2x07 Monsters

8.7/10. I've gone back and forth on Whitney Frost. The writing for the character has been uneven; Wynn Everett give a perfectly good performance, but doesn't really stand out despite the many episodes that spotlight her this season, and her role as the antagonist is, at times, a bit rote. But two scenes in this episode went along way for winning me over to her side- and see her as an interesting character beyond the occasionally hamfisted villainy the show throws her into.

The first, and simplest, were the scenes involving the interrogation of Dottie. Bridget Regan gives such an assured, confident performance as the well-trained assassin that she immediately elevates any scene she's in. When Vernon Masters is interrogating her, there's a great power in the way she laughs off his attempts at intimidation. The way she mocks him, makes sarcastic quips in response to his delicately laid out tools and stories about cracking "Nazi harlots" leans into Regan's undeniable presence as the living embodiment of the old guard tries to put her in her place.

But then Frost herself goes to interrogate Dottie and the change in Underwood's demeanor is stark and effective in how it sells Frost as a force in Agent Carter. It's easy to try to make Frost a frightening presence in this season by showing her destroying people with her zero matter powers, but given all the special effects wizardry that Marvel fans have seen on screens both big and small, that kind of supernatural carnage just doesn't have the impact necessary to establish Frost's fearsomeness on its own. Yet seeing the otherwise unflappable Dottie completely shaken by the presence of the woman she's seen decimate a room of powerful men firsthand conveys the place of awe Frost occupies as this season's Big Bad in a way that no effect could.

The second, and much more striking, is Frost's sales pitch to Wilkes. As with Frost, Wilkes hasn't been my favorite character this season. I like the idea behind the character, but Reggie Austin doesn't breathe much life into the role. Still, the scene shared between the two characters does more to deepen their role in the season than all the zero matter attacks and ghostly voids in the world.

Frost posits them both as outsiders, as people who are marginalized by 1950s society because of their gender or the color of their skin. While her methods are obviously barbaric, the show creates sympathy for Frost by juxtaposing her with Wilkes, by showing that she is a person who has absolutely felt the ways in which the world she inhabits conspires to hold people like her back, that it undervalues people like her and Wilkes and, to Frost's point, treats them as expendable and obedient because they're lucky to even have an opportunity that others take for granted. Frost is trying to shift that power dynamic in her favor, to show that on a raw scale, folks like her and Wilkes are deserving of far more than what they're given. The metaphor is not subtle, but it still has force and addresses the gender and racial politics of the time without departing from Agent Carter's four-color serial roots.

Speaking of characters who had made little impression on me, but came into their own during this episode, Ana Jarvis had a remarkably poignant moment that paid off like gangbusters, after being little more than living furniture up until this point. Her conversation with Wilkes about her concerns with Jarvis's more rough-and-tumble adventures was very sweet and human despite her somewhat outsized persona. This all seemed to be building to a plea from her to her husband that he not go on the mission.

And yet, when the moment came, Ana did not ask her love not to follow Peggy into what all-involved suspected was a trap. Instead, she told him that she knew what these activities mean to him, and she would never try to dissuade him from engaging in them on her account because of that, but that she's still going to worry. It's a mature, heartfelt conversation between two people who love and respect each other, and it was quite refreshing on that account.

Of course, the sudden reappearance of the signal from Dottie's necklace wasn't a trap; it was a distraction so that Frost could abscond with Wilkes. And in Anna's efforts to save the man she confided to about her concerns, Anna takes a bullet in the stomach from Frost for her troubles, a move that is as brutal as it is clever as a way to delay Peggy from pursuing her. And Jarvis's visibly devastated reaction to finding his wife in that state drove home the cruel irony of Anna's fears beautifully.

Of course, not every love story can be that mature or convey that level of meaning so succinctly. Instead, the perfunctory love triangle between Peggy, Sousa, and Wilkes continues. I still maintain that Peggy and Sousa have next to no chemistry, which makes their entire stop-and-start romance ring pretty false, especially with the cliche, awkward "we should talk about things after this is all over" moment between Sousa and Peggy. Still, while Wilkes and Peggy have fared no better on the chemistry scale, their impromptu kiss upon Wilkes becoming corporeal once again, leaving the generally stiff upper-lipped Peggy a bit flustered, it was another sweet, human moment that, for once, made me care about an otherwise somewhat forced romance.

But the best scene involving Peggy's love life featured neither Sousa nor Wilkes, but instead, as the best scenes in this show often do, just her and Jarvis. I've harped on it again and again, but there's such a friendly rapport between Atwell and D'Arcy in their scenes together that they stand out from the rest of the ensemble. Jarvis's comments that Carter underestimates her allure, and Peggy's uncomfortable admission that she didn't set out to woo two men at once were both signs of the playful, very British friendship between Carter and Jarvis, and sells their connection quite well.

On the whole, "Monsters" did a superb job making the season's villain a more imposing and interesting figure, and added depth to many of its more thinly-drawn characters at the same time. The fallow ground of the romantic story still leaves much to be desired, but at least it's motivated some nice character development and showcase moments as Agent Carter heads into what will likely be its series finale.