So much happened within the first five minutes of the episode, I thought my head was going to spin. From the bat we saw young girls chained up. Trained in etiquette. Schooled in fighting. It was fascinating and then gratifying to see that was what Dottie went through. After her strange appearance and odd glances, followed by her brutal attack last week, some understanding about who she really was felt natural. Her invasion of Peggy’s room was threatening in a way that felt satisfying. You can tell that Dottie is up to no good at all and they way she pretended to be Peggy, left me wondering when she might be doing something that really causes trouble.
In the office, things were tough as they decrypted a message that plainly implicated Howard Stark which would draw them to Russia. This was one mission that Carter wan’t going to let the boys go on without her. If she hadn’t convinced the 107th to get on board, she would have been stuck in America. It was a nice seeing the team back together. They brought Peggy into the fold and left the SSR guys in the cold. The Howling Commandos see her as one of them, but it still wasn’t enough to really change the minds of her coworkers.
It was nice to acknowledge that Thompson seems to have a thing for Peggy masked under all of his misogyny. Time and time again, he’s been proving that he while he may be a jerk on the outside, he may not actually be that bad. This week he shared his war story that got him accepted into the pack with the rest of the HC. It is the HC’s acceptance and deference to Peggy as the leader, led to Thompson respecting her a bit more. There’s a lot to Thompson and it’s nice to see him open up.
The actual mission in Russia, brought us to the very school in Russia where Dottie received her training. There a girl feigning innocence, struck out at Dum Dum and even killed one of their team. They did come to find some imprisoned men who were being forced to work on schematics. Their escape was possibly one of the most interesting sequences. There were so many things happening that really developed a number of the characters. The fact that Nikolai’s fellow prison mate killed him for trying to use Happy Sam Sawyer as ransom was satisfying. While, it almost felt like I should have seen it coming that Thompson went nearly catatonic when gunfire started to go off around them. Yet again we got more of how brilliant Peggy is in a jam.
One of the most interesting aspects that’s been festering is Sousa who went from an ally of Peggy, to deeming her a suspect. Now that the power balance seems to have shifted and she has more respect from Thompson, it’s seems fitting that he would be betrayed by one of the most upstanding agents in the SSR.
What did you think of the episode?
So, I pondered... 