Agent Carter truly moved into comedy spheres this week in ‘The Atomic Job’ as we saw Peggy and Daniel assemble a group of unlikely assailants to take on Whitney Frost and Calvin Chadwick, and learn what they can about their actions.
We also had some relationship problems for Sousa, a shady deal with a mobster for the Chadwicks, a near death experience for Peggy, and the MVP of tonight’s episode – Rose.
Let’s get into the episode:
The Deal With Zero Matter
So apparently both Whitney Frost and Jason Wilkes have been feeling the pull of the ‘zero matter’ but Whitney might just be the smarter one of the two as they both discover that they need the tissue of Jane Scott, the woman whose dead body brought Peggy out to LA, in order to improve their abilities. Jason in order to become corporeal again, and Whitney to give her more power.
Peggy and Jarvis discover where Jane’s corpse is being held and the two of them climb in through the air vent but they are too late as they watch as Whitney sucks out all the zero matter from Jane’s body and declares ‘I need an atomic bomb’.
It doesn’t take the SSR crew long to find out exactly where Whitney can find an atomic bomb – in the possession of Hugh Jones (Ray Wise) who owns Roxxon – which is a competitor of Howard Stark’s company. And then the race is on to get to the atomic bomb first.
Peggy goes undercover from Roxxon to steal Hugh Jones’ access key using a nifty tool that erasing the last two minutes from someone’s brain, which she keeps using on Jones as he goes between trying to seduce her and recognizing her as the agent he previously met in New York. She eventually finds the key in his belt buckle, because he’s a creepy perv like that. It’s a highly entertaining scene and one of the best comedic scenes of the episodes, only usurped by any scene with Jarvis in.
While Peggy is manipulating Hugh Jones, Whitney and Calvin meet with notorious LA mob boss, Joseph Manfredi, played by Ken Marino, in order to ask him for some discreet manpower to help them with the job to move the atomic bomb. Manfredi is temperamental and leaves enough of a mark that I think we can see him working with Whitney even more as the series continues.
Daniel and Peggy create an odd group in order to defuse the atomic bomb as Daniel is wary of trusting SSR members, not knowing who could be linked to the Arena Club. With the usual Peggy/Daniel crew comes Jarvis, Rose – who hangs out in reception, and Dr. Aloysius Samberly, a scientist at the SSR. Rose and Aloysius are a welcome addition to the crew and along with the ever funny Jarvis add even more comedic presence to the series.
The team each play their parts in removing Frost’s guards successfully until Jarvis gets stuck in a room alone with the atomic bomb. Daniel coaches him on how to defuse the bomb through the door, while Aloysius attempts to open the door and Rose stands guard.
Peggy meanwhile goes after Whitney and Chadwick and attempts to offer Whitney help in removing her powers, while Whitney rebukes her saying “Why would I want to be fixed? I’ve never felt more powerful in my whole life.” And the two get into a brawl which ends up with Peggy being impaled and Whitney and Chadwick running off. At least they didn’t get the atomic bomb? I suppose.
Peggy’s Complicated Love Life
So Peggy has been having a tentative relationship with scientist Jason Wilkes who is still currently in a non-corporeal manner but apparently has been channelling Edward Cullen and watching Peggy sleep. Not going to say I blame him.
This episode, Peggy rushed head first to find Jane Scott’s corpse for him in order to make him whole again. When she returns from the mission, he tells her that he learnt more about the zero matter but he’ll tell her the next morning. But at the end of the episode while he was watching her sleep, Wilkes get sucked into the zero matter and disappears.
Over with Daniel and Violet, Daniel proposes but loses the ring in Violet’s couch (seriously Daniel, no ring box?) but she accepts nevertheless. However, after Peggy’s impalement, Daniel takes her to Violet who’s a nurse in order to help her as if they take her to the hospital too many questions would be asked and they have powerful people after them.
Violet helps Peggy heal but not before noticing a touching moment between Daniel and Peggy, whereby after Peggy leaves she tells Daniel, “I think you’re in love with her. Are you Daniel?” And Daniel’s response was a long pause which made everything uncomfortable. Good luck talking your way out of this one Sousa!
MVP Of The Episode
Lastly, we need to give credit where credit is due. Rose, the awesome receptionist who played a side role in Season 1 and was featured a bit more prominently in Season 2, truly shone in this episode.
From the way she beat up numerous men, to the suave way that she talked herself out of sticky situations, to even the way she charmed Samberly, she knew her worth and she owned this episode. Waiting for ages for the chance to pay her part in the field, and Peggy’s unwavering support and faith in her made it even more endearing.
Even in shows as progressive and inclusive as Agent Carter, we see the trend towards female heroines still all looking like young, pretty starlets but with Rose’s character we got to see a woman not built like a supermodel, who is older than the rest but is still able to be a strong female character who can defend herself and others and still be alluring. I’m so grateful that they decided to give her more prominence.
So what did you think of ‘The Atomic Job’?
