Whoa.
With rumors swirling about the possible cancelation of this series and with last week a bit off tonally, Marvel’s Agent Carter picked the perfect time to drop its best two episodes of the season.
By the time those two hours were finished, numerous characters were dead or injured, things got better for ghost-Wilkes, then became worse, and all the figurative playing cards had been tossed into the air, completely upending the game.
The rundown:
- Peggy broke Dottie Underwood out of jail because she needed an operative to obtain a sample of Whitney Frost’s dark matter-infected blood to stabilize Wilkes.
- Jarvis and Dottie went undercover for said sample.
- Thompson screwed up the plan by being at the party and then later by giving Peggy an ultimatum which resulted in her quitting the SSR.
- Dottie has no fear of torture devices, but she is scared of Whitney Frost.
- Whitney took over the proto-Illuminati by killing half of them via dark matter, including the husband who tried to sell her out. Don’t make the woman angry, boys, you wouldn’t like her when she’s angry. Vernon gets this memo right away.
- Wilkes used the dark matter stolen from Whitney to make himself material again with the help of a steampunk’d cage and then wasted no time at all in kissing Peggy. Carpe diem, sir!
- Sousa was beaten up because he refused to kowtow to Vernon, then was put on leave.
Oh, and did I mention that Whitney shot Ana Jarvis (!), Dottie Underwood is free again, and Whitney also kidnapped Wilkes for, well, whatever nefarious purposes she can come up with that will make her a further master of the universe.
That’s a great deal to take in, especially when a rundown of the facts is inadequate to describe the intensity of these two hours. I noted last week that Peggy has become increasingly desperate to save Wilkes, and her plan to break Dottie out of jail showed just how much she’s willing to risk for the scientist. Oh, she told Sousa that they need Wilkes to build their case against Whitney Frost and Isodyne, but I’m not buying that and neither was Sousa.
Poor Daniel Sousa. His fiancee breaks up with him because she thinks he’s still in love with Peggy, and loyalty to Peggy cost him more than a few bruises and perhaps his job, as Vernon took over the Los Angeles branch of the SSR. Plus, he almost kisses Peggy but doesn’t. Does Sousa truly love Peggy or Violet? Looks like Peggy at this point but, dude, you have to speak up about all this.
As for Thompson, I have no more sympathy for him, as he seems to have gone over to the dark side fully and is only worried that Peggy knows the true story of his military “heroism.”
But most of all, it’s Poor Jarvis. He’s pushed beyond his limits as an amateur spy, tasked with keeping Dottie in check and handling Thompson, though he cut down the latter like a champ. He performed admirably as a captive, but crumbled to pieces after Whitney shot Ana to cover her escape from the Stark mansion.
Show, if you kill Ana, I will never forgive you.
Meanwhile, the Dottie/Whitney femslash was born. ABC could create a series called “Lethal Ladies,” starring Peggy, Dottie, and Whitney as they remake the world amid consensual BDSM sequences. Too much for network television? Likely, and I’m partially joking, but I’m sure someone is working on a fanfic about that right this second.
It fascinates me that that when Whitney killed the people trying to contain her, I cheered. Sure, she’s a selfish and obsessed, but she’s also smart and capable of learning from her enemies. She’s a female, slightly more murderous, version of Howard Stark. I also dug her confrontation with Wilkes as she’s arguing that they need to join together for power and science. He never wavered from his assertion that they’re dealing with a deadly force that should be left alone. Too bad that argument was truncated by him getting hit in the head.
In short, Whitney is a villain that you sometimes want to win, and that makes her complex and interesting and, thus, makes the show better.
I’m also enjoying Whitney’s unflappable mobster boyfriend, Manfredi. Hey, “get the lady what she wants” seems to be his attitude, and that will certainly keep him alive.
But my favorite moment had to be Dottie and Peggy racing to see who could free themselves from Whitney’s restraints first.
Next up: Peggy attempts to rescue Wilkes, find Dottie, take down the corruption in the government, all the while recovering from a rebar hole in her abdomen. Oh, and an atomic bomb might go off.
If this is the final season of Agent Carter, it’s going out full-speed ahead and damn the torpedoes.
