Review: Agent Carter “The Edge of Mystery” & “A Little Song and Dance”

Uncontrollable Zero Matter. Gamma Radiation Bombs. A Musical Dance Number? There was a lot going on in last night’s double feature of Agent Carter as the show made its final stand before next week’s season (and possible series) finale.

Part one of our adventure was “The Edge of Mystery,” an entire episode that built up to one event… the detonation of an atomic bomb in the desert to reactivate The Darkforce Rift. To get to this point, an alliance has been formed between the Zero Matter-obsessed Whitney Frost and our Dark Dimension specter Dr. Jason Wilkes. Wilkes is in the process of learning of his true power (more on that later), and Frost is more than willing to help so she can capture it for herself.

Now the episode ends like you’d expect; The Atomic Bomb goes off, but thanks to a “gamma radiation gun” invention from (the off screen) Howard Stark, Agent Carter and the rest of her clique shut down the Darkforce Rift (but not before Dr. Wilkes gets sucked in). Angry that Wilkes was accepted by the Zero Matter, Whitney Frost was fuming, but had no time to react since as soon as she turned around… Edmund Jarvis fired two bullets into her stomach.

“Edge of Mystery” spent some time showing the mild mannered butler Jarvis slowly slip into revenge mode to avenge his wife’s shooting – at the hands of Frost – in last week’s cliffhanger. He went full psycho, blowing the mission, shooting at an indestructible woman and getting himself and Agent Carter captured in the process. So ends part one, and part two begins with something completely unexpected… a musical number.

“A Little Song And Dance” gets going by giving us a look into Peggy Carter’s dreams. It appears she dreams in musical numbers, which included a very nice dance sequence from Daniel Souza. The scene was reminiscent of a 1950’s Disney production, bringing back old characters like Angie from Season 1. The only disappointment, seeing a tuxedo-clad and top hat wearing Jarvis NOT breaking into a tap dance routine.

With no revelations to be had in the dream sequence, the episode continued as Agent Carter, Jarvis, Souza and Jack Thompson needed to put their difference aside to stop Whitney Frost. That included trusting Vernon Master to try and kill the starlet-turned-Zero Matter sadist. The plan? Use that” Stark Gamma Radiation Gun” to zap the Zero Matter out of Frost, killing her in the process.

Sounds simple, until Jack Thompson decided to turn that Gamma Radiation gun into a bomb (where’s Bruce Banner when you need him?), which took out Frost and Masters in the process. All this happened while Whitney Frost kept Dr. Wilkes hostage and tried to painfully extract the Zero Matter out of him.

Deep breath here. A lot was squeezed into the two hours. There were double and triple crosses; Gamma Radiation Guns being turned into bombs, and Several Interrogations. Thankfully, comedic performances for Ken Marino’s mafia boss, Joseph Manfredi, and Matt Braunger’s Dr. Samberly offered nice breaks throughout the episode, but everything came to a head during a serious standoff in the final moments.

As Whitney Frost was in the process of killing off Vernon Masters, Dr. Jason Wilkes entered the scene. Overrun by Zero Matter, he began to glow until… he exploded, seemingly taking out Frost in the process (we all know that’s not the case… especially considering the next episode preview that followed). Wilkes finally accepted the power the Zero Matter was giving him, and appeared to have sacrificed himself to try and take out the true villain, Whitney Frost.

So is everyone caught up? For the past two weeks, ABC has gone with back-to-back episodes of Agent Carter, squeezing in a lot of action and information in that two hour window. The same format will be repeated for next week’s Season Finale. However, lackluster ratings might mean this will be the final mission of Agent Carter. If that’s the case, let’s hope they go out with a Gamma Radiation-sized bomb next week.