“The Lady in the Lake” is episode one of season two of Marvel’s Agent Carter.
It opens with a woman and, by the looks of it, some men entering a bank together. The woman, who looks to be Peggy Carter, approaches a bank teller who asks her whether it’s a deposit or a withdrawal. The woman raises her head, revealing it’s Dottie Underwood who escaped in “Valediction”, and pulls out a gun telling the man a withdrawal. The men who entered also have guns and tell everyone to get on their feet. One man, who can only be seen from the rear and is wearing a hat, looks as if he may be something than he appears to be.
Underwood is having one of the staff open the bank’s vault and also asks for the key to safe deposit box number 143. When the vault is opened, one of Underwood’s accomplices enters it – and gets struck in the face by a shotgun held by Peggy Carter. The man who opened the vault also has a gun and the man in the bank signals and everyone else pulls out guns. The man is Jack Thompson and the bank robbers are seriously outnumbered. Peggy tells Underwood to put her gun on the floor. She starts to comply – then knocks down the other SSR agent. Peggy fires at Underwood but misses and the two fight. Underwood gets knocked to the floor and goes for the gun – but Peggy hits from behind with a bag of change. That probably hurt. Peggy tells the now unconscious Underwood that she loves the hat – it’s similar to the one Peggy was wearing at the beginning of “Now Is Not the End” and Peggy’s line is similar to Rose’s.
It’s 1947 and Sousa is in Los Angeles. He pulls up at a crime scene and a Homicide detective, Henry, asks Souza if he’s the science cop. Henry asks if Sousa has heard of the Lady of the Lake killer. Sousa hasn’t; he’s only been in LA six months and the killings happened two years ago. The killer dumped two women in a lake but was never caught. He disappeared. Until now. A dead woman in the exact same lake. Henry wouldn’t have called the SSR in but his lieutenant is a stickler. The reason is that it’s the hottest day of the year. But, according to Henry, the lake doesn’t know it. For there is a significant chunk of ice in it. Which is odd. There is also a really big ice cube, easily big enough to hold a person. Which it does – the dead woman. That’s also unusual.
Back in New York and Peggy is talking to Dottie. She wants to know Dottie’s contacts, her handlers and other Communist agents in the U.S. Dottie is not impressed. Peggy says that Dottie has one tool, fear, something that little girls who grow up handcuffed to beds learn. Only Peggy is not afraid of Dottie, she tells her as she removes the handcuffs. Peggy wants to know what the pin is that was in box 143. There is no owner on the bank registry so why did Dottie want it?
Thompson gets a call from Sousa – who is the chief of the West Coast office. They verbally spar for a bit then Sousa tells Thompson about the dead woman. They don’t know who the woman is yet. Sousa says that the LA office personnel are too green, so he wants a hand. He is sure Thompson can spare one guy. Thompson has just the man for him.
Peggy is annoyed about Thompson interrupting her interview. He tells her that she is finished with the case; she’s heading to LA because Sousa specifically asked for her. No he didn’t. Peggy says no-one knows Dottie like her; they used to be neighbours. Thompson points out that Peggy didn’t know that Dottie was a spy. Besides, the SSR can function perfectly well without Peggy. Thompson will handle Dottie.
Jarvis collects Peggy from the plane when it lands in LA. she heard that Howard Stark came out west because of a defence contract. Jarvis agrees. And that Jarvis came out to arrange Howard’s estate. Jarvis thinks he can see where this is heading. Peggy is puzzled. Jarvis assumes it’s because of the flamingo. As there is one in a cage in the back of the car. The newest member of the Stark menageries, Bernard. Bernard Stark.
Stark’s latest hobby – running a moving pictures studio – is keeping him busy. Apparently he fancies himself as Cecil B. DeMille. Jarvis does not sound convinced. Peggy thinks Fatty Arbuckle is more like it. Jarvis has plenty of free time to drive Peggy around until Howard returns. Peggy wants to get out of his hair as quickly as possible. Jarvis says it is no imposition. Peggy will have no idea as to how foreign Los Angeles seems to a civilised person like herself. They eat avocadoes with everything, the foliage is preposterous and the drivers are both abundant and abundantly irresponsible. Truthfully Jarvis has been bored since his last involvement with Peggy. And Howard may be gone for some time.
The SSR is under cover as a theatrical agency. Rose, formally of the New York office, is watching a couple of female tap-dancers when Peggy arrives. Rose manages to get rid of them and tells Peggy that they don’t advertise, their sign is barely legible and their address in the city directory is wrong. Yet still they find them. This has another hidden office, far bigger than the front. Sousa is surprised to see Peggy; when she says he didn’t know she was coming, he makes out she’s a day early. Apparently Sousa has not been returning Peggy’s messages.
Detective Henry arrives with some files on the Lady in the Lake case. He asks how many agents they need; as many as it takes to catch the killer is the answer. Henry thinks that none are needed. He will catch the bad guy using the help of the press. Peggy asks what if the murder and the freezing are unconnected. And she and Sousa finish each other’s chain of though. The SSR were brought in because a lake froze in e heat wave. So they need to determine if the murder and the freezing are the same crime.
The woman’s body is in a very cold room, even though there are heat lamps on. No autopsy has been performed yet, because the woman is frozen completely through. She’s only just beginning to thaw and the ME says the only way to perform an autopsy is with a chisel. The body has stab wounds consistent with the Lady in the Lake killer and her shoes have been switched, something the killer did that was kept from the press. Henry says they have their guy. The ME doesn’t know if the lake froze the woman or the woman froze the lake. And there’s one more thing. He turns off the light and the body starts glowing. It’s time for that chisel.
Dr Samberly of the SSR says that it isn’t ice. He doesn’t know what it is. He also has a bit of a grudge. The glowing comes from some sort of radioactive isotope. This would require a particle accelerator. And there’s a second one in Pasadena, belonging to Isodyne Energy. Where Samberly applied.
The receptionist at Isodyne Energy doesn’t want to let them in. Peggy asks for a restroom and Sousa distracts the receptionist as Peggy steals a key card to get in. Inside the facility, she is approached by a scientist who wants her to try something. He sends a red liquid through some glass and asks Peggy to try it. As expected. She asks if the man is trying to poison her; he replies it’s ethanol. So yes. It’s the best wine Peggy has ever tasted. She asks the man about the dead woman; she was a particle physicist who worked at Isodyne – and was reputedly involved with the owner, Calvin Chadwick.
Isodyne is owned by Calvin Chadwick and Henry doesn’t want to bother him. Sousa gets rid of Henry and sends Peggy to the races, where Chadwick will be. Jarvis’ wife has picked out some outfits for Peggy to wear at the races; Ana Jarvis is not at all what Peggy expected. More like Mr Jarvis in a girdle Ana suggests. Jarvis gave Ana the impression that Peggy was a circus strongman in a wig. Ana has picked out some outfits for Peggy, including a garter. That contains a holster and a gun. Chadwick is talkative – until Peggy mentions the dead woman’s name. At which point he loses interest.
There are machinations going on back in New York; it looks like the SSR’s successor agency may be coming into existence. Thompson is less successful at interrogating Underwood than he hoped. There are also things going on in LA – and there’s something that looks a bit familiar.