INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Marvel Cinematic Universe: ‘Agent Carter’ Season 2, Episode 8 Recap — Jason Wilkes Masters Intangibility

By Dustin Murrell
Published on: 16:44 PST, Feb 23, 2016

By the end of last week’s episode of Agent Carter, “Monsters” (Season 2, Episode 7), Jason Wilkes had been kidnapped by Whitney Frost and Joseph Manfredi. The villains were still trying to yield all of the power possible from Zero Matter, which had already infected/empowered Wilkes and Frost. Just as Peggy Carter and Edwin Jarvis caught up to Frost and Manfredi (with some assistance from Dottie Underwood), the bad guys shot Ana Jarvis in the abdomen, forcing Agent Carter to delay her pursuit to make sure Edwin’s wife was tended to.

Meanwhile, the FBI’s Vernon Masters had continued to try to get rid of the SSR, as he answers to the Council of Nine, now being reformed under the leadership of Frost. Masters has temporarily relieved Chief Daniel Sousa of his duties running the Los Angeles branch of the SSR.

For Episode 8, “The Edge of Mystery,” Wilkes reluctantly works with Frost and learns to control the intangibility brought on by Zero Matter, Chief Jack Thompson begins to question Vernon Masters, Edwin’s wife Ana Jarvis wakes up in the hospital, and we are also treated to appearances from Joseph Manfredi and Fab Five members (from Episode 5) Rose Roberts and Dr. Aloysius Samberly.

Jason Wilkes begins to harness his powers

According to the Marvel Comics Database, as part of the Earth-616 continuity, Professor Jason Wilkes was a scientist contacted by a communist who wanted Wilkes to create an invisibility ray in the 1940s. In an act of greed and treason, Wilkes created the ray. When he tested it on himself, however, he found out that it made him intangible on top of being invisible. His intangibility left him unable to flip the switch of the “antidote ray,” and he was never heard from again after his single appearance in Tales of Suspense #25 in 1962.

His role in Marvel’s Agent Carter is the only appearance Wilkes makes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In this episode, he wakes up in handcuffs, being studied by Whitney Frost. She eventually convinces Wilkes that he should join her and together they could harness the full power of Zero Matter. As the episode ends, the two of them stand before a rift through which Zero Matter enters our world — the Zero Matter absorbs Wilkes but leaves Frost behind.

Dr. Samberly has built a gamma ray cannon using specs provided by Howard Stark. When fired at the rift, Professor Wilkes was thrown to the ground as it closed. He was missing some hair, his skin appeared to be bubbling, but he was still breathing (though unconscious). Although not absorbed by the Zero Matter, Whitey survived what would normally have been a lethal gunshot from Jarvis.

Ana Jarvis

The show begins with a flashback of Mrs. Jarvis telling her husband that she has accepted the fact that his life is sometimes at risk as Howard Stark’s assistant. She wakes up in the middle of the episode, and Edwin doesn’t have the heart to tell her that the gunshot left Ana unable to bare children.

After Edwin decides to join Peggy in pursuit of Frost, he leaves Rose in charge of Ana at the hospital, and has included a signed copy of his last will and testament, in the event that he dies.

Hearing voices

While trying to learn from Wilkes, Frost asks the professor if he can hear the voice from the Zero Matter.

“Do you hear it?… The voice. As if it’s coming from your own thoughts. But it’s coming from some place else. Do you hear it? Or am I truly going crazy?”

Wilkes nods yes, he also hears it. Just before he is absorbed by the Zero Matter later in the episode, he says he can hear the voice. Frost can’t hear it, and she’s left unabsorbed.

Vernon Masters and Chief Jack Thompson

Masters has been instructed to find dirt on Agent Carter, so that Masters has a reason to get rid of her at the SSR. Thompson finds a heavily redacted file on Peggy from the time she spent serving with the SOE (a spy organization of the British government that existed after World War II).

When he confronts her with the file, she ignores it, claiming that it seems rather convenient he was able to find the exact kind of file Masters had needed him to find. When he hands the file over to Master, Thompson asks if finding the file was really “too good to be true.”

“Jack, what’s happened and what’s true are two different things. This is an official document. That means it’s true, regardless of what happened. Do I really need to be telling you this?”

By the end of the episode, Thompson realizes that Masters is a bad guy. While Vernon slips through his fingers, Jack joins Carter and Sousa in their pursuit of Frost.

Joseph Manfredi

The criminal mastermind and newly rekindled love-interest of Whitney Frost is an integral part of this episode. We learn that he killed all of his opponents in a poker game the night that Frost dumped him for Calvin Chadwick. We also get a glimpse of the Italian restaurant (at which he is a chef) that acts as the front for his criminal activities.

When Carter and Sousa need to get a message to Frost, Manfredi acts as the go-between. He is also the only one who can convince Frost that the scar on her face makes her even more beautiful than she already was.

As the episode ends, Wilkes is still unconscious. Manfredi and his men only refrain from shooting Carter and company because Frost knows they can be used as bargaining chips with Wilkes, to coerce him into working with her further.

With Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. set to return on March 8, the episode that aired immediately following this one on ABC is the lead-in to the season finale, which airs March 1.

Where To Watch

ABC airs Marvel’s Agent Carter Tuesday evenings at 9/8c while Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is on a mid-season break. Highlights of this week’s episodes of Agent Carter (“The Edge of Mystery” and “A Little Song and Dance”) will be made available at ABC’s website. Beginning Wednesday, replays of Agent Carter can be streamed on-demand with a Hulu Plus Subscription. Although not currently available through Hulu or Netflix, the first season of Marvel’s Agent Carter can be streamed if purchased through Amazon.

[Image via ABC]

Share this article: Marvel Cinematic Universe: ‘Agent Carter’ Season 2, Episode 8 Recap — Jason Wilkes Masters Intangibility
marvel marvel cinematic universe agent carter MCU
More from Inquisitr