Whitney and the SSR race to open the Zero Matter rift one last time to determine its eventual fate: sealed up or let loose.
Tropes:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Whitney meets such a pitiful end locked up in an insane asylum, with her once-brilliant mind shattered. It's really hard not to feel sorry for her.
- Big Damn Heroes: Samberly and Jarvis save the day just when it seems that everybody is going to be consumed by the Zero Matter rift.
- Big Damn Kiss: In the end, Peggy plants a huge one on Sousa.
- Black Comedy: Manfredi interrogates one of his guys just to distract Whitney and ends up getting a real confession. He then supposedly kills the poor schmuck off-screen.
- Book Ends: Ana says goodbye to Peggy the same way she said hello, with a giant hug.
- Break the Haughty: Removing the Zero Matter from Whitney's body, leaving her Brought Down to Normal. Not that she didn't deserve this trope, though.
- Call-Back: "A deal with the devil", eh, Nonna Manfredi? You did call Peggy the devil earlier, so Joseph takes the hint.
- Car Fu: Jarvis rams Whitney with Howard's car.
- Chain of People: Peggy is holding on to Sousa's tether, while she's held by Stark, who is held by Thompson, and Wilkes is holding on to him.
- Cliffhanger: Thompson is shot, possibly fatally, by a gloved person in a suit who takes the M. Carter file.
- Continuity Nod:
- Howard finally got that Flying Car working.
- He also hires Wilkes for a project in Malibu.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Wilkes decides to take a job working for Howard Stark and accepts that he and Ms. Carter don't have a future.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Even in the midst of trying not to get sucked into a Zero Matter black hole, Howard Stark just can't help himself.Howard: I want you to know I'm not harboring any unsavory thoughts right now! [Beat] Wait, there's one.
- Driven to Madness: Whitney ends up driven completely insane by Zero Matter, and even its removal doesn't heal her shattered mind.
- Enemy Mine: Howard Stark, Wilkes, Sousa, and Peggy team up with Joseph Manfredi to stop Whitney.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Invoked by Hank when he's interrogated by Manfredi about supposed betrayal, only for Manfredi to reply that Hank always hated his mother.
- Failed a Spot Check: When Whitney arrives at the Zero Matter rift that has just opened up, she immediately begins trying to absorb it, while somehow failing to notice the utterly massive piece of Stark technology aimed right at her. Likewise, Peggy's team are so focused on Sousa cranking the Rift Generator to close the rift that they fail to notice that his tether (tied to a lamp post behind them) is coming undone.
- Forged Message: After photographing all of Whitney's notes on the rift generator, Sousa alters one equation (turning a 6 into an 8) in the hopes that the need to find and fix this will slow Whitney down enough to ensure that the SSR completes the generator first. The SSR does build their generator first, though whether or not Sousa's altering the equation contributed is never specified.
- Framing the Guilty Party: Manfredi gets his man Hank to play along with a brutal questioning to get Whitney out of the room, pretending to think Hank is working for Tommy Fontana. Only it turns out Hank is working for the Feds.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Wilkes reveals that the Zero Matter is sentient, and is actively manipulating the people it infects in order to access our dimension and devour it.
- Heroic Sacrifice: One is required to engage the manual emergency shutdown on the rift generator. Peggy, Howard, Wilkes, and Jack each volunteer, and argue with each other over who should be the one to do it. Meanwhile, Sousa just wordlessly goes over to do it while everyone else is arguing. He survives though.
- He's Back!: After eight episodes, Wilkes is finally restored completely to normal.
- Hollywood Kiss: Despite the title's indications to the contrary, Peggy and Sousa's climactic pash is not one of these. It's far too enthusiastic for that. There's indisputably tongue involved. In fact, the episode sets viewers up for a classic Hollywood Smooch of Victory with the set soundstage as a backdrop, then... immediately cuts to another scene. The kiss happens in Sousa's office, no audience in sight.
- Idiot Ball: When Sousa approaches the Rift Generator to manually shut it off, he ties himself to a lamp post in an attempt to prevent being sucked into the rift when it closes. The remaining team members simply stand by and watch him struggle for several minutes and no-one thinks to go over to the lamp post and make sure his tether stays secure. Even though the camera shifts to it several times showing that it is indeed working loose. This naturally leads to the mad scramble to catch his tether when it comes free.
- Just Think of the Potential!: Howard believes that studying the Zero Matter will have great benefits... though Peggy believe he's more interested in his bank account.
- Love Martyr: Manfredi continues to pine for Whitney despite the fact she's completely insane and in love with another man.
- Molotov Truck: The Zero Matter rift is closed by sending Howard Stark's hovercar into it with the gamma cannon's core inside, then blowing it up. They even blow up the car by sticking a rag into the gas tank and lighting it on fire, just like a Molotov cocktail.
- Mythology Gag:
- The last scene of Peggy saying her (premature) farewell to Jarvis shows a cinema in the background where the movie's featured actress is "Mary Kane" (one letter off from Mary Jane).
- In Whitney Frost's final scene in the mental hospital, her face is scarred through self-harm — in her insanity, she's trying to replicate the Zero Matter facial cracks. In Marvel comics, Whitney Frost is a super-villain named Madame Masque
, who wears a golden mask to cover the scars she got in an accident.
- Negated Moment of Awesome: Whitney's boast gets interrupted by Jarvis ramming her with a car.
- Never Found the Body: Vernon's fate after Wilkes explodes isn't seen, although it's presumed he died, since Zero Matter usually doesn't leave bodies behind anyway.
- Noodle Incident: How Howard and Manfredi know each other and their past shenanigans are not fully explained. Apparently, Howard stole Manfredi's underwear.
- Self-Harm: At the end, Whitney is shown with multiple scratches on her face, apparently as a result of her trying to replicate her Zero Matter scar. Manfredi brings roses for her but is stopped by the orderly for fear that she would use the thorns to scratch her face up some more.
- Sequel Hook: Several, though thanks to the show's cancellation, we never get any answers:
- Dottie Underwood is still at large.
- The mystery of the Arena Club pin key.
- Whoever shot Thompson to get that M. Carter file, and the file itself.
- Serious Business: "Easy! Let the man put the condiment down!"
- Shout-Out: Tommy Fontana's name seems to be modified from Tony Montana.
- Skewed Priorities: Howard Stark multiple times. When Manfredi shows up with Jarvis at gunpoint he pleads with him... to let Jarvis set down the mustard he had asked him to bring first before negotiations. Later on he pulls the rest of the scientists into a discussion on what to name the device they're using to open a rift into the Zero Matter dimension, while they're racing against the clock to construct it. Then he whiles away the waiting for Whitney by practicing his golf game with the rift serving as the hole.
- Skinny Dipping: Howard apparently indulges in this.
- Stealth Pun: Rose does the rivets for the gamma cannon, referencing the World War II mascot for women doing jobs while the men were off fighting, Rosie the Riveter.
- The Stinger: Thompson is shot by an unknown assailant.
- Take a Third Option: Jarvis, of all people, comes up for a way to close the Zero Matter Rift without anyone dying.
- Unrequited Love: It's clear, in the end, that Whitney never loved Manfredi and dreams only of her husband, Calvin Chadwick.
- Villainous Breakdown: Whitney was already driven insane by the Zero Matter, but the shock of losing it causes her to detach from reality completely.
- Wham Shot: Literally; Thompson is shot by a mysterious figure who takes custody of the redacted file on M. Carter.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: By the end of the episode Sousa declares the Isodyne case closed. However, the fates of the four surviving members of the Council of Nine are left completely unmentioned.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: If Whitney wasn't Drunk on the Dark Side already, she takes it up to eleven in this episode.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: After calling Thompson out for his ambition and how easy it was for Masters to take advantage of him for that, Peggy says, "You're a good man, Agent Thompson."
- You, Get Me Coffee: In an ironic (and karmic) twist of fate, this ends up being Jack Thompson's role while the rest of the heroes build the rift generator. He takes it well, though.
