“SNAFU” is episode seven of season one of Marvel’s Agent Carter.
In the previous episode, “A Sin to Err”, it looked as if Dottie Underwood, the Soviet agent living in the room next to Peggy’s, had got into a room overlooking Chief Dooley’s office at the SSR in the building opposite the street so she could shoot Dr. Ivchenko, the scientist brought back from Russia in “The Iron Ceiling”. She had taken out a rifle, looked through the scope at Ivchenko – and he had given her instructions. Underwood is operating under his instruction.
Ivchenko gave Underwood instructions to kill Peggy. He himself had essentially hypnotised SSR Agent Yauch into divulging a lot of information about the office, before getting the latter to walk in front of a lorry. Underwood came across Peggy as the latter returned to The Griffith to retrieve the vial of Steve Rogers’ blood and used Peggy’s own lipstick against her. Underwood would probably have killed Peggy, except the SSR arrived to arrest her.
This episode opens in Russia in 1943. Dr. Ivchenko is approached by a medical doctor who asks if it’s true that Ivchenko can numb a man’s mind so that he feels no pain. The doctor is out of anaesthetic and they have a soldier with an infected leg that needs amputating. Ivchenko successfully manages to stop the soldier from noticing as his leg is amputated with a saw without anaesthetic. Presumably this is to show just how impressive Ivchenko’s ability to control someone’s mind is.
At the SSR, Peggy is being questioned by Sousa, who really does not seem happy with her. Sousa is accusing her of killing several people, including Agent Krzeminski in “Time and Tide”. In fact, Peggy didn’t kill any of them. Sousa also has the so-called ‘Blitzkrieg Button’ on the table, the item that actually contains Captain America’s blood. Dooley is watching the interrogation with Ivchenko when Thompson comes in and tells him that Yauch is dead. Thompson doesn’t appear to be completely happy that Ivchenko is there – even at Dooley’s invitation.
Thompson (who seems to think something doesn’t add up), Sousa and Dooley take turns attempting to interrogate Peggy. They aren’t getting very far and Peggy keeps telling them that they are wasting their time and that the agent going by the name Dottie Underwood was under their noses when Peggy was arrested. Dooley wants to talk to Peggy about the Battle of Finow; something she genuinely knows nothing about.
Jarvis arrives at the SSR with a confession written by Howard Stark. Stark – who is currently flying into the country – is willing to add the signature page of this confession in exchange for Peggy and Jarvis being freed. Dooley agrees, but only after Stark personally hands over the page, and says that Carter is now fired from the SSR.
There is a problem with this confession though, which Jarvis admits to Peggy. Jarvis was unable to contact Howard, and panicked. So he wrote the confession himself. Which means that Stark is not going to turn up with the final page. Jarvis was playing for time in the hopes that this would give them a chance to solve the case. Then Peggy notices that Ivchenko is signalling to someone outside the building, and she and Jarvis decipher the message.
This gives them a problem. Stark isn’t coming; Leviathan is. Peggy is lacking in people who believe her at the SSR at the moment, yet she needs to convince them she’s telling the truth. Ivchenko is capable of bending anyone’s mind to his will, if he has a chance. And Underwood is extremely dangerous.
It looks like we find out just what may have happened at the Battle of Finow.