Carter continues investigating the mystery behind the frozen lake with the help of Professor Wilkes, while Chadwick and his wife Frost struggle to deal with the Council shutting down Isodyne.
Tropes:
- Ancient Conspiracy: The Council of Nine has overtures of this, meeting in the backroom of a ritzy club, lit by candles and demonstrating large amounts of power and resources.
- Bait-and-Switch: Wilkes asks Peggy about her life story. The next time we cut back to her, she's saying "And suddenly, I was alone. I had nowhere to turn. And it dawned on me that I was going to have to face this all by myself." This all sounds like she's describing what happened after Steve Rogers sacrificed himself, but in actuality she's describing a schoolgirl prank gone wrong.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Sousa uses the word "colored" to describe black people.
-
Fridge Logic: The film Wilkes shows Peggy of the Zero Matter explosion shows the rift pulling in everything around it, from rocks, to people, even trucks, some of them dragged in from behind the camera... so why wasn't the camera itself dragged in?
- The Man Behind the Man: Chadwick is part of the Council of Nine, but he's mostly controlled by them. They often make decisions without even asking his opinion, and are mostly just using him to get a future senator in their pocket.
- Never Found the Body: Wilkes seems to die in the Zero Matter explosion. No body is found, but then Zero Matter doesn't leave bodies. The more suspicious part is that Frost manages to escape despite standing right next to him at the time.
- Not What It Looks Like: Hilariously averted. Ana walks in on Edwin and Peggy in a compromising position due to a friendly judo match, but she knows exactly what's going on and just remarks on it with mild amusement. She is actually the one throwing in an innuendo.Ana: He's never more powerful than when he's on his back.
- Politically Correct History: Averted as with the previous episode, this time thanks to the Deliberate Values Dissonance from above. Sousa refers to the Dunbar Hotel as popular with the "coloreds". That would have been the polite and acceptable term at the time.
- Revealing Cover-Up: Invoked by Peggy.Carter: Clearly we've kicked a very formidable hornet's nest. This case is much larger than we initially thought.
- Sigil Spam: Clarifying the pin from the previous episode, Calvin Chadwick's club has a logo that is practically identical with Project Distant Star Return, a HYDRA operation. At this time and place in the MCU, it represents the Council of Nine, confirmed by
Word of God to be the MCU equivalent of the Secret Empire, a subsidiary of HYDRA. - Took a Level in Badass: Jarvis, mildly. Between seasons 1 and 2, he's been training in fencing and judo. While he's still no match for Peggy, he does manage to get in a good hit.
- Understatement: Upon seeing Sousa go into his office and start to use his crutch to take out his frustration on some office furniture, Jarvis remarks, "I fear Chief Sousa may be losing his composure."
- What the Fu Are You Doing?: It seems where Jarvis is going, but when Peggy joins the sparring match it's averted.
- The Worf Effect: According to Sousa, two SSR agents who were ordered to transport Jane Scott's body, one of them was a marine with three tours while the other one had a black belt. They're effortlessly killed by the assassin Rufus Hunt.
