S02.E01: The Lady in the Lake / S02.E02: A View In The Dark

[stealinghome]

I'm sure Howard was a much, much easier target for HYDRA to get to, though. He was a public figure who couldn't help but draw attention to himself no matter where he went (and was probably a bit careless even later in life as well). HYDRA would have had much greater access than him than to Peggy, who I'm sure knew how to--and did--lock down all personal info and live in the shadows.

 

Also, to be honest, I'm sure HYDRA just saw Howard as way more dangerous than Peggy. Howard's brain could actually destroy the world. I love Peggy, but she's not on that same level of world-changing/destroying brilliance. Plus HYDRA had a vested interest in keeping SHIELD around for a while, they wouldn't have wanted to blow up the entire leadership structure.

[Emily Thrace]

A friend pointed out to me that during WWII British pubs' response to white American servicemen's objections to shared spaces with black ones was often to tell the white ones to GTFO, and British parents tended to have better reactions to their daughters dating black US soldiers than white (the latter tending to be less polite). Peggy not giving a whit about a prospective date's race reads true to me, but her outraged surprise at encountering open racism after living in the US for years doesn't.

 

Yes but I wasn't so much referring to Peggy herself but rather a historically accurate upper middle class or even just upper class British girl(which anyone who went to boarding school would be) might react in that situation. While a lot of the lower classes didn't really have any objection about race at the time (at least not until post war immigration caused an increase in numbers) a lot of the upper classes often had very colonial attitudes (Which probably had a lot to do with how many of them wound up fighting in one colonial war or another in earlier decades) about race until the whole counter culture era in the sixties. So while I don't doubt the truth of what your saying it not that simple that Brits were just less racist than Americans at the time Without getting into a whole history lesson I'll just say British actions in a lot of their colonies and territories at the time belie that idea . The very English expression "judge a man by how he treats his inferiors not his equals" comes to my mind. So while someone from Peggy's class would never demean or even be impolite to someone like James treating him as an equal might have been a stretch. Racism might not have been as overt as the Jim Crow laws in England at the time but it wasn't non-existent either

 

I get that Marvel is going for a more idealized take on the past here and I get why.  It just still feels like minimizing the actual racial struggles people faced at the time. At best it seems naive at worst it feels like pandering to make white people feel better about themselves. I just feel like by introducing a black character the show they may have introduced a discussion this show isn't really up to dealing with.

 

They did set their "date" at the Dunbar, which is the one place in 1930s/40s LA you'd be most likely to find an interracial couple. It was the center of the West Coast Jazz scene, which was integrated long before the rest of the country. It must seem like quaint grandpa music to lots of people today, but jazz at the time was associated with daring improvisation, beatniks, marijuana, cultural nonconformity, and radical politics, as well as opposition to racism. If grandpa's record collection contained old LP's by Art Pepper and Chico Hamilton, Grandpa was cooler than you knew.

 

And when they left the neighorborhood, they were greeted with something like open hostility by the white small businessman when they were looking for a phone. So I don't think this was unrealistically portrayed. What flies in one ZIP code gets you flak in another, even today.

 

That's what I was wondering like I said most of my reading has been in the south or about white characters in the north east. California would have had its own set of rules and I was less sure of what those would be.

[Temperance]

I got the sense the Dunbar was a black club of the era. White people (according to the books I've read) could get in without being questioned. Segregation was to keep nonwhites from entering the areas restricted for white people. There weren't the same kind of laws to keep whites from entering predominately black spaces, and whites sneaking into black nightclubs to hear great jazz is a trope as old as the times.

 

My goods: I liked the Dr. Wilkes, and  I adore Peggy. I liked Jarvis and Mrs. Jarvis. I really want them to keep Mrs. Jarvis around. That being said she sounded Irish to me at one point. I still liked the character. I'm not sure all women would be jealous of Peggy, and I liked that they weren't simply because she's a woman who works with them. I also like that Anna Jarvis is so feisty (she's Jarvis combat partner) and Violet seems capable (a career as a nurse).

(I  see Violet not necessarily being evil or dead. I predict her leaving the way Shawn's girlfriend Abigail did on Psych (she left after two confrontations with Yin Yang serial kIller which led her to feel his job was too dangerous for her. Also Fi's boyfriends on Burn Notice (not Michael) remained good guys. One left her partly because she put Michael first, but both had problems with the danger and the illegal but quasi-moral things she and Michael did.)

 

I don't hate Thompson. I'm not sure what his motives are for sending Peggy. I wondered if he was trying to set her with Sousa and doesn't know about Violet (seems likely). I thought his frustration was at the guys being slackjawed and not really saying anything useful.

 

My favorite two moments were Peggy being annoyed at the depravity of Howard's car and Sousa banging his crutch against the desk while worrying about Peggy.

 

I sense modern political relevance in having a senate candidate completely in the pocket of a big corporation. 

 

My bad:

Dottie is back.  I wish the character would disappear.  I also couldn't careless about seeing her square with Peggy. I'm not convinced anyone could get anything out of her in interrogation. 

 

Neutral:

I'm intrigued by Mrs. Frost. 

 It will be interesting to see what happens next. 

Edited January 23, 2016 by Temperance

[Raja]

Yes but I wasn't so much referring to Peggy herself but rather a historically accurate upper middle class or even just upper class British girl(which anyone who went to boarding school would be) might react in that situation. While a lot of the lower classes didn't really have any objection about race at the time (at least not until post war immigration caused an increase in numbers) a lot of the upper classes often had very colonial attitudes (Which probably had a lot to do with how many of them wound up fighting in one colonial war or another in earlier decades) about race until the whole counter culture era in the sixties. So while I don't doubt the truth of what your saying it not that simple that Brits were just less racist than Americans at the time Without getting into a whole history lesson I'll just say British actions in a lot of their colonies and territories at the time belie that idea . The very English expression "judge a man by how he treats his inferiors not his equals" comes to my mind. So while someone from Peggy's class would never demean or even be impolite to someone like James treating him as an equal might have been a stretch. Racism might not have been as overt as the Jim Crow laws in England at the time but it wasn't non-existent either

 

I get that Marvel is going for a more idealized take on the past here and I get why.  It just still feels like minimizing the actual racial struggles people faced at the time. At best it seems naive at worst it feels like pandering to make white people feel better about themselves. I just feel like by introducing a black character the show they may have introduced a discussion this show isn't really up to dealing with.

 

 

That's what I was wondering like I said most of my reading has been in the south or about white characters in the north east. California would have had its own set of rules and I was less sure of what those would be.

The problem becomes Marvel still has to broadcast to us in 2016 with demands of diversity and "good role models", In 2011 when they punted on race issues in The First Avenger I thought, and still think, that it was the biggest misstep in the MCU, seeing that Marvel was supposed to be the social relevant comic book company. But starting with the second episode with the "janitor" crack and the  shop owner they seem ready to take it on. Assuming Dr. Wilkes makes further appearances.

 

other random stuff

Did Mrs Jarvis's focus on wardrobe remind anyone else of NCIS:LA's Hetty, given some people's wish that she is some kind of sleeper agent and got close to a General's aide.

 

There is a Dr Jason Wilkes in the main Marvel continuity. If you check out the Marvel wiki it may give an ideal of where he is headed in this season's story.

 

At first look I thought Hydra nuked one of their monolith samples to see what would happen "Discover requires experimentation". And maybe that did create gravatomium.

Edited January 23, 2016 by Raja

[Former Nun]

Yeah that felt a little off. Especially him hitting on her, even today black men especially are often careful about hitting on white women and this guy was doing it in 1947.  In front of an LAPD officer. That felt off I can see the writers wanting him to be seen as reaching for more but people in those days used coded language for a reason. I can see them not getting looks in a club if they were talking but even in a majority black club I have to wonder if dancing together might have been crossing a line. Something that white people don't often realize is that white bigots aren't the only problem most often mixed couples face stronger opposition from the other side as well.

 

 

Because of my age (75), these scenes read so false.  So Peggy's British and unaware how things work in the U.S.  Wilkes would never have been so forward "back in the day."  As far as going to that nightclub, it would have worked better for me if the women (at least) were giving Peggy the eye and appeared pissed.  And...yeah, no pale pink lipstick.

I love-love-love all the vehicles in these 40's shows.  Sadly, they're all pristine...not a speck of dust--no corroded chrome. Yep, everyone had brand-new shiny cars.

[Rick Kitchen]

 

I sense modern political relevance in having a senate candidate completely in the pocket of a big corporation.

 

The history of California politics is shock full of politicians being in corporations' pockets.

[wmdekooning]

I did think it hilarious that Jack took ALL of that time delivering the carrot and the stick story with such menacing undertones in speech and with physically threatening overtones by placing the stick upon the table as Dottie gazed at him in obvious amusement and disdain, and, then, rapidly and effortlessly throttling him.

I said Dottie was going to take the stick away from Jack and beat him with it, take the carrot and stick it up his behind.

He didn't scare me.

[Former Nun]

The history of California politics is shock full of politicians being in corporations' pockets.

 

 

Shocking!  Glad I live in Arizona where all politicians are squeaky clean.

[Raja]

I got the sense the Dunbar was a black club of the era. White people (according to the books I've read) could get in without being questioned. Segregation was to keep nonwhites from entering the areas restricted for white people. There weren't the same kind of laws to keep whites from entering predominately black spaces, and whites sneaking into black nightclubs to hear great jazz is a trope as old as the times.

 

 

I don't think California had full blown legal segregation like the old Confederate states did. What laws that were in place often focused on Asian immigrants and not on Blacks alone.On the other hand LA was defacto segregated until the 1990s but the LAPD and Sheriff did not enforce it.. The Dunbar Hotel was a real world hotel when Central Avenue was the center of Black culture before that title moved west in later decades. Today the high school serving the area of the Dunbar Hotel is 90% Latino

Edited January 24, 2016 by Raja

[peachmangosteen]

But apparently catnip to Tumblr's hordes of tween girls looking for someone to imagine themselves growing up as now that Bella Swan is no longer on cinema screens.

 

I am pretty far out of my tweens at 31 and I loved Angie. TBH outside of Peggy she was/is my fave character on the show.

 

I am not on Tumblr and not a tween girl, but the Peggy-Angie friendship was one of my favorite parts of S1. I'd happily, happily trade Thompson and Sousa in to get Angie back. Fonseca has more chemistry with Atwell, and far more charisma as an actress, than either CMM or EG.

 

Also this. I like Sousa and I like Peggy/Sousa, but I would trade everyone but Peggy and Jarvis for Angie tbh. The Angie/Peggy relationship was tied with Peggy/Jarvis as my fave part of s1.

[paigow]

The history of California politics is shock full of politicians being in corporations' pockets.

True Detective S2 got that right at least...

[Julia]

I liked Angie, but I also thought she was important. I don't think Peggy realized how much years of living and fighting alongside pretty much all men caused her to internalize not taking women seriously.

[FurryFury]

I kinda like Anna more that I ever liked Angie, and I had a pre-built love for Lyndsey Fonseca. There's just something really refreshing and positive about Anna and her marriage to Jarvis, I can't help but smile every time I see them. And her and Peggy are really great. 

 

English's not my native language, so I don't give a damn about inconsistent accent. I suppose that helps.

 

Overall, a good premiere, but I'm mad they;ve decided to emphasize Peggy/Sousa. Can't stand this "romance". Wilkes was OK. Not great, but OK. But I'd take anything over Peggy/Sousa at this point.

[Bruinsfan]

I really don't like sad sack Sousa moping over having to settle for his awesome-in-her-own-right girlfriend because he didn't have the stones to actually follow through with Peggy when she apparently reciprocated his interest. Fortune favors the bold, not sulky man-children who run across whole continents to hide from their feelings.

[FurryFury]

Exactly. I already disliked Sousa from last season for being so bland, but this situation feels like tailor-made for making me hate him. There are few character types more unpleasant than indecisive males in the middle of a love triangle. Plus, I like Sarah Bolger who plays the nurse. Hopefully she's not a villain or something.

[Chaos Theory]

I was one of the people turned off by the heavy handed feminist stuff. It wasn't enough to make me stop watching or enjoying the show but there were times I thought the show was too heavy handed and obvious about it. Subtly might have worked better. Like with the scene at the fiber with Dunbar. I thought that was done well withough going overboard.

I was also thinking that the Zero Matter had some connection to AoS.

I loved the car Jarvis lent Peggy for ger "Date". Convent.

Edited January 24, 2016 by Chaos Theory

[Texasmom1970]

Loved every minute, I have do missed this show. Everyone has already pointed out so much it would be redundant for me to do a list.

I will say that the costume department is killing it again so far this season. They make me want to go back in time so I can wear everything Peggy does, simply stunning!

[Anthea]

Agent Carter could and should have done better with the diversity but I guess this is the road they took and I'm going to enjoy the show for the other good things, starting from my wondeful Peggy.

 

I find absolutely refreshing the fact they changed the setting to Los Angeles, the passage seemed  harmless to me.

Jarvis/Peggy's banter is brilliant. And I find the situation between Jarvis and Bernard absolutely hilarious. Who would have thought that about a flamingo ahahah. Ana is fantastic, such the opposite of Jarvis and they just suit together.

 

Dr Wilkes is very nice, of course he ain't dead. But having him and Peggy throw together immediately wasn't the best of ideas. I just didn't feel it.

It could also be because I have a soft spot for Daniel Sousa, seeing him as the chief of LA SSR has helped him come into his own. He knows his job, as he did back in NY (after all, he was the best agent after Peggy) and he makes a good team with Peggy. I'm looking forward to see develope his relationship with Peggy, they are going the angst/bad timing route trope and I love it.

 

Too early to talk about Whitney Frost, but I hope she is worthy as a villain. Dottie is creepy as ever but I'm glad she is back, since it's an unifinished business. Still can't stand Jack Thompson, so I hope I don't have to see him too much.

 

I'm in the minority too, but I never thought Angie was that special, a good friend but that's it. I really don't miss her presence in LA, though, as for continuity, they could have showed her a bit more.

[Noirprncess]

I binge watched season 1 just so that I could watch season 2. I really enjoy this show.

Does anyone know the singer in episode 2?

Edited January 25, 2016 by Noirprncess

[Rick Kitchen]

I binge watched season 1 just so that I could watch season 2. I really enjoy this show.

Does anyone know the singer in episode 2?

 

Some Googling says that it was apparently Kirby Lauryen

 

http://www.tunefind.com/artist/kirby-lauryen

[Raja]

Because of my age (75), these scenes read so false.  So Peggy's British and unaware how things work in the U.S.  Wilkes would never have been so forward "back in the day."  As far as going to that nightclub, it would have worked better for me if the women (at least) were giving Peggy the eye and appeared pissed.  And...yeah, no pale pink lipstick.

I love-love-love all the vehicles in these 40's shows.  Sadly, they're all pristine...not a speck of dust--no corroded chrome. Yep, everyone had brand-new shiny cars.

I was just watching a post war Foyle's War episode and they seem to suggest while it wasn't Mississippi some things, at least on the personal relationship level would have been forbidden in Peggy's homeland also. Just not shielded by anti-miscegenation in place in California against Asians and Blacks (Latinos had been deemed white by the FDR administration to allow the immigration of workers).

 

In deciding to do a race based story in a fictional universe that all but ignored race until the second episode of Agent Carter's second season you are going to get a lot of tonal shifts from Dr Wilkes opening flirting with a white woman in front of a cop and Federal Agent to a donuts shop worker enforcing social segregation a few hours later

[snarktini]

It didn't occur to me to suspect Violet until I read it here. (I don't always watch very closely, even when I mean to. Darn attention span!) On rewatch I suspect her, too. As has been mentioned, the grandfather bit sounds like a back story tailored to Peggy. She's trying way too hard to befriend Peggy. And also to be the cool girl who not only doesn't mind being stood up but gives him the full-on ILY & passionate kiss treatment on the way out. (Which to be fair could also be read as a "this is what you'd be missing" kiss if she's legit.)

 

I also see better why Jack acted like such a dumbass with Dottie.  I see how the dominoes set up. First, the two agents say this is like watching a prize fight and that the only one in their office who could crack Dottie is Carter. Hearing this, he dismisses them, telling them to get back to work. Then he gets the call from Sousa and he sees his opportunity. When he tells Peggy, she asks who'll do the interrogating and says plainly that Dottie isn't afraid of him. So I can see where his ego took over and he felt he had to prove himself by making Dottie fear him and confess. Still epically dumb, but I see how he arrived there.

[kieyra]

Briefly but: Wow! I'm really enjoying this season so far. I only dabble in the MCU, and while Agent Carter should have been a no-brainer for me (Anglophile, history buff, like period pieces, strong female character), my attention consistently waned in season one, and all I can tell you right now is that Lynsey Fonseca and the annoying kid from Gilmore Girls were in it. Well, and James Frain, but he was in every show on television in 2015.

But this season? I gobbled up episode one and have started on two, and the whole thing is POPPING, and I'm loving all the casting (crazy witch from Outlander! Princess Mary from Tudors! Guy from Mad Men!), I'm following the plots, and they've backfilled all the stuff I couldn't quite stay interested in last year so I don't feel like I missed crucial stuff.

Bravo, show. I knew you were a class act already, but now you sucked me in.

[ChelleGame]

 

Loved Sarah Bolger on "The Tudors".  I was sad that they wouldn't continue "The Tudors" beyond the death of His Royal Poopypants Jonathan Rhys Meyers.  A series focusing on Mary Tudor would have been awesome.  

 

 

 

I still wish for this. She was fantastic in that part.

[kieyra]

I still wish for this. She was fantastic in that part.

Heck, I'd love it if we could get a resurrected Tudors forum, even after the show was cancelled it was great for swapping history book recs.

/OT

[ChelleGame]

Heck, I'd love it if we could get a resurrected Tudors forum, even after the show was cancelled it was great for swapping history book recs.

/OT

 

Kieyra, the reason I found your post is because I searched "The Tudors" hoping there was a Forum Thread. No luck but I feel the exact same way. (Plus, I just rewatched Season Three and noted - once again - that Sarah Bolger curtsied was exquisite).  

 

/OT

[Cranberry]

We'll make a forum for any show as long as you properly request it, so if you want a Tudors one, go for it!

[Taryn74]

I also see better why Jack acted like such a dumbass with Dottie.  I see how the dominoes set up. First, the two agents say this is like watching a prize fight and that the only one in their office who could crack Dottie is Carter. Hearing this, he dismisses them, telling them to get back to work. Then he gets the call from Sousa and he sees his opportunity. When he tells Peggy, she asks who'll do the interrogating and says plainly that Dottie isn't afraid of him. So I can see where his ego took over and he felt he had to prove himself by making Dottie fear him and confess. Still epically dumb, but I see how he arrived there.

 

Exactly.  Not to mention, uncuffing Dottie and telling her that he's not afraid of her is exactly the same thing Peggy did, which his cronies had witnessed IIRC.  Him going in there to interrogate Dottie and leaving her cuffed for his safety would make him look not only weak in their eyes, but in Dottie's as well.  (Well, he was already weak in her eyes, heh, but he would have been admitting his weakness, which automatically gives her something to use against him, and you can bet your ass she would have.)  You can almost see where Peggy honestly didn't give him a choice in how to handle Dottie.  (Although letting Peggy finish the interrogation herself would have been the best way to go, so he was being stupid for taking over to begin with.)

 

Or - stay with me here - maybe he was deliberately imitating Peggy's style with Dottie, not because he was trying to one-up her, but because he saw that it was working?  *shrug*  I may be giving him too much credit there, though.

[Ghost of TWOP Past]

Catching up ondemand:

 

They're toning the sexism down this season? That sucks, since I thought it was one of the more interesting complications the character had to deal with.

 

I'm liking the show in general, but for crissakes, Marvel! Enough with the ultra-powerful-mystery-weapon/substance crap! We've got tesseracts, gems, lances, and I don't even know what all. People in this universe must he hip deep in the damned things. Is this glop-writhing-in-mid-air the same glop-writhing-in-mid-air that they dealt with on Agents of Shield a while back? Or something else? And didn't last season's ultra-powerful-mystery-weapon/substance also cause stuff to swirl around before getting sucked in, or am I mis-remembering? If I'm not mis-remembering, how come none of the characters commented on the similarity? 

Edited February 6, 2016 by Ghost of TWOP Past

[anna0852]

Catching up ondemand:

 

They're toning the sexism down this season? That sucks, since I thought it was one of the more interesting complications the character had to deal with.

 

I'm liking the show in general, but for crissakes, Marvel! Enough with the ultra-powerful-mystery-weapon/substance crap! We've got tesseracts, gems, lances, and I don't even know what all. People in this universe must he hip deep in the damned things. Is this glop-writhing-in-mid-air the same glop-writhing-in-mid-air that they dealt with on Agents of Shield a while back? Or something else? And didn't last season's ultra-powerful-mystery-weapon/substance also cause stuff to swirl around before getting sucked in, or am I mis-remembering? If I'm not mis-remembering, how come none of the characters commented on the similarity? 

I think we'll simply see it effecting other characters. Peggy has proven herself to the SRR (or at least, some of the male agents within) but that doesn't make everything better for the other female characters.

 

Plus the very real fact that while the show is set in a real era and place (1947 Los Angeles) it's veneer of reality is thin at best. There is a heavy fairytale-fiction-unreality vibe to it that makes the sexism harder to swallow for the audience. A show like Mad Men or Call the Midwife can get away with it because it presented a dramatization of a reality that happened. Agent Carter is fiction from the get-go and I think the expectations might be that historical fiction has to keep history accurate, fiction-fiction should clean it up and keep the sensibilities of a modern day audience in mind.

[Ghost of TWOP Past]

They've set the show in another era, though. If it doesn't feel like another era, then it's just the same old tv fare with odd costumes and old cars. 

[Raja]

They've set the show in another era, though. If it doesn't feel like another era, then it's just the same old tv fare with odd costumes and old cars.

From what I can remember from childhood Wonder Woman did the same before they rebooted from WWII to the 70's

[Anisky]

What I want to know is, if this zero matter sucked everything into it and the only thing left was the black goo, then where did the film strip of the event come from?! When Wilkes said that after the test went wrong and "only one thing was left", I half expected him to say, "The camera." What, did it just appear inexplicably, Man in the High Castle-style?

Edited February 7, 2016 by Anisky

[kili]

What I want to know is, if this zero matter sucked everything into it and the only thing left was the black goo, then where did the film strip of the event come from?!

They were filming a nuclear blast, so I imagine that they were using cameras that were located far from the blast zone and which had very long lenses. I'm guessing the cameras were far enough away.

 

Zero Matter is kind of confusing to me. It consumed all those trucks and people and then it just lay their on the ground. Why didn't it start consuming the ground? How do you get close enough to it to put it in the container? 

 

I suppose one could argue that the explosion agitated the Zero Matter and that once it consumed all those trucks/people, it was sated until it was exploded again or dropped on the floor. But, then how was Frost able to use Zero Matter to consume her director? Did he kiss her that hard?

 

What does Wilkes's containment system do? Is it just a shock absorber? Did he get it right the first time, or were there some failed experiments?

[Chas411]

 

Sousa still has zero romantic chemistry with Peggy and jfc, who thought giving him an almost-fiancee would make him look anything but bad? There's no way he doesn't come out of this looking unworthy of Peggy. Just drop the romantic Peggy/Sousa plotline, writers. It's not working. And I've never seen him in anything else, but Enver Gjokaj just doesn't have much screen presence in this role.

Agreed. Also I don't really understand the sudden angst and drama between Sousa and Peggy. Had anything happened between them last season that I've forgotten because aside from him having a crush on her I never really thought that there was much there.

 

And agreed that I can't see what the point was in giving him an almost fiancee. If he likes Peggy and she likes him then I can't understand why they won't just act on it. Angsting around just seems like dick moves because the only one who'll end up hurt is Sarah Bolger's character.

[Zuleikha]

She not only jumps around in accent, she just plain doesn't sound Hungarian. One side of my family are expat Hungarian Jews, and nowhere in accent soup did she sound anything like them. Hungary's Jews were fairly well-assimilated at the time, from what I recall, and Hungarian is a language isolate, having her sound (for example) Russian or "vague Hollywood Eastern European" makes no sense at all.

Preach! I was not happy when I read the initial casting because Lotte Verbeek doesn't look at ALL Ashkenazi, but I was trying to give her a chance. The weird not-at-all-accurate accent is not helping. I can see how the character may be fun for people who have no idea what Ashkenazi Jewish culture is like or any emotional attachment to seeing it represented well, but she's driving me crazy every time she's on screen. Hopefully, the writers will do a better job with her in future episodes as she's fleshed out.

 

I don't mind Sousa having moved on from Peggy, but I don't understand why he didn't say anything to her. It doesn't fit his character IMHO.

 

Thomson was shown to be a genuinely talented interrogator last season, and it did look like he was getting somewhere with Dottie. He just had to stop trying to be Peggy to do it. I thought Dottie seemed powered down in the opening fight, too, which I have mixed feelings about. She was inhuman in her fighting agility last season, but in the opening fight, she seemed more on the same level as Peggy. I don't know if that's because she didn't care about being captured or if that was a choice to keep the Black Widows from seeming to have superpowers. I've been a big champion of superpowered Black Widows (they are in the current comic book continuity! why not in the MCU?), so that makes me sad. Also, I loved her spider-like moves. 

[AudienceofOne]

Zero Matter is kind of confusing to me. It consumed all those trucks and people and then it just lay their on the ground. Why didn't it start consuming the ground? How do you get close enough to it to put it in the container?

 

I thought it was the rip in space/time (or whatever that was) that consumed them and Zero Matter was brought through that rip at the same time. So it's dangerous but not in the same way. Kind of like uranium - you use it to make nuclear reactions but it isn't the reaction itself (if that makes any sense). So by internalising it, Frost become able to use it to create the rips, with her body being a kind of event horizon. That's how I saw it anyway.

 

I'm just bingewatching this season now and I loved these first two episodes. I find AoS a giant yawnfest so am really glad this is back on.