Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3, Episode 21: Absolution & Episode 22: Ascension

It's the big Season 3 finale of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.!

WARNING! EPISODE SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON! PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!

It's also the end of the Hive Ward storyline, which was tied up with a surprisingly satisfying bow. I'll give Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. credit where it's due— the series seems to handle it's season-long arcs much better than other shows do. The Hive Ward plot was fairly well-paced, and there wasn't a lot of padding or filler. Every episode seemed to count, and served to progress the storyline a bit. 

I think the fact that there were several major arcs this year— rescuing Simmons from Maveth, Ward trying to restart HYDRA, S.H.I.E.L.D. forced to work with the ATCU and the whole Hive Ward thing— helped the season from dragging. I wish more shows would adopt multiple arcs like this, instead of trying to drag one storyline out over twenty three episodes (I'm lookin' at you, Season 2 of The Flash!). 

The season finale also featured the highly publicized and hyped death of a major character. A few weeks back I correctly predicted it would be Lincoln. It wasn't hard— who else could it have been? They wouldn't kill off Coulson, as he's the main character and has already died once. There's no way in hell the writers would ever kill off their precious Daisy, since they're still convinced that she's much more interesting than she really is. 

I doubted they'd kill May, as she's too valuable to the team. If they killed off Fitz or Simmons so soon after they finally got together, fans would burn down ABC Headquarters. Mack was safe too, since ABC wouldn't want to deal with the flack killing off the show's only black character would no doubt generate. And Yo-yo hasn't been on the show long enough for her death to be meaningful (sorry, Elana!). That pretty much left Lincoln as the victim.

The season finale's "shocking" death might have been more effective if ABC hadn't trumpeted that it was going to happen every goddamned week for the past six months. What the hell, guys? Foreshadowing's fine, but SCREAMING THAT AN AGENT WILL MAKE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE THAT WILL CHANGE THE TEAM FOREVER isn't.

Very often the people who film the promos are separate from the ones who produce the actual show, so I don't blame the S.H.I.E.L.D. creators for this. But ABC's Marketing Department definitely needs to tone it down a notch or twelve.

I think the writers were trolling the audience this week in regards to the big death. Thanks to Daisy's Vision Of Doom, we've known for some time now that whoever it was that died in outer space would possess a cross necklace. That necklace became part of a morbid game of Hot Potato in this episode, as it was passed from character to character, signalling the death of whoever was holding it when the music stopped.

It ended up being passed from Mack to Fitz to Daisy and then finally Lincoln. It all came very close to being laughable, but I think they reined themselves in just in time. Well done, writers! Way to scare your audience to death.

In potentially ominous news, the day the season finale premiered, ABC announced that next year Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is moving to the 10pm (9 for me) timeslot. Uh-oh. As they like to say in a certain space opera franchise, "I have a bad feeling about this."

ABC says the move is a good thing, as it'll allow the show to become "darker and more violent." Seriously, ABC? How much darker could it get? Especially after that horrifying face-melting scene a couple weeks ago, and this episode in which Mack operates on Yo-yo with a goddamned blowtorch!

It's possible ABC's telling the truth and just shuffling the schedule around, but it feels like the beginning of the end to me. In television, 10pm is traditionally known as the "death slot;" a place networks send shows to die. Add in the fact that this week ABC also cancelled Agent Carter and passed on Marvel's Most Wanted for the second time, and it's starting to feel like the networks trying to phase out the TV division of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I have an uneasy feeling that Season 4 will be the last...

LAST CHANCE TO AVOID SPOILERS!

The Plot(s):
Daisy has a weird dream where she and Coulson are on Maveth, which goes nowhere and has absolutely nothing to do with the episode. She wakes up in her cell at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, where she's under observation after being freed from Hive Ward's brain-altering influence. Simmons questions Daisy about Hive, especially what the word "absolution" means in relation to him. Daisy says she's already told her everything she knows.

At a secret island missile base, Hive Ward supervises as Giyera places the Inhuman virus into the warhead he stole from the government. Hive Ward worries that S.H.I.E.L.D. will try to stop them, but Giyera says there's nothing to worry about, as their radar will spot any approaching aircraft, even if cloaked.

Meanwhile May's piloting the Zephyr One with Mack, Lincoln and Yo-yo on board. I guess they called Yo-yo back in and she changed her mind about working with S.H.I.E.L.D. between episodes, while we weren't looking. Lincoln and Yo-yo are both wearing murder vests, in case Hive Ward tries to take over their minds. Mack asks May how she's doing, and she replies that the ship "wasn't designed for this." Suddenly it rises up out of the ocean and flies low over the trees of Hive Ward's missile island, neatly evading the radar (shades of Star Trek Into Darkness!).

Hive Ward starts the countdown to activate the missile. Coulson, Fitz and General Talbot desperately try to wrestle the missile kill codes from the government. After a complex and convoluted effort, they manage to get the codes just in time and deactivate the missile. Hive Ward hisses "S.H.I.E.L.D.," and orders Dr. Radcliffe to fix the warhead. Radcliffe pulls a McCoy and says, "I'm a doctor, not an engineer," but after a menacing glare from Hive Ward, says he'll see what he can do. May and her team infiltrate Hive Ward's base. Mack and Yo-yo set up a device in a corridor, while May and Lincoln search for the base's crew, who Hive Ward is holding hostage. Hive Ward confronts Lincoln, and offers to possess him as he did Daisy. Lincoln says thanks but no, and takes off running.

Back at S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson tells Daisy her incarceration is temporary, and she shouldn't blame herself for the things she did under Hive's influence. He says Hive's mind control was like a drug, and she's going through withdrawal.

Lincoln runs into Mack and Yo-yo, who aren't finished with their trap. When Lincoln says Hive's right behind him, Yo-yo finishes installing the device at super speed. Hive Ward appears in the corridor, and Lincoln uses his power to charge the trap. It shocks the crap out of Hive, frying his brain and crippling him with pain. Mack, Yo-yo and Lincoln make a hasty retreat.

James and Giyera find the decimated Hive Ward, who's muttering phrases from his past memories. Yo-yo rescues the hostages, while May finds Radcliffe, who's still trying to fix the warhead. He begs her to take him with her. Just then the ceiling opens up, and Giyera mind-lifts the warhead into a stolen Quinjet and flies off with it. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Radcliffe and the hostages all head for Zephyr One. Suddenly Hive Ward appears, blocking their path. Yo-yo zips over to him and activates a device that encases him in an ATCU gel chamber. So why didn't Coulson have her do that weeks ago?

The agents bring the neutralized Hive Ward back to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, as Coulson locks down the base. Talbot congratulates Coulson on a job well done. Coulson says the mission isn't over yet, as the warhead is still out there. FitzSimmons works with Dr. Radcliffe to find a way to turn Hive Ward's Primitives back into humans. Coulson praises Lincoln for his actions at the base, and says he'll make a great agent. Uh-oh! He just painted a big ol' target on Lincoln's back. 

Mack goes to visit Daisy, inadvertently dropping the cross necklace that Yo-yo gave him last week. It's the same necklace Daisy's been seeing in her "Someone's Gonna Die In Space" vision for the past several episodes. Mack tells Daisy that he forgives her for trying to kill him, since she was under Hive's influence. Daisy says it's not safe to have Hive Ward inside the base, even in stasis, and says he should be destroyed.

Fitz catches Simmons booking a romantic vacation for the two of them. Gah! Stop tempting the script writing gods by being happy! Fitz goes to inspect Hive Ward's chamber, sees the cross necklace on the floor, picks it up and puts it in is pocket. Now HE'S got the target on his back!. Fitz checks out Hive Ward's gel chamber and approves it. Just then a shipping container labeled Absolution, Montana (so that's what it meant) explodes, flooding the hangar with Radcliffe's Human-To-Inhuman gas. One of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents is enveloped in the gas and turns into a Primitive. It pulls another agent into the cloud, and he transforms as well. Fitz can't escape the hangar due to the lockdown. Simmons manages to override the computer and open the hangar door, allowing Fitz to escape in the nick of time.

The Primitives then free Hive Ward from the gel chamber. Daisy watches all this unfold on a security monitor. She realizes that Hive Ward just used the old "Supervillain Gets Captured On Purpose" ruse in order to enter the base, get access to Zephyr One and use it to disperse the Inhuman virus across the world. She escapes her cell and confronts Hive. Due to the brain-frying he received earlier, he doesn't remember her. She begs him to repossess her and end her pain. He reaches out, but pulls his hand back as if burned. He says he can't, as Lash made her immune to his influence.

Furious, Daisy blasts Hive Ward with her quake powers as the two engage in an epic battle. Daisy pins Hive against a wall and stabs him multiple times, but he's unaffected. She quakes him hard, breaking his bones, but he simply snaps them back into place! He somehow manages to turn the tide and knock her out. James and Giyera arrive, and Hive carries Daisy into the Zephyr One.

Meanwhile twenty eight S.H.I.E.L.D. agents have been transformed into Primitives, and battle Coulson and the others. A Primitive opens fire on Mack, but Yo-yo uses her superspeed to snatch all the bullets out of the air. Well, all except for one. Somehow she's hit in the side and collapses. Mack lays Yo-yo out on a table, and determines she's losing a lot of blood. He can't get her to the medlab, so he uses a blowtorch to cauterize her wound. Jesus Christ!

Hive Ward uses the memories of Will Daniels (the guy who was marooned on Maveth) and Grant Ward to pilot Zephyr One out of the hangar. He starts heading straight for the upper edge of the atmosphere so he can disperse the Inhuman virus all over the Earth. Unknown to him, May and Fitz have stowed away onboard. They find Daisy, who's regained consciousness. Daisy again says she did terrible things under Hive's control, and deserves to die. May says Andrew, aka Lash, wouldn't have saved her if that were true. Just then Giyera knocks out May from behind. Fitz shoots and kills Giyera with a cloaked gun. They make their way to the Zephyr One's lab. Fitz notices Daisy's shivering, and gives her his coat, complete with cross necklace in the pocket. Now Daisy's "It!"

Coulson and the others retake the base from the Primitives. Coulson uses the communicator in his bionic arm to summon a Quinjet. He intends to dock it with Zephyr One and stop Hive Ward. The Quinjet arrives, it docks with Zephyr One and everyone piles onboard. Inside the plane, Coulson confronts Hive Ward. They banter for a bit, and Hive Ward finally shows his true, Cthulhu-y tentacled form. He attacks Coulson, who turns out to be a hologram.

Lincoln (who was in Coulson's boarding party) is attacked by James. Lincoln zaps him and knocks him out. Unfortunately James used his power to energize Lincoln's vest, which explodes and injures him. As Simmons treats Lincoln, Daisy apologizes to him for everything that's happened. He says he knows she wasn't herself, and forgives her.

Coulson plans to move the warhead to the Quinjet, then fly it into outer space, where it'll explode harmlessly (killing him in the process). Daisy hears this and decides to take Coulson's place and sacrifice herself instead. As she quakes the warhead into the Quinjet, Hive Ward finds her. He says he'll just use Ward's knowledge to override anything she does, ensuring the warhead explodes in the atmosphere.

Lincoln appears and says that's not going to happen, as he zaps Daisy out of the Quinjet and takes off with Hive Ward onboard. He fries the controls so Hive can't override them. Daisy calls Lincoln on the comm, and says she's the one who's supposed to sacrifice herself according to her vision. She reaches into her pocket and realizes the cross necklace is gone. Lincoln admits he stole it from her, thus ensuring her premonition comes true. Daisy pleads with Coulson to bring back the Quinjet, but he says Lincoln made it impossible. The Quinjet exits the atmosphere and enters outer space. Lincoln and Hive Ward sit quietly next to one another, calmly facing their deaths. The cross necklace floats through the cockpit as the Quinjet explodes, just like in Daisy's vision.

Smash cut to six months later, when we see Coulson and Mack staking out a location. Daisy appears on the street below, and talks with a woman and her young daughter. We see they're the family of Charles, the precognitive Inhuman from Spacetime, who triggered Daisy's visions of death in the first place. Apparently Daisy's taken to robbing banks, as she gives a fortune to Charles' family to help them relocate. Daisy gives Charles' daughter the wooden robin he carved for her. Coulson calls in the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to capture Daisy, but she quakes herself onto a nearby rooftop and disappears. Coulson tells Mack to call the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. (!) and report that they failed.

Dr. Radcliffe enters his lab, happy that his hearings are over. He speaks to AIDA, his personal artificial intelligence program, and says it's her birthday. He activates a switch and we get a dim look at AIDA's humanoid body behind a frosted glass.

Thoughts:
• What the heck was up with that beginning dream sequence with Daisy and Coulson stranded on Maveth? I expected it to somehow become relevant later on, but nothing ever came of it and was quickly forgotten about. If there was any significance to Daisy's fragile, post-Hive psyche, it flew over my head.

• It was interesting that Daisy's feelings of pain and self-loathing after being freed from Hive Ward's influence were described as withdrawal symptoms. I wasn't expecting that, and it was a unique spin on a well-worn scifi subject. 

• When the Primitives overrun the base, Coulson and the others are forced to hide from them. Simmons observes a Primitive and determines that they can only see infrared. She then cranks up the heat in the base to 100º, effectively blinding the Primitives to everyone's presence.

It was a pretty good idea on her part, but really, 100º? That's it? The normal human body temperature is 98.6º. So less then two more degrees is apparently all it takes to render humans invisible to Primitives. Now THAT'S a narrow range of vision!

UPDATE! After thinking about this for a couple of days, I realize I was way off base here, and was looking at it from the wrong angle. The Primitives have infrared vision, right? So in a pleasant 72º environment, a person with a body temperature of 98.6º is going to stand out like a torch. But in a 100º environment, a person would be virtually invisible. Simmons simply made the environment the same temperature (give or take) as the human body.

For some reason I was starting with the room being 100º, which is totally wrong. So never mind! The writers were right!

• When one of the Primitives fires at Mack, Yo-yo saves him with her superspeed, grabbing all the bullets before they can hit him. Unfortunately one of the bullets pierces her in the side. Yo-yo, the Inhuman who can move faster than the human eye can see. Gets shot. By a bullet.

This makes twice now in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that someone with superspeed was hit by a bullet. The exact same thing happened to Quicksilver in Avengers: Age Of Ultron. I'm starting to think the Marvel writers don't understand what the term "superspeed" means.

• During his battle with Daisy, Hive Ward does the superhero landing!

• Deadpool would be proud!

• When Hive Ward confronts Coulson on Zephyr One, he finally reveals his true face. His face looked pretty darned cool, especially for a TV series.Unfortunately that darn ol' TV budget popped up yet again, only allowing them to show his true form for one brief scene.

• As soon as Coulson appeared on Zephyr One, I knew he was a hologram, just like former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Felix Blake. Something about the stiff, immovable way he was standing gave it away. 

So I guess the unexpected return of Blake a few weeks ago in Watchdogs was written just to introduce interactive holographic technology to the Marvel Cinematic Universe? That had to be the reason, because Blake's appearance went nowhere and contributed absolutely nothing to the plot.

• As Hive Ward soliloquizes about his Master Plan, James realizes the entire population of the world will be transformed into Primitives. Naturally his only concern is that there'll be no more hot looking women left.

• Math is hard! Coulson's plan involves programming the Quinjet to fly 100,000 feet straight up, where it'll explode and harmlessly disperse the Inhuman virus. Somebody's math is off somewhere here. 100,000 feet is about nineteen miles. Outer space is generally considered to begin around sixty two miles above Earth.

• Daisy plans to sacrifice herself and destroy the warhead. She then uses her quake powers to move it into the Quinjet. Does that seem like a good idea? Bombarding a sensitive warhead with vibrational waves?

• When Lincoln decides to sacrifice himself, he steals the cross necklace from Daisy, so her vision will proceed as planned and prophecy will be fulfilled. So what would have happened if he hadn't stolen it? What if he'd just quietly slipped on board the Quinjet without it? Would that have nullified the prophecy? Would he have lived?

• Someone on the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. writing staff really, really liked the goodbye scene between Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger. Lincoln and Daisy's goodbye, as he flew the doomed Quinjet into outer space, was practically a carbon copy of the movie. Any second I expected Daisy to tell Lincoln he owed her a dance.

• The Quinjet makes it to outer space, and Hive Ward realizes he's been defeated. I was expecting Hive and Lincoln to battle one another to their last breath as the Quinjet broke up around them. Kudos to the writers for going in a completely different direction. The two sit quietly next to one another and express their regrets. Their calm acceptance of their dual fates was very effective, and much more emotionally resonant than a battle would have been.

• I hate to see Ward go, as he's become quite an interesting villain since Season 1. On the other hand, it's always better to "leave 'em wanting more" than to overstay your welcome. Another season of Evil Ward feels like it would be one too many.

• After the six month time jump, Coulson's staking out a park. We see a newspaper clipping in his room that reads "Who is Quake?" That's Daisy's codename in the comics, so it's nice to finally see it used on the show.

• After Lincoln's death, Daisy apparently quit S.H.I.E.L.D. and has become a superpowered Robin Hood, knocking down banks and giving their money to the poor. She's also apparently a big fan of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, as she's "disguised" herself as Lizbeth Salander.

• Dr. Radcliffe returns to his lab, apparently having been cleared of all charges. He activates a program labeled "LMD." As all good Marvel fans know, this means "Life Model Decoy." As the name suggests, they're lifelike robots, undetectable from the real thing, that are used by agents and dignitaries as decoys in dangerous situations.

Tony Stark mentioned them in The Avengers, but I think (and am probably wrong) that this is the first time we've heard of them on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

• There's actually a Holden Radcliffe in the comics. In the Machine Teen comic, which I've never heard of, Radcliffe was a businessman obsessed with creating an army of android super soldiers. One of this employees created a robot named A.D.A.M. that went rogue. Radcliffe was then set on getting "his" stolen technology back.

So it looks like Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has taken the A.D.A.M. robot, flipped its gender, renamed it AIDA, and had Radcliffe invent it.

By the way, I just realized that Radcliffe is played by John Hannah, who was in all three of the Brendan Frasier Mummy movies.

• Best Line Of The Episode (and possibly the whole season):
Holographic Coulson (to Hive Ward): "Plus, I've always wanted to do this. Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."

• See you next season!

Good TV News And Bad TV News

Welp, there was lots of good and bad news in the world of genre TV this week.

The good news is that Supergirl was finally renewed. It was touch and go there for a while, as it looked like the show would be cancelled, but it looks like it's been given a reprieve and will get a second season

In even better news, Supergirl's moving from CBS over to The CW. Some are worried by this turn of events, but I think it's a great idea. The series should never have been on CBS in the first place, and never quite felt at home there. Let's face it, if your show doesn't have a C, an S or an I in its title, then it doesn't belong at CBS.

Supergirl will now be joining Arrow, The Flash and Legends Of Tomorrow on The CW. So far she doesn't exist in the same universe as those shows, but I wouldn't be surprised if that changes soon.

Additionally, the series will be moving its production from LA to Vancouver (where all the Arrowverse shows are filmed) in an effort to slash the budget and save money. I wouldn't be too concerned about that. The Flash and Legends Of Tomorrow all feature top notch, near movie quality effects on their budgets, so I think Supergirl will be just fine.

Plus now that Supergirl's where she belongs, maybe we'll get more crossovers like this!

In more good news, ABC announced they've decided not to go ahead with their planned Marvel's Most Wanted series, cancelling it before it even got started. Note that this is the SECOND time that ABC's said no to the series, as they also passed on it last May. Poor Mockingbird just can't catch a break! Maybe the third time'll be the charm.

Personally I'm glad that they passed on it, because the show sounded dull as hell. Mockingbird and Hunter as ex-spies on the run from various parties, without S.H.I.E.L.D. to back them up? Yawn! I almost fell asleep typing that description.

It sounded a lot like Season 1 of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.— a superhero show without any superheroes in it. Good riddance to it, I say!

The bad news is that Mockingbird and Hunter were written out of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. a few weeks ago so they could star in Most Wanted. This was a terrible, terrible idea, as they were two of the most interesting characters on the show, and so far no one's stepped up to take their place.

Hopefully now that Most Wanted's dead in the water, the two will be returning to S.H.I.E.L.D. They were seemingly written off for good, but if the show can bring Coulson back from the dead, it shouldn't be too awfully hard to reinstate a couple of agents.

Now for the really bad news. ABC also cancelled Agent Carter after two seasons, due to its lackluster ratings. I guess all those people who constantly whine that there are no shows on TV with strong, female leads couldn't be bothered to actually sit down and watch such a series.

The cancellation is especially unfortunate, since Season 2 ended on a cliffhanger. Now we'll never find out who shot Agent Thompson, find out if Peggy and Agent Sousa get together or get to see Peggy actually found S.H.I.E.L.D.

Even worse, now we'll never find out just how Howard Stark transformed from Dominic Cooper into Roger Sterling!

Although I'm sad to see Peggy go, I'm not exactly surprised. I hate to say it, but Season 1 of Agent Carter was... well, kind of dull. The big bad in Season 1 was Doctor Faustus, a lame villain with the even lamer power of hypnosis. 

Season 2 was a big improvement, as it featured more sci-fi and comic book elements such as dark matter and a villainess who could absorb people into her body. I still didn't think it went far enough though.

I wish Agent Carter would have embraced its comic book roots fully, giving us a fully formed pulp word full of 1940s retro technology. You know, Nazis with ray guns and jetpacks. Mad scientists who control armies of giant robots. That sort of thing. I think if they'd gone that route and embraced the craziness of Golden Age comics, the show would have been much more successful. 

Marvel's had great success with its various Netflix shows, such as Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Maybe we'll get a third season of Agent Carter on Netflix?

Agent Carter Season 2, Episode 10: Hollywood Ending

Welp, that was an underwhelming season finale...

So much for Madame Masque, I guess. Ever since the series introduced Whitney Frost, I was hoping we'd get to see her appear as Madame Masque, the disfigured, mask-wearing supervillain who's one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s and Iron Man's most prominent enemies. It certainly looked like that's where they heading when the TV Frost developed a large crack in her face. I was expecting her to finally go full Madame Masque in this final episode, but sadly it wasn't to be.

The series did an excellent job in building up Whitney Frost, from her humble Oklahoma beginnings to her rise as a movie star and a powerful and formidable supervillain. In fact she may be the most layered and complex Marvel villain yet. And then she's defeated in about two seconds with a ray gun. Talk about disappointing!

The season ends on a cliffhanger that may never be resolved. Agent Carter's ratings have been absolutely dismal this season, and the viewership for the finale was even worse. Of course the fact that they aired it on Super Tuesday probably didn't help matters any, as many viewers were probably tuned in to the election results. Brilliant move there, ABC! 

Because of the tanking ratings, the outlook for a third season's not so good. It's no secret though that the network rating system is archaic and antiquated and doesn't take DVR or streaming viewers into account. I wonder how many popular series have been cancelled due to low ratings, when in reality they had many millions more viewers than the ratings indicated?

I'm not sure why the ratings are so low. The show's awesome, but no one seems to be watching. I'm wondering if the fact that it features a female main character is turning off a significant portion of the male demographic, who mistakenly think it's a show for women?

If Marvel was smart, they'd move Agent Carter to Netflix and just stream it. That's worked out pretty well for their Daredevil and Jessica Jones series. I think pulling it from the network and streaming it is the only chance a niche show like this has at survival.

SPOILERS!

The Plot:
Picking up where we left off last week, Peggy, Chief Sousa and Chief Thompson are standing outside Whitney Frost's lab. Thompson threatens to detonate the gamma bomb and destroy Frost. Unfortunately this will also obliterate Dr. Wilkes, who's inside the lab as well. Peggy points her gun at Thompson and threatens to shoot him if he doesn't drop the detonator. Suddenly they're all knocked over by a shockwave. Unknown to them, Dr. Wilkes, who's full to the brim with Zero Matter, has exploded inside Frost's lab.

Peggy, Sousa and Thompson pick themselves up and enter the lab. They find a puzzled but healthy Wilkes, who's now completely free of Zero Matter. They see several puddles of the Matter crawl across the floor towards Frost, who absorbs it. They all dash out of the lab. Frost follows, and just as she's about to absorb them all, she's hit by a car driven by Jarvis and Howard Stark. They all pile in and floor it.

The next day, Sousa and Thompson, who I guess are old pals again now, round up all of Vernon Masters' agents at the SSR and arrest them. Stark examines Wilkes and says he's back to normal. Peggy asks Wilkes what it was like inside the rift, and he says the Zero Matter has devoured everything in its own dimension, and wants to enter our world and do the same here. Gosh, that's not terrifying at all.

Meanwhile, Frost is staying with her new beau, mob boss Jospeph Manfredi. She's holed up in her bedroom, writing mysterious equations on the walls. He tries to get her to eat, but she's too busy concentrating on reopening the Zero Matter rift.

At Stark's mansion (there's a lot of mansions on this show), Howard and Wilkes discuss building a new gamma cannon and a containment unit to study the Zero Matter. Peggy accuses Stark of wanting to turn a profit on the Matter. Suddenly Manfredi burst in, holding Jarvis hostage. Peggy and Wilkes tense up, but then Manfredi reveals he's just kidding, and he and Stark are old friends. Charming.

Manfredi explains he's worried about Frost, as she's trying to open a new rift to obtain more Zero Matter. Peggy suggests opening a rift of their own to suck the Matter from Frost and send it back where it came from. Stark says they need to steal Frost's research to beat her to it. Manfredi goes back to his home and distracts Frost by convincing her to help him interrogate one of his goons. While she's out of her room, Peggy and Sousa rush in a photograph the equations on the walls. They barely make it out of the room before Frost returns.

Stark, Wilkes and Dr. Samberly then use Frost's research to create a Rift Generator. At the SSR, Thompson goes through Vernon Masters' old office. He finds the redacted file on Peggy, along with a Council Of Nine lapel pin. He fiddles with it and discovers it's really a key. But to what?

Stark sets up the Rift Generator on his movie back lot. Wilkes says when the rift opens, everyone needs to stay at least twenty feet away from it, or they'll be sucked into it. That definitely sounds like a plot point that'll become important later! Stark asks how they're going to lure Frost to the rift. Peggy says she'll sense it when it opens. Stark throws the switch, and the Generator er, generates a rift. Back at Manfredi's mansion, Frost suddenly looks up, sensing more of that sweet, sweet Zero Matter.

As they wait for Frost to show up, Thompson asks Peggy if she's going to turn him in for collaborating with Masters. She says no, because she knows that deep down he's a good man. He gives her the pin and shows her the key function.

Suddenly Frost appears. At long last, the epic, action-packed battle we've been waiting for all season erupts! Well, not really. Stark aims the gamma cannon at her and the Zero Matter erupts from her body and is sucked into the rift, courtesy of some 1990s-era CGI. And that's it! That's all there is to the confrontation. This powerful, dangerous and unpredictable supervillain is defeated in literally a couple of seconds, in the most anticlimactic way possible. Frost, whose face is now crack-free, is taken into custody. And that's it for Madame Masque!

Stark then tries to close the rift, but because there's still fifteen minutes left in the episode, he can't get the switch to work. The only way to shut it down is by turning a crank (?) on the Generator, but that means whoever does so will be sucked into the rift. Peggy, Stark and Thompson all volunteer to sacrifice themselves, but while they're arguing, Sousa ties a rope to a lamppost and limps over to the Generator. He partially closes it, but his lifeline comes loose, and everyone grabs it to prevent him from being sucked in.

Jarvis then arrives in Stark's hovercar, and says they can put the gamma cannon inside, fly it into the rift and detonate it to close it up. They do just that and the rift closes for good. Sousa's saved!

The next day Wilkes tells Peggy that Stark hired him as a scientist at his new lab in Malibu to work on his Peruvian project (whatever that is). He and Peggy decide not to pursue their relationship (probably because of that whole "Wilkes held a gun to Peggy's head thing a few episodes back). Jarvis brings Ana home, and she and Peggy hug. Jarvis looks disappointed when Peggy tells him she's going back to New York. Ana asks Peggy to let Jarvis drive her to the airport, or she'll never hear the end of it.

Jarvis takes Peggy to the SSR. He tries to convince her to stay in LA, but she says her life is in New York. He says he can think of at least one reason why she should stay. Inside the SSR, Peggy says goodbye to Sousa. They bicker a bit over nothing, and she finally leans in and kisses him.

Meanwhile, Whitney Frost looks at her now crack-less face in a mirror, lamenting that everything she worked for is gone. Her husband Calvin Chadwick (who she absorbed a while back) inexplicably appears, telling her that everything will be OK. We then see that Frost is actually in a mental hospital, and Chadwick's all in her head. Even though her face is now whole, she apparently keeps slashing it open to recreate the Zero Matter crack. Manfredit visits her, but the guard tells him he can't bring flowers into her cell because she'll just use them to try and cut her face.

In the final scene, Thompson's in his hotel room packing, preparing to return to New York. There's a knock at the door, and when he answers it he's shot in the chest. The unknown assailant then retrieves Peggy's file from Thompson and leaves.

Thoughts:
• As Peggy and the rest flee Frost's lab, they find their car missing, apparently taken by Samberly. Peggy says, "Where the hell is Samberly?" Sousa replies, "That's the $64 dollar question!"

I know that's an old catch phrase, and I know there used to be a game show in the 1950s called The $64,000 Question. But I wasn't sure exactly when it began, and if it existed in 1947. Turns out the answer is yes. Well, sort of.

It started out as a radio show in 1940 called Take It Or Leave It, in which contestants answered questions for an escalating amount of prize money. The hardest question would net the largest cash prize—  a whopping $64 bucks (!). In 1950 the radio series was renamed The $64 Question.

The show ran on radio from 1940 until 1952. It then moved to TV in 1955 and became The $64,000 Question. So it did exist in 1947, and Sousa would have been familiar with it.

• I liked that Howard Stark is less worried that Jarvis ran over a human being, and more worried about the fact that it was a two time Oscar nominee.

• Stark mentions property he owns in Malibu. Might that be the land on which his son Tony will build his high-tech mansion someday?

• Once again, the characters all seem very forgiving of Manfredi. He's a known mob boss, and a few episodes ago he kidnapped Peggy and Jarvis. He and/or his men tried to kill them on multiple occasions as well. 

In this episode he seemingly threatens Jarvis at gunpoint, and then reveals he and Howard Stark are old buddies, and then suddenly all is forgiven. Everyone takes him into the fold he tells them he's worried about his girlfriend Whitney Frost, and then everyone risks their lives to help him save her. It's like Peggy and everyone forgot all that silly kidnapping and attempted murder business.

I don't know about anyone else, but if someone tried to kill me, I wouldn't invite them over for breakfast a few days later.

• In order to get Frost out of her room, Manfredi says he needs her help interrogating one of his goons. He then pretends to accuse the goon of working for a rival mob. When Frost threatens to use her power on him, the goon spills his guts and reveals he's secretly working with the FBI. A stunned Manfredi says, "Ah, I wish ya hadn't told me that. Now I gotta kill ya!"

Shockingly, Manfredi's comment is played for yuks. I wonder... did he really end up killing the guy?

• Stark, Wilkes and Samberly are all supposedly certified geniuses, yet they stand around wringing their hands, at a loss as to how to close the rift. For some reason it takes a butler to figure out how to permanently close it.

• I'm too lazy to look it up, but I'm assuming Stark's hovercar that we see in this episode is the same one featured in Captain America: The First Avenger.

• So what's the deal with Stark's project in Peru? He very pointedly mentioned both the project and the country in both the episodes in which he appeared. All these little throwaway lines usually have some sort of significance, but I can't think of any connection between Peru and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I guess sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

• Man, the Peggy/Wilkes relationship ended with a whimper, didn't it? The two characters seemed genuinely attracted to one another at the beginning of the series, but here it's like the writers can't get rid of Wilkes fast enough. I'm honestly surprised that a giant novelty cane didn't appear, snag him around the neck and drag him offscreen. 

• In the mental hospital, Whitney Frost's late husband Calvin Chadwick appears in her mind and comforts her. It seemed odd that she'd fantasize about him, as she didn't seem all that interested in him when he was alive.

Odd that Frost fantasizes about her husband Calvin Chadwick. She didn't seem all that attrcted to him when he was alive.

• This has nothing to do with the episode, but actor Enver Gjokaj, who plays Chief Sousa, actually had a bit part as a cop in The Avengers. Given the timeline, maybe the cop is Sousa's grandson?

By the way, his name is pronounced "En-vere Joke-eye."


• So who shot Thompson and stole the file on Peggy? Given the series' poor ratings, we may never find out. We only saw the assailant from the waist down, and it was obviously a man. I wonder if it was Vernon Masters? We never actually saw his body after Wilkes exploded. The first rule of comic book shows is "If you don't see a body, they're not dead."

Some fans have suggested it might have been Peggy's late brother Michael, who may not be as dead as we were lead to believe...

Agent Carter Season Two, Episodes 8 & 9: The Edge Of Mystery And A Little Song And Dance

Once again, this week we get back to back episodes of Agent Carter, as ABC seemingly tries to burn off the series as quickly as possible.

We're in the home stretch now, as the show's setting up all the various pieces for next week's big season (or will it be series?) finale.

But just because there was a story to get through, that doesn't mean the characters were too busy to take time out for a rousing Hollywood musical number! Yep, you read right, the entire cast of Agent Carter (well, maybe not Kurtwood Smith) sang and danced their hearts out in a dream sequence in Peggy's head. 

It was a bold move to say the least, especially for a comic book spy show. I can only imagine what viewers who tuned in late must have thought when they saw the cast kicking up their heels in a chorus line. I can just imagine them saying, "What the hell is this?" just before they changed the channel!

The dream sequence also provided an excuse for the return of Angie Martinelli, Peggy's gal pal who first appeared last season. A lot of fans were disappointed that Angie wasn't a regular this year. Eh, it didn't bother me. Angie's a waitress in New York, so it would have been quite a stretch if they'd have had her follow Peggy out to sunny L.A. Much like Lenny and Squiggy just happening to follow Laverne when she moved from Milwaukee to California on Laverne & Shirley.

Believe it or not, there's a large number of fans out there who would love to see Peggy dump Chief Sousa and hook up with Angie. Hear that noise? It's the sound of thousands of fans pounding out tons of Peggy/Angie slash fiction. The world of fandom can be scary sometimes...

Ever since Whitney Frost was introduced at the beginning of the season, I hoped we'd eventually get to see her as Madame Masque from the comics (especially after she developed that big ol' crack in the side of her face). At this point it looks like that's probably not going to happen. Or if it does, it'll happen in the final seconds of the season finale. Pity.

SPOILERS!

The Plot:

Once again this "two hour event" is just two episodes aired one after the other.

The Edge Of Mystery

Picking up where we left off last week, Mrs. Jarvis is still in a coma after being shot by Whitney Frost. Jarvis sits by her bedside, promising anything if she'll come back to him. 

Meanwhile Peggy meets with Sousa, who tells her Whitney Frost is holding Dr. Wilkes hostage in exchange for the uranium rods they stole from Roxxon a few episodes back. Peggy says they'll give Frost the rods and anything else she wants to get Wilkes back. In order to find Frost, they visit her new beau, mob boss Joseph Manfredi. Peggy beats up his goons, and for some unfathomable reason he then sits down to a nice Italian dinner with her to discuss Frost and her plans. Peggy gives him a message to pass on to Frost.

Frost is examining Wilkes, asking him if he hears "it." Apparently she hears some sort of mysterious Zero Matter voice in her head, calling to her. Wilkes says he hears it too, but wants nothing to do with it. Frost wants to embrace the voice, thinking it'll increase her power. Manfredi enters and says Peggy wants to exchange the rods for Wilkes.

At the hospital, Ana finally wakes up, but the news isn't all good. The doctor tells Jarvis that due to her injuries, Mrs. Jarvis will never be able to have children. You can practically hear the sad violins. He returns to Stark Mansion, where Peggy and Sousa watch Samberly create fake uranium rods to fool Frost. Jarvis insists on coming with them, to get revenge on Frost for shooting his wife. Howard Stark sends Samberly plans for a gamma cannon that can eliminate Zero Matter. Peggy orders Samberly to build the machine. Chief Thompson arrives and tells Peggy he's uncovered dirt on her, and tries to blackmail her into returning to New York with her. Peggy simply ignores him. If only things like that were as easy in real life.

Peggy and crew arrive at Frost's place and they exchange Wilkes for the uranium. Unfortunately the case breaks open (D'oh) and since no one blows up, Frost realizes she's been duped. Peggy and her crew hop in their van and drive off. Wilkes then grabs Sousa's gun, which surprises everyone, considering he's supposed to be intangible. He holds Peggy at gunpoint, demanding to know where the real rods are hidden. Sousa tells him they're at the SSR, and Wilkes, who can apparently now control his density, leaps through the side of the van, which is actually pretty cool. He's then picked up by Frost's men.

Frost tells Vernon Masters that the rods are hidden in a wall safe at the SSR. As he opens the safe, he's confronted by Thompson. When Peggy and Sousa arrive at the SSR, they find a disoriented Thompson, who's been zapped by the mind control gizmo Samberly invented a few episodes back in The Atomic Job. Luckily he wrote down a series of coordinates before he was zapped, which makes this entire scene a moot time-killer. Peggy realizes the coordinates are where Frost will try to reopen the Zero Matter rift.

Jarvis visits Rose and asks her to look after Ana, giving her a box full of her favorite items (which also includes his will). Uh-oh.

Frost, Wilkes and Manfredi's goons drive to the coordinates, which are in the middle of the desert. She uses the uranium rods to recreate the atomic blast that opened the Zero Matter rift. Amazingly it works, and an ominous black crack opens in the sky above the desert. Suddenly Wilkes is lifted up into the sky, while Frost remains behind, shrieking that life's not fair. Wilkes is sucked into the rift.

Meanwhile Peggy and her team arrive on a nearby ridge and witness what's happening. Dr. Samberly sets up the hastily constructed gamma cannon, which he apparently built in about ten minutes. Jarvis sees Frost and jumps in the car, eager for revenge. Peggy jumps in after him as he speeds off. He drives down to the bomb site, and before Peggy can stop him, Jarvis guns down Frost in cold blood!. Day-um, Jarvis, you cold! Peggy orders Samberly to fire the cannon, which closes the rift. Jason falls out of it, which is a first, as the Zero Matter's never returned anyone before. As he lands on the desert floor, his skin crawls alarmingly for a few seconds. Frost's Zero Matter powers heal her gunshot wounds, and she captures Peggy and Jarvis.

A Little Song And Dance

While Peggy's out cold, she dreams she's in a 1940s Hollywood musical number, which, though it was fun, serves no narrative purpose whatsoever and fans are either going to love it or loathe it.

Peggy wakes up and sees she's in the back of a van with Jarvis. She tells him it's all his fault that they're in a pickle, because he doesn't treat these "adventures" seriously enough. She frees them with some SSR tech, and they start trudging through the desert.

Meanwhile Sousa, Thompson and Samberly are standing in the desert, wondering what to do next. An SSR car approaches, and Sousa recognizes the men inside as the ones Vernon used to beat him up a few episodes back. Thompson says they're coming to kill Sousa and Samberly, and pretends to capture them in order to save their lives and get everyone back to the SSR.

Wilkes, who was unconscious when ejected from the rift, wakes up in the back of Frost's car. She wants to know what he saw inside the rift and why he came back. He says all he saw was darkness, and it's not safe to be around him. Frost discovers Peggy and Jarvis have escaped. Manfredi takes Frost to her new lab, aka his waste management facility. She begins experimenting on Wilkes, trying to extract the Zero Matter from him. Boy, this sure would be a good time for him to willingly become intangible again, wouldn't it? Apparently he's lost that ability?

Back at the SSR, there's all sorts of confusing double crosses. Thompson tells Masters that the gamma cannon can destroy Frost, so he agrees to help them, since he wants her dead. Peggy and Jarvis return to the SSR, and she when she sees Masters she punches him. She doesn't believe he's really working with them, but he tells that all of them—Masters, Thompson and Peggy— have dirt on one another, so no one will think of betraying the others.

Thompson then visits Frost and tells her the SSR plans to use the cannon on her. He says he'll personally deliver both Masters and the cannon to her, in exchange for a seat on the Council Of Nine. Is Thompson serious, or is this all part of some scheme?

Masters and Thompson leave with the cannon, and as Peggy and Sousa try to follow, they find their car's been sabotaged. Samberly says it's part of Thompson's plan, as he's going to turn the gamma cannon into a bomb and kill Frost, Wilkes and Masters all in one go. Fortunately the bomb has a remote trigger, so Samberly builds a jammer to stop it from being used. They take another car and follow Masters.

Peggy sees Masters take the gamma cannon into Frost's lair. At the last second she decides to go in and save Wilkes. She finds him, but he doesn't want to be saved, since he tried to kill her. Masters points the cannon at Frost, "to show her how it works." Thompson points a gun at Masters, and he realizes he's been double crossed. Peggy convinces Wilkes to come with her, but as she leaves the room he locks himself inside, as the Zero Matter begins engulfing his body. Samberly manages to jam the cannon's signal just as Thompson was about to set it off. Frost is furious with Masters, and fills him with Zero Matter. Just then, Wilkes stumbles into the room and explodes.

Thoughts:

• Joseph Manfredi seems awfully friendly and accommodating to Peggy & Jarvis this week. Peggy enters his restaurant, beats up all his goons, and then saunters into his kitchen. Apparently he's so impressed by this that he invites her and Sousa to sit down to dinner with him in the kitchen of his restaurant! 

This is especially puzzling, considering last week in Monsters he tried to kill her! I honestly didn't understand anything about this scene.

• Dr. Samberly, the designated comedy relief, spends most of both episodes whining about how his genius is unappreciated by the SSR brass. He's particularly miffed that Chief Sousa doesn't know his middle name (!). Who would? Well, Peggy would, of course. She knows his full name is Aloysius Herbert Samberly.

Toward the end of the second episode Sousa gets so fed up with Samberly's constant whinging that he threatens to either fire him or kill him. I can sympathize with Sousa here. Samberly's complaining has gone from humorous to downright annoying.

• Howard Stark sends Samberly plans for a gamma cannon. That can't be good, as we all know what gamma rays do in the Marvel Universe.

• At the hospital, a doctor tells Jarvis that due to her injuries, Ana will never be able to have kids. Oh no! What a tragedy, considering how the Jarvises were constantly going on about having kids some day. Wait, that's not right. They've never, ever mentioned it, not even once.

Yawn. Obviously this is supposed to be a huge blow that tugs at our heartstrings, but it left me rolling my eyes. Of course it is a tragedy for some, and I don't mean to make light of it. But in popular fiction it's one of the biggest cliches there is. Hollywood believes the worst thing that can possibly happen to a woman is to become barren, because of course having a child is the only way a woman can be fulfilled, right? That's why they exist!

Given some of the other insights we've seen during the season, I thought the Agent Carter writers were better than this, but apparently not.

• At the SSR, Vernon Masters opens a wall safe hidden behind a poster of the periodic table. The second I saw this table, I knew it was going to spell trouble for the show. By my count this table contains 118 elements. Yep, I knew it! That's not right!

118 is the number of elements we have now. There were way fewer known elements in 1947. Scientists have discovered twenty one more elements since 1950, so the SSR's table is woefully anachronistic!

• Jarvis asks Rose to watch over Ana while he's away and gives her his will while he's at it. A close up of the will shows it's dated July 9, 1947. It's never actually stated, but it's implied that he made out the will after Ana was shot, when he decided to kill Whitney Frost.

Hmm. A few weeks ago in Better Angels, Peggy reads a current newspaper dated July 19, 1947. So that means Jarvis made out his will ten days before Ana was shot, and not after. July 9 was likely before all the events of this season even started, so why would he make out his will before he went on any "adventures?" Methinks the prop man goofed up here.

• Thompson somehow flies over to England in what appears to be the space of an hour (in 1947 yet). While there he he contacts an old war chum to dig up any dirt he can find on Peggy.

His pal finds him a redacted file that's mostly blacked out. Thompson uses a cool piece of SSR tech (invented by Howard Stark?) that sees through the black-out bits, and reads it.

Thompson reads two lines stating, "No civilians were spared from the massacre," and "Agent M. Carter, S.O.E."

"M. Carter" is obviously Peggy's brother Michael, who we met in Smoke And Mirrors. 

So why would a scandal involving Michael affect Peggy? Because they're related? Because he recommended her for the S.O.E. (the precursor of the SSR)? I don't get it.

WHOOPS! I just remembered, for some insane reason, "Peggy" is a nickname for "Margaret." So this is probably Peggy's file after all!

• So... a musical number, eh? That was certainly an interesting choice for a show like this. I'm not sure it was an appropriate one though. Yeah, it was kind of fun to see the cast displaying their other talents, but it just felt... off and very out of place to me. 

Take Sousa, for instance. Supposedly he lost a leg in the war. Seeing him twirling around and dancing without his trademark crutch only underscored the fact that he's an actor playing a part, and pretty much destroyed any reality the show may have had. For me, at least.

On the other hand, who knew Enver Gjokaj, aka Sousa, could sing and dance? Jarvis even got in on the action too, but he must have two left feet, because his big number consisted of him swaying back and forth slightly, and not much else.

• Frost detonates an atomic bomb in the desert to open another Zero Matter rift. Seconds after the detonation, most of the cast wanders to within ten or twenty feet of the rift and stares up at it. 

Um... did the rift absorb all the radiation from the atom bomb? I sure hope so, or else Peggy and the rest of the cast are gonna be dead in a month.

• After Wilkes returns from the Zero Matter rift, his skin seems to crawl for a few seconds, as if there's something moving underneath. The effect looked A LOT like the one we saw when Ward was taken over by the alien entity on Maveth over on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. a few months back. Coincidence? Probably not, since this is the Marvel Cinematic Universe and everything's connected.