guns and are ushered into the back of the car. JackOff gloats that Sousa now owes him his life, Sousa snarks and JackOff punches him in the gut.

Back in the truck, Peggy and Jarvis pound on the door until they realize that it is chained shut. With a padlock. However, Peggy was clearly a Girl Guide, and has a hot wire hidden in her belt and she is able to burn the lock open. Once the door is open, Jarvis wonders what the next step is when Peggy allows herself to vent some frustration by throwing him off the back of the truck. She jumps after him. Jarvis hollers, “Are you bloody mad, woman?” Peggy tells him to shut up and get off the road.

Once Whitney’s vehicles are out of sight, Jarvis indignantly wonders what they’re supposed to do now being in the middle of the bloody wasteland. Peggy: We walk. Jarvis engages in a hissy fit tirade Then once he’s run out of steam and Peggy has not given him any reaction, he pulls himself together and follows her.

In Whitney’s car, Jason wakes up. His eyes are completely black and Whitney asked how he feels. He says that he is not well. Joseph pulls over and says if Jason is going to barf, he better not do it in the car – it’s brand new. Whitney wants to know what he saw in the rift. Jason tells her nothing, like, active nothingness. Whitney: “We both saw the Isodyne test footage and no one comes back. Why you?” Jason doesn’t know. Jason convulses, and his eyes return to normal. Whitney says that she’s going to bring him back to the city and get him fixed right up, and Jason said that is not a good idea. He should not be in populated areas. Whitney then agrees that a walk would do him some good, and that he needs a lesson in doing what he’s told and brings him to the truck.

When they find the back of the truck empty, Joseph immediately shoots the guy he has driving the truck and then turns the gun on Jason. “I’m hot, I have sand in my shorts, and I want to go home.” He has Whitney and Jason get back in the car, and sends a couple of guys to look for Peggy and Jarvis.

In the desert, Peggy and Jarvis are still walking, and Jarvis tries to get her to stop and take a rest. She informs him that his contributions are no longer wanted nor required. He huffily ask what that supposed to mean, and she tells him that she brought him along on this mission despite her misgivings, trusting that he would understand how to behave, which was clearly not true. Jarvis refuses to apologize for doing what he feels was right.

Peggy thinks that their current situation is Jarvis’s fault. Jarvis thinks that Peggy risking their lives to go rescue Dottie Underwood was a terrible idea for which his wife paid the price. ”Unlike you I am NOT a murderer, Mr. Jarvis.” “And yet, everyone around you dies.” Jarvis realizes he’s gone too far and tries to apologize.

“No, no. I’m glad you did.” Peggy has a few truth bombs of her own. Jarvis begged her to go on adventures and that’s all they are to him, larks. And then he goes home to another man’s mansion and listens to his radio shows, and enjoys his “self-imposed ignorance.” And now he finds that there are consequences to his actions. “Yes, Mr. Jarvis, there is a cost, one that I have paid a hundred times over.” And he will go on never having felt true loss.

She starts on down the road and tells Jarvis that the sooner they make it back to civilization, the sooner they can part company forever. Jarvis tells her that Ana can’t have children, that the injuries were too severe, and she would never have them now. Peggy apologizes, saying she didn’t know, and Jarvis says that no one does. Not even Ana, because she is married to a coward. Jarvis tearfully apologizes and Peggy tearfully tells him it’s not necessary and this unBritish display of emotion may have gone on longer except the truck is coming back and there’s no time.

When the truck pulls up, Peggy is lying on the ground and Jarvis is trying to get her to wake up. One guy marches Jarvis to the back of the truck, while the other goes to pick up Peggy who immediately throws him and beat the shit out of him. Peggy and Jarvis leave the thugs by the side of the road with a canteen of water (they are not monsters). Peggy decides she is going to drop Jarvis off at the hospital and presumably work up a plan somewhere between here and there.

At the SSR, FBI!Red is most displeased to find that Sousa and LabGuy are not in a shallow grave. JackOff says that he had them brought in because they would be able to repair the gamma canon; therefore, he thought they would be useful. Sousa is pissed, LabGuy is willing to talk because LabGuy is a cockroach. FBI!Red thinks Whitney would be able to fix it, and JackOff is like, but then you wouldn’t be able to use it on her. His plan is very simple: we fix the cannon, we bring Frost the cannon, and then we fire it at her pretty blonde head, restore some order. Sousa will go along with this plan because Whitney is too dangerous to have hanging around. LabGuy will go along with whatever. JackOff says that he will back and once it’s over, he’ll take care of Sousa and LabGuy himself. FBI!Red agrees and leaves. JackOff lets the boys out of the cell and then they all sort of congratulate each other for a plan well executed. Sousa: I don’t know why you had to punch me though. JackOff: I had to sell it, didn’t I?

Joseph brings Whitney to his new present for her: a waste management facility that has been converted (kind of) into a lab for her. Also in this lab, Jason is tied to a table (he is tangible and very upset and kind of scared that he’s in a highly populated area). Jason still wants to get rid of the Zero Matter, and Whitney says that she is there to help him do just that. She is also angry at how ungrateful he is that he doesn’t want the gift that he has been given. She pulls out a very large, kind of scary looking syringe and tells him “that pain is often the harbinger of success.” She inserts the needle into his chest and he screams.

Peggy stalks through headquarters and into FBI!Red’s office. He looks up, and says that she’s a very resourceful woman. She punches him out several times, demanding to know where Sousa and JackOff are. After several blows, Sousa and JackOff run in and pull her off of him. JackOff tells her that she can’t kill him, as he is an integral part of the operation. Peggy glances at Sousa for confirmation. Sousa: “Eh.”

Down in the lab, Peggy calls the plan ludicrous. Not the gamma cannon part, because she has total faith in LabGuy to fix it (“THANK YOU”), but the part where they’re trusting FBI!Red. He says that he has no interest in killing her and once Whitney Frost is taken care of, then they’re all at a detente. Sousa elaborates; they all have dirt on one another. FBI!Red: If any of you try to take me down, I’m taking you with me.

Sousa is fine with getting into bed with this asshole to take down a lady who kills people with black space goo. Peggy reluctantly agrees, and she and Sousa are on back up. They need another hour to fix the gamma cannon though, so JackOff volunteers to go buy some time. Everyone looks at him dubiously, and he shrugs. ”It wouldn’t be the first time I sold a load of bull to a lady.”

In Whitney’s makeshift lab, the black matter extraction is not going at all. Joseph says that they need to give Jason a break because his heart will go out if they don’t let him breathe. Whitney: I’m not shaking him down for cash. Joseph shrugs; he knows what he’s talking about. Whitney turns off the machine and another one of Joseph’s thugs lets her know that she has a visitor. It’s JackOff, who is both brave and stupid to be delivering FBI!Red’s bad news. Whitney and JackOff are kind of flirty with each other, and Joseph does not take this well. He stomps off to go find some dinner, so maybe being less hangry will help his situation. (Doubt it.)

Whitney wants her cannon. JackOff says that it’s at the office being repaired. And that FBI!Red wanted it fixed before delivering it to her. “To impress me.” “To ruin you.” JackOff explains that they’re going to turn the cannon into a bomb, but he wants to use it to destroy FBI!Red instead. Whitney is impressed that JackOff wants this job. JackOff is looking higher than that, though. He wants a seat on the Council.

At the SSR, Peggy thinks JackOff is up to something. The cannon is loaded up and ready to go. FBI!Red and JackOff get into the truck while Peggy and Sousa head to a separate car. The truck drives off and Peggy expresses her doubts over the wisdom of the entire plan. Sousa: The only thing you can rely on is that FBI! Red will look out for FBI!Red. The car doesn’t start because the fuel line has been cut.

In Rose’s office, LabGuy is attempting to flirt, badly, when Peggy and Sousa enter, demanding LabGuy’s car. LabGuy says that Whitney appears to have figured out their plan and Peggy’s like what plan. You know the plan where we use the gamma cannon to blow up FBI!Red and Whitney Frost? JackOff said it was your idea? Peggy is like I knew it was something and he’s going to kill everyone, including Jason. LabGuy: That’s okay, right? Since he’s evil now? The gamma canon is set to explode on a remote trigger. Since the trigger is on a radio frequency, LabGuy can use a jammer to block it. Sousa: Can you build it in three minutes? LabGuy: What am I in amateur? I can build it in two. He runs off to do just that.

In the hospital, Jarvis is fussing and Ana keeps asking where he is and if they’ve taken care of Whitney yet. Jarvis offers to drive her to up the Pacific Coast Highway on holiday, and Ana’s tell him that he’s not being truthful and that he hates holidays. Jarvis admits that he’s not being truthful, but he is being honest and offers her some tea. He explains that Jason has absorbed a lot of Zero Matter and he doesn’t know if Jason is alive or not. Peggy is trying to get him back but Whitney Frost is formidable. Ana: What the fuck are you doing here. Go help her. Jarvis says that he’s being there for his wife, and Ana’s like I have a whole bunch of doctors and nurses, and Peggy has no one to help her. She then demands to know what else he is not telling her. She can tell that he’s not telling her something, and he is a terrible liar. We pan out into the hallway and watch as he tells her the news about her uterus.

At Whitney’s lair, Peggy and her boys watch as they bring the gamma cannon in and LabGuy sets up the jammer. Peggy declares that she’s going to go in to get Jason, and Sousa says it’s a terrible idea and then turns to argue with LabGuy, and while he’s distracted, Peggy runs inside.

JackOff and FBI! Red explain to Whitney how the gamma cannon works, and Whitney is very, very excited. She only intends to use it once on Jason to get her Zero Matter back.

Peggy brawls her way to Jason’s side, and while she’s trying to convince him to leave with her, he is trying to convince her to leave him there. She says that he’s a good man and that he is under the influence of Zero Matter, and he argues that everything he did was of his own volition.

FBI!Red is trying to show Whitney how the gamma cannon works and aims it at her, but she pushes it out of the way and turns it off saying she understands everything. Then she starts towards him, a cat playing with a mouse, saying that she almost didn’t believe JackOff, that FBI!Red wasn’t possibly stupid enough to try and go against her. JackOff pulls his gun on FBI!Red, and tells him there’s been a change of plans. FBI!Red sighs in half-disappointment and half-admiration. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”

Peggy continues to argue with Jason. He keeps trying to tell her that something terrible and cataclysmic is happening with him, and she’s refusing to leave without him. “You are a very stubborn woman.” “My brother would agree.” He allows her to help him toward the door and when she goes through it, he shuts the door behind her and locks it so that she can’t get to him. She says that she can help him, and he says that she already has. He tells her to run and goes back into the room. He stumbles and cracks of Zero Matter start appearing on his body as he grunts in pain.

The LabGuy has finally gotten the jammer working, while Sousa anxiously watches for Peggy to exit the building.

A little back and forth about something I don’t know blah blah blah, JackOff finally tells Whitney her way of getting rid of bodies is much cleaner than his, and leaves telling Whitney to give him a call when she’s gotten what she needs from Jason. FBI!Red yells forJackOff not to leave him with her while she starts toward him again. JackOff leaves and ducks behind a support strut, and hits the remote detonator. Nothing happens, and he hits it a few more times. “Carter!”

He finds Sousa and tells them to turn off the jammer. JackOff claims that he’s doing what needs to be done, and that not one person in the building is innocent. Peggy runs up and argues that Jason is innocent. JackOff says that FBI!Red would have killed all of them, and that no one will shed a tear if Whitney Frost is blown to kingdom come. Peggy wants everyone to have been brought to justice, or is the SSR no longer in that business? JackOff: Frost is taking care of FBI!Red so it’s just better for the world if they blow up the building now. Peggy wants to know where Jason fits into that equation, and JackOff feels that Jason is more dangerous than everyone else put together. JackOff pulls his gun on LabGuy and, being pragmatic, immediately turns off the jammer. Peggy pulls her gun on JackOff and tells him to put down the detonator.

Whitney is in the process of Zero Mattering FBI!Red, but she’s doing it slowly so he can get in a final death monologue. He tells her that JackOff can’t possibly have his connections and Whitney’s like fuck your connections, I’m remaking the world in my image. He smiles and she wonders what he’s smiling at, and he tells her, “Because they’ve got you too, bitch.” The light on the gamma cannon is flashing. Jason staggers into the room, and Whitney sees that he’s about to explode, and pleads for him to like….not. But he does, into a spiky zero matter-y mess.

Carrie: THAT PURPLE DRESS. I NEED IT. GIMMIE.

The dream sequence was everything I crave from life.

Jarvis and Peggy, please don’t fight, it makes my tummy hurt.

Look Marvel, there’s more to women than reproductive organs. Maybe the next episode (and dare I dream, maybe the next season) will deal more with Ana’s reaction to losing her ability to bear children. But right now it’s basically a low-grade fridging. The show needed a way to make Jarvis experience permanent consequences for his time with Peggy without killing Ana off, but by focusing everything on Jarvis, it makes Ana a prop.

I in no way mean to make light of the pain of infertility when I say that I’d love to see Ana flip this trope, and I can picture her doing it for two reasons. One is that Ana as a character consistently defies expectation. The other is that Ana doesn’t have an established backstory of wanting children, which leaves her reaction open to multiple possibilities. Can’t you picture her, in the next episode, eating apple torte and confiding in Peggy, “I feel awful for Mr. Jarvis, of course, but honestly Peggy I never was that excited about pregnancy. Of course, this should have been my choice, not Whitney’s choice, which is why I personally arranged to feed her to a wood chipper while you were busy doing something else. But now that that messy job is done, I’m really fine. Torte?”

Experiencing sadness and pain because of infertility is a common story, and an important story, and a story that needs to be told, but comic books and comic book properties are all too quick to target women on the basis of their reproductive abilities or their sexuality. It’s especially problematic when the story puts all the focus on how the traumatic event affects the men in a woman’s life. Props however to James D’Arcy for acting the shit out of his part and making me all sad and weepy. And props to Ana for calling him out on his crap.

It’s fun to watch Jack change sides every single second but it’s also giving me whiplash. Settle down, dude, you’ll make yourself dizzy.

RHG: Jack is taking a page from the playbook of another Jack who can’t stay on one side for more than five minutes.

So Google Docs just introduced voice transcription this week, which is HILARIOUS, because it doesn’t really know what to do with the sound “Sousa.” So I got “Susan” “Susie” “Sunzhou” and “Souza” (and a bunch of others that I can’t remember. Also, I need you to imagine me in my living room, talking loudly and clearly while the cats are like “What the actual fuck are you doing, thumb monkey? Who are you TALKING TO.”

It’s a lot easier on my hands for the two-hour double episodes.

Anyway, I think Carrie covered all of the “Marvel, what is your obsession with uteruses?” concerns.

Next week is our season finale, not series. I HAVE FAITH.