Agent Carter S02E02 Review: Zero Matter

Agent Carter, Season 2, Episode 2: A View in the Dark

Still a lot of fun and far more interesting than the first season of Agent Carter was at this point in its life. We get straight to the point with the whole Isodyne conspiracy, revealing that Chadwick is a member of a secretive Council which may or may not be Hydra/AncientHydra (whose only other member is the underwhelmingly-named 'Tom'), but Chadwick himself seemed to not be the brains of the outfit, and rather the more active beast among the pair is Whitney Frost herself. Chadwick gets dismissed by the Council who appreciate having a senator among their members more than, well, anything about the Zero Matter project that he put a lot of resources and time into... though, as Frost points out, it is Chadwick's womanizing that apparently put him into all this business, even if I'm not quite sure what Chadwick banging Jane Scott has got to do with Jane Scott touching the Zero Matter.

 We also get some backstory regarding the black goop courtesy of Jason Wilkes, who helps Peggy out. The black goop is named Zero Matter apparently, which is this mysterious crack in the universe that resulted in Isodyne's atomic tests... which then proceeded to suck up a crapton of tanks and soldiers before becoming, well, a goop. That absorbs everything around it unless held in place by all the special harness and whatnot. By the end of this episode the Zero Matter explodes, seemingly consuming both Wilkes and Frost, but since Frost is revealed to be alive, albeit a Zero Matter crack on her forehead... things are going to get interesting. This is certainly a plot that could rival the likes of Agents of SHIELD instead of some spy stuff... which, while certainly interesting, is extremely underwhleming compared to everything else running along in this universe.

We get a bit more romance on the Peggy front. She seems quite accepting of Sousa finding his love of his life -- though to be fair the nurse and Peggy got it off almost immediately. Sousa seemed to be pretty sure too, intent on popping the question that night until Peggy's SOS (to Jarvis, admittedly) caused him to completely lose everything and go ballistic. I do hope we don't get too exhaustive with this little 'does Sousa have a torch for Peggy' arc. Peggy herself seemed to really like Wilkes during the short time they were together, and I found it pretty decently done even if Wilkes is written to be pretty flirty from the get-go the two actors do have some decent chemistry for Peggy to mourn his death.

(This is the MCU, though. Wilkes will probably return as a metahuman soon)

We also get some nice, far more subtle yet still present addressing of sexism in the era, most notably to Whitney Frost, who in her day job has to struggle at being a slightly older lady actor, having to deal with an actor who disparages her body shape and age to her face. Way more subtle while still being pretty prominent of showing how women are discriminated against instead of... well, everything Supergirl does. Meanwhile, when she's not doing her day job, she apparently is far more active than Chadwick is, going off and threatening doctors with a gun to hand over liquid black hole. Wilkes himself also gets to deal with being a black man in the 40's, briefly dropping the fact that no other company would have his kind as a scientist, and that random eclair-selling douchebag refusing to even talk to him. 

We get a couple of decent action scenes, and a fair amount of cool scenes with both Jarvis and Anna... including Jarvis lifting weights while dressed like someone about to participate in Smackdown to battling with Bernard the flamingo. They don't appear as much as the first episode with the focus on Peggy and Wilkes, but are still a pair of fun characters to be around especially when they deliver comedy in small doses. We don't get anything from Jack's end of the story which I don't mind because I honestly don't care.

Overall a pretty decent episode, quickly setting up all the sci-fi bits. Again, far more eager to start telling the story about Zero Matter and the Council and everything, still fun, still solid and a vast improvement over the first season. Also, it goes without saying that it's a better female superhero show than Supergirl is, tackling feminism without being laughable in the way it does that, handling the romantic subplot well and generally having better pacing and buildup than it. The only thing Peggy Carter really lacks is powers and super-suit. And honestly, I've gone from being apathetic and indifferent about this show to actually quite liking the fun charm it has.