In the seventh episode of Marvel’s Agent Carter, we see Leviathan closing in on a detained Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), who is trapped in the interrogation room of her own secret office. Carter tries to explain her way out of her fellow agent’s suspicions about her working with supposed ‘traitor’ Howard Stark, but her coworkers have a hard time trusting her last week’s escape and subsequent melee.
In case you forgot, she made mincemeat out of her fellow agents before being drugged by her nemesis Dottie (Bridget Regan).
In this penultimate episode, a lot is being revealed before wrapping up Season 1 next week.
Peggy reveals to Agents Sousa, Dooley and Thompson that she has in fact been working for Stark, and conducting her own private investigation outside of her duties at the S.S.R. (read: S.H.I.E.L.D. before it was S.H.I.E.L.D.) proper. She was easily able to conduct her investigation and spent most of the time hiding in plain sight as a double agent. Peggy stands her ground and reminds them of the years she has spent taking the lunch order and being treated as a secretary and remaining mostly invisible to the department, using that to her advantage.
In the phone operator bank that serves as cover for the secret organization, a concerned Jarvis (James D’Arcy) arrives to turn in fake confession from the stealthy Howard Stark. Jarvis hopes to buy some precious hours before the boys at the office figure out the document itself was forged. In a bold effort to keep Carter out of the frying pan, Jarvis and Peggy end up locked in an interrogation room.
The pair are then chained to a table by Chief Dooley (Shea Whigham), under the influence of Russian Dr. Ivchenko, who has been hanging around the office ensuring that things are in place for Leviathans arrival.
Meanwhile, the Russian doctor (and apparent hypnotist) and Dottie (our Proto-Black Widow) are secretly communicating via Morse code through the window, plotting to take out Agent Carter, and possibly the rest of the office, per orders of Leviathan.
Peggy sees, recognizes and then translates the end of a Morse code message saying to prepare to evacuate…never a good sign for a spy! Carter is then challenged to convince everyone trust her in order to get everyone out of harm’s way by the time Leviathan strikes.
For leverage, she concedes the sacred secret of a Stark invention, previously stolen from the lab, containing the last known remaining Super Soldier Serum blood of Steve Rogers (Captain America). This works to gain some valuable trust with her fellow agents but this may be too late.
Her interviewers take this motion into consideration and send a team across the street to find out who is on the other side of the Morse messages, and by this time, Dr. Ivchenko’s cover is blown.
The team that went after Dottie was off course laid out by the highly trained Russian fighting machine and makes her escape.
Chief Dooley, under the heavy influence of Ivchenko’s manipulative spell (and hynpno-wedding ring gimmick), helps the doctor to find the mysterious Stark invention that he had been looking for. Dooley is then coerced into to locking himself into an unfinished Stark experimental heat vest (looking very Jack Kirby!), which is rigged to blow.
Once Dooley is snapped out of his spell, he realizes that he must make the ultimate sacrifice and sacrifices himself for the greater good, taking a cue from Captain America: The First Avenger, running headlong into the plate glass windows and out into the street away from the Phone Company building.
The baddies Dottie and Doc make a getaway but not before Dottie stops at the local picture show. Dottie leaves a baby carriage with a glorious bundle of joy, swaddled in a pink blanket while she heads to the lobby for some Black Jack gum.
Almost going ‘Full Joker’, the bundle of joy is actually a deadly rage-inducing gas, causing everyone to go insane on each other before the newsreels even finish. Nice Inglourious Basterds touch, by the way Dottie, locking the door with a crowbar so no one can escape!
