Agent Death Toll
You might recall that Dottie had released Howard Stark's insanity gas in a movie theater full of people, causing them to claw each other to a brutal death. The theater and the cops have done a bang-up job bringing out the dead and stacking them into piles and otherwise jostling them, including what looks like one body lying alone in state at the top of the stairs.
Agent Pram
Souza wanders into the theater and notices the incredibly subtle baby carriage lying sideways in the aisle, and when he runs for it, he sees the EQUALLY totally impossible to spot GIANT METAL GAS CANISTER. Unfortunately, when he picks it up, a little more gas comes out and it turns him into a barbarian.
Agent Guns
All of this was just an excuse to get Enver Gjokaj in a tank top. This show knew exactly what Fug Nation wanted. And you'll be relieved to know that he got punched out before he removed Chad Michael Murray's pancreas with his teeth, and woke up foggy but completely fine.
Agent Naughty
It goes without saying that while all this is happening, Dottie is out there killing people. It's what she does. The sun rises, I eat a peanut butter sandwich, Dottie brings swift death upon the head of an innocent.
Agent Surrender
Then Howard Stark arrives at the SSR, at which point the entire room draws a weapon on him and Jarvis has this reaction. Oh, Jarvis. I cherish you. And your wife must be so WORRIED ABOUT YOU after the last several weeks of coming home flushed and clammy and aroused by danger.
Agent Smarmy
It's worth noting that he and Chad Michael Murray could have had FEARSOME squint-offs if they hadn't spent all season in separate corners of the world. Also, and this is going to sound mean, Dominic Cooper in that mustache is not nearly hot enough to play the kind of epic and unstoppable womanizer that Howard Stark was supposed to be. It just is not happening. I don't have a problem with him, but the show wrote that character into such a lady hound that I think it was too talk a task for almost ANYONE they could get.
Agent Squint
Yes, Chad Michael Murray, study his face and see if you agree.
Also: Howard pleads his case, everyone is DOUBTFUL, then they all accept that Howard is not the enemy. Peggy convinces them to lay a public trap for Leviathan -- although, increasingly, Leviathan feels more like This Dude And His Sidekick than a wide-ranging evil organization.
Agent Asskicker
This scene was about Dr. Moscow hearing on the radio about Howard Stark's big public pardon, but the best part is the way they stage it: In the background, almost as an afterthought, we see that Dottie is busy beating the hell out of someone. She genuinely cannot go ten minutes without getting blood on her hands. It would be such a folksy little tic if it weren't so homicidal.
Agent Squint
Yes, Chad Michael Murray, it IS hard to say nice things about Howard Stark, who has all the charisma of a used car salesman. Howard keeps whispering Chad overly complimentary things to say as part of his public pardon, and CMM amusingly keeps gagging on the words until he gives up entirely and cedes the mic to Howard.
Agent Obvious
And I guess this genius plan to trap Leviathan involves parading Howard around with minimal protection from sniper fire while the SSR agents wander around with INCREDIBLY OBVIOUS walkie-talkies. Peggy had a WATCH that could crack a SAFE, and they can't be more subtle?
Agent Gotcha
And so, it will not surprise you that when shots ring out from a nearby building, the hamsters run on their wheel while Leviathan gets away with Howard Stark. And the thing is, the rifle -- which they had set to shoot on a timer, without a person -- was aimed to shoot over Howard's head. If they had WANTED to kill him, it would have been super easy, and so this big plan to draw out the bad guy would have failed AND resulted in a dead Stark. I just... you guys are really bad at strategery.
Agent Slap
This is Dottie in a car with Howard, smacking him across the face for not being able to remember her pseudonym (Ida) from their weekend together. She both wants him to shut up and is galled that no one's face makes any impression on him except his own.
Agent Foxy
This is the flashback we get to that, by the way. She of course looks fabulous, and he looks like he's outkicking his coverage.
This is how Dottie knows that Howard has a secret hangar -- one that the SSR doesn't know about and thus whose airstrip it apparently couldn't locate and close. We then cut to Dottie smacking around Howard at the same hangar, present-day, before Dr. Moscow slithers in there and starts hypnotizing him to Do His Evil Bidding.
Agent Captain America
The plan: Trick Howard into believing that Captain America has been found, and that only Howard can fly a plane to save him -- thus tapping into the one thing about which Howard Stark harbors regrets. What will actually happen is, Howard will fly to New York and drop the Death Gas on Times Square. Peggy at least gets to look fabulous in this ridiculous fantasy sequence in which Howard is evidently on the Ice Planet Hoth preparing to swing a leg over his Tauntaun.
Agent Put 'Em Up
Jarvis figures out where Howard is being kept, and Peggy sneaks up on Dottie and Dr. Moscow in the radio room. It results in a delightful baseball-bat fight between the ladies that came out way too blurry in screen grabs, so I can't show you, but: Peggy takes several whacks to the back that probably would have snapped a non-televised heroine in half. The blocking went a BIT too far there.
Agent Skullcrush
"I thought you'd be better," Dottie tsks, because she doesn't understand yet not to get caught taunting your quarry. Peggy fakes her out, and then kicks her through a window, where she goes THWACK on the wing of a plane. It's EXTREMELY satisfying. I never get tired of Peggy delivering a knockout blow.
Agent Pilot
Jarvis, of course, is the only person present who can fly Howard's other plane and shoot him down before he gets to Manhattan. Never mind that Howard has a fairly sizable head start. I won't ask why Howard has planes with guns on them, when this is supposed to be his hangar for pleasurecraft. I also keep wondering where Jarvis's helmet is. I hereby proffer to him the call sign Macho Cheese.
Agent Monologue
Here, Peggy desperately gets on the horn with Howard to talk him out of his hypnosis. There's a lot of sentimentality about poor dead Steve Rogers, and whose fault that is, and how to Make It Right. It will not surprise you that Peggy succeeds and Howard comes to before Jarvis has to blast him out of the sky. Full marks to Hayley Atwell for delivering a very affecting scene with only two silver microphones to work against.
Agent Bates
All I know is, Enver Gjokaj's TV limp could kick the ass of Brendan Coyle's. Souza has to haul himself across an INCREDIBLY LARGE ROOM while Dr. Moscow -- who has knocked out Chad Michael Murray -- coos hypnotizing things at him. And not only does he struggle, but Gjokaj allows himself to lose his balance occasionally. It's very well done, and adds to the tension because Souza is such a nice guy and you just want him to win and GET THERE ALREADY.
Agent Delicious
Turns out Souza was only PRETENDING to be hypnotized, and wins the day. He had cotton wool in his ears. Chad Michael Murray, who for a second thought he was going to take a bullet to the squint, feels REALLY stupid that he didn't think of that. So stupid that he forgets to furrow. I KNOW.
Agent Missing
Whoops. Nobody made sure Dottie was dead. CLASSIC hero mistake. Sometime in season two, the call will come from inside the house.
Agent Ovation
Peggy gets a wild round of applause when she arrives at work, which is great, but she later rather awesomely tells Souza that it doesn't really matter because she doesn't give a shit what any of these people think of her because she doesn't need THEM to tell her that she's the bomb. (Paraphrasing.) Still, it's satisfying, and I think a not-so-small part of her was like, "Yeah, that's right, dipshits, how do you like me now?"
Agent I Will Miss You
And she looked great AND had smart lipstick to go with her purple dress. Oh, Peg. Why does Agents of SHIELD live on (so far) and yet you are imperiled.
Agent Drink It In
And Souza, awesomely, asks Peggy out for a drink. NOT awesomely, she does that stupid thing where she says, "Maybe another time. I'm meeting a friend." And she doesn't sound like she means it. When he turns away, it's clear from her sly smile that she DOES mean it, and that she's touched and flattered and a little stoked, but when HE turns around I sure thought it read like she took the wind out of his sails. COME ON. Can't this show have given us a SLIVER of heat?!?!? Peggy Carter can be a highly capable agent AND still get some. The dudes do it all the time.
Agent Welcome Home
And Howard gives Peggy and Lyndsy Fonseca one of his residences, which I fervently hope will become a den of hedonism. I need to leave Peggy in a place where I know she's about to get loved up.
Agent Adieu
And then we end on this really fakey shot of Peggy pouring Steve's blood into the river. Jarvis filched it and gave it to her specifically because he said she was the only person who would know what to do with it, and her response is to commingle it with Manhattan pollution. The LEAST she could have done is taken him to California and drizzled him someplace warm.
Agent Hannibal
And Dr. Moscow is off in prison, prevented from talking by his fancy new headgear that I assume doubles as some free orthodontia.
Agent Guest Star
Oh, but he has a cell mate: Toby Jones, an equally Russian and equally rotten person who delivers a lecture on how America is the land of opportunity, and perhaps they should start sharing information by pen and paper. Question: What the hell prison gave him aN EVIL ROOMMATE, and then left NOTE PAPER IN THERE? And a pen, which could be used for all manner of mischief? YOU GUYS ARE ADORABLE. We may never know what Toby Jones has planned, or whether ABC could afford to pay him for a second season. But I assume whatever it is, Peggy will put the hurt on him. She'll win, even if this show loses.