Agent Carter Season 2 Episode 4: Smoke And Mirrors Recap With Spoilers

The episode begins with a flashback to Peggy's childhood, where she plays at being a dragon slaying knight. She knocks her brother over, and her mother chastises her for not behaving more like a lady.

In present day, Peggy drips sauce from her sandwich through Jason Wilkes' intangible body. They share a moment of sexual tension, and Wilkes explains what he's found about Whitney Frost's research into energy technology. He says Frost is beyond a genius.

Frost receives a package from Isodyne Energy. The maid tells her something in the box is moving, and Frost dismisses her. Frost pulls a cage full of lab rats out of the box.

Jarvis and Peggy stake out Chadwick's campaign headquarters hoping to find Frost, but she's not there. Chadwick leaves the office and gets into his car. Carter notices Chadwick's driver has a wound on his hand, right where she shot her assailant. Peggy calls Rose, who finds out that the car us registered to Rufus Hunt. Hunt was a soldier who was court marshalled and took up black market racketeering. He's currently head of security at the Arena Club. Jarvis pulls a tranquilizer gun out of the trunk.

Flashback to Broxton, Oklahoma in 1920. Young Agnes Cully is repairing a radio. Her mother tells her to clean up for Uncle Bud, and tells her to be sweet for Bud because he takes care of them. Bud arrives and begins teasing Agnes. She doesn't play along. Bud goes upstairs. Agnes' mother tells Agnes to stay out of her hair for a couple of hours and clean up the mess.

In the present day, Whitney Frost writes "Zero Matter Experiment #1" in a notebook. She takes one of the lab rats in her hands then concentrates. Nothing happens. There's a knock at the door and she puts the rat back in the cage and covers it. Chadwick comes in and Frost lies and says she was running lines. They discuss what Frost is going to wear for her Life Magazine photoshoot that evening. Chadwick leaves and Frost locks the door. She picks up another rat and it bites her. The rat is consumed in Zero Matter and absorbed into Frost's hand. The Zero Matter crack on her forehead grows larger.

Jarvis pretends to be the police as he pounds on Hunt's door. Hunt runs out the back door and Peggy shoots him with a tranquilizer dart. He doesn't fall and tosses the dart. Hunt and Peggy wrestle until Peggy picks upt he dart and pokes him again. Peggy and Jarvis load Hunt in the trunk, but he pops out and pokes Jarvis with a tranquilizer before Peggy can knock him out.

Peggy returns to the Stark estate and finds Sousa waiting for him. He says Thompson approved her vacation but isn't happy about it. Sousa has a file of information on Frost. Peggy tries to brush Sousa off, but he knows what she's doing. He spots Sousa sleeping and hears a noise from the car trunk.

Inside, Sousa and Peggy argue about the kidnapping. Sousa is angry she didn't call him, but Peggy says she needed to give him plausible deniability. Peggy says she was thinking she would kill Hunt.

IN the boiler room, Peggy and Sousa interrogate Hunt, but he isn't intimidated, having been tortured by the Japanese in the Philippines. Peggy says she's not going to torture him because they don't have time, and fills a syringe.

In another flashback, Peggy shows her engagement ring to girls in the office and is called into the office of a Mr. Edwards. He gives her a letter from the Special Operations Executive. She asks if they need a codebreaker, but Edwards says they're training a field agent in irregular warfare. Carter is confused, since they don't send women into the field, but Edwards says they need women to match other European resistance movements. Carter is hesitant, but Edwards says someone sees something in her, and she's being given an opportunity to deal a massive blow for king and country.

In the present day, Carter injects the syringe into Hunt's neck. She says it's a particular virulent form of malaria that will kill him in 20 minutes, but she has an antidote that she'll give him if he talks. She and Sousa leave, and she tells Sousa that it's actually just a very strong cold.

Another flashback to Broxton. The house is cluttered as Agnes studies. Bud leaves Agnes' mother for another woman, and tells them to be out by tomorrow. Agnes' mother blames Agnes for not being nicer to Bud, and tells Agnes that she'll never get into a science program because she's a girl. She pulls Agnes to a mirror and tells her to focus on her face instead of her mind because it's the only thing that will get her anywhere in the world.

Chadwick calls Frost and says she's an hour late. Frost says she's sick, but Chadwick worries they'll cancel the cover shoot if she doesn't show. Frost hangs up and we see that the crack in her face as spread further.

Hunt finally gives up two names, newspaper editor Thomas Gloucester and Roxxon's Hugh Jones. Carter offers Hunt SSR protection, but he's convinced he's dead. He says they're in everything, and they destroy what they can't buy, naming President McKinley and Black Tuesday as examples. He tells them about the Council of Nine at the Arena Club and says that they record their meetings.

Jarvis writes on a chalkboard for Wilkes, but he's disappointed to see his theory has reached a dead end. Wilkes begins seeing a crack form in the chalkboard until Jarvis snaps him out of it. Sousa and Peggy come to the lab and Sousa calls for a warrant to raid the Arena Club.

Sousa's team begins gearing up for the raid when Vernon Masters arrives. He says the War Department has decided to audit the branch's cases. That puts the brakes on the Arena Club raid. Vernon says he's been dying to talk to Carter.

Carter tries to explain what's going on with the Arena Club, but Masters deflects. Masters says he'd like to meet their information source, but Carter says the source wants to remain anonymous. He persists, brings up the Hollywood 10, and points out that Carter is technically a foreign spy. He warns her of a coming tidal wave that could drown her friends, even if she can survive.

He flashback to Peggy's engagement party, and she toasts to her brother finally meeting her fiancée, Fred. Michael is a bit standoffish, his being on the front while Peggy and the Fred are in the home office. Peggy brings up that she was recruited as a spy, but Fred says they of course turned it down and says a boring life is a privilege. Fred leaves, and Michael asks why she turned down the SOE job, revealing that he was the one who recommended her. He knows that this mundane life isn't what Peggy wants, that she wants a life of adventure. She says her dreams changed, but Michael says she just let others drown them out. She gets upset, but Michael tells her that she was meant to fight.

Present day, Sousa apologizes for not considering the judge may be in the Council's pocket. Peggy tells Sousa to lay low, but Sousa got the same speech from Masters that Peggy did. He says he's with her until the end, and shows him a tissue sample from Jane Scott that he managed to smuggle out.

Sousa cuts Hunt free and begins marching him out at gunpoint. He punches Sousa and flees, just as he and Peggy planned. Hunt flees to Frost and demands to see Chadwick, but he's at a fundraiser. Peggy and team are listening in.

Flashback to Hampstead, England in 1940. Peggy is trying on her wedding dress and her mother is crying. There's a buzz at the door and Peggy's mother goes to answer. Peggy hears a sound and looks out the window. She sees the soldiers delivering the news of Michael's death. Flash forward and Peggy is leaving her ring behind and leaves to join the SOE.

Present day, Peggy notices Jason staring at the chalk board. He tries to describe how he feels, saying that something is calling him and pulling him away and that it would be easy to let go. Peggy says Jason is meant to fight, like Michael said she was. Calvin finally arrives home. He tells her about Carter. Chadwick threatens to have her deported, but Frost asks what Hunt told her. Chadwick says Hunt is going to have to answer to the Council, but Hunt threatens to go to the Council and tell them what he and Frost are up to. Frost says mistakes can be fixed, and touches Hunt's cheek, then grabs his throat. The Zero Matter takes hold of Hunt and then the SSR loses the signal.

Flashback to Agnes Cully standing outside a theater. She realizes she has no money to buy a ticket. The box office agent says it's the same movie Agnes saw last week. Agnes says it's worth it to escape the troubles of the real world, and the vendor sneaks her a ticket. She runs into a talent agent named Ned Silver, who offers to make her a model or an actress. He says they'll have to change her name to something as pretty as she is.

In the present, Frost looks down at her hands and then shows Chadwick the crack that now runs down the entire side of her face.