Marvel’s Agent Carter S02 E05: The Atomic Job

Things are amping up in the world of Agent Carter as now the zero matter powered evil genius Whitney Frost wants an atomic bomb – and what Whitney wants, Whitney gets. Can Peggy, her ragtag companions, and what’s left of the SSR stop Miss Frost? Meet me after the jump for my thoughts on “The Atomic Job!”

Convictions

Maybe we should talk about this one thing first as it pertains to the future of “Marvel’s Agent Carter.” Actress Hayley Atwell has been cast as the lead for a new ABC legal drama series pilot called “Conviction.” While there’s been no word on if this will affect her role on, and continuation of, “Agent Carter,” it might be a hard workload should “Conviction” be picked up.

There’s also news that “Agent Carter” showrunners Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters have secured a pilot for another ABC series called “The Death of Eva Sofia Valdez.” Granted, these are pilots, but still, with ratings in mind as well, things look rather slim for a third season of “Agent Carter.” Perhaps the Mockingbird spin-off “Marvel’s Most Wanted,” “Damage Control,” or something else will fill the winter hiatus for “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” next year.

Thanks, ABC

And speaking of ratings, I’m sure that ABC’s decision to delay all of Tuesday night’s programming seven minutes because of the New Hampshire Primary election coverage did not help the ratings at all – especially for DVR viewers. Most genre shows are watched later, not live, sometimes even binged all at once. I doubt that many Marvel fans also DVRed “What Would You Do?” and therefore missed the end of this week’s “Agent Carter.”

A word to ABC, we live in an age with over a thousand channels. Anyone who wants to keep track of the election results have an option of at least a dozen go-to news networks. If they tuned to ABC between 9 and 10 PM they were looking for an entire episode of “Agent Carter,” not seven minutes of “The Muppets” and a cut off at the end. Bad form, ABC. You could have easily put election updates in the crawl if it was so darned important.

Attractions and Distractions

We open on a terrific scene of Peggy sleeping only to woken by someone calling her name. As she sits up into action, she puts her gun up through Wilkes’ intangible head, great visual. He didn’t mean to startle her but he’s discovered something. He can attract zero matter, and when he absorbs it, just for a moment, Wilkes is solid. He needs more zero matter as it might cure him.

Peggy determines to steal Jane Scott’s body, the frozen one that started all this, but finds Frost there already, feeding off the zero matter herself. That’s when Whitney vocalizes her need for an atomic bomb. Wilkes surmises the bomb is to replicate the conditions that brought the zero matter to our world in the first place.

Agent!

Roxxon is holding the two Isodyne bombs in question, so Peggy goes undercover to get the info she needs from Hugh Jones, played by the devilish Ray Wise. Now we’ve seen and heard Hayley Atwell in a couple different guises and a few different American accents so far in the series but she tries something new this time. It has me wondering if she’ll play an American in “Conviction.”

She plays a wonderfully madcap game of cat and mouse with Wise and a device that shocks the brain into forgetting the last two minutes. Both actors play it fairly straight, and in the end the key is obtained, and the audience is entertained. Props to Atwell and Wise.

Blackwing

To gather men to pull off her atomic bomb heist and experiment, Whitney Frost asks a favor of an old flame, Joseph Manfredi, an obvious Mafia stereotype mob boss with a violent streak, but there’s more to the character than meets the eye at first. He has a long history in the Marvel Comics Universe, where the Mafia is sometimes known as the Maggia.

Joseph Manfredi is the son of Silvio Manfredi, who eventually becomes the super-villain Silvermane, a major thorn in Spider-Man’s side. Joseph later becomes the villain Blackwing, affiliated with Hydra, the Masters of Evil, and the Circus of Crime, and fighting Daredevil on occasion. One should not forget that Whitney Frost’s own comic origins are with the Maggia as well, being the daughter of Count Nefaria.

Pistol Packin’ Mamas

As Peggy assembles a team of misfits to raid Roxxon to the tune of “Pistol Packin’ Mama” by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, it seems that Frost’s team is already on the job. The silly Reservoir Dogs homage is cute and fun however. Sometimes this show gets it right, and sometimes… it’s election night coverage, ya know?

After limited negotiation and combat with Frost, Peggy takes a fall and gets impaled with rebar through her torso. Yeah, it looks as bad as it sounds. With the uranium in tow, Team Carter escapes Roxxon, perhaps with their mission accomplished, but it doesn’t mean they’ve won. It’s a good thing that Sousa’s fiancée is a nurse.

Couples

The problem there is that of course Sousa’s fiancée is also no fool. She knows that he’s in love with Peggy. That’s nothing compared to Chadwick’s own marriage problems. After Whitney threatened him one too many times, he calls an emergency meeting of the Council. Will even they be able to protect him?

Peggy and Wilkes have another untouchable moment before he vanishes again for our cliffhanger this episode. He mentions that the place the zero matter comes from is “dark and painful.” Again, this is a clue that leads more toward Dormammu’s Dark Dimension than the planet Maveth on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” Time will tell.

Next: Dottie vs. Whitney!