While Peggy's search for Howard's thieves continues, the SSR finds damning evidence linking Carter herself to their investigation. Likewise, Leviathan agents make their move against her and the SSR.
Tropes:
- Acting Unnatural: The SSR agents who clear out the automat continue to act like customers, perusing the menu and sitting down, even though the suddenly near-empty restaurant is a huge tipoff that something's about to happen.
- Apologetic Attacker: Peggy apologizes to Thompson before knocking him out. Given the way he treated her in the first half of the season, it's likely she would've taken more pleasure in it before they came to an understanding in the previous episode.
- Asshole Victim: The dentist Dottie murders, who had all the marks of a sexual harasser.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Despite failing to actually kill Carter, "Dottie" manages to get her out of the way by delivering her right into the SSR's hands. Meanwhile, Ivchenko works himself further into the SSR's confidence, and while he doesn't manage to hypnotize Dooley, he does manage to gain valuable intelligence from Yauch and then disposes of him without a hitch.
- Bait-and-Switch: Dottie secures a room on the other side of the street from the SSR headquarters, and points a rifle right at Chief Dooley's window. At that same moment, Ivchenko opens the window while chatting with Dooley, and it appears Dottie is about to snipe him for leaking Leviathan intel. But instead she starts flashing a light to let him know she's there, and Ivchenko secretly hand-signs to her to give her further instructions, revealing they're in cahoots.
- Be Careful What You Wish For:
- Throughout the season, Peggy has been trying to gain the respect of her male colleagues, to get them to treat her as an equal. At the end of the episode, where they now know she's a One-Woman Army, but also think she's a dangerous criminal in league with a traitor, having her handcuffed to a desk, about to be interrogated by Thompson and Sousa, Dooley's last instructions to them are, "Don't go easy on her because she's a woman." And we already know, "Don't go easy" can include the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique.
- Ivchenko's opening flashback shows him and other Russians being forced to join Leviathan. One man begs not to join, saying he wants to reunite with his wife and children. The captain there promptly kills him, and says his family will be joining him soon.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Subverted. When going through the list of Howard Stark's most recent girlfriends, Peggy crosses out the most famous names out of doubt that they could really be undercover Leviathan assassins. Jarvis responds that the look he saw in Ginger Rogers's eyes as she left were the "darkest gates to the abyss".
- Bitch Slap: Every single one of the ex-lovers of Howard slaps Jarvis. On the last time Peggy catches the arm of the next woman, only for her to kick Jarvis in the shin instead.
- The Bus Came Back: After being arrested at the end of Episode 2, Sheldon McFee returns to be interrogated by Sousa. He's been in jail in the time in between.
- Butt-Monkey: Jarvis is very reluctant to accompany Peggy in questioning Stark's ex-girlfriends, as he was the one sent to escort them away. Sure enough, most of them slap, punch, and kick him upon seeing him again.
- Casting Couch: The dentist who was interviewing Dottie for a secretary job was clearly trying to maneuver her into trying this until she decided to kill him.
- Chekhov's Gun: Dottie uses Carter's tranquilizing lipstick from the first episode against her.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Peggy delivers a thorough beating to the SSR agents sent to arrest her in the automat.
- Diner Brawl: The SSR agents try to arrest Peggy in the middle of an automat and she is forced to fight her way out with Jarvis as back-up.
- Double Standard: Discussed by several of Howard's ex-flings.One of Howard's exes: If I did [what he does], if any girl did that, you know what she would be called? [cut to another of his exes]
Another one of Howard's exes: A floozy! - Drugged Lipstick: Dottie uses Peggy's "Sweet Dreams" lipstick against her to knock her out.
- Eye Scream: Involving a dentist's drill. Brrrr...
- Femme Fatale: Dottie turns out to have posed as one, in order to seduce secret intel out of Howard Stark.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: A major theme of this episode.
- Ivchenko says early on that little girls are trained into Black Widows because females are often overlooked.
- Peggy suspects Leviathan's agent that ruined Howard Stark was a Femme Fatale that seduced him to slip past his defenses. It's not until it's too late that she realizes she too overlooked the true culprit: her neighbor "Dottie".
- By being a secured asset with the SSR, Ivchenko is in the perfect place to manipulate the SSR from within. Thompson and Yauch even spot Ivchenko hypnotizing Dooley, but neither of them do anything about it.
- The SSR hadn't suspected Peggy to be a double agent until now, only an overly ambitious secretary.
- Angie and Dottie are both basically dismissed by the SSR as just overly emotional women.
- Angie even recites a monologue from A Doll's House in her audition, a play all about an overlooked woman.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Dottie uses Peggy's knockout lipstick against her.
- Hypno Pendulum: Ivchenko rubs the ring on his right hand while hypnotizing subjects. The soundtrack also adopts an odd, background whine, so there may be some high-frequency mind-whammy at work.
- Impairment Shot: The camera goes hazy and shakey after Dottie drugs Peggy with the knockout lipstick.
- Karmic Death: The pervert dentist who's implied to harass his other female assistants is murdered by Dottie as he tries to make a move on her. And with his own tools, no less.
- Kick the Dog: Peggy can handle a Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique. What she can't handle is Dooley telling her interrogator not to go easy on her "just because she's a girl".
- Kiss of Death: In the previous episode, Dottie stole Peggy's "Sweet Dreams" knockout lipstick. Here she encounters her coming down the hallway, and
gives her a big kiss on the lips to knock her out so she can kill her. - Look Both Ways: Ivchenko hypnotizes Agent Yauch to get intel about the Stark tech, then has him go to his favorite bar, order a glass of finest bourbon, enjoy it as the best ever, then walk into traffic.
- The Mole: Ivchenko turns out to be a willing agent of Leviathan, not a Reluctant Mad Scientist as he claimed. By casually gaining trust from Chief Dooley, he's ready to strike for Leviathan from within.
- Moment of Weakness: Peggy Carter shows off being an awesome One-Woman Army... and immediately afterward is rendered helpless by one man with a gun. She eventually outwits him, though.
- Mugging the Monster: In this case, sexually harassing the Soviet assassin.
- One-Woman Army: Peggy is attacked in L&L's Automat by numerous SSR agents, all of whom she gives a pretty thorough beating. Dooley is incredulous to hear she kicked the stuffing out of all of them.Dooley: You're telling me one woman took out an entire team of highly trained government agents? That's what you're telling me?
- Pet the Dog: Dooley takes Peggy aside to chastise her for hijacking his interrogation of Ivchenko, to which Peggy protests by explaining her theory about Leviathan. After hearing it, Dooley softens and orders her to keep investigating that theory. It surprises Peggy entirely to hear him suddenly encourage her ideas.
- It's messed up, but Dr. Ivchenko does at least give Agent Yauch the chance to enjoy a top-shelf bourbon before going through with the Psychic-Assisted Suicide.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Dr. Ivchenko hypnotizes Agent Yauch into helping Leviathan and then walking in front of a car.
- Really Gets Around:
- Tons of jokes abound about Howard Stark's extreme playboy antics.Peggy: I need you to get me a list of all the women that Howard has entertained in the last year.
Jarvis: I don’t think there’s enough ink in the whole of New York to complete that request..
Peggy: Fine. Just in the last six months, then. Is that possible?
Jarvis: Oh yes. Yes, I suggest we start with the Western hemisphere.
Peggy: Oh, please. - Peggy receives a list from a jeweler of all the women Howard Stark has bought bracelets for in the last six months. Jarvis comments that the list looks shorter than he expected, but it still looks to be more than three pages long.Jarvis: Oh, it's shorter than I thought it would be.
Peggy: How can he possibly meet this many women?
Jarvis: Oh, the Academy Awards are a very busy time. - An entire montage plays of angry ex-girlfriends of Howard Stark.
- Tons of jokes abound about Howard Stark's extreme playboy antics.
- Rule of Three: Three girls slap Jarvis. Peggy catches the third's arm, only for her to kick Jarvis in the shin.
- Scars Are Forever: Peggy figures the Femme Fatale that ruined Howard Stark would have scars on her wrist from handcuffing herself to bed like Black Widows do. It's only just before she falls unconscious at Dottie's hands that she discovers her neighbor is the one with the scars.
- She Really Can Act: In-universe. We first see Angie practicing for an audition, but her line reading is fairly stiff. All her previous auditions went badly too, and Angie seriously considers quitting acting and going into secretary school. When she needs to distract the SSR, though, Angie wills herself to turn on the waterworks and burst into tears over a fake anecdote about her grandma, making the agents too uncomfortable to keep questioning her. Peggy overhears it, and encourages her to keep trying out for theater after that.
- Sherlock Scan: With only one visit to Dooley's office, Ivchenko can deduce that the SSR chief is having marital problems due to having a bed, toothbrush, and shaving tools in his office and the presence of a downturned photo frame while another with two kids in it is still standing. Later on he deduces that Agent Yauch suffers from Middle Child Syndrome in less than half a minute.
- Shout-Out: Angie performs a monologue from A Doll's House in the diner.
- Spanner in the Works: Sousa inadvertently screws up Ivchenko's hypnosis on Dooley by interrupting their meeting. Neither he nor Dooley realize the chief was only seconds away from becoming a brainwashed puppet.
- Sweeps Week Lesbian Kiss: Dottie to Peggy, though without any romantic feeling whatsoever. Instead, it's just a way to knock her unconscious.
- Tempting Fate:
- Subverted with Ivchenko. Him opening a window and poking his head through just as Dottie is pointing a sniper rifle at him might have seemed like a horrible ironic twist, but it turns out Ivchenko is completely aware she's there and doing something more than just sight-seeing.
- The dentist who Dottie murders made covering it up really easy by sending away all his staff before their interview.
- Unusual Euphemism: Peggy and Jarvis investigate the women Howard "entertained" in the past year.
- Wham Episode: Both Dottie and the entire SSR turn against Peggy, and Peggy is arrested by the SSR. Dottie is revealed to be the hidden killer.
- Woman Scorned: Suspecting that Howard might have had his intel compromised thanks to a Femme Fatale, Peggy and Jarvis question his most recent girlfriends. Cue a montage of all of them slapping Jarvis upon recognizing him.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Just when it seems Angie's tricks worked and Peggy can get away safely, Dottie intercepts her and botches Peg's escape, causing her to be captured by the SSR.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: When Ivchenko has no further use for his hypnotized subject, he orders him to kill himself so he can't tell the SSR anything.
