Agent Widow
It's a pity Whitney Frost isn't overly dramatic or anything.
She gives a huge speech outside her studio about the sudden boating death of her husband and some of his "close associates," and then promises her fans she will pull herself together very soon. The veil obviously covers the Voldemark, but I also like to think it's because she's a young Lady Gaga in training. Maybe Zero Matter explains some of what Gaga does, actually.
Agent Have A Conversation
These two still haven't discussed their near-kiss, and when Daniel suggests they might want to tackle that topic soon, Peggy is super awkward and almost brusque about it. Peggy, listen. Dr. Wilkes is really nice. But Sousa is SOUSA. He shares his name with a type of tuba (sousaphone). DOES THAT COUNT FOR NOTHING?
Agent Torture
Dottie Underwood is in Kurtwood Smith's clutches, and he and his loud tie set about trying to intimidate her into talking. He's no good at it, and she's immune to truth serum and totally unfazed by the prospect of being tortured because she's done all that to herself and worse. I know Dottie Underwood is a psychopath, potentially, and is homicidal and evil and a post-war Communist and all that, but it must be said: She's also an undisputed badass.
Agent Nice Try
Her flat-out scorn for Kurtwood's abilities is a thing to behold. She's just so bored of him, like a cat toying with a mouse that actually really LIKES cats and so isn't running away.
Agent Science
Well, look at that. Dr. Wilkes didn't just build himself a human-size bell jar; he made it all pretty, because I guess he has an artist's soul (and an artist as a helper, I suppose, as Ana is aiding him because of how he can't touch solid objects and she can). Sousa had better come up with something that can compete with, "Makes florid and structurally interesting Zero Matter chambers."
Agent Lovely
While Jarvis tries to re-activate Dottie's transmitter -- and Jason has a tantrum that they're paying more attention to rescuing her than to reconstituting him -- I thought you should look at Peggy's dress, because it's great.
Agent DRAMA
Whitney, you really are such a delight. Why are you still wearing that thing? You're at home, girl.
She tells Kurtwood Smith to prioritize getting her EXACTLY the same rods from her old bombs, however he must achieve this. And in return, she will take over questioning Dottie Underwood, because she has a sense we've all been waiting for the clash of THOSE titans.
Agent Good Direction
This shot is wonderfully framed. Also, Whitney is lucky her Voldemark is so attractive. Poor Professor Quirrell was stuck with a mangled face growing out of the back of his head.
Agent Broken
It takes Whitney all of five seconds to break Dottie. There is a weak attempt at pretending they're the same, which Dottie punctures immediately, at which point Whitney just grabs her and Dark Marks her for a little while until Zero Matter threatens to erupt out of her mouth. I'm not entirely sure how Zero Matter works, and I don't think the show has decided yet either. In part because later, Whitney makes a comment about how Zero Matter seems to be different with every host, which is AWFULLY narratively convenient, no?
Agent Canary
All it takes is a few seconds of horcruxing for Dottie to say everything she knows. Unless it somehow reduced her immunity to truth serum and/or iocaine powder. What's striking is the pure fear in Dottie's eyes, which we have never, ever seen before, as Dottie tells Whitney all about Wilkes and how he's like a ghost. "Ah, MOLECULAR INTANGIBILITY," Whitney purrs, intellectually aroused. Yeah, sure, show. If you want. Molecular intangibility. That's a very scientific-sounding pairing of words. How about atomic vapor? Cellular ethereality? Body missingness?
Agent Nifty
Jason is a genius. Not only is his machine interesting-looking, but it also a) totally works and returns him to human form when they let the Zero Matter leap back into his body (which Peggy somehow knows how to do? Like, they stuck Whitney with a needle to get it, but she somehow is aware she can just shoot it into the air and it'll jump into Jason); b) features purple mood lighting; and c) has NO WALLS so that he can still do things like this...
agent-carter-recap-season-2-episode-7-12
I don't recall the original Zero Matter chamber being open-air, but whatever. Molecular Intangibility SCIENCE!!! is all still very nascent. At any rate, Jason's relief is great and his Zero Matter makes him horny, presumably (just as Whitney was last week with Squint), and so he takes Peggy and just kisses the hell out of her. Gotta give him points for that. Sousa, you are snoozing, and you might thus be losing.
Agent Reaction Shot
Ana's face when this happens is priceless. She is a treasure.
Agent Sidelined
Let's get him over with: Sousa is told by Kurtwood that he's got to find the uranium rods. Vaguely threatening language is used. This forces him to miss out on Peggy's mission, but he doesn't do anything concrete about finding the rods because he doesn't want to give them over to Evil; this leads to thugs turning up at his house and kicking the shit out of him, followed by Kurtwood putting him on leave and taking over SSR: LA with LL Cool J.
Agent Contraption
Dottie's tracking device goes off, which Peggy realizes is a trap, but she's game to walk into it anyway. Jarvis readies a machine Howard made that basically blasts away anything within a 170 degree field. It works beautifully, but Ana sees him test it and essentially plotzes, albeit beautifully and with great panache.
Agent The Best
She and he then have a GREAT scene in which she awesomely tells him that she's well aware of the dangers, but also of how much he needs the adventure. And she's willing to let him have it, but in exchange, he has to accept that she's going to worry about him at times and hug him that much more tightly. He promises that nothing bad will happen to him in Peggy's care, and she smiles lovingly and tells him not to make promises he can't keep. I wish we'd built to this a bit more over the season, but still: It was nice to see Ana proud of Jarvis's bravery and supportive of his heroism, while also being like, "That doesn't mean I have to be excited about all the potential death." That is more than fair, Ana, you wonderful creature.
Agent Feast
Ana then makes Jason a feast -- his first meal since he went all mitochondrially translucent -- and they sit down and bond over wine and worries: her worries, Howard's wine.
Agent Heart to Heart
Then, during the drive out to Whitney's Slytherin Compound, Jarvis tries to have some girl talk with Peggy about her two "quality suitors," singing the praises of Jason's "incandescent" smile and Sousa's eyes. He seems quite taken with both of them. Peggy feigns horror at this intrusion, but then softens and admits she never saw this coming and didn't mean to encourage two men at once, and now doesn't know what to do. I feel sorry for her because she seems to like them both genuinely, but also: BOO HOO, PEGGY. O WOE IS HAVING TWO HOT SMARTIES YEARN FOR YOUR BOD.
Agent Error
And, of course, no matter how many times Jarvis punches in the code, the machine doesn't work. So they get captured and imprisoned with Dottie. However, it proves so easy to get out of their shackles that Jarvis even beats both Peggy AND Dottie to it, at which point he amazingly works through that he punched in the wrong code: Evidently, Howard programmed it by the measurements of two lovely actresses, and one of them was for the immediate blast, and the other was for delayed detonation. BOOM. The guards all explode and they can escape molested...
Agent FURY
... but not before Peggy realizes that Dottie in fact told Whitney everything, and Dottie notes that the trap was not laid for Peggy at all. It was to draw her out so that Chez Stark would be unguarded. Jarvis becomes CRAZY DUDELIKE at this point and grabs a pistol and starts screaming at Dottie to MOVE IT MOVE IT MOVE IT.
Also, THIS IS WHY YOU NEED A LAIR, PEG. I can't believe Howard Stark doesn't have unplottable land, also. He has everything else.
Agent Ego
Including, as a commenter recently wondered, portraits of himself in nearly every room. I half expect them to have those removable eyes so that he can watch people through them.
This scene was confusing to me: Jarvis's security system goes off just as Ana is upstairs getting more wine. It SEEMS like Ana hears it even though Whitney quickly disables it. But then Ana just.... stays upstairs and doesn't bring Jason the wine, nor does she investigate what set off the alarm, or... it's really weird.
Agent Discoveries
So Whitney has plenty of time to nose around the lab and then taunt Jason. She gives him a spiel likening his race to her womanhood, noting that they're treated like perfunctory hires and that they deserve to band together and claim what's theirs: recognition, equality, etc. It's a well played speech, and rather interestingly addresses the race issue (at one point she asks Jason if he's ever truly felt like a man in this country). But Jason isn't having any of it.
Agent Experiment
So Whitney tries to steal the Zero Matter back out of his body; instead, he manages to take some of hers, and it gives him enough ionic testostitude to walk out of the chamber and still remain solid. Whitney implies that this won't last, but that they can help each other and yada yada yada she cracks him over the head so they can drag him out to the car.
Agent Sidekick
"They" of course being her and Ken Marino, who is enamored of her even with her Voldemark. It's true love, y'all.
Agent Kidnapping
Ana now rejoins the narrative. With no explanation for what was keeping her -- except a brief phone call to Daniel to ask if he's heard anything -- she suddenly looks out the window and notices Jason being lugged outside. She walks out to try and stop them, and Ken Marino makes like he's going to shoot her, but Whitney stops him and says she's not a monster. She and Ana talk for a little until Ana finally says that Peggy will never stop coming for her... just as Peggy's car turns up the drive. "No, but I can slow her down," Whitney says...
Agent O NO
... and SHOOTS ANA IN THE GUT. Jarvis is obviously EXTREMELY UPSET, but I'm sad to report that Peggy does take a second to watch the car drive away before she collects herself. Sigh. How very TV.
Agent Gone
And of course, they had stashed Dottie in the trunk while they dealt with Ana, but she escaped and killed a cop. So she's on the loose, Jason is gone, and Ana is bleeding out on the lawn. It's a bad day in Starkville.
Agent Sads
Jarvis is broken. They are doing surgery and they can't promise Ana will survive. Peggy reaches out and holds his hand. Oh, it's so sad.
Agent Old-School
And then Peggy walks up to a bank of strange communications objects and picks one up and uses it to call the SSR. She gets the non-Rose operator and asks for "the chief" and is connected to Kurtwood Smith. Worried, Peggy hangs up, and wonders what woes the final three episodes will bring. She has had a rough couple days, this one. At least her rebar injury has healed? Maybe she should get that checked while she's in the hospital...