Agent Carter Episode Recap, Season 2 Episode 4: Smoke & Mirrors

Violet recaps Season 2 Episode 4 of Agent Carter, titled Smoke & Mirrors, where Peggy takes matters into her own hands while trying to locate Whitney Frost! We also see flashbacks into both Peggy’s and Whitney’s lives. Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.

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Episode Recap of Agent Carter, Season 2 Episode 4: Smoke & Mirrors

This episode begins with a flashback to Peggy as a little girl, playing with her older brother, Michael. Her mother tells her that one of these days, she’s going to have to start behaving like a lady.

In the present, Peggy and incorporeal Wilkes are working together in the lab. He shows her some plans for a neutron reactor that Agnes Culley, aka Whitney Frost, designed.

Speaking of Whitney Frost, she receives a package – with rats inside.

Jarvis and Peggy go looking for Whitney at Calvin Chadwick’s campaign office, but she’s not there. They see Chadwick leaving, and notice that his driver has the same hand wound that Peggy inflicted on her attacker. Peggy calls Rose to get some info, and finds out that the car is registered to Rufus Hunt, who was dishonorably discharged for black market profiteering, and currently head of security at the Arena Social Club. Jarvis has an idea to use a tranquilizer gun on Mr. Hunt.

In a flashback to Broxton, Oklahoma in 1920, we see Whitney Frost as a little girl, as she fixes a broken radio. She doesn’t like her mother’s male friend that comes over.

In the present, Whitney begins Zero Matter Experiment #1, and holds a rat in her hands. However, she is interrupted by her husband, so she hurriedly hides the rats. Cal tells her to wear a particular white dress for the photographer – she’s going to be on the cover of Life. When he leaves, she continues her experiment – and the rat is turned into blackness and absorbed into her. As a result, the black mark on her forehead expands.

At Mr. Hunt’s house, Jarvis bangs on the front door, pretending to be the police. Hunt runs out the back door, where Peggy shoots him with a tranquilizer dart. However, it doesn’t immediately affect him, and he pulls it out, so she goes to attack him with the butt of the gun. However, he tackles her to the ground and gets her in a headlock. Luckily, she is able to grab the dart off the ground and stab it into him, which causes him to pass out this time. Jarvis and Peggy load him into the trunk of the car, but he comes to again. However, Peggy is ready, and knocks Hunt out with the butt of the gun. Unfortunately, Hunt stabs a tranquilizer dart into Jarvis, who quickly passes out.

When Peggy drives up to the Stark estate, she is dismayed to see Sousa waiting there for her. She tries to get rid of him, but he is aware that she’s trying to brush him off. He walks towards the car and sees Jarvis passed out in the backseat, and then hears Hunt pounding on the trunk. Peggy confesses what they did, and Sousa does not approve of the kidnapping. However, he decides to help her.

Sousa questions Hunt, but he’s not giving up any info. Sousa hands it off to Peggy.

In a flashback to Bletchley Park, England in 1940, Peggy shows off her engagement ring to her co-workers. Peggy gets called into her boss’s office, where he informs her that a new war division, the S.O.E. (Special Operations Executive) is recruiting her to become a field agent. She is unsure she is cut out for field work, but says she’ll discuss it with her fiance.

Cut to the present, where she injects a syringe into Hunt’s neck. She tells him it’s Malaria, and she’ll only give him the antidote if he talks. She and Sousa leave the room to give him time to think. Peggy reveals to Sousa that she merely gave Hunt an intense cold.

Another flashback to Whitney in Oklahoma, this time to 1928. She’s now a young teenager, working on some diagrams. Her mother has a falling out with the male friend from before, then mocks her for being rejected from a science program. She tells her daughter that no one cares what’s in her head, that her looks are the only thing that will get her anywhere.

In the present, Whitney gets a phone call from her husband, who she tells that she won’t be able to make it to the photo shoot. We see that her black mark has extended even further.

Sousa and Peggy return to question Hunt, who decides to give up a couple names. He reveals that the Council of Nine meets in the storage room at the club, and they record their meetings.

Jarvis helps Wilkes out in the lab, but Wilkes doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere. Suddenly, Wilkes see the chalkboard start to distort, looking like zero matter, but he pretends that he’s fine.

Sousa calls in a warrant, and the SSR gears up to raid the Arena Club. However, Vernon Masters stops by and says that the War Department has decided to audit this branch’s cases, past and present. Sousa sees that it’s an Executive Order that has come straight from DC. Their raid has to be put on hold in order to show Vernon’s men around.

Vernon speaks privately with Peggy, who tries to bring him up to speed and get him to see her side of things. He demands that she bring in her and Sousa’s source, but she refuses to reveal the source’s identity.  He warns her that a tidal wave is coming, and that she’ll have to work very hard to stay afloat. She’s confident that she’ll manage, but he says that her friends could still drown, and glaces at Sousa.

In a flashback to Hampstead, England in 1940, Peggy’s brother, Michael, and fiance, Fred, meet for the first time at the engagement party. When Fred leaves the table, Michael expresses disappointment that Peggy turned down the SOE job, and reveals to her that he’s the one who recommended her for it, because she always wanted a life of adventure since she was a little girl. She’s upset that he’s calling her engagement into question, and runs off crying.

At the SSR, Sousa apologizes to Peggy for not realizing that the judge was in the Council’s pocket. By now, all incriminating evidence has been removed from the Arena Club. Sousa says that he got the same speech from Vernon that she did, and he’s in this with her till the end. He reveals that although almost all the evidence has been taken from the SSR, he still has a tissue sample from Jane Scott’s autopsy.

Sousa returns to question Hunt. He slices Hunt’s restraints, and holds a gun to him. However, Hunt gets the better of Sousa and punches him, then runs off. However, it turns out this was all part of Sousa and Peggy’s plan.

Hunt runs to Whitney Frost’s house. It seems that they have planted a radio transmitter on him. Sousa, Peggy, Jarvis, and Wilkes listen in from the lab. Hunt refuses to reveal anything to Whitney, and won’t talk until Chadwick gets home.

Flashback to Hampstead, England in 1940. Peggy is with her mother, trying on her wedding dress. A car pulls up outside, and soldiers inform her parents of Michael’s death. Peggy breaks down crying. Later, Peggy picks up her SOE recruitment letter and leaves her engagement ring behind in its place. Then she takes her suitcase and leaves.

In the present, Wilkes says that he feels as if something’s calling to him, pulling him away, and that it would be easy to just let go. Peggy encourages him to hold on.

Chadwick arrives home, and Hunt tells him what happened to him. Whitney demands to know what he told Peggy. Hunt admits that he did reveal a couple of names. However, he tries to blackmail Chadwick into protecting him, saying that otherwise, he’ll reveal to the Council what Chadwick and his wife are up to. Whitney grabs Hunt by the throat, turning him into blackness, presumably absorbing him the same way she did the rat, while Chadwick wonders what’s going on, and yells at her to stop. Meanwhile, Peggy and the others listen in and wonder what Whitney did, as the signal goes dead.

Flashback to Hollywood, California in 1934. A talent agent approaches Agnes Culley, and tells her that her name will have to change.

Back to the present, Whitney’s black mark expands down her face even more. She tells her husband that was her, fixing another one of his problems. He asks what she is, and she replies, “Whatever I want.”

Scenes from Agent Carter, Season 2 Episode 5: The Atomic Job

Here are scenes from the next episode of Agent Carter, titled The Atomic Job:

Scenes from Agent Carter, Season 2 Episode 5: The Atomic Job

What did you think of Season 2 Episode 4 of Agent Carter? Let us know in the comments below!