The penultimate episode of the second season of Agent Carter. Let’s see what happened! Part two of this week’s Agent Carter two-parter, “A Little Song and Dance,” started off in a dream of Peggy’s. The dream starts out in black and white. Peggy is talking to her dead brother, Michael. Unexpectedly, this monochromatic blast from the past ramps up pretty quickly into a full-blown song and dance number featuring most of the main characters. The lyrics of the song demand that Peggy end her love triangle and choose between Dr. Wilkes and Chief Sousa. Shortly after these revealing lyrics, though, we see that Peggy and Jarvis are actually tied up in the back of a truck: Agent Carter is understandably upset with Mr. Jarvis who risked all of their lives in a vain attempt at avenging his wife’s injury by trying to kill Whitney Frost in cold blood. We also see Samberley, Sousa, and Thompson get picked up by two of Vernon Masters’s thugs. Thompson pulling a triple-cross is able to convince Masters’s thugs that he’s working with them and demands that the two thugs take Sousa and Samberley hostage.
Agent Carter and Mr. Jarvis escape from the back of the truck by way of a few shoulder slams and Peggy’s “hotwire.” Their civil jabs at one another escalate quickly into a full-fledged pithing contest wherein they both say things they’ll regret, including: “ … how come everyone around you dies?” from Jarvis and “ … you go home to another man’s mansion,” from Peggy. All in all, neither are at their best, but some of it’s forgiven when Jarvis admits that his wife can never have children due to complications from her gunshot wound.
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Meanwhile, in the lead mob car, Whitney Frost and Joseph Manfredi seek to coerce Dr. Wilkes into cooperating by threatening Peggy’s life while Wilkes begs to be left alone, so that he can avoid hurting anyone with his Zero Matter powers. It gets worse for all parties, especially the thug Manfredi murders for allowing Carter and Jarvis to escape, when they find the back of the truck empty. And, before too long the truck has circled back and located the bickering do-gooders.
Peggy plays possum and then beats up the thugs that were sent to recapture her and Jarvis. Any time Agent Carter gets to beat up some thugs I’m happy. Her rejoinder to one thug’s “Oh crap,” though was particularly well executed. Having taken control of the situation, Peggy and Jarvis leave the two thugs with a canteen and Peggy directs them to the nearest beach. That done, they climb in the truck and speed off.
Things aren’t going well for Dr. Wilkes. Restrained in Joseph Manfredi’s waste management facility and literally being poked and prodded by Whitney Frost who wants Dr. Wilkes’s Zero Matter, Jason’s pleas to be taken to an uninhabited area fall on deaf ears as his chest is punctured by a very large syringe.
Back at SSR’s LA branch Thompson convinces Masters to let Samberley and Sousa live, also convincing Masters that the prudent course is to attempt to kill Whitney Frost with the gamma cannon, which the team used to close the Zero Matter rift in the last episode. After a meeting, the team decides that Thompson should meet with Frost in order to buy time while they complete repairs on the gamma cannon, intended to be used on Frost. Thompson’s motives become unclear, though, when he tells Frost of the plan to use the gamma cannon on her—a quadruple-cross?
As the team rolls out with the gamma cannon, Thompson and Masters apparently en route to destroy Whitney Frost, Agent Carter and Chief Sousa are unable to start their car. They appear to have been double-crossed by Vernon Masters. In fact, and as the two soon figure out, they’re being quadruple-crossed by Chief Thompson. It’s quickly decided that Samberley must build a gamma bomb detonator jammer to stop Chief Thompson’s plan to destroy Whitney Frost—and the arguably innocent Dr. Wilkes in the process.
We’re treated to a touching scene between Ana (Lotte Verbeek) and Edwin Jarvis (James D’Arcy) in Ana’s hospital room: she demands that Edwin help Peggy. She also demands to know what Edwin is hiding from her.
Sousa, Samberley, and Carter are experiencing technical difficulties with the jammer when Peggy decides there’s no more time and attempts to save Dr. Wilkes on her own. Peggy’s attempt to save Wilkes doesn’t amount to much: Wilkes locks himself inside the building and demands that Peggy save herself. Meanwhile, Jack Thompson executes his quadruple-cross on Vernon Masters, leaving Masters at Frost’s mercy while also leaving the gamma bomb in the same room as Frost. Thompson’s attempt to detonate the gamma bomb, which he hopes will kill Masters and Frost—a quintuple-cross?—is thwarted by the now functioning detonator jammer that Samberley designed. In a tense moment, Thompson demands that Samberley deactivate the jammer at gunpoint. Samberley does so with little hesitation. But, just before the gamma bomb goes off we see Dr. Wilkes barge in on Frost and Masters. He’s in no talking mood and releases his Zero Matter store all over Frost and Masters. Cliffhanger? Check. I’ll see you next week after the season finale.
My Critique
I thought this was a pretty good season finale cliffhanger. It’s too bad that they had to make this part two of the second two-parter. I think this episode could’ve probably stood on its own pretty well. Although the song and dance number were pretty over the top, I thought it was sensible to have a bit like this be used for a dream sequence that a character from the ’40s is having. Some good bits, some good tension, and a cliffhanger.
