This week’s episode, Smokes and Mirrors, provided us with some much needed background information about both our hero and our villain, told in amazing flashbacks which paralleled each other.
One thing that I truly enjoy about Agent Carter is that it’s always improving upon itself. This week’s episode was very singularly focused on fleshing out the characters of both Peggy Carter and Whitney Frost, with the added moving along of the plot surrounding the Arena Club, and they managed to pull of this feat successfully, with us feeling as if we understand Peggy and Whitney a little bit better and learning more about the Arena Club.
Let’s get into what made this episode great:
The Woman That Became Peggy Carter
We begin the episode by seeing a young Peggy Carter playing and pretending to be a knight that has to save a princess (great AU idea for all you Martinelli fanfic writers) with her older brother, whom she mentioned in the episode when she was fighting with Jarvis. Peggy’s mother comes looking for her and reprimands her by telling her that one day she will have to act like a proper lady. Even in this scene we don’t see her mother being unnecessarily cruel to her, just telling her how the way of the world is.
Later on, we see Peggy flashing an engagement ring at a group of women in a workplace, and she’s almost unrecognisable to the Peggy we know as she’s gushing about her fiance and acting all docile. Her superior calls her into his office and tells her that the government want her to become a spy (as they need someone who doesn’t look like a soldier, someone who will blend in, like a woman) as she is already one of their top codebreakers. She turns the offer down despite the fact that you can clearly tell she’s intrigued by it.
Peggy and her fiance, Fred are having dinner with her brother, Michael (who is kinda dreamy) who is home from the army. Peggy is all giggly, acting like an obedient wife and we see Michael eyeing the couple skeptically. She tells him about the offer to become a spy, saying that she and Fred decided against it because it’s too dangerous, and then Fred makes it worse by saying that war made him realize that a boring life is the best life. But when Fred steps away to get drink refills, Michael tells Peggy that he is the one who put her name forward for the spy program because he knows she seeks adventure and wants more than the domestic life. He asks her if she really thinks Fred is the love of her life, and I scream at the TV ‘NOOOOOOOOO’ because obviously it’s Steve.
The final flashback of Peggy’s past shows her trying on her wedding dress, before her mother is called away because she got a telegram. We watch throw Peggy’s eyes as her mother receives the telegram from the soldiers and then breaks down, telling us what we’ve already guessed – Michael was killed in combat. This gives us Peggy’s motive for becoming who she always wanted to be, as a homage to her brother, the one person who truly knew her and believed in her. It also highlights the fact that even though Peggy did not have a disadvantaged life, she has also lost a lot – namely the closest person to her in her brother, and the love of her life in Steve.
The Woman That Became Whitney Frost
On the other side of the coin, we have Whitney Frost or Agnes Cully as she was originally known, who even as a child was so smart that she was able to rewire her mother’s radio in order to get it to work. Her mother brushes off her skill and tells her that she must smile in order to please her mother’s boyfriend, so that he would continue to support them.
But Agnes refuses to play by her mother’s rules, and simply stares when the skeevy man arrives, and when he asks her why she isn’t smiling, she tells him it’s because she’s thinking. Even as a child she knows better than to do something because a man tells her to.
We then see Agnes as a teenager, doing her homework, as her mother’s boyfriend/husband walks out on her and her mother (who is played by Samaire Armstrong, from The O.C. fame) and her mother rages at her, telling her she could have been nicer to him to which Agnes responds with ‘I didn’t like him’, and her mother tells her that her brains won’t get her anywhere, only her looks.
In the final flashback of the woman who was Agnes, we see her attempting to see a film again in Los Angeles, because it allows her to escape, when a talent scout spots her and tells her he’s sure she would look a lot prettier if she smiled, which is the exact words her ex-stepfather used. And we see Agnes/Whitney consider this before smiling, and he then signs her to become an actress.
The Agnes/Whitney story is very reminiscent of Jessica Jones especially when Killgrave kept telling her to smile, it’s a controlling device used by men, but like Jessica, Agnes used it to her own advantage, she gave the man what he wanted so she could get she wanted, and that was a way out and not to repeat the life her mother lived and she got to reinvent herself – as Whitney Frost.
While we are learning more about Whitney’s past, she was trying to experiment with her powers with white rats, and she realizes that more she uses her powers, the bigger the scar on her forehead gets (which will probably cause her to wear a mask and become known as Madame Masque). AVClub points out that Whitney’s scar is on the same place where the producer touched her so many years before, a sign of her taking back the control of her own destiny? We see this especially when she chooses not to go to the Life Magazine shoot that her husband thinks would be good for his career.
At the end of the episode, as Peggy and the S.S.R are listening in on a bugged conversation between Whitney, Calvin Chadwick and a security member of the Arena Club who had been tortured by Peggy to reveal details about the club, the security man threatens to reveal information about Chadwick and Frost unless they protect him. However, Frost is not one to be threatened and she reveals her powers to her husband in the most unbelievable way as she uses it as a weapon to get rid of the snitch. In this scene, we truly see Whitney Frost coming into her own and taking control.
Last Minute Notes
- Wynn Everett (Whitney Frost) was excellent this week, not only playing the vulnerability of Whitney but also her acknowledgement of her powers, and the empowering way she owns it. While Dottie was a good villain, one could not feel an emotional connection to her, but Whitney has a slight crazy edge to her, but one still sort of feels as if you want her to be happy or to succeed.
- Vernon Masters (Kurtwood Smith) remains to be dodgy as when Peggy and Sousa attempt to raid the Arena Club he halts their investigation, making it clear to Peggy that he is interfering, and even more clear that he is part of the corrupt elite. Exactly the type, that were exposed during Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Don’t worry Peggy, your boy Steve will sort you out, like 60 years later.
- Jarvis coined the phrase ‘Jarvelous’ just as he was knocked out with a tranquilizer, and I have since decided that I will adopt that into my everyday vocabulary.
- No Ana, Rose, Howard, Jack or Dottie this episode.
- Also Jason Wilkes is stuck invisible, but he’s having an odd sort of feeling like he needs to go sleep, hopefully we’ll find out more about that later, but in the meantime he’s making serious heart eyes at Peggy. Although let’s be honest, who doesn’t make heart eyes at Peggy?