Agents Carter and Thompson head to Russian-held territory, along with the old allies the Howling Commandos, to intercept Leviathan and a possible sale of Howard Stark's weapons. Meanwhile, trouble brews at home with Dottie and Sousa both running their own investigations against Peggy.
Tropes:
- Accidental Pervert: While entering the men's locker room to deliver a message, Sousa accidentally sees Peggy in her underclothes (she's changing there due to the lack of any other option that wouldn't require her to walk through the lobby in combat gear). It's not played for fanservice, though, and tips off Sousa to something important: he sees the bullet scars on the back of her shoulder that match those of the mysterious woman who was at La Martinique.
- Artistic License – History: The young Black Widows are shown watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. The film premiered at the tail end of 1937 and was released in the United States in February 1938. Though not impossible, it's highly improbable that a copy would show up in Russia by the time of Dottie's flashback.
- Bash Brothers: Peggy and Dum Dum, who fought side by side in WWII.
- Brainwashed: The little Russian girls trained to be Black Widows are fed subliminal messages with their language training, and malnourished along with being chained to their beds (a conditioning that is drilled into them for so long, it continues into adulthood).
- Brick Joke:Peggy: Does anyone else feel a chill going up their knickers?
Juniper: I would if I wore knickers.
[later]
Juniper: Really regretting the lack of knickers right now. - Bring My Brown Pants: Also doubles as a Brick Joke:Juniper: Really regretting the lack of knickers right now.
- Black Dude Dies First: Averted. Junior Juniper (who is white) is the first teammate to die, while black teammate Happy Sam Sawyer gets nothing worse than a leg wound.
- Blessed with Suck: Captured scientist Nikolai is claimed to be able to "see" in extra dimensions, but it puts such a strain on his mind to comprehend what he's seeing that he needs regular therapy to help remain sane.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: The photos of disguised Peggy, thought unimportant because they didn't show her face, turn out to be still capable of catching her when they reveal distinctive scars on her shoulder.
- Child Soldier: Dottie was trained as one when she was younger.
- Comic Book Movies Dont Use Code Names:
- Although the advertising for the episode called the Russian Child Soldier group "the Black Widow program", it is never referred to as such in the episode itself.
- Averted with the Howling Commandos. Ramirez excitedly calls them that, though Sawyer hates the name, despite fellow teammate Junior thinking it up. Each member of the Commandos has their own codename, including "Dum Dum", "Happy", "Pinky", and "Junior". Dugan even offers to give Peggy her own codename, "Miss Union Jack".
- Continuity Nod: When Jarvis is talking to Dooley, he stops himself from rubbing his ear, which Peggy told him that he does when he's lying.
- Dark Secret:
- In World War II on the Pacific Front, Thompson was awarded a medal for bravery after he singlehandedly rescued his sleeping camp from a Japanese sneak attack. Or so the story goes. In reality the Japanese had come to surrender, and Thompson was wracked by guilt when he discovered that but too afraid to reveal it to anybody. Eventually, though, he reveals it to Peggy.
- By the end of the episode Sousa has figured out that Peggy is a double agent, but has yet to reveal that to anybody.
- Distant Prologue: The episode's introductory sequence takes place in Russia during 1937.
- Easily Forgiven: Averted. Peggy is still furious with Howard and Jarvis over what happened last week.
- Also averted with Thompson. They had to fly halfway around the world, work alongside her old Howling Commando squadmates, and go through a firefight with Leviathan agents in a Black Widow compound for Thompson to finally give her the respect she deserves and for her to accept him as a colleague.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Happy thinks that "Howling Commandos" is a pretty stupid nickname. Peggy isn't too thrilled with Dum Dum's suggestion of "Miss Union Jack", either.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: Thompson got the Navy Cross for what was in truth an accidental war crime. When he finally sees actual combat, he freezes.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Peggy makes a phone call asking for help, and the Howling Commandos are eager to step up. While out in the field, Thompson starts to genuinely respect Peggy, starting with seeing how the Howling Commandos respect her.
- Foreshadowing: In the introductory flashback, a young Dottie shares some bread with another girl, whom she is later ordered to kill in a fight. In the present, a grown Dottie offers to share her bread roll with Peggy, her current target.
- Ivchenko asking Nikolai to "focus on the sound of my voice" is a hint that he'll eventually help HYDRA develop their compliance system.
- Fully-Clothed Nudity: Peggy and Sousa react with embarrassment at him accidentally seeing her underdressed, even though she's basically still wearing the equivalent of a black minidress. Well, different times, after all.
- Hollywood Encryption: Peggy is able to crack a message that a professional codebreaker tried and failed to decrypt for hours in a matter of minutes — in her head. Not only that, but it's a one time pad cypher, which are uncrackable if used correctly.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Invoked by Peggy to get to go on the mission. She demonstrates her near-immediate skills in codebreaking, translation, gun fights, parachuting, and military connections, all to get to come along... officially, as just a codebreaker.
- I Just Want to Be You: After breaking into Peggy's apartment, Dottie sits at her mirror and practices saying "Hello, I'm Peggy Carter" in an English accent.
- Kick the Morality Pet: In the opening, young Dottie shares some bread with a girl bunking next to her. In the next scene, they're forced to fight, and when Dottie wins she's ordered to snap the poor girl's neck.
- Little Miss Badass: All the nine-year-olds at the Russian school are trained in combat. It's played for drama instead of awesome; there's brainwashing, mistreatment, and the damages are permanent. Dottie handcuffs herself to her bed because she can't go to sleep otherwise.
- Men Are the Expendable Gender: Dooley says as much when explaining his reluctance on sending Peggy on a live-fire mission: If she gets killed, he gets blamed for letting a woman die. If a guy gets killed, it's treated as a sacrifice he made. Futhermore, he implies that if she goes on the mission and one of the men gets killed, it will be assumed that he got killed protecting her.
- A Minor Kidroduction: The episode begins by showing pieces of Dottie's childhood in the Black Widow program.
- Mythology Gag:
- "Happy" Sam Sawyer takes his name from the company commander of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos.
- Junior Juniper is the first teammate to die in the episode. Juniper in the comics was the first Howling Commando to die and the first Marvel hero slated for Character Death.
- Dugan offers to nickname Peggy "Miss Union Jack". In the 616-Marvel Universe, Union Jack is a British costumed hero who is a counterpart to Captain America and was active during both World Wars and the modern day through Legacy Characters. The first Union Jack appeared in Captain America: The First Avenger under his civilian identity James Falsworth.
- Neck Snap: A young Dottie in the cold open, after besting a fellow student in a fight.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Dottie fakes a moment of clumsiness to knock over Peggy's bag, giving her an excuse to rummage through it and steal Peg's room keys while pretending to put everything back inside.
- Old Shame: Turns out Thompson has a Navy Cross, but he thinks he didn't deserve it because he earned it for saving his squad after falling asleep on watch and waking up just in time... except it turns out that the real shame was that the Japanese soldiers were showing up to surrender.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: Background music of the Russian sort plays while the heroes search the Black Widow facility, and while Dottie searches through Peggy's room.
- One of the Boys:
- Peggy is close buds with the Howling Commandos, frequently exchanging teases and stories. They even offer to let her join their team, but she turns them down due to still having this case to solve.
- By the end of the episode, Thompson has warmed up enough to Peggy that he invites her for drinks after work with the rest of the guys.
- Out-Gambitted: As Dottie enters Peggy's room, she finds a string on the floor, which fell from the door latch to alert her if anyone had entered her room. As Dottie leaves she makes sure to carefully replace the string around the latch.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Dooley's digging has gotten him to the point that he's starting to realize Stark may be the victim of a set-up, and he lets Jarvis know this. Likewise, Thompson comes around and realizes that, Deliberate Values Dissonance or no, Peggy really is an incredibly capable field agent worthy of respect.
- Reluctant Mad Scientist: Ivchenko and Nikolai, two Russian professionals being held hostage by Leviathan. They're both being used to assemble the stolen plans of Howard Stark's experimental engine: Nikolai to build it, Ivchenko as his therapist. Nikolai is called a "mad scientist" by Thompson, but Ivchenko objects to that, saying that Nikolai's mind just needs help staying stable from all the abstract thinking he has to to do.
- Remember the New Guy?: Happy Sam Sawyer, Pinky Pinkerton and Junior Jupiter, adapted out for Captain America: The First Avenger and missing from the Smithsonian Exhibit in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, are seen as Howling Commandos and are implied to have been associated with the team since the war. Of note, Juniper is said to have named the team.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: The 107th press Thompson to tell a war story. What would ordinarily be a heroic tale, saving his squad from a group of Japanese soldiers that snuck into camp while everyone was asleep, is instead heartbreaking as Thompson clearly doesn't see himself as the hero of the story.
- Shout-Out: Dottie and the other students are shown learning English by watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Later, when Peggy and the Howling Commandos break into the school, the projector that starts up is showing The Dover Boys.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Pinky Pinkerton, the RP-accented, maroon beret-wearing English soldier is one for James Falsworth from Captain America: The First Avenger, a rather circular example as that iteration of Falsworth was a composite with Pinky. Downplayed with Happy Sam Sawyer who, though he has been race lifted to be black, shares none of Gabe Jones' characteristics.
- Tyke Bomb: The Russian "Black Widow" program has been training young Child Soldiers as enemy infiltrators since 1937, and is a precursor to the training that Natasha Romanoff underwent. Brutal, smart, equally adept with hand-to-hand, small arms, acrobatics, and evasion, these gals are quite formidable at a very young age.
- Vodka Drunkenski: Dugan offers Ivchenko a bottle of bourbon, to which he laments it's not vodka. After tasting it, he thinks it tastes terrible, only to ask to keep it anyway. He's last seen sleeping with it.
- Written-In Absence: Lyndsy Fonseca does not appear in the episode. The explanation given is that Angie didn't feel like going to work. Too much "ennui" you know.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: The episode ends with Peggy gaining her male colleagues' respect and convincing her boss that Stark might not be guilty but also with Sousa confirming that Peggy was the mysterious blonde at the nightclub.
