AGENT CARTER: “The Atomic Job” {Roundtable}

We had high comedy and high drama all in forty-four minutes this week. Find out what we think of this week’s episode, “The Atomic Job”.

1. Jason Wilkes is alive! On a scale of one to fifty, how excited by this are you?

Roz: Can I put it at a 49.5? I mean, it’s great that he’s got a body because the hand-wavey science of his semi-corporeal shape was starting to get to me.

Karen: The discussions of how he stayed ghosty abounded, so yeah, I totally get where you’re coming from Roz. Also, I dig him, so it’s a win/win. He’s adorbs, and an intellectual match for Peggy. He’s also in an incredible amount of peril given what we already know about “Zero Matter” (from the obelisk in AoS as well as this show), so I can’t invest 100% lest my heart be ripped in twain.

Rueben: It was quite a welcome revelation; and I join in the hurrahs of him being alive. But there is that one little problem. He disappeared at the end of the episode. Was he affected by whatever Frost did to Peggy before her horrific fall? Or is there some other problem?

2. Frost and an atomic bomb is a bad idea. But is it worse than Frost also having all that Zero Matter in her now from that dead woman?

Roz: I never want Frost to have anything that destructive, and I think having the Zero Matter is also bad. Basically there are two horrible choices and I want none of them.

Karen: That is a NOPE with a capital N from me. Again, “Zero Matter” is more than what we’ve seen on this show (it’s a construct of inhumans, which probably won’t come up on AC, but they’ll address something more I’m sure), so to see her with more power from it is chilling. If you know what’s to come for her character, you know where she’s headed, so *insert forbidding music here* beware…

Rueben: Couldn’t have said it any better than you ladies already have, but it sends chills down your spine just thinking of the ramifications. Just what Frost has done so far is scary enough, but if she had gotten an atomic bomb on top of that – I’m shielding my eyes immediately (not that that would help but you get the visual, right?)

3. Peggy vs Hugh Jones. Thoughts and opinions on that “battle”.

Roz: HAHAHAH! I mean, really. I’d pay good money to watch Hayley Atwell continue to knock out Ray Wise on screen.

Karen:  HI-LARIOUS. Especially the tag at the end when he couldn’t remember what’d happened, but assumed he’d had a “good lunch”. LOL for realsies. One has to wonder how much damage their version of the “Flashie Thingie” (MiB) does to a person. He was already a little short in that department to begin with.

Rueben: I thoroughly enjoyed that whole scene; and I can only imagine the outtakes from their filming all of that too, but that’s another story for another time as they say. One does have to wonder what kind of after effects that little memory wipe apparatus will have on Jones; and if he’ll remember at any point that Peggy was there.

4. New player in the game: Joseph Manfredi. At this point are there too many bad guys in the narrative? If not, are there too few or too many?

Roz: I feel like Papa Bear’s bed – there’s just too many new threats. If they all sort of fall away soon enough I’m not going to be sad, but it seems like we’re building up to something that is too big for the number of episodes we have.

Karen: Okay, a new bad guy is a little murky, but it’s KEN MARINO. He can really BRING. IT. to whatever role he inhabits. If you need any proof, just watch a few episodes of “Party Down“.

Rueben: I’m getting a little overwhelmed with all the bad guys that are going against our “Scooby” gang, which seems to be getting smaller by the minute as the bad guys grow exponentially. And if next week is any example, we’ll have Dotty back in the mix so…. To give an exact answer, I wouldn’t mind seeing a few bad guys go down just to lessen the ‘herd’. PS: How great was it to see Ken Marino in the show, right? As a Veronica Mars fan myself, it was pretty cool!

5. This all feels like a great new team for Peggy when she needs it. What more do you want from our new additions?

Roz: I don’t want this help from Rose and the other scientist to be one and done. Peggy does work better with friends around her and this group seems like they’ll do great work to help get Peggy what she needs in the end.

Karen: Well firstly, they were really cute. Rag-Tag is the quintessential word to describe them. But as far as utility goes, I think they’ll not only do their best, they’ll try to excel, which is what she needs. After all, what we saw last week was her determination to succeed, and they have that same drive in spades.

Rueben: I enjoyed the team-up immensely!! And, I don’t want it to be the last either. I agree with Roz that Peggy works better with friends around to help. How great was Rose! She proved herself tenfold, and I think Souza will have a new appreciation for her now, don’t you?

6. On a scale from one to five red hats, where five is amazing, rate this episode.

Roz: I give it four red hats, though it had high points and a few moments where I wished we’d moved faster.

Karen: Same here, Four Red Hats. Mostly for the Ray Wise scene and for Matt Braunger. He was GREAT in this episode by the way. He’s a very funny comedian, and I love seeing his acting side.

Rueben: I have to agree: four red hats for this episode!! It had just the right amount of gadgets, serious scenes (Peggy’s fall onto that rebar had me on the edge of my seat!!) and plenty of laughter. Great combo!!

Marvel’s Agent Carter will air two back-to-back episodes next week on ABC starting at 9/8c.