Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger
“Suicide Sprints” (Episode 102)
June 7, 2018
We are back with episode two of Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger and this one, which premiered back to back with the Pilot, continues to fill in the story of our teenage superheroes and their life struggles and backgrounds. This isn’t a CW Arrow-verse show, there are no superhero costumes yet … we are taking our time getting to know Tandy and Tyrone as people – flawed people (especially Tandy) – who they are, what their lives are like, what their powers are, and how they work.
Before you read tonight’s recap, make sure you know everything happened with our recap from last week here!
Once you’re ready, catch up with our recap and review …. after the jump (spoilers ahead – be warned)!
Fireflies. A smashed convertible with a “Just Married” sign hanging from the back. Fireflies seemingly leading us to a spot down an embankment from where the car smashed. Sure, okay. Makes total sense. That’s our open – no context.
The morning after the final scenes of the Pilot episode, a Lady Cop (Detective Brigid O’Reilly but we haven’t been told that yet – played by Emma Lahana) is investigating the alley where rich douchebag kid tried to rape Tandy in the last episode. She seems particularly interested in a drop of blood on the ground. Over with our heroes, Tandy is trying to make her palm bleed and is also nursing a wicked black and blue on her side. In the Johnson house, Tyrone is examining the bullet that transported home with him when he escaped Connor’s wrath. Alarm goes off – time to start the day.
Tandy catches Liam up about the douchebag rich kid and the knifing and they agree, she needs clean papers and a ride out of town ASAP. At Ty’s school, Tyrone is meeting with Father Delgado (Jaime Zevallos) – this seems to be some regular mentor type relationship. Father wants to Ty to dig down into why he punched the boy at the basketball game. He doesn’t accept the “eye for the eye” reasoning and suggests that Tyrone is carrying around a poison in his veins. Interesting you say that, Ty says, because what if the poison is leading him to the man who killed Billy? Shouldn’t he be allowed to put the poison into THAT man too? They decide to table the discussion for now.
In church services, I’ll note that (i) Evita (Noëlle Renée Bercy) is very into Tyrone and forgives him for blowing her off to chase a crazy white girl into the nighttime the night before and (ii) Ty is in the church choir. Over the choir singing, our characters move into new positions – Tandy is driving driving driving with Liam, Ty leaves school and heads to a stakeout where he saw Connors last episode (by Roxxon Corp) and Lady Cop digs through a cell phone she has in evidence.
At the Johnson Home, Mama Johnson hears a noise outside and loads her gun and goes searching for it (she mentioned needing animal control earlier in the episode). At New Orleans PD, Lady Cop has pulled in douchebag kid’s two buddies from the attempted rape. She’s got questions … presumably …. we haven’t actually her speak yet.
Elmer’s Dry Cleaners. Elmer is a high end dry cleaner AND ALSO a dealer in weapons and papers. To get the best set of papers for the “full new life” package, its going to cost Tandy 11 grand. Liam offers to pony up some and Tandy thinks she can get the rest. BTW, douchebag rich kid is still alive and in the hospital and so the possibility of Tandy getting ID’d is high.
At the worst stakeout ever, Sleepy Head Tyrone wakes to find he’s been asleep for quite a while and more importantly, has missed the start of basketball practice. This isn’t going to end well for Tyrone – this was his first practice back after punching the kid during the game.
The Bowen House. Tandy comes home to find that Mom has been doing drugs all day with her newest lawyer/suitor (she’s chasing a lawsuit against Roxxon) and also, Mom has taken all of Tandy’s stashed cash and drugs. Whelp. Mom, in a ballsy move, takes the moral high ground, accusing Tandy of running when things get tough which, can you really blame Tandy for bolting here?
At St. Sebastian’s Prep, Coach reads Tyrone the riot act for his multitude of offenses and informs him that all of his teammates will be running many Many MANY suicide sprints for Tyrone’s crimes. Go sit up in the bleachers and think about your mistakes, Mr. Johnson.
Elmer’s. Tandy makes a deal with Elmer to leave a down payment on her new papers while she and Liam go scamming at a high end wedding reception for the rest of the missing cash. I’ll give these two felons one thing, they clean up nice. So pretty. Both of them.
Lady Cop is on a mission … she approaches a woman with a sketch of Tandy – I don’t know that we’ve actually heard her speak yet. Also, I think she’s wearing a Marshal’s Badge. This one is all mystery.
At the wedding, Tandy schools Liam on the high money grabs in the room – the best consisting of the tips for the band and wait staff (presumably held by the wedding planner), the money in the cash bar, and the cage which holds the wedding envelopes. That’s their mission, mingle and make it happen. Liam expositions for us that once upon a time, Tandy was rich.
Over at St. Sebastian’s, Tyrone is doing his own form of penance with the complete set of suicide sprints his teammates did earlier. Father Delgado is there with a towel when he finishes. They don’t speak. I wonder if Father Delgado is real or imagined?
Back at the wedding, Tandy is having a mood when her hand starts to glow — she hides it under a table but really, she’s lucky most people still at the wedding are probably drunk.
At St. Sebastian’s, Ty is getting redressed in the locker room when his teammates begin to enter one by one. They are here to ensure that Tyrone doesn’t ruin their run to the championships. They dole out their lesson with fists and sacks of bars of soaps (or whatever kids use today as the equivalent of the A Few Good Men “Code Red”). Ty tries to disappear himself under a tarp but nope, doesn’t work. And the beating continues. Commercials.
Detective O’Reilly (I am tired of writing Lady Cop) sits in car staking out Tandy’s location when a copy drops by with a coffee – a coffee with a phone number on it. Interesting.
Back at the wedding, Liam and Tandy slow dance. He explains that the cash is being held by the Maid of Honor. As they embrace, Tandy launches into one of those out of body experiences like she had with her mom – this time watching a future version of Liam and Tandy having a dance at their own wedding … which is outside? As the “future” couple kiss, Tandy comes back to the present and pushes Liam away. She is having a confused.
At St. Sebastian’s, Ty comes to, still locked in the equipment cage in the locker room. Using a bat on a lock, he makes his way out of the cage, checks in with his mom and then goes hunting. Bat still in hand.
The wedding. In the bathroom, Tandy makes nice with the Maid of Honor who appears to be a very sweet lady. Tandy is refreshingly vulnerable and honest with this stranger she is planning to rob but also, she totally robs her anyway.
“Do something that will make you happy tonight. Drink, dance. And worry about the rest of your life, tomorrow.”
Oh Maid of Honor, you’re going to regret encouraging her to make herself happy tonight.
In an alley, Ty makes a plan to attack Connor with a bat but it doesn’t work out and disapparates (I’m using Harry Potter terms until I think of something better) from the scene.
Back out at the party, Maid of Honor realizes she’s been robbed just as Liam and Tandy snatch the rest of their cash grabs. Realizing they’re about to be had, Bonnie and Clyde hightail it out of there, jumping into a convertible with a “Just Married” sign hanging off the back. Hmmmmm. That car sounds familiar (see the opening scene of this episode).
We come back to a non-sequitur scene where Father Delgado is looking to buy some liquor. ooooookay.
At the Johnson House, Ty comes home and asks his mom how she keeps it all together and is sincerely moved by how awesome she is. She gives him a kiss on his forehead and we zap to an out of body experience where Grown Ty watches his mom watch both of her boys (including Young Tyrone) are shot and killed and buried in the ground). When they come back to, Mama Johnson is visibly dizzy and Tyrone tells her she was poisoned years ago — the unspoken vow here is that he’s going to make it right. I’m pretty sure he’s going after Connors, for good this time.
Elmer’s. As Liam and Tandy get undressed from the borrowed party clothes, Liam takes her to task on what happened at the wedding and also tells her that he knows all of the weird lies she’s told (like living in the church). “We can handle it,” he pleads – if she just includes him. “There is no we,” Tandy replies before grabbing her new papers and bouncing.
Episode Wrap Up Scenes. At the stakeout location, Detective O’Reilly pinches Liam as he returns to their location. Tandy, driving in the stolen wedding convertible, picks up a voicemail from Liam asking for her help (he gave her all of his money to start her new life). Tyrone invades Connors house, his mother’s gun in hand.He corners Connors and as he shoots, he and the bullets disappear. Connor has a confused.
Tyrone appears directly in front of Tandy and the bullets he fired slam into the wedding convertible. We cut to black with Tandy’s screaming in our ears. Sooooooo, I guess, the opening scene makes more sense now. A little, anyway.
Thoughts. This second episode of Cloak & Dagger was really a continuation of the Pilot and is best viewed as two parts of a whole. Over this first two hour arc, we have met Tandy and Tyrone and are beginning to understanding not only their current life situations, which, kudos to the writing and acting, seems extremely important to understanding the motivations and progressions of these teenage superheroes, but also, where these characters began. Meaning, how Tandy and Tyrone’s lives have played out since that fateful night of the rig explosion, has greatly influenced the people they’ve become today and will, in turn, effect how each embraces their new found powers.
A few people I have spoken to have complained that the show is too slow but I disagree. I believe the deliberate pacing of these first hours has served the specific purpose of setting a well defined character development starting point. It bodes well for the show that they are taking the time to make us care about, sympathize and empathize with these characters — it tells me that Cloak & Dagger isn’t looking to rest on flashy superhero moves to tell its story — the superhero abilities will aid the story, not become the focus of the story. If we went down the road of the latter, Cloak & Dagger would be a short lived experiment. Without good story and characters that make you feel things, you’ve got nothing; you certainly don’t have a show I am going to watch for more than an hour or two.
Cloak & Dagger is selling me on all the points that make a television show great, superhero or otherwise, and that, that right there is going to keep me coming back week after week, season after season.
So Many Mysteries and Questions to be Answered. Who is Detective O’Reilly? What is Roxxon Corporation – they’re clearly doing more than oil drilling? What is Father Delgado’s deal? What are the visions Tandy and Ty are having – are they memories? premonitions? extrapolations of inner feelings? What is the animal thing that’s rooting around the Johnson house (Mama Johnson mentions calling animal control in the beginning of the ep and then pulls her gun out in the episode when she hears a noise during the day)? What else, I am sure I am missing something or somethings? Let me know in the comments.
Show Timeline Fact.Dad Johnson notes its been 8 years since Billy was killed.
This article was originally published by Michael Caputo on SoManyShows.com.