Agent Carter

Series Rewatch: Agent Carter – The Atomic Job: Ocean’s Five

Written by Christopher Markus, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby
Directed by Craig Zisk

This episode shows more of what the black matter is capable of and the path to evil that Whitney Frost is headed down. Where before, other than the death of Jane Scott, it’s been pretty much a case of messing with something she has no idea is as dangerous as it is and seems to be unable to control. However, in this episode, things shift to show that Whitney has many more nefarious plans.

In the lab, Jason Wilkes (Reggie Austin) wakes Peggy (Hayley Atwell) up to see something. He’s been trying to work with the tissue sample of Jane Scott’s body that Daniel Sousa (Enver Gjokaj) got for them and it seems to be responding to him. The black matter in the tissue sample seems to be attracted to him, and it goes through the glass container to be absorbed into him and makes him “tangible” again for a short time. Peggy and Jarvis (James D’Arcy) set out to steal the body from where Jason says it is located. While they are in the process, Whitney Frost (Wynn Everett) and Calvin Chadwick (Currie Graham) show up. Whitney extracts all of the zero matter from Jane’s body into her own.

When Peggy and Jarvis return to the lab, Jason figures that she is trying to recreate everything that happened in the test that created the zero matter in the first place. Whitney needs an atomic bomb for that test. Roxxon Corporation is the one place that has the same models used in the test in storage at one of their facilities.

Peggy steals a key from Hugh Jones (Ray Wise), and she, Chief Sousa, and Jarvis enlist the help of Rose (Lesley Boone) and Dr. Samberly (Matt Braunger), who works for the SSR, to break into the facility. Calvin and Whitney are there as well. To give Jarvis enough time to secure the uranium, Peggy confronts Whitney with disastrous results.

Meanwhile, Daniel Sousa is trying to romance Violet (Sarah Bolger) with a special dinner when she comes home from work and proposes to her. Peggy tells him she is happy for him when he announces his engagement at the SSR. When Peggy is hurt, Violet steps up and treats her with Daniel and Jarvis’ help. Violet asks Daniel if he’s in love with Peggy.

There’s a lot of character development here. As I said in the beginning, events that take place here signify that Whitney is not just a victim of the black matter, but is now embracing it and using it for her own purposes. I thought, initially, that the Jane Scott murder had more to do with Calvin than her, but it’s clear now that she will do whatever it takes to be the last one standing.

Even with Peggy in the picture, Daniel Sousa proposes to Violet. I have a theory that Violet is one of the Russian girls as I’m sure at least one like Dottie will turn up this season. Daniel has deep feelings for her that seem to have been returned, whereas Peggy was always keeping him at arm’s length. Although her coming to California might have had something to do with him, and machinations by other people to spur their “romance” along, both have acted respectably. Violet seems to have picked up on the fact that there’s more than friendship between the two this week, but to her credit, it does not affect how she treats Peggy.

The Atomic Job made good use of the ensemble cast. Everyone seemed to have something to do. There was action in the episode as well as good character development. It’s nice to see a background character like Rose get more to do. There’s also a lot of humor in the episode, making it very entertaining to watch. This is a solid continuation of a fun series.


Previous episode of the series (link): Agent Carter: Smoke & Mirrors

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