Agent Carter · Season 2 · Episode 5
The Atomic Job
Synopsis
Jason Wilkes wakes Peggy Carter in the dead of night to show her that the alien substance drawn from Jane Scott's tissue sample is responding to him in unexpected ways. Suddenly, during his demonstration, the Zero Matter phases through its containment and absorbs into Jason, making him solid for but a moment. It also, somehow, provides him with the location of Jane Scott's body. Grasping at any chance to save Jason, Peggy and Jarvis find themselves at the County Cold Storage Building to steal Scott's body, theorizing that the amount of Zero Matter still inside it could potentially make a permanent cure. Unfortunately, Whitney Frost beats them to the punch. She drains the corpse dry of Zero Matter, then turns to her husband, Calvin Chadwick, with a far larger appetite. To reopen the rift that birthed the substance, Frost decides she needs to detonate an atomic bomb.
The bombs in question were built by Roxxon for the Isodyne tests, and two warheads sit in a vault that is considered 'impenetrable'. Peggy assembles a decidedly unglamorous strike team: Sousa, Jarvis, receptionist Rose Roberts itching for field work, and lab tech Aloysius Samberly with a bag of untested prototypes. To lift the elevator key, Peggy vamps her way into Hugh Jones' office as a redheaded accountant named Wanda, then wipes the leering Roxxon chief's memory with Samberly's two-minute inhibitor, repeatedly, as he keeps wandering back for more having remembered Peggy from their past interactions. Frost, meanwhile, leans on her old flame, Maggia boss Joseph Manfredi. She trades Chadwick's press connections for a squad of hired muscle. Both teams converge in the vault. Jarvis, unexpectedly finding himself in the position of packaging the atomic devices, is talked through the process of disarming and extracting the uranium rods. Meanwhile, Peggy squares off against Frost, gets a taste of her Zero Matter abilities, and takes a length of rebar through the side. Jarvis is successful and Frost walks away empty-handed. Chadwick, at last, begins to grasp exactly what his wife has become.
Reality Designation
This story takes place in the main continuity: 199999
Reality numbers are Marvel's official designations.
Where a universe has no official number we follow the Marvel Database and use its Temporary Reality Number (TRN-1092). Where there is neither — official or temporary — at the time we watch it, we assign a Snark Industries number of our own (SI-001).
Characters in the Episode
SSR agent leading the raid on Roxxon to seize the atomic bombs before Frost can.
Stark's butler, pressed into corpse theft and, to his horror, bomb disarmament.
SSR chief on the mission; proposes to Violet.
Intangible Isodyne scientist drawn to the Zero Matter, driving the effort to stop Frost.
Zero Matter-infused actress and inventor who wants an atomic bomb to reopen the rift.
Frost's husband and Senate candidate, losing his nerve as her power grows.
Maggia crime boss and Frost's ex, who lends her men in exchange for media favors.
Roxxon chief and Council of Nine member; his office holds the vault key.
SSR receptionist finally getting her shot as a field agent.
SSR lab tech supplying prototype gadgets, including the memory inhibitor.
Nurse and Sousa's girlfriend; accepts his proposal, then helps patch Peggy's wound.
Lab test subject Samberly cites for the memory inhibitor trials.
Gallery
In-Universe Date
Picks up the night after E4 (Thursday, July 17, which hangs off the Better Angels newspaper anchor). Wilkes wakes Peggy before dawn, and Jarvis’s closing line that she “did disarm an atomic bomb today” puts the heist and the bedside scene on the same day.
Comic Roots
Where the episode's people and places come from on the page.
On the page, Whitney Frost first surfaces as the crime boss "Big M" in Tales of Suspense #97 (Oct 1967), is named Whitney Frost in #98, and dons the golden mask as Madame Masque in Iron Man #17 (1969), all created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan. Her birth name is Giulietta Nefaria, daughter of Maggia lord Count Nefaria.
Joseph Manfredi debuts in the comics as the bat-commanding villain Blackwing (Daredevil #118, created by Gerry Conway and Don Heck), and he is the son of Silvio "Silvermane" Manfredi, a Maggia boss and Spider-Man foe. So when this installment pairs Whitney Frost with an old flame named Manfredi, it is placing two Maggia bloodlines in one restaurant booth: the daughter of Count Nefaria across the table from the son of Silvermane.
Recommended Reading
Where to go next if the episode left you wanting more.
The introduction and naming of Whitney Frost
Frost dawns the Mask, officially becoming 'Madame Masque'
First appearance of Roxxon and Hugh Jones, the corporate rot behind this hour's heist target.
First appearance of Blackwing (Joseph Manfredi), the bat-themed villain the show reimagines as a Hollywood-era mob boss.
The first appearance of the Darkforce, the comics energy the MCU relabels as Zero Matter.
The Snark File
Easter eggs, callbacks and technical tidbits.
"Wanda"
A redheaded 'Wanda'? I mean... c'mon
Pistol Packin' Mama
The heist plays out to "Pistol Packin' Mama," the Al Dexter honky-tonk hit (recorded 1942, a chart smash in 1943). Period-accurate for a 1947 soundtrack; though, the cut used as the Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters version.
Bugsy Siegel
Manfredi is written and played in the mold of real-life mobster Bugsy Siegel, the handsome, volatile gangster who cozied up to Hollywood stars, per production notes. It fits the LA-noir texture the season is chasing.
The Recreation Tie
Peggy needles Jarvis about the vent: “Isn’t that why you wore your recreation tie?” Red, scattered with little gold figures, under a dark suit. Only Jarvis dresses for a body snatching like it’s Saturday at the club. The same red tie seems to come back for the Roxxon vault job, so it’s clearly his official heist wear.
