When last we tuned into Agent Carter, the titular hero had been freshly impaled on a piece of rebar, leading her bleeding all over Sousa’s sofa. As a result, Peggy needs to find a fellow femme trained in espionage who can accompany Jarvis to a lavish gala where Whitney Frost will be in attendance.

Cue the return of Dottie Underwood, who’s as pleased as punch to see her gal pal Peggy come to her for a favor — especially one that will get her sprung from her SSR confines, for this Tuesday’s double-episode outing (ABC, 9/8c).

Bridget Regan spoke with TVLine about Dottie’s unexpected and “unpredictable” mission for the good guys, the Legend-ary lesson she learned about fighting in a dress and the new tricks up her sleeve on TNT’s The Last Ship.

TVLINE | Were your ears burning other day when Hayley Atwell sang to me your praises as a laser-focused, disciplined actor?

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Stop. Stop. I’d say the exact same thing about her. Hayley is a force. So strong.

TVLINE | Watching this week’s double-header, it struck me that Dottie is very, very funny. I mean, her sass level is at, like, 11.

Don’t you love the comedy this season, that it’s been turned up in general? But thank you. The thing is, it’s just play for her. In Season 1, she’s working for Fenhoff, she’s been told,agent-carter-fenhoff-dottie “Kill Peggy Carter,” so she was working, working, working. Now, Peggy busts her out of jail, so how fun is this going to be! This was a lot better than the Friday night she had planned. It’s all play. Play, play, play.

TVLINE | Speaking of the ballroom gala setting, is there a trick to kicking butt in a full-length dress? Legend-of-the-Seeker

Well, you know I have experience kicking butt in a full-length dress when I was in New Zealand for two years [on Legend of the Seeker] wearing a long, white, crazy, flowing, wizard-sleeve dress. So yeah, you’ve got to work with it, you’ve got to flow with it. You can’t fight against it, you’ve got to use it. But I did have a crazy 48 hours where [TNT’s The] Last Ship needed me for these night shoots on a tarmac in San Pedro, and Agent Carter needed me during the day. So I did days on Agent Carter and then I went straight to a night shoot on Last Ship, and then I went back to Agent Carter and back to Last Ship!

TVLINE | Yes, last time we spoke, we talked about how busy you’ve been these past few years. Is what you just described the busiest singular moment?
Yeah, it was insane. Everybody was helping me. But I had to wear that [ballroom] dress and do a lot of physical violence in it and stuff, and I was so hopped up on caffeine and sugar trying to get through it…. It was basically like Toddlers & Tiaras — “Here you go, Bridget, drink this and go do it!” [Laughs] And I did. But after those 48 hours, everything is a cake walk. How did Michael J. Fox do this, when he was doing Back to the Future and Family Ties? I was Michael J. Fox-ing it for two days.

The rest is over at TVLine