We’re in the weeds now, and things are getting WEIRD. But not in a bad way!? I’ve got such a soft spot for Peggy that I’m not sure I could see anything that she’s involved in as bad, but I will say that this season isn’t as compelling as the first season. Is it the shift from New York to Los Angeles? Is it the lack of CMM? Is it a more abstract bad guy, rather than a Soviet threat? Maybe it’s all of the above. But in any case, let’s just dive right in.
Highlights
The episode opens with us believing that Dr. Wilkes died in the zero matter incident at Isodyne, but that Whitney Frost somehow survived by absorbing the zero matter, which resulted in a scar/vein-like purple blob thing on one of her temples. That’s where we’re starting off!
Dr. Wilkes’ house is getting raided by authorities, and “evidence” of him being a Soviet spy is basically in plain sight. Which has Peggy convinced that he’s absolutely not a spy, and that he’s being framed. But others are a bit more skeptical of her interpretation, since it was pretty clear that Peggy and Dr. Wilkes had gotten… close in the short time that she knew him.
Peggy and Sousa return to the SSR office, and who should be sitting at Sousa’s desk but… CMM! He’s back! He rewrote parts of Peggy’s report to indicate that Dr. Wilkes was a Soviet spy, and Peggy refuses to sign it. He then tells her that he’s calling her back to New York, so she takes matters into her own hands.
A pin with an A on it was discovered, and Peggy asks Howard Stark about it. Stark tells her about the Arena Club, and she recalls that it was that particular pin that Dottie was trying to steal from a safe deposit box in New York, too. INTERESTING.
Stark, Jarvis, and Peggy decide to storm the Arena Club, in a way, in order to figure out what’s going on in there. The only problem? Women aren’t allowed, so how can they get Peggy in there. Solution? Stark brings a HOARD of women with them, and Peggy slips away. She somehow finds the library with the secret door and ends up under the giant Council table, where she tries to plant a bug. Oh, and she sees Chadwick’s senatorial rival leaving the room, and then sees the next day’s newspaper on the table, stating that the other guy dropped out of the race! So clearly these people have I N F L U E N C E, and not necessarily the good kind.
CMM told Peggy that she had to be on a flight back to New York, and she decides to miss that flight and stay in Los Angeles a bit longer. Instead, she decides to pay Whitney Frost a visit, where she learns nothing other than that Frost is shady and maybe a bit nervous? In fact, later in the evening, Frost tells Chadwick about Peggy’s visit, and asks him to take care of it. He doesn’t want to, but he reluctantly agrees to dispatch their hitman. Do all rich people in the 40s have hitmen? But Peggy feels like she didn’t get anywhere.
Peggy is frustrated, and is punching a bag by the pool at Stark’s house. Mr. Jarvis asks if she wants to spar, and she tells him no, so he goes to bed. As soon as she’s alone, she’s attacked by Rufus Hunt, who is the rich people hitman. Possibly the Council’s hitman? That part isn’t entirely clear, but in any case, Peggy barely fends him off, with a little help from Mr. Jarvis at the end. She shoots the man in the hand as he’s running away.
At the office, Peggy is extremely frustrated that no one believes her about Dr. Wilkes, and when Sousa follows her back out to her desk, they discover that office supplies and things are floating around her. Peggy and Sousa immediately head back to Stark’s house, where he helps them all figure out why things are floating—Dr. Wilkes has been following Peggy around, except he had been invisible and didn’t have any mass. Stark finds a way to make him visible, and they’re up all night trying to figure out what to do next. Eventually, Stark leaves to hunt down his former mentor from MIT to try to help them get Dr. Wilkes back into his body.
Back with Frost, her director tells her that they’re replacing her on the movie she was working on, even though he had made her all of these promises about having her back and all of that. She gets mad at him and uses the zero matter inside of her to absorb him somehow! Her face when she discovers she has that power is… ominous, to say the least.
And finally, Vernon Masters, whose name I really didn’t want to remember, but he keeps popping up, ugh, meets CMM at… the Arena Club. Masters introduces CMM to Chadwick, and CMM starts to smell something fishy in LA… maybe.
Timeline Progress
It’s still 1947 Los Angeles. No progress here yet.
Connections and Easter Eggs
Nothing new since the last episode, although we get another Stark appearance, which is always fun.
Likes and Dislikes
Likes: Peggy. Sousa. Jarvis. The ridiculous gathering that Stark threw in the Arena Club.
Dislikes: Lord, this list is long this episode. CMM. Masters. Chadwick. Frost. I’m ambivalent about Dr. Wilkes as a whole, but I like the chemistry more between Peggy and Sousa, so I think I’m going to slot the fact that Dr. Wilkes isn’t dead in this category.
Rating
A reminder of the rating scale:
Red = Couldn’t even get through it
Orange = Ugh, no thank you
Yellow = I mean, I’ve seen worse, but there were problems
Green = This was good!
Blue = Oh my gosh, I loved this movie/show!
Purple = This is the unicorn of movies/shows and I will be rewatching it until Disney+ starts asking questions and EVERYONE should be watching it!
Kind of a meh episode. There was storyline progress, which is great, but overall, very meh. I’m going to give this episode a YELLOWISH-GREEN rating. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t my favorite.
Higher, further, faster, baby!