Thompson gets played

Marvel’s Agent Carter: Better Angels Recap and Review

Marvel and ABC are doing an excellent job of giving Agent Carter that classic feel. The sets, houses and cars all scream 1940’s and it makes it easy to fall right into the show. We get a nice view of Los Angeles in this week’s episode right off the bat and pick up where last week left off. The SSR continue searching for answers after the apparent death of Dr. Wilkes in due to the zero matter accident. A suspicious amount of easily found evidence at Wilkes house makes it appear that he is a Communist spy, but Agent Carter isn’t quick to buy it thinking of how easily everything is found and having a high opinion of Wilkes himself.

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Looking for Clues

The hard to answer questions lead them to Howard Stark and a hope that his brilliance will help them out. Along with the brilliance comes the normal Stark craziness. Stark knows that zero matter isn’t of this world but not much else, however he recognizes the pin that is the symbol of an elite men’s club called the Arena Club and Peggy has her first substantial clue to figuring this mystery out.

Chief Thompson makes a visit to California and it isn’t a happy visit for Sousa or Peggy. After trying to order Peggy to sign a fake report where it states Wilkes is a communist she refuses before he signs it for her. He completely ignores her reports and it seems like he is trying to avoid to step on someone’s toes. FBI big wig Vernon Masters pays another visit to Chief Thompson and tries to use their relationship to get Jack to hand over whatever information they have on Wilkes. Thompson seems a bit suspicious but nothing is done for the moment.

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Peggy, Jarvis and Howard plan or rather Peggy and Jarvis work on how to get bugs inside the arena club so they can find incriminating information that will prove Wilkes isn’t a communist spy. Stark and Jarvis arrive at the club acting like only a Stark can. Being himself he causes a bit of chaos and though no women are allowed he invites a whole flock of them in allowing Peggy to sneak into the club to plant her bugs and do some snooping. Her timing couldn’t be better as Chadwick and some other men leave a secret room that allows her to sneak inside unseen. Planting a bug in that room doesn’t work though and it almost gives her away. A little trickery lets her out of the room and the timely arrival of Jarvis help her safely escape.

Experiments

Carter and Sousa butt heads with Thompson again despite everything she saw including a newspaper that alludes to the arena club rigging the election allowing Chadwick to win the election. Unfortunately the club had some type of security that prevented the bugs from working and with no physical proof Chief Thompson tries to get Peggy to drop it until she calls him a coward and he sends her packing.

Sousa tries to talk her down when they realize she has things floating around her. They head to Stark for answers where he declares she isn’t contaminated by the zero matter but Gravity is somehow being affected around her. This leads to Stark doing what Stark’s do best and soon he has a working experiment that proves successful when Wilkes somehow appears. Dr Wilkes, thanks to the zero matter is outside the visual spectrum but Stark’s formula allows him to be seen and heard but unable to interact physically. Wilkes reveals what happened that night and that Whitney Frost was there before he disappears again.

Carter goes to pay Whitney Frost a visit and questions her about the incident at Isodyne. Frost tries to play dumb and denies being there at Isodyne that night. A stare down ensues and Peggy alludes she knows more than Frost is revealing and it is clear that Frost knows that she knows but nothing comes of it as her director calls her to the set.

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Back at the SSR Chief Thompson is handing all the information that repeated to Isodyne and zero matter over to FBI big wig Vernon Masters. It’s clear that Thompson just wants to do what is right and help his country and Masters ends up telling him that well no one may remember this day that he himself will remember what Thompson did.

The Frost Truth

Chadwick and Frost have a conversation where Frost tries to convince him to have Peggy killed. Frost uses her acting skills to manipulate Chadwick into going with her plan of having her killed. We quickly cut to Peggy who is taking out her frustrations of the day out on a punching bag when the assassin attacks just after Jarvis turned in for the night. A tumble in the pool leaves her with some breathing room and the return of Jarvis allow them to chase of the assassin.

It’s clear where Tony Stark gets his manic work efforts from as Howard Stark hasn’t slept since we last saw him. Peggy and Wilkes have a chat where Peggy still feels guilty and blames herself for what happened at Isodyne. Wilkes tries to convince Peggy that he needs to leave because of the danger they are in but Peggy gets him to change his mind.

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Back at the SSR Sousa’s digging revealed that Whitney Frost is just a stage name and that she really is the brains behind Isodyne. Chief Thompson is introduced to Chadwick by his FBI friend where the lights slowly start to go on in his mind. Whitney Frost and her director have a moment that quickly turns bad for as her zero matter powers activate leaving the viewers wondering what is to come?

Better Angels isn’t the most exciting of episodes but does help set up the rest of the season and the reason for the formation of S.H.I.E.L.D. We are still learning the big players for the season not really knowing where Masters and the FBI stand along with the secret men’s club. Frost is going to have a big role to play and it will be interesting to see if Stark’s brilliance and Carter’s tenacity will be able to handle her before things turn very bad for our small group of good guys.