Agent Carter - 'The Atomic Job'

Hello world, I'm your wild girl...

Almost by chance, Wilkes discovers that he can absorb the Zero Matter energy from other affected samples in order to regain solidity. Carter and Jarvis break into a secure morgue to try to retrieve the body of the Lady in the Lake, only for Whitney Frost to beat them to it and claim the energy for herself. On the upside, this positions them to learn that Frost intends to steal an atomic bomb.

Wilkes realises that Frost must want to nab one of the two remaining test devices from the Isodyne trials, identical to the one that first opened the Zero Matter rift. While Frost enlists Chadwick to grease palms and secure the aid of a self-styled gentleman gangster in her heist, Team Carter set up their own job. Still working unofficially, with the War Office watching them for the Arena Club and Carter technically using up the holidays accrued by not taking a vacation day since Pearl Harbour, she and Sousa recruit SSR receptionist Rose and antisocial lab tech Samberly to break into a maximum security facility and steal the Uranium from the bombs in question.

Peggy secures a key from the head of Roxxon Oil - the scene where she applies her direct action bias to the problem, with Jarvis pointing out the fatal countermeasures sure to ensue in each case was a delight - and the team rolls into action. Rose is an unassuming badass, and Samberly a technical wizard when he can get his head in the game, but it's Jarvis who steps up to the plate when he's locked in the room with the bombs and obliged to disarm them himself. Meanwhile Peggy confronts Frost, a virtually unstoppable force with a lethal touch, and is lucky to get away with a rebar in the ribs. The team rush her to Sousa's newly affianced partner Violet for emergency treatment, at which point Violet sees that her fiance is still in love with Peggy, even if he wasn't admitting it to himself.

'The Atomic Job' is a cracking heist episode; not quite Leverage good, but then it's what Leverage does and Agent Carter is just slumming. It's a fun, exciting ride, packed with nice character moments and women who feel no more need to be rivals than the men. Even when she sees that her husband to be is in love with Peggy, Violet's reaction is sadness, not screaming jealousy. It was also good to see more women stepping up to show that Peggy isn't being presented as some sort of mancapable fluke of nature, but one of half of the species that is collectively as capable and flawed as the other half.