The truth came out in more than one way on Agent Carter season 1, episode 5. Check out our recap and share your thoughts on “The Iron Ceiling”!
Friends
Dottie awakes from a grisly dream of her childhood, in which she sleeps shackled to her bed and then snaps the neck of her fellow student in training.
It’s very Hunger Games.
Later, Dottie charms Peggy with her innocent midwestern-ness while stealing the key to her room.
A little respect
Jarvis intercepts Peggy on her way to work, anxious for forgiveness. Unfortunately, his protestations of admiration for her only piss her off, especially when he tries to play Howard’s card about the S.S.R. not respecting her.
“They don’t even see you,” Jarvis says. “Do you honestly expect you’ll change their minds?”
“I expect I will make them,” Peggy says, and marches away.
The S.S.R. is in a tizzy when she arrives due to the mysterious message from the magic typewriter. Brushing aside the codebreaker, Peggy cracks the code and translates the message from Russian in about six seconds.
The message is for a transaction set to go down in Belarus, at which Leviathan will purchase a “Havoc Reactor” from… Howard Stark.
Woah.
Rendezvous
Dooley gleefully orders Thompson off to Russia, and Peggy is like, “I am totally coming on this trip.”
Thompson is like, “LOL no,” but Dooley – gratifyingly pissed off by Thompson – agrees when Peggy delivers the 107th Regiment as a tactical team.
Peggy changes into her tactical gear in the men’s locker room. Thompson tricks Sousa into walking onto Peggy’s side of the room while she’s in her slip; she whirls around, and Sousa locks in onto two bullet scars on her bare shoulder.
The team air-jumps onto the Polish side of the Russian border, in spite of Thompson’s nerves. They rendezvous with Dum Dum Dugan and the Howling Commandos.
Peggy and Dum Dum chat on the way to Russia. Peggy actually thinks Howard is innocent, and the supposed deal is a trap; what she doesn’t know is what Leviathan really wants.
Bullets and bars
Back at the S.S.R., Sousa verifies Peggy’s scars against her file, and then compares them to the photos of the blonde woman in her shoulder-bearing dress.
The scars are, of course, the same.
So that’s bad.
Meanwhile, Dooley drinks with a reporter who helped cover up the “battle” of Finow. According to the reporter, Stark was there for the “cleanup,” but didn’t get along with the now-dead General McGuiness. Afterward, Stark refused a massive defense contract with the government.
The reporter clearly thinks that Stark is innocent of weapons dealing. Someone knows the whole story, he says, “but they’re keeping it to themselves.”
“Not for long,” says Dooley.
Babes with arms
Around the Russian campfire, Peggy presses Thompson for the story of his Navy Cross. Basically, Thompson fell asleep on watch and woke up to find six Japanese soldiers infiltrating the camp. They killed his commander, and he shot them all before they even know he was there.
Thompson is not happy with this story.
In the morning, the team splits up to infiltrate the compound where the coordinates are. Peggy’s team finds a bizarre American classroom with film reel coded with the message “Instill fear.”
They follow the sound of a crying child to the room to the Dormitory of Shackles, where they find a young girl. Dum Dum tries to comfort her, and she stabs him in the chest, grabs his gun, kills one of the Commandos, and escapes through the air vent.
Even though Leviathan knows they’re there, Peggy insists they not leave until they can exonerate Howard.
Three sides
Back in the U.S. of A., Dooley asks Jarvis about the fight with McGuiness; Jarvis claims to know nothing about it. Dooley says he only wants to know the truth, and asks Jarvis to tell Howard to contact him if he wants to tell his side of the story.
Meanwhile, Dottie is busy rummaging through Peggy’s apartment. She finds a hidden compartment with the photos of Howard’s inventions, then sits down at Peggy’s desk and imitates Peggy. Dottie seems creepily fascinated with Peggy’s belongings, but eventually leaves.
Baggage
Peggy and co find a crazy scientist and his therapist, Dr. Ivchenko, imprisoned in the building. Leviathan wants them build a photon amplifier designed by Howard Stark – but the designs were stolen.
After freeing the scientist, Peggy and the group are caught in a fire fight; Lee is killed and Thompson freezes. The scientist tries to use “the Americans” as leverage for freedom, but a concealed Thompson shoots him, and watches in terrified awe as Peggy fearlessly battles their assailants.
Just in the nick of time, Dum Dum blows a hole in the wall from outside. Peggy has to haul Thompson into motion; she is the the last one out of the bizarre facility, racing Russian bullets to the truck.
White flag
At the airfield, Dum Dum offers Peggy a spot in the Commandos, but she declines to hold down the American front – and prove Howard’s innocence. Dr. Ivchenko flies back to New York with them (and Dum Dum’s bourbon.)
On the flight home, Thompson tells Peggy the truth about his Navy Cross: The men were carrying a white flag, ready to surrender. Thompson didn’t see the flag until the men were dead, and buried it before anyone could see.
“Everybody thinks that I’m this guy that I never was,” he says through clenched teeth. “And every day, it gets harder and harder to live with.” Thompson says he’s been trying to tell that story since he came home.
“You just did,” Peggy says softly.
Trust issues
Home at the Griffith, Dottie shackles herself to her bed and goes to sleep.
At the same time, Peggy and Thompson deliver their report to Dooley; they each try and give the other credit. Peggy says she doesn’t believe Howard is working for Leviathan.
“Good work, Carter,” Dooley says as she leaves.
Thompson invites Sousa out for a drink, but he declines; Peggy is also invited. She asks Sousa along as well, but he demurs again. Peggy leaves, and Sousa stares moodily at the photograph of the woman who just walked away.