The Iron Ceiling

"He needs your help, Miss Carter." "What he need is a servant, and he already has that in you." "And what does the SSR have in you?" "I am a federal agent, Mister Jarvis." "Yes. Finley trained and skilled in the art of fetching coffee. These men you call your colleagues they don't respect you. They don't even see you. Do you honestly expect them to change their minds?" "I expect I will make them."

- Edwin Jarvis and Peggy Carter

The Iron Ceiling is the fifth episode of the first season of the television series Agent Carter.

Synopsis
Peggy Carter is finally trusted with a mission and calls upon her trusted Howling Commandos squad for backup. But her cover could be at risk when SSR Chief Roger Dooley also sends Agent Jack Thompson with her.

Plot
In Belarus, 1937, a young girl named Anya is awakened when the handcuff connecting her to her bed is loosened. She quickly finds a piece of bread she had hidden and eats while the adult is awakening other girls. Anya sees another girl and shares her bread with her; the two smile.

The new friends watch a movie in a classroom and repeat its words to learn English. Later, the two spar against each other. However, Anya is not as strong as her friend and is put in a stranglehold. When the school's headmistress nods her head, Anya's neck is snapped.

Seven years later, Anya's killer now calls herself Dottie Underwood and asks her new friend Peggy Carter for help touring New York City as they share a breakfast bagel at L&L Automat. Underwood hits Carter's purse; its contents spill to the floor. She puts everything back inside except Carter's door key.

Carter goes to work to learn that the Remote Typewriter wrote a message. Carter translates the message and Chief Roger Dooley allows her to join Jack Thompson's team as they go to Belarus to investigate the connection to Howard Stark. Carter promises that the 107th regiment will meet them and escort them there. While she is changing for the mission in the men's locker room, Daniel Sousa notices that Carter has a gunshot wound on her shoulder. This wound matches the wound of the blonde woman in the picture from La Martinique.

The 107th regiment is the Howling Commandos. As they share war stories, Thompson is asked to discuss how he became a war hero.

When the team infiltrates the Red Room Academy, they find a movie projector which shows films filled with subliminal messages. They also discover a little girl; she stabs Dum Dum Dugan and shoots and kills Junior Juniper before escaping.

The team goes deeper to find the scientists Nikola and Ivchenko who are imprisoned to build a weapon from blueprints made by Stark for Leviathan. They free the prisoners, but, in the ensuing firefight with Leviathan operatives, Nikola holds Happy Sam Sawyer hostage hoping to trade him for his freedom. Strategic Scientific Reserve agent Mike Li is killed and, tearfully, Ivchenko kills Nikola. Meanwhile, Thompson freezes and is too scared to help in the shootout. Carter rescues him and they escape with Ivchenko.

As Carter bids farewell to the Howling Commandos, Ivchenko decides to go with her to the United States, claiming that he has nowhere else to go and that he would like to help to stop the schemes of Leviathan.

Meanwhile, Underwood enters Carter's room in the Griffith Hotel and steals her Sweet Dreams Lipstick and a picture of one of Stark's inventions.

Dooley talks to Edwin Jarvis about a fist fight Stark had during the war, but Jarvis is uncooperative.

On the plane ride home, Thompson tells Carter the truth about how he became a war hero; he killed men who were attempting to surrender. She decides that his secret is safe.

Ivchenko meets Dooley as Thompson invites Carter to have a drink with him.

Dottie Underwood handcuffs herself to her bed's headboard before going to sleep.

Cast
Main Cast:
 * Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter
 * James D'Arcy as Edwin Jarvis
 * Chad Michael Murray as Agent Jack Thompson
 * Enver Gjokaj as Agent Daniel Sousa
 * Shea Whigham as Chief Roger Dooley

Guest Stars:
 * Neal McDonough as Dum Dum Dugan
 * Bridget Regan as Dottie Underwood
 * Ralph Brown as Doctor Ivchenko
 * Leonard Roberts as Happy Sam Sawyer
 * Greg Serano as Agent Rick Ramirez
 * Eddie Shin as Agent Mike Li
 * Alex Veadov as Nikola
 * John Glover as New York Times Reporter
 * Richard Short as Pinky Pinkerton
 * Jared Gertner as Cryptographer
 * James Austin Kerr as Junior Juniper
 * Veronika Bonell as 10 Year Old Dottie Underwood
 * Caitlin Carmichael as 10 Year Old Anya
 * Chiara Aurelia as 10 Year Old Eva
 * J. Anthony McCarthy as Pete the Newspaper Boy
 * Vladimir Tevlovski as Leviathan Soldier
 * Alexander Carroll as Agent Yauch (uncredited)
 * Unknown actress as Red Room Instructress

Locations

 * New York City, New York
 * New York Bell Company Office
 * L&L Automat
 * Griffith Hotel
 * Central Park (mentioned)
 * (mentioned)
 * (mentioned)
 * (mentioned)
 * Times Square (mentioned)
 * Poland
 * Belarus
 * Red Room Academy
 * Ashmyany (mentioned)
 * Arlington, Virginia (mentioned)
 * Arlington Hall (mentioned)
 * England (mentioned)
 * Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes (mentioned)
 * Russia (mentioned)
 * Lithuania (mentioned)
 * Finow, Germany (mentioned)
 * Kiev, Ukraine (mentioned)
 * Tsuken Island, Okinawa, Japan (mentioned)
 * Tibet (mentioned)

Events

 * Johann Fennhoff's Campaign
 * Infiltration into the Red Room Academy
 * World War II (mentioned)
 * Battle of Finow (mentioned)

Items

 * Remote Typewriter
 * Sweet Dreams Lipstick
 * Bulletproof Vest
 * Photonic Amplifier (mentioned)
 * Havoc Reactor (mentioned)

Organizations

 * Strategic Scientific Reserve
 * Howling Commandos
 * Soviet Armed Forces
 * New York Bulletin
 * Leviathan
 * Red Room
 * Stark Industries (logo)
 * United States Marines (mentioned)
 * United States Navy (mentioned)
 * United Nations (mentioned)
 * (mentioned)

Mentioned

 * Angie Martinelli
 * Captain America
 * Howard Stark
 * Sasha Demidov
 * Ernst Mueller
 * John McGinnis
 * Ana Jarvis
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Trivia

 * Junior Juniper is killed during the mission; however, in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes was said to be "the only Howling Commando to give his life in service of his country". This inconsistency could be referring to the fact that Barnes was the only Commando believed to have died during the war.
 * In the 1937 flashback, Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was shown to the children to teach them English. The movie was released in April of that year.
 * Additionally, the 1942 Looney Tunes film The Dover Boys was shown during the main plot, to demonstrate subliminal messages.
 * Dooley mentions reporting to the Vice President of the United States. In real life, the office of Vice President was vacant from April 12, 1945 until January 20, 1949.
 * The song that plays in the automat is "Reveille Roll" by Rob Parton Orchestra.