Agent Carter Episode 5: The Iron Ceiling Recap With Spoilers

A girl wakes up, handcuffed to a bed in what looks like an orphanage. A woman walks in and uncuffs her and the other girls in the room. The girl has hidden food that she shares with another girl. In a classroom, the girls are watching Snow White and reciting the lines as it goes. Outside, the girls fight brutally until, with the supervisor watching, one kills the other.

Dottie wakes up from the dream and starts sit-ups. She meets Peggy at the diner, and offers to share bread with her. She wants to tour the city, but Peggy is distracted by Jarvis' card she finds in her purse. She snaps out of it and rips the card up, then tells Dottie to avoid the tourist traps and visit Brooklyn to see the real city. Dottie tells Peggy she sounds just like Captain America. She knocks over Peggy's purse, and dives to clean up the mess. Peggy leaves Dottie, who palmed Peggy's apartment key.

Peggy runs into Jarvis at a newsstand. Peggy doesn't want to hear what he has to say. Peggy is still furious, but Jarvis defends Howard Stark as a good man, despite his many flaws. Jarvis tells Peggy that her attempts to gain the respect of her SSR colleagues is doomed.

Peggy arrives at the office, where everyone is trying to decipher a coded message that came through the typewriter. Peggy takes it realizes it was written in Russian, allowing her to crack the cold. Its map coordinates and a drop date for Leviathan to acquire a havoc reactor in Bellerose. This is the first most of the SSR have heard of Leviathan, but Dooley knows the tale. The payment is said to be for Howard Stark. Peggy demands to be included on the mission to Russia, but Thompson argues.

Peggy makes the point that she's the only one who can read the code, but Thompson doesn't want to babysit her. Carter displays her experience and knowledge, but Thompson isn't impressed. Dooley doesn't want to risk being liable for sending a woman into the field. She asks what would happen if she could deliver the 107th, and Dooley says she could pack her bag. Peggy leaves, and Dooley says he doesn't have time for Thompson's crush on Carter. Peggy returns with confirmation that the 107th will meet them, and Dooley agrees to let her go.

Carter is forced to enter the men's locker room to change into tactical deal. Thompson and the men are not pleased with her inclusion on the team. They talk about the new gear they're using, and Souza shows up with intelligence. Thompson tricks Souza into walking in on Carter, and Souza notices a mark on Peggy's shoulder.

Peggy and the rest of Thompson's team get ready to jump and, hopefully, meet the 107th. They land and start moving. They meet the 107th, who turn out to be Dum Dum Duggan and the Howling Commandos. Thompson's team are a bit star struck. Duggan changes the plan to a less direct route over the Russian border, and has some trucks to help them make up the distance.

In the back of one of the trucks, Carter gives Duggan a bottle of bourbon and they share a drink. Duggan asks about Stark and Leviathan, and Carter fills him in, and notes that they're almost certainly being lured into a trap. Carter throws out Duggan's cigar. He says she used to be fun, and she says she did once upon a time. Duggan says he misses him too.

Dooley is leaving the office and says goodnight to Souza. Souza gets a file on Peggy, and notices a note about bullet wounds on her shoulder. He goes back through the photos from Spider's club, and notices the same marks on the blonde.

Peggy, the SSR men, and the Howling Commandos sit around a campfire eating and trading stories. Peggy asks Thompson about his Navy Cross. He tells them about how he fell asleep on night shift and woke up to see six Japanese soldiers walking into his camp. He woke up just in time to shoot them all just before they killed his commanding officer, and before they even knew he was there.

Dooley meet with a reporter in a bar to ask about the Battle of Finnow. The man wrote an article about the Battle implicating the army and Stark in a cover-up, but his editor killed it. The man reveals that Stark was there for cleanup and punched a general. The general beat up Stark, then resigned a week later. Stark walked away from a lucrative contract with the government. The general died about a month ago.

Peggy and company arrive at the location and move in. It looks like the same school that Dottie dreamed about. They find the film projector, and Peggy notices some subliminal messages. "Instill fear." They hear a child crying and go to investigate. They find the bedroom with shackles on all the beds and a girl crying. Duggan approaches the girl. The girl pulls out a knife and stabs him, then takes a gun shoots Junior, then escapes. Duggan's vest took most of the stab, but the Junior is dead.

Dooley finds Jarvis on the street. He brings him the fight with the general. Jarvis says he never heard anything about it. Dooley says he's only interested in finding the truth, and wants to hear Stark's side of the story.

Downstairs at the Russian boarding school, Peggy's team finds two men in a cell.

Dottie enters Peggy's room and starts searching. She finds a hidden compartment in a dresser drawer, and pulls out a box. Inside, she finds pictures of Stark's devices and crates from the ship. She puts them all back, but keeps one photo. She notices the picture of Steve Rogers on Peggy's mirror, and begins looking at herself in it. She starts talking like Peggy into it, and smells Peggy's lipstick. She takes a last look at the room and then leaves.

The men in the cell reveal that Leviathan has them there to build a weapon they have a schematic for. One, Nikolai, is an engineer. The other is his psychiatrist. The weapon is a protonic amplifier. They say they've heard nothing about Stark, and that Leviathan stole the schematics or they wouldn't need Nikolai. They're chased off by soldiers. Li takes a bullet and falls. The young girl shows up with a rifle and shoots one of them in the leg. Nikolai takes Sawyer hostage. Carter and the psychiatrist try to talk him down, but in the end the psychiatrist just shoots him. Thompson seems a bit shell-shocked. Duggan busts down a wall to provide an exit, but Carter has to snap Thompson out of it to get him to move. Peggy covers their exit and they all escape to the trucks outside.

The SSR and Howling Commandos are saying their goodbyes. Duggan offers Peggy a place with them, but she declines. Peggy offers the psychiatrist a place back in New York, and he accepts. On the plane, Carter and Thompson discuss Thompson's freezing up. He reveals that the soldiers he killed in Japan were waving a white flag. He didn't' realize they were surrendering until after he shot them, and then he buried the flag before anyone else saw it.

Back at the Griffith, Dottie goes to bed, and handcuffs herself to the frame.

Thompson and Carter report back to Dooley. After they report, Dooley has them send the psychiatrist in. As Peggy is leaving, she notes Souza's disheveled look. Thompson invites Souza for drinks. When Souza turns him down, he invites Carter.