I'm Peggy Carter.
- I work for the SSR,
America's premier covert intelligence agency.
But now that the war is over,
my mission parameters these days are...
Agent Carter, cover the phones.
different.
That all changed when an old friend
asked me to become a double agent.
I have a vault. Somebody cleaned me out.
A couple of weeks later, my inventions...
They start turning up on the black market.
He left me with an ally.
Edwin Jarvis. He'll help you in any way he can.
As of this moment, Howard Stark is a fugitive from justice.
You're the only one that can clear my name.
What did the lab rats say?
They think it's some kind of long-range transmitter.
How long? Moscow-long?
You can't reveal that you found these items.
They'll only use it to tear you down.
- Call it in.
We got the Stark stuff.
Ease up on that, will you?
I don't want to end up inside out.
We're getting promotions out of this.
Watch where you're going.
Krzeminski would still be with us today if it wasn't for Howard Stark,
whether he pulled the trigger or not.
We're only neck-deep in this mess because of him.
You'll get your package when we get our money.
You think the deal's gonna go sour?
Not with you, me, and Jimmy standing guard.
One-grand bills? You ever even seen these?
I can assure you that is legal tender,
and far easier to transport than 50,000 singles.
We'd believe you if we saw an extra 100 of them.
That was not the agreed-upon amount.
Mr. Mink does not smuggle goods into this country for free, Mr. Jarvis.
Now, the inherent value of any commodity or service
- should really have no effect...
You were saying?
Whoever's in there...
50,000 American dollars. That was our understanding.
Fifty was for the delivery.
The extra hundred's for us to keep our traps shut.
And I got three guys outside that agree with me.
Come out, or I'm coming in.
Who's in there?
We'll see if he can connect when he gets out of the minors.
What's that?
Is that Jimmy?
Now, I'm sorry, but I can't agree to such, pardon my language...
Extortion.
It's not "extrorshing." This is a shakedown.
You could hand me the money, or he could hand me the money.
Very well.
I have a further $50,000 in here.
It's all I have.
Take it or leave it.
Count it.
Sorry, you're counting the ransom in front of me?
Our boss is a very precise man.
Your manners never cease to disappoint.
You drive a hard bargain, Mr. Jarvis.
Hopefully our package is intact.
- Ah, my favorite foreigners.
Did Mr. Mink have his minions blackmail you?
Indeed, sir.
You certainly know how to pick your partners.
Well, Mr. Mink is a greedy, black-market smuggler, sure,
but he got me back into the country,
and he's predictable in his greed.
I like predictable, and I like greedy.
And I was so close to running the table.
So, how are you two getting along?
Peggy tried Anna's goulash?
Peggy, Jarvis know you can do 107 one-armed pushups?
Howard, you came back to New York City
risking notice from every American intelligence agency.
- Hmm. - Why?
Let's get back to my place. We'll have some sherry.
- I'll explain everything. - Stop the car.
- The residence is only a block away. - What's the matter?
See that man waiting for the bus? That's Agent Yauch.
You see that sedan parked by the fire hydrant?
That is Agent Henry. Make a left.
That was my least-known property. A dummy corporation holds the lease.
And another dummy corporation owns that company.
The only people who know about that penthouse
besides me and Jarvis are Lana Turner, Jane Russell...
You do realize that my work colleague Ray Krzeminski
was killed while you were out gallivanting?
I was not gallivanting.
The SSR blames you, and they're out for blood.
We must assume they're about to uncover all of your residences,
your bank accounts, your corporations.
So perhaps turning up unexpectedly was not your best plan.
So, where can I hide?
God, help me.
Take a right up ahead.
Ah.
The Griffith.
How's Miriam?
Get in.
What? I hate small spaces.
What if the chain snaps and I fall to my death?
Don't worry. I'll never reveal that Howard Stark's dead body
is lying rotting in the bottom of a dumbwaiter shaft.
What if I suffocate?
If Miriam finds us, we'll be much more comfortable
in an electric chair.
Just for the record, I...
Miss Carter, of all the women in this establishment,
you are the one for whom I am the most worried.
Oh, what a dismaying sentiment.
Well, the hours you keep seem less that
of a woman gainfully employed as a telephone operator
and more that of one who frequents taxi dance halls.
Uh, I was just doing my laundry.
Do you know how many intruders I have caught
inside that very dumbwaiter,
attempting to soil the honor of some young lady?
I am certain that many a woman
owes her virtue to your watchful eye.
There are always the rebellious.
Alice Shaw once showed up with her sister,
whom I immediately recognized as a man in a girdle.
Oh.
Allow me to show you to your room.
Well...
We'll walk together.
You've been working all night on the Stark case?
I got something on our dead Russians.
We just got this...
Official report on the Battle of Finow.
Great. Only thing missing are words.
Good, old US Army intelligence for you.
Redacted by General John McGinnis.
As luck would have it, he died a month ago.
What did the lab rats say about your magic typewriter?
They're claiming it sends signals back and forth.
To where, we don't know yet.
Maybe it's time we send a message to our enemies.
I got another way of talking to our enemies.
What do you mean?
Our intelligence indicates the Russians were overrun
by a Nazi regiment at the Battle of Finow,
led by this man, Colonel Ernst Mueller.
He's due to be executed in two days
for murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation.
If I leave now, I might just make it in time.
You're going all the way to Germany?
What's some Nazi gonna tell us about Howard Stark?
I got two Russians who both reportedly died in Finow
only to show up alive here, looking for Stark's gizmos.
Nobody, including our own government,
wants to talk about what really happened in Finow.
Chief, you're really gonna rely on the word of a Nazi?
Son, I'd let Göring give me a hickey
if he'd get me to the bottom of this.
Till I get back, you're in charge.
Good luck, Chief.
Thank you, Chief.
Time and again, I have caught women
sneaking men inside this sacred space.
Every woman was ejected at once.
Are you familiar with the id and the ego?
Are they children's characters?
Mmm, good. It is unbecoming for a lady to read Freud.
But what you must understand is that, until a certain age,
you do not know how to govern your own impulses.
And that leaves me to defend young women from compulsions.
- Understood.
- Miss Carter? - Hmm?
Your laundry?
Good night, Miss Fry.
It's nearly 6:00 a.m., Miss Carter.
Howard!
Yes? You just woke me.
Not to worry.
This is my cousin Peggy.
- Peggy, Lorraine.
Don't you think your cousin looks just like Howard Stark?
My cousin is a lot shorter.
- And much better-looking.
Come on, Peg.
We got family business to discuss.
See ya.
I'll order up some sausage, eggs, couple of Bloody Marys.
There's no room service, Howard.
I'm getting dressed and going to work.
So say what you have to say,
and it better include when you're leaving my apartment.
I'm bound for Rio in three days.
Before I depart, I need to know which of my inventions you've recovered.
Why?
Well, if I know what the SSR has obtained,
I can determine how many are still on the black market.
But why are you here? Why isn't Jarvis the one asking me?
'Cause Jarvis doesn't have one of these.
- A camera-pen?
"A camera-pen?"
I was expecting a little more enthusiasm.
Any idea how long it took me to figure out lens miniaturization?
You don't have to get changed with the door closed.
I thought we were friends.
Gather 'round. Come on.
Okay, who here knows what Ray Krzeminski's middle name was?
Walter.
That's right. Walter.
Ray Walter Krzeminski.
And who knows what the most important part
of agent Ray Walter Krzeminski's name was?
Hmm?
Walter?
No. "Agent."
Just like all of us.
Now, Chief Dooley's gone to break a lead in the Stark case.
And while he's gone, I'm in charge.
And while I'm in charge, none of you will be resting.
So pick up your phones, make kissy noises to your wives,
'cause we're not going home until we start cracking heads.
And if you get tired,
remember how important your names are...
Agents.
Now, form a single file up to my office,
and I'll give you your individual assignments. Come on.
Not eager to see what job
Commandant Thompson has in store for you?
You mean the lunch order?
Where are you headed?
The anonymous call that led to the Stark weapons...
I'm gonna see if I can pull a print off the phone that rang it in.
It was a public phone.
The only thing you'll pull is a bacterial infection.
Hey, Sousa, where do you think you're going?
To do some real police work, oh man of action.
Hey, Sousa, you know, now that Krzeminski's dead,
that makes you our biggest yo-yo.
Marge, start taking the lunch orders.
- Mr. Doobin. - Aah! Aah!
Ah, Miss Carter.
That was embarrassing.
If you'd like to get the lunch orders started,
I should be able to pick up all the meals for the lab by noon.
How goes the research on the Stark inventions?
Whoa. I got it! I got it!
Ah, it's been a bit of a challenge.
- Do you see this switch?
Every time that I push this switch,
I get a shock that runs right up my arm and into my skull.
But do you see any other switch?
I do not.
Do you remember that, uh, I used to wear glasses?
Of course.
It melted the glasses
- right off of my face. - Hmm.
Now, is that the intended purpose?
- Uh, I don't know. - Hmm.
But Howard Stark is either an ignoramus or a genius.
Most likely both.
- Hmm.
- I'll raise you a nickel.
You gonna bet, or what?
A nickel? Here you go.
Come on.
Got you.
Afternoon, fellas.
Hey, you want in on the action? Ante's a nickel.
No, sir. I just want to ask you a couple questions.
Either of you hear the commotion
down by the wharf the other night
by the boat called The Heartbreak?
Depends. You got a nickel?
Thanks.
I didn't see a thing. I camp down on 14th Street.
Frank, here, though...
You been here, what? About a month, right?
Keep your money.
I don't play games with police.
Frank, I just want to know what you saw.
Were you the one who called in the tip?
You called in a tip to the cops?
I just said I ain't got no business with Johnny Law.
There must be some kind of...
Well, I win this hand, I guess.
I said $150,000.
Mr. Mink, we were hoodwinked.
Jarvis, he didn't come by himself. He brought a girl.
- And five guys. - Or six.
Yeah, six or seven guys.
They, they beat the snot out of us,
and there was nothing we could do.
That... That's the truth, Mr. Mink.
You are lying.
Mr. Mink, I swear I'm telling you the truth!
What was the woman's name?
I heard Stark call her "Peggy."
I swear, if I could just follow the butler,
I'll... I'll find her, the money, and Stark.
The time for money has passed.
No one crosses me.
Wait. You want them dead?
I'll kill Stark and Peggy.
No, I'll take care of it.
Howard, I have the...
Howard!
Oh, for God's sake!
Where are you now?
You're back.
Good. Uh, you know Helen?
Helen, my cousin Peggy.
You are disgusting.
Hey, look, Agent Sousa found Howard Stark.
- We can all rest now!
- Hey! - Great job.
No wonder we couldn't find him. He looks rough.
What are you doing, Sousa?
He may have seen something at the wharf before we arrived.
The only thing that that man has seen is the bottom of a bottle.
Great job.
She seems uninhibited.
The first 10 or so might not be suitable for your eyes.
Your inventions.
Who is that?
Peggy!
Communal dining's one of the joys of residing at the Griffith.
Peggy, are you in there?
- Sounds nice. - Uh, stay away.
Uh, actually, Angie, I'm feeling a little under the weather.
No, Peggy, you should go.
I worry about you. You work too much.
I'll look through the rest of the photos myself.
- Peg, are you sure?
- You need Pepto? - Coming.
Hey, bring me back some ham, would you? Preferably roasted.
And some bread. And potatoes, mashed.
You know what I like. Surprise me.
So, I walk into this diner.
This isn't a joke.
I walk into this diner, and everybody starts clapping.
And I look around at first, confused,
and then I realize, oh, they're clapping for me,
in my dress uniform, 'cause I served and came back alive, like you.
You and me ain't nothing alike.
So, I pretended to curtsy...
Played it off as a joke, and then I'm working on my meal.
I look up. I see another GI walk in.
So, I put down my fork, put down my knife,
get ready to clap...
And nobody else does a thing.
Silence.
That's when I realized they weren't clapping for me.
They were clapping for this and this...
Clapping because I make them feel guilty,
and they want to feel good.
You think because I'm wearing a suit
and I got a clean shave, we're different? We're not.
We're both people nobody cares about.
No one clapped when I came home.
One guy was sleeping with my wife.
Another took my job at the mill.
We all got sad stories.
I still don't talk to cops, even pathetic ones.
I'd clap, but I don't want to hurt your feelings.
- Send him packing,
and start looking for Stark like everybody else.
I'm telling you, he's a witness.
Dooley went all the way to Nuremberg to interview a Nazi,
and I've got you clamoring over a bum you found down the street.
Think about it.
If he didn't see something, he'd say so.
He saw something.
These rolls keep for three days, four if it's cold
and you put them out on the windowsill.
Oh, uh, glad to hear it. Um, I don't often steal food.
Are you kidding? Carol once fit a whole chicken down her sweater.
My mom knit a special chicken pocket.
Gloria's got a compartment in her pocketbook
that can fit a cup of gravy.
Well, would you look at that?
Uh, I'm going to eat in my room.
I have the last five pages of the new Agatha Christie.
Good night.
Could you make me one of those that holds pickles?
- All of my inventions are in your lab.
Then why is your mustache so sad?
I need you to steal one of them back.
Every one of these inventions from my vault
can cause large-scale destruction.
Thankfully, they're not all active,
but this one... This one is.
What does it do?
London was antsy about Germany dropping bombs on her,
so I created the Blitzkrieg Button.
You press the button,
and you get an instant city-wide blackout.
The bombers can't see where to unload.
So, essentially, it's a glorified light switch?
- Hmm. - What's the problem?
I couldn't figure out how to turn the lights back on.
They went out because the electrical grids were destroyed.
If that thing is activated in New York,
the whole tri-state area
will be plunged into the Dark Ages for years to come.
Nothing's ever easy. How do I defuse it?
Well, that's the whole reason I'm here.
I'm the only one that can turn it off.
I thought you were here because of the camera-pen.
This is a mockup.
You swap that round with the real thing,
no one will be the wiser.
I'll figure out a way of telling the technicians
what the button does without having them touch it.
Since when has the US military ever had a weapon that they didn't use?
Don't let anyone touch it.
I'm already considered a traitor, Peggy.
Don't let me be the guy who shut down the greatest city on the planet.
Ready for another adventure, Mr. Jarvis?
You understand I do not care
about whatever petty crimes you may have committed.
Sorry. Don't mind me.
Just here for the dinner show.
I just want to know what you saw.
Thompson.
Mmm.
- Thompson. - Ah, that's good Scotch.
Thompson.
Thompson, what are you doing?
Smells good.
You see that?
All-American cow.
Thompson, that's enough.
Smells good.
Mmm. Mm-hmm. Mmm.
Okay, Thompson, that's enough.
- It tastes even better. - Agent, you should leave!
I'll tell you what.
You tell us what you saw at the boatyard...
This is all yours.
There was a guy, duds all fancy. He was with a woman.
They got on and off the boat before police showed up.
Was it this woman?
No.
She had dark hair.
What else?
That's all.
It was far away.
I hid when the cops came.
Mmm-hmm.
Mmm.
Not everybody came back from the war wanting a hug.
Sir?
They are measuring me for my new necktie.
Please excuse the gallows humor.
Colonel Mueller, can we sit?
May I offer you some water?
Do you know these men?
These are Germans?
Russians.
They're said to have died in the Battle of Finow.
You familiar with that battle?
I was in Finow.
What can you tell me?
You tell me what happened in the Battle of Finow...
I'll help you escape.
Park around the corner.
When I get the real Blitzkrieg Button out,
drive us back to the Griffith.
With my heaviest foot.
There's just a single switch on it, right?
Yes, correct.
Are you all right, Mr. Jarvis?
I'm simply nervous on your account, Miss Carter.
Howard came back to New York for this one invention, right?
It was a risk he knew he had to take.
You don't think he's planning on using the device himself
to wipe out a city's electricity, do you?
Of course not.
At least the Blitzkrieg Button isn't like Nitramene.
I mean, well, if I was to accidentally activate it,
no one would get hurt.
Just bring the device back as fast as you can, Miss Carter,
and then we can all stop worrying.
Your man, General Wilhelm Keitel...
You know he was hanged yesterday?
Twenty-five minutes.
That's how long it took for him to die.
Swinging on the rope, gagging...
Horrible way to go.
See, they don't realize that you have to measure
the condemned's weight as well as the height. Otherwise...
Cyanide.
You get a painless death,
and nobody gets the satisfaction of watching you hang.
Now, tell me what happened in the Battle of Finow.
There was no Battle of Finow.
Because you Nazis ambushed the Russians at night.
No German fought any Russian at Finow.
What we found can only be described as a massacre.
Bodies piled high and ripped apart.
Whoever attacked them was long gone.
Yeah, I'm having trouble stomaching your story.
I've killed many people...
Men, women, and children.
No person died by German hands
at Finow.
I'm gonna need a phone.
Breath mint?
Wasted our time and Dooley's scotch.
You have a good nose, Agent.
You sniffed out a witness everyone overlooked.
Yeah, who saw a well-dressed man and a dark-haired woman.
Cracked the case wide open.
Now we know Howard Stark likes to hang out with women.
Something you learn in war...
Not every battle you win is a notch on your belt.
The way I hear you fought,
I'm surprised there's any belt left to notch.
Just doing what needed to be done.
Didn't we all?
Hey, Sousa, where did you get that lead?
Russia? Italy?
My femur, actually.
There's just a single switch on it, right?
Yes, correct.
Are you all right, Mr. Jarvis?
Just bring the device back as fast as you can, Miss Carter.
Marge...
Didn't I say only the men have to work overtime?
I didn't mean to interrupt you
enjoying the rewards of your promotion.
Why do you work here?
To uphold democracy. Did you need a reminder?
But the rest of us get to do more than take lunch orders.
You'll never know the thrill of learning whether or not
Agent Yauch is in the mood for a club sandwich.
Hmm.
You're trying to hide something, Peggy.
And the only one you're fooling is you.
And what's that, Agent Thompson?
The natural order of the universe.
You're a woman.
No man will ever consider you an equal.
It's sad,
but it doesn't make it any less true.
I can always come to you for the truth.
Good night.
You get it?
What's in the vial?
What vial?
What is in the vial?
You opened it.
You know how, uh, dangerous that could be?
What's in the vial, Howard?
Okay, you're angry.
I'm not angry.
I'm just curious.
What's in the vial?
You know.
We both know.
I don't. Tell me.
Steve Rogers' blood.
I have some flowers for Peggy.
May I deliver them to her?
You may not. Give them here.
Are you the delivery man or her suitor?
I love her.
Young man, please tell me...
Your name and profession.
Ah.
Can't say I'm surprised.
You used me. You lied to me.
You hit me!
You don't get to use my reaction to your lies as the reason for your lies.
Yeah, I do. I knew how much Steve meant to you,
because I know how much he means to me.
I was protecting you.
Oh, don't pretend this is about me and my emotions.
You were out to protect you.
Yeah, I didn't want to see this turmoil that you're in. Look at you.
I trusted you, Howard!
Yeah, I know, and I was wrong. But you have to understand,
a kid like me doesn't get to where I'm at by doing...
What, wanted for treason?
I grew up on the Lower East Side.
My father sold fruit. My mother sewed shirtwaists for a factory.
Let me tell you, you don't get to climb the American ladder
without picking up some bad habits on the way.
There's a ceiling for certain types of people based on
how much money your parents have,
your social class, your religion, your sex.
And the only way to break through that ceiling sometimes
is to lie, so that's my natural instinct, to lie.
I shouldn't have lied to you.
For that, trust me, I am truly sorry.
Why did you have Steve's blood in the first place?
I was one of the lead scientists on Project Rebirth.
Eleven vials went to the government, one vial went to me.
Does the SSR know they have the vial?
Why shouldn't they have it?
The government's almost through their supply.
If they know they have mine, they'll never give it back,
even if you clear my name.
That still doesn't mean that you deserve to have Steve's blood.
You know, I believe that sample SR-53,
that blood, Captain America's blood,
holds the key to vaccines, medications,
possibly even a cure for the common cold.
Steve Rogers may not still be with us,
but he can still save millions of people.
And how many millions of dollars are you set to make?
What the hell do you think of me?
I think you're a man out for his own gain no matter who you're charging.
You are constantly finding holes to slither your way into
in the hope of finding loose change,
only to cry when you're bitten by another snake.
You're a man who says, "I love you,"
whilst looking over a woman's shoulder into the mirror.
Steve Rogers dedicated his mind, his body, his life
to the SSR and to this country, not to your bank account.
I made the same pledge, but I'm not as good as Steve was.
I forgot my pledge running around for you like a corporate spy.
So thank you, Howard, for reminding me
who Steve was and what I aspire to be.
For all I know, you did steal your inventions.
Peggy...
I need some fresh air to get away from your stink.
When I'm back, you'll be gone.
Where to? I'll get caught.
You're the genius. You figure it out.
Well, hey, mister, are you lost?
Young woman, return to your room.
Are... Are you looking for Peggy?
Return to your room, please.
Is that pistol an automatic?
I want that.
Taxi!
Did you know?
I truly regret the way this matter was handled.
I'll take that as a "yes."
Don't ever play poker. You rub your ear when you lie.
Mr. Stark respects you, Miss Carter, as do I.
Is there anyone else alive who holds you in such high esteem?
I can trust the actions of men who don't respect me
more than those who do.
At least when they ask for something, they mean it.
You took her for granted.
You can get her back.
Over the last five years,
I thought I'd built up a callus apologizing for you.
But this stings.
Hey.
Could I borrow the sports section?
Thank you.
- Göring a good kisser?
That's actually kind of funny, Thompson.
Yeah. So, how's your Nazi colonel?
Uh, about this time, he should be two inches taller.
Did you find out about Finow?
Mueller said there were Russian bodies everywhere,
ripped to pieces.
Question is, who killed them?
These guys?
No, two couldn't kill hundreds.
And why were they listed among the dead?
Unless they assumed the identities of men who actually died there.
I've got a new wrinkle for your forehead.
Log at the Finow airfield.
One day after our supposed battle, a plane lands.
Guess who's on it?
I don't know. Bob Hope?
Howard Stark.
Pour some Scotch.
Make it a double.
We got ourselves a conspiracy.
Dottie, are you coming to dinner?
I'll meet you downstairs in a jiffy!