Agent Parking
It was so thoughtful of Peggy to park the car right in the middle of Dead Dr. WIlkes's street. I'm sure his neighbors, already stressed out by the press and the police, really appreciated a parking obstruction on top of it all.
Agent Anthropologie
This is for people who want to see shoes. And rugs, I guess. Queen Elizabeth II and I would like to discuss that carpet.
Agent Ouch
So, Peggy and Sousa are at Jason Wilkes' house looking for clues about... anything... and of course Peg notices a hollow floorboard. And this sister, who's so often doin' it for herself, then stands there and watches the colleague on crutches ease himself down painfully so he can peek under it. Not very kind, Peg, and what's more: Have you not always wanted to lift a loose board and retrieve SECRETS thereunder? I have. Don't throw away your shot.
agent carter recap season 2 episode 3
I mostly included this shot because I saw it and thought, "But LOOK at those BUILT-INS!!!!"
Also: The floor contained Russian passports and plane tickets, and a weapon was hiding under his mattress. Peggy quickly deduces that this is way, way too obvious -- a Russian agent would not have fooled everyone for so long by keeping all this stuff in the most obvious of places -- but of course the world at large has decided DEAD DR. WILKES IS COMMUNIST SCUM.
Agent Squint
Chad Michael Murray even pops by from New York to add all the exciting Russian Traitor details into Peggy's incident report from the Observatory. She resents this intrusion and refuses to sign it, so he pulls rank -- pointing out she's on loan to Sousa from HIS department -- and signs it anyway. Because he is pathologically incapable of not leaping to the douchiest conclusion.
Agent Stark
Enter Howard Stark: He's trying to make movies, which comes off as his latest fancy and also a convenient way to bang hot extras, although the implication on this show is that Howard Stark doesn't NEED help with his womanizing so I don't know why we needed this. It's a little light humor, though, and Peggy looks fabulous, so whatever. That neckline is the GREATEST gift to her chest. Wow.
Agent Fromage
I have issues with Howard, though. Specifically, while he is clearly supposed to be comic relief and a shallow man-whore, it WORKED when it was Tony Stark because Robert Downey Jr. leaks charisma from every pore. Dominic Cooper is fine, and all, but he's swimming upstream here with the costumes and the mustache, and he just doesn't come naturally to that same charismatic swagger. It's WORK, and it looks like work, and it makes it hard for me to believe that these women are even that interested in him or that he would pull them so easily. UNLESS they are all just shallow fame-whores to his man-whore, but that's not the most thrilling attitude for this show to take. I don't know. The show has a Howard Stark problem, basically. He plays cheesy, not charming. The show may be trying to have it both ways, but it's not landing.
Agent Filmstrip
Meanwhile, Chad -- at Sousa's suggestion -- has watched the Zero Matter film and is freaking out that a bunch of omnipotent black gunge ate some perfectly good trucks and people and whatnot but thoughtfully left the video camera behind.
Agent Scheme
Howard, of course, has heard of the mystical tie pin club. It's The Arena Club, and they've courted him as a member, but they're Men Only and obviously that doesn't appeal. But he sneaks in Peggy by storming the castle with a bunch of ladies. This is semi-absurd. The club has no security; just a maitre d' who totters around helplessly before calling someone after they've all been there for a while. And all the members in the room seem delighted by this impromptu party, AND YET the room also isn't crowded enough to conceal Peggy sidling away to try and bug the inner sanctum.
Agent Chambers
Not to mention that I have NO idea how Peggy found the secret Cave of the Conclave. But I'm glad she did, because I love a wood-paneled room. I do NOT log the pin on Peggy's chest, but it's an Instrument of Contrivance, so it has to stay for now.
Agent Inner Sanctum
Peggy HAPPENS to be there during one of the shadowy secret meetings, and she hides while the dudes all leave, then steals into the room before the bookshelves close again. if there's one thing I love more than a wood-paneled room full of bookshelves, it's a wood-paneled room full of bookshelves that open to reveal a secret hideout. Also, a library ladder - one of those that slides. I really need to be wealthy so that I can build the library of my dreams.
ANYHOO, Peggy is properly puzzled that these extremely stereotypically macho dudes took pains to put a HUGE CENTERPIECE OF FRESH FLOWERS smack dab on their Table of Shadowy Hate Candles. Maybe Ray Wise is just really, really into flower arranging.
Agent Headlines
Peggy is then horrified to see prototypes of tomorrow's paper, predicting a scandal that knocks Chadwick's competition out of the senate race and essentially has him running unopposed. She ought to leave a note letting them know which alliteration she prefers.
Agent Bug
Peggy also tries to bug the room but some kind of interceptor causes it to emit a high-pitched squeal and she's forced to smash it with her purse. But not before...
agent carter recap season 2 episode 3
... the Henchman comes skulking in, certain something is up, and yet somehow pathologically unable to think of tipping over slightly to check and see what might be hiding under this large table. Peggy lights her brooch on fire with the bug's wiring, and uses the moment to get away.
Agent Aloha
Sousa's devotion to loud beachy shirts is really very sweet. There is also a cute moment where Peggy recites the two proposed headlines and Sousa has to explain to CMM what "ankles" means, because he now speaks fluent Hollywood.
Chad Michael Murray is crabby that Peggy didn't bring him proof of the Arena Club's futuristic dabbling. Dude, if she'd stolen it, they'd have been onto you guys. Get her a purse cam, fools.
Peggy is furious that CMM seems to be too cowardly to pursue any of this properly, although admittedly she's also overinvested because she wants to make out with Dr. Wilkes again. When CMM is being especially ornery, she spits that he's a coward, "doing what you always do: burying the evidence and hoping someone will give you a medal." It's a very, very cold reference to a confidence from last season, and it pushes his final button: Peggy is OUTTA THERE. He orders her back to New York so he can bury her under more meaningless busywork (my paraphrasing).
Agent What?
And then things get all SCIENCE: Sousa notices that stuff is starting to hover around Peggy's left side. Howard tests it, and yada yada yada he knows exactly what it is, and it's the electrocardiospank transticular wattfire from the SCIENCE! (Translation: She's not going to die from Zero Matter exposure, but something IS afoot.) Her dress is really good, too, and I wish I had her hourglass.
Agent Goggles
You need to see Jarvis's lab goggles. He is deeply satisfying to me. Sousa also gets to dazzle them all with some chemistry knowledge, at which point he sniffs defensively that SCIENCE!! is in his department name, after all.
Agent HUH?
It all amounts to this: There's a cardiomagnesial wonkavision surrounding Peggy, and Howard has been developing just the spritz to cure it. He shoots it at the air and it renders Dr. Jason Wilkes in spectral form. Shonda Rhimes is going to be SO UPSET she didn't think of this for Denny Duquette.
Agent Awww
Peggy really cannot hide how happy she is to see him alive. (She is carrying a LOT of guilt for his death, but she's also warm for his undead form.) And Howard and Dr. Wilkes begin to work together -- with occasional spritz refreshers -- to figure out how to adjust it so that his gastrojentacular microspasm can be reconstituted into a full human. I have NO IDEA what is happening right now. He's... not dead? Mostly dead? So, slightly alive? It's unclear to me how he's not an ex-doctor right now, but whatever. SCIENCE just washes over me, especially when it's made up.
Agent Threatened
SCIENCE!! does not wash over Whitney Frost. Sousa figures out that the lady scientist in Oklahoma who pioneered work in SCIENCE!!! changed her name and became Whitney Frost, presumably to hide in plain sight. "Everyone's watching her but no one sees her," Peggy more or less interprets. But a visit paid to Whitney doesn't do much to hide their suspicions, so Whitney does the best acting job of her life -- way better than what we've seen of her in a movie so far -- to convince Chadwick that he needs to put a hit on Peggy because she fears for her life. Also, she has somehow managed not to do any work on set, so no one has noticed the giant black tar-oozing scar on her forehead.
Agent Kick His Ass
Unfortunately for Henchman, he tries to garrote Peggy while she is deep into her nightly boxing workout, so she's nice and warmed up, and can clobber him. Jarvis helps with some well-timed judo. The one thing that irritates me about this otherwise great scene is: There's a moment where Henchman recovers his gun and turns and shoots Peggy... except that it's empty, which gives her enough time to shoot at him instead (she wounds only his hand). I know Peggy can't do everything perfectly, but it's annoying that despite her efforts AND Jarvis chipping in, the show still resorted to the old She'd Be Dead If He Hadn't Forgotten To Load His Gun trope.
Agent 70s Show
Kurtwood Smith is evil. We know this because a) they shot him earlier in front of a dimly lit, soiled American flag, and b) now his face is being STRIPED WITH DARKNESS by DRAMATIC SHADOWS. He convinces CMM to do his patriotic duty and earn a spot at a real agency by turning over all information. Chad is all wounded by Peggy and Sousa and their SUSPICIONS and their accusations that he sucks at police work, so he turns over the Zero Matter filmstrip and is given a lovely pat on the head in return. That is some sad transactional whiz, Chad.
Agent Squint
I said it last season, too, but CMM is great on this show. He's a DICKFACE but then there's this scene with Sousa where he kind of regrets it, and clearly has no friends, but Sousa blows him off because a) Sousa is great, b) Sousa is secretly still investigating Isodyne, and c) Sousa is great. CMM is real bummed out. His self-esteem is as tiny as his tie.
Agent Plot Thickening
Then Kurtwood takes Chad to the Arena Club (I think? ) to meet Chadwick, playing it up like it's this wonderful new power partnership. Chad notices Chadwick reading that day's paper, and sure enough it's the "Ankles" headline that Peggy told him about the day before. Word for word. He manages to rein in a mighty squint.
Agent Necktie
I couldn't get a good grab of how much Jason Wilkes thinks Peggy is the dreamiest, but trust me, he looked at her REAL schmoopy-like. Here, however, he is regretting dying -- or being reduced to leptoparticular dyspeptic dust -- in such an awful tie.
Agent Green
Swoon.
Agent Stubby
Okay, speaking of tiny neckties. this dude's is the most absurdly short one we've seen yet. And it is directly proportionate to his skill at preying on ladies. He sits down Whitney and tells her that the studio wants to replace her with someone younger, then tries the whole "nobody messes with my leading lady so I told them I'd walk and they backed down" gambit. The weird thing is, this is clearly a way of getting into her pants, but if I remember correctly, as blocked the scene ends with him getting up to leave without putting the moves on her -- at which point she calls him over to thank him one more time, and gives him a hug. And THAT is when he decides to get handsy. Whitney gets angry. And this dude will not like Whitney when she's angry.
Agent Tar Pit
Because, see, when Whitney is angry, she turns people into Zero Matter and then -- I THINK -- absorbs them into her skin again. It's a really frustrating side effect of being blown up near a poisonous vortex or whatever.
Agent Scar
And sure enough, before her eyes, her horcrux gets a little bigger on her forehead. VOLDEMORT IS COMING.