Hidden things took center stage in Agent Carter 2×03, titled “Better Angels.”
In Agent Carter 2×03, Peggy does something quite unusual: She is almost, slightly, on the verge of acting passively.
Of course, “passive” for Peggy is a busy day for most people — and make no mistake, Peggy certainly gets things done in “Better Angels.” But her guilt over the loss of Jason Wilkes seeds into both her activity and her inertia — and both are exacerbated when Peggy discovers that the Chadwicks have framed the scientist as a Communist.
With every sense of justice offended, Peggy throws herself into the investigation against Isodyne. Influenced though she might be by her personal feelings, Peggy’s theories about Calvin Chadwick and Whitney Frost are perfectly accurate. The big picture, such a mystery just last week, is becoming increasingly clear to Agent Carter. What she overlooks, in her grief and concern, are the details — the little clues and secrets that warn of danger. For example, a crack of Zero Matter on a woman’s porcelain face, or the fact that small objects have suddenly begun to float around you.
Lo and behold, both of these things provide a revelation to deeper truths. Jason Wilkes, as it turns out, is not dead; he’s just completely invisible and non-tactile. Peggy hits Steve-worthy levels of relief when Wilkes is revealed, and expresses the utmost faith and admiration for the scientist. She even insists he that he call her “Peggy.”
It’s not difficult to draw out the metaphor of Wilkes’ strange condition to the more ordinary challenges faced by an African American man in post-war America. Faceless, formless, and voiceless, Wilkes has no ability to influence the world around him. He exists in a twilight state that seems as complex and bizarre as the prejudice which claims his society. (The reference to Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man all but demands to be made.)
But with their increased closeness, it’s hard not to wonder if there is something else at work that Peggy can’t yet see. (We really hope not.)
Someone who certainly can’t see is the eternally charming Jack Thompson, who jets over to California in a display of really impressive stupidity. Eager to make sure that Vernon Masters can sweep away all evidence of Isodyne’s wrongdoing, Thompson bulls through the S.S.R.’s LA office like a very angry rabbit, ultimately ordering Peggy back to New York. (An order she blithely disobeys.)
But for all his idiocy, Thompson’s eyes may be cracked open by the combination of Masters’ disturbing pressure and Peggy’s rather brilliant reminder that the S.S.R. Chief might actually need to get off his ass for something every so often. Thompson doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to moral fortitude, but now that he’s been confronted with the evidence of Calvin Chadwick’s corruption, it seems like the clock is ticking on his chance to Do The Right Thing.
Speaking of doing the right thing, the best and worst sides of Howard Stark are both on display in this episode. The self-serving, fast-living womanizer dominates the early part of the hour, as Howard stumbles about making (of all things!) a comic book movie and surrounds himself with more women than he knows what to do with. But with the discovery of Jason Wilkes’ predicament, Howard’s better self surges to the surface. Fascinated by the scientific quandary, and unbiased by Jason’s race or bizarre circumstances, he pushes himself to his limits in trying to work out a cure. Neither extreme can entirely be called healthy (rejecting sleep and proper nutrition, Howard seems almost manic in his scientific fervor) but at least he’s trying to help.
So Peggy is preoccupied, Wilkes is invisible, Thompson is blindsided, and Howard is obsessed. That leaves Whitney Frost, who is all of these things — and something else entirely.
Whitney Frost is no longer an enigma, but she remains, rather fascinatingly, a secret. With Jason’s testimony that she was involved in the Isodyne explosion, Peggy and Sousa uncover the actress’s true identity — a brilliant wartime scientist, reinvented as one of the most famous and vapid women in America.
“Every eye in the country is on her,” Peggy marvels, after a meeting with Frost that reeks of an early sparring match. But no one, Peggy realizes, truly sees Whitney Frost.
Like Peggy, Frost is hugely underestimated; like Wilkes, she is all but invisible. Like both of them, she is possessed with tremendous power, intelligence, and strength.
But Whitney’s power is in stealth and manipulation. It’s a role society has cast her in, certainly, but one she also embraces. Her strength is a dark one, and it manifests in Zero Matter — a cloud of darkness that sucks away at life and hides it somewhere impossible.
Like Whitney, the Zero Matter usually leaves no trace of its violence. But Peggy has survived her near assassination (Mr. Hunt is really very bad at his job) and the Zero Matter is continuing to assert itself across the perfect canvas of Whitney’s face.
Some secrets, it seems, are just destined to crack open.