Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger
“Colony Collapse” (Episode 110)
August 2, 2018
When we left our intrepid heroes last week, Tyrone was about to go on the run after the police show up trying to pin the Fuchs murder on him. And Tandy? She’s dealing with Scarborough’s assassin. Catch up on the full deep dive recap & review here!
On to our deep dive recap and review of the Season 1 Finale of Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger … after the jump (beware of spoilers)!
Throughout tonight’s episode, Auntie will be schooling Evita (and us) on the role that the Divine Pairing has played throughout New Orleans’ tragic history and how that Diving Pairing has always saved the day. With one of the Pair always, always paying the ultimate price.
First Recorded Instance. During the Great Famine that struck the Chocktaw people (I guess this is technically “pre-New Orleans”), a young boy and girl gathered to end the Famine. The boy and girl remove arm bands and the girl (who appears to be slightly older if that makes a difference) is deemed the “chosen one” as she has a mark on her arm (the boy’s arm is untouched from the band). B T Dubs, “Chosen one” here is code for sacrificial lamb. We see the Girl load up a basket and walk herself right into the center of a river and to her death. Auntie concludes this first story for us, letting us know that immediately upon the Girl’s sacrifice, the famine ended and the foundation was set for the City of New Orleans to be born.
As we return to the present, the camera pans across the doll collection Auntie keeps on her mantle – the statues representing Ty and Tandy are last in the line. So, this is a definitive answer on these dolls are not just for playing with, they represent the Divine Pairing throughout time.
Title Card.
We come back from the Title Card in the Bowen House of Hostage Standoffs. Assassin Lady is finishing her countdown and Tandy … she’s cool as a cucumber, dude. She slowly approaches Assassin Lady, hands held high, talking all the while. She plants some seeds of doubt in Assassin Lady’s head that maybe, MAYBE, Scarborough hasn’t clued her in on all of the “need to know” information she made need to actually know. In a perfectly coordinated strike, Mama B and Tandy conspire to take down Assassin Lady but before Mama B can level some bullets in her assassin ass, she’s out the door. As soon as Assassin Lady is gone, Tandy’s bravado shatters and she’s about as broken as we’ve seen her.
Tandy tells her mom to run to a neighbor’s and hide – the old, “the government is after me” line – that will totally work. Tandy tells her mom that she has to go help some people …
“Why you?”
“Why not?”
That’s some nifty lawyering skills right there, Tandy. But, I get her point.
At a Red Hawks/Mardi Gras stepping off point-like warehouse, Ty is busy looking around for his Cloak when his father shows up. Cloak in hand. “Looking for this?” Otis is angry but not at Tyrone, not really. He’s angry at the circumstances and life in general. That’s the feeling you get when your wife calls you to say your last living son is being hunted as a cop killer. Totes understandable, Otis. He hands over the Cloak when there is a knock on the front door. Being the good soldiers that they are, the other Red Hawks stall the police at the front door while Tyrone does his Cloak thing … Otis is confused as to wear his son got off to. Catch up, man!
Mina’s Trailer Park Amusement House. Tandy arrives to find Mina under attack from the two Terrors we saw chasing her at the end of last week. Tandy dispatches them easily with a light dagger and some broken furniture. Mina is all, “what the fuck is even happening” and Tandy has to open her eyes to Roxxon Gulf and the Fear Gas and the Terrors. It doesn’t take much to convince Mina and she lets us know that there are 9 valves around New Orleans. YIKES! But, she thinks they can be turned off but it has to be done centrally … at Roxxon HQ. Of course it does.
Across town, at a midday Mardi Gras parade, Tyrone plays “Cloak and Go Seek” with the police who are looking for him hard. Just as O’Reilly shows up and you think they’ll make a get a way, Tyrone tells her there are too many people around for him to reveal his powers. The sad trombones of failure play as Brigid and Ty are arrested (the sad trombones don’t really play but they should have).
Commercials.
As we return from the break, Auntie is telling us about the next Divine Pairing, the Wilson Brothers from Colonial Times. The brothers face off in a duel amidst a raging storm that is wreaking havoc in New Orleans. The fight? Over a woman. *sigh* Leland (Michael A. Cook), while loading his pistol, realized that he needed to sacrifice himself in order to heal … everything everywhere. And so, in the words of Hamilton, he threw away his show. Luckily, his gambit payed off and, through Leland’s sacrifice, the storm over New Orleans abated and the Wilson family was allowed to find peace. We’ve heard about these brothers before; early in Season 1 when Evita was giving her voodoo tour. Right before Ty meets Auntie Chantelle.
In the present, Evita doesn’t get how Tyrone and his “Pairing” – Evita is NOT a Tandy fan, can do anything like Auntie Chantelle is talking about … how can Roxxon be stopped? Remember your history, Auntie intones.
NOPD. O’Reilly and Ty get manhandled through the bullpen of the New Orleans PD but they aren’t being booked … nope, they are being put in a room. All anonymous like. This has Connors written all over it.
We get a quick cut to Mina and Tandy on a road trip to Roxxon. Mina is ready to throw the baby out with the bath water but Tandy convinces her that they will fix this because Mina is meant to save the world. Aww, these two. If they don’t put T&T together, I could totally ship Tandy and Mina. Great Chemistry.
NOPD. Tyrone tells O’Reilly that he still is having performance anxiety so she shifts to Plan B – get Officer Lafayette (Josh Ventura), who is watching over them, to see them as human beings. Brigid doesn’t get very far (New Yorkers need not apply – y’all don’t get New Orleans) but Ty does. Using his hometown roots, a mother worried sick, and some deep felt compassion, Tyrone is able turn Lafayette. BUT, before he can release them, another Connors henchmen enters, breaking Ty’s hold over Lafayette and causing Lafayette to run off. Also, Connors has arrived at the station. Whelp!
Roxxon Gulf HQ. We join Peter Scarborough already well into destroying evidence of his wrong doings … seriously, what 3 piece suit-wearing businessman keeps a power drill in his office? A guy who knows how to stop data retrieval, that’s who!
Unfortunately for Peter, waiting for him in the elevator are Tandy and Mina. “Hey, again.” Tandy wants to know what could be worth all of this death and danger and destruction.
“Power. And with great power comes … even more power. In this day and age, you need to keep up with the Joneses. As well as the Starks and the Rands.”
Mina is still coming from an emotional place – how could Scarborough let them put a valve by a school – MONSTER! – Mina lays Scarborough out with a neat punch and gets to making a plan with Tandy. Just like in Ivan’s nightmare, there is a core with a kill switch and three shut off valves. Where is the core, Tandy asks Peter. He gives up the address quickly, “It’s in Annex Building 616, by the waterfront.” Did he give up that address too quickly?!?
For her final interaction with Scarborough, Tandy Hopes Peter. He admits to wanting to be God and she tells him it’s right through that giant yellow colored, oil rig-like door over there. Scarborough doesn’t realize it, but we do, that Tandy has taken Peter to Ivan’s Terrors Nightmare – the Oil Rig on the night of the explosion. Peace out Peter, You suck!
NOPD. Alone, Tyrone thanks O’Reilly for being a good cop among a dearth of them. Connors arrives to Villain Monologue his plan for O’Reilly and Tyrone. The story will be that Tyrone “gets loose” and kills Brigid. Then, they’ll kill Tyrone in retaliation and mourn O’Reilly … like he did Fuchs last week. Upstairs, before the “Gaslight Gang” (TM Connors – that was funny) can get very far, the first Terrors start to pour in the New Orleans PD and the madness spreads quickly — its communicated via touch. A police station where there are copious weapons is NOT where you want a case of the Terrors to break out.
Commercials!
The Battle of 1812, which famously went on for over a month after the formal treaty was signed ending the war, is the scene of our next Divine Pairing. Auntie explains the story: a mortally wounded private, tasked with telling General Jackson that the war was over, wordlessly passed on his mission to a young refugee. The young lady carried on and completed the private’s mission. The Divine Pairing stopped the death of war in New Orleans. Also, another example of “One Must Live, One Must Die.”
On the street, Mina and Tandy find themselves on the run from both Assassin Lady and a band of Terrors. They run into a warehouse but Mina is accidentally touched by a rogue Terror. Tandy is now alone, she just doesn’t realize it yet.
NOPD. Tyrone quickly explains the science of the Terrors to O’Reilly.
“Fear itself, but don’t touch.”
Lafayette sees their cause is just and tells Tyrone where he can find his cloak. He provides some cover for Tyrone and O’Reilly to escape.
Warehouse. Tandy can hear the delicate footsteps of Mina running around but that she isn’t saying anything? Yeah, that’s not a good sign and Tandy knows it.
NOPD. In the weapons locker, O’Reilly frees them from their handcuffs as Tyrone reunites with his Cloak. Brigid implores him to leave but Ty explains that he needs to stay. Now, more than ever. O’Reilly is suiting up in a bullet proof vest, guns and stun guns. Time to go to war … each in their own ways.
“Be safe … ish.”
“Yeah, you too.”
Tyrone cloaks himself back into the main part of the station. With Lafayette’s help, Tyrone pied pipers all of the Terrors into a small room. The Baddies manage to rip his cloak to shreds as the last of the Terrors file into the room. When they’re all in the room and the door is locked, Ty finally cloaks his way to safety. Well, “safety.”
Warehouse. As Mina is doing a Terror charge at Tandy, Tyrone appears in between them. Seeing the look on Tandy’s face, he turns and fires a stun gun right into Mina.
EXCELLENT SCENE OF ACTION AND EXECUTION!!
Commercials.
Let me tell you a little diddy, about Jack and Bobo. During the Spanish Influenza outbreak in New Orleans in the Fall of 1919, Dr. Jack Rogers (Joshua C. Allen) gives his lover, Bobo Smith (Stefan Rollins), a “passive immunization” (read: his own clean blood), which cures Bobo almost immediately. Sadly, it also kills Jack. That’s explainable enough. Not so explainable? Every other person in the sick ward recovered immediately on the day Jack sacrificed himself. Divine Pairs, man. Spooky shit.
Dagger Church. As Tyrone mourns the cloak that he just got back and Tandy mourns Mina, who was supposed to be the City’s savior, they commiserate that all is basically lost. Which is when Evita arrives … who is giving out the address of the Dagger Church?!?!
“What happens is you two are going to come at the problem and fix it. Some how. But in the process, one of you is going to die.”
Really cheery, Evita. She delivers the knowledge dump that Auntie taught her, about the Divine Pairing and how they save the city and how one always dies. She produces her black and white statues. Tandy isn’t happy with this death prophecy and Evita gets it, her job is to provide this information. Every one has a part, I guess? Ty and Evita share a tender moment of good bye. Interesting, Evita seems to note the cut on Tyrone’s arm; is this the mark of the chosen one to die in the Divine Pairing? Alone again, Tandy tells Ty that she could grow to approve of Evita for him. Awwwwww.
Tandy is back on her game, making a plan to go right at the core. Terrors on the street, be damned. Tyrone is all doubts and doom. “Maybe the city picked the wrong saviors this time.” He’s having a bad case of the Mondays. Tandy isn’t having of this pre-Cloak Tyrone, Debbie Downer personality bullshit.
“Again, no. You are Tyrone Freaking Johnson. Baller lady killer. Master of space, if not time. And you don’t need a cloak for all that.”
But just in case he does? She gives him back Billy’s hoodie, the one she stole on the beach 8 years ago. “It was the first thing I ever stole.” Tandy explains that she’s needed it which is why she’s never mentioned having it. But now, Ty needs it. “Even though you don’t need it,” she adds in. “But I need you.,” she finishes. Aww man, get yo self a superhero partner like these two. They are #Goals.
On the street, T&T are making their way quickly to the waterfront but run into a horde of terrors. With some friendly overwatch sniper help from O’Reilly, they begin taking them out, as a team. Free to finish the run to the Warehouse, O’Reilly breaks off her surveillance. As she is packing up her equipment, Connors shows up and begins putting bullets into her vest.
“You just couldn’t leave it alone, could you?”
O’Reilly is struggling to get to her feet when Connors puts a bullet into the Roxxon pipe she is leaning on, the explosion combined with another bullet flips her over onto the edge of the pier. Connors kicks her lifeless body into the water. That’s a whole lot of Fear Gas she just took in the face; wonder what that will do to her?
Commercials.
No more stories to tell, we come back from the break with Auntie simply praying in French. Praying for the Divine Pairing. T&T arrive at the Warehouse Annex but Connors is there also. Tyrone can’t believe he’s going to try and shoot him again but no worries, he’s decided to go for Tandy this time. Except, Connors hasn’t seen our Duo in action as a tram. They quickly foil his errant plan and Tyrone takes him for a little Cloak ride.
They appear on the roof of the Roxxon building – so many things happened on this roof – so much was prophesized by Tyrone’s early exploration of his powers (remember, he kept waking up on the roof of the Roxxon building earlier in the season when he first started following Connors). He essentially holds Connors over the edge of the building but ultimately, decides not to kill him. Well, that is until Connors raises his weapon to fire and we learn about another of Tyrone’s powers – his ability to absorb people into the Cloak. Presumably, this will be further explained in Season 2 as the comic book power to send people to darkforce dimension – the cloak allows Tyrone to be a Darkforce Conduit. Anyway, Connors is gone .. for now.
Back on the street level, Tyrone tries to convince Tandy that this is his fate — to sacrifice himself in the attempt to shut down the core and stop the Roxxon explosions. Tandy isn’t having it and follows Tyrone into the Annex (he has already cloaked in). We see Ty shut off the valves but the explosions are intensifying. Tandy’s light daggers her way into the sealed chamber, “Screw you” is how she greets Tyrone. They squabble as the explosions continue – Tandy gets burned and now has a mark on her arm, a mirror to the one Tyrone has.
“For some reason, life tossed us together and mixed up our mojo, so, if it’s on you, it’s on me too.”
“Hold my hand. We’ll show these assholes a divine pairing.”
Realizing they need to work together, the Duo link hands successfully for the first time since the first night they touched (which activated their dormant powers).
There powers activate and they are able to … diffuse? Redirect? Absorb? Whatever they do, the combined powers of Tyrone and Tandy abate the Roxxon Meltdown and it’s a really impressive bit of effects and emotional acting from Holt and Joseph. After the they are finished, the Duo are collapsed, side by side on the roof of the Roxxon building. Spent. Also, holding hands. This is a team now. Officially. No doubts. Hard stop.
We move to wrap ups. First, Evita is packing up the statues, sadness on her face as the news talks about the dissipation of the energy and violence. Clearly, she hasn’t heard Ty is still alive.
Assassin Lady finds Peter Scarborough sitting on the floor of the elevator, looking off into the middle distance.
At the Johnson House, Otis and Adina, and Father Delgado look concerned as the police are still interviewing them and searching the house. Presumably, Tyrone is still a fugitive at large. Adina, hearing a noise, discreetly makes her way upstairs (we notice a family photo is missing from the wall where it normally hangs) into Tyrone’s room. No one is there but she notices that a lot of his clothing is gone. She looks ahead, relief across her face.
Across town, Tandy arrives at Mama B’s house, assorted items in hand. Including, a newspaper with the headline, “Roxxon Responsible.” No words are said. No words are needed.
Dagger Church. Tyrone drops his duffel bag, looks like he is moving into Dagger Church. I guess I have to change the name to Cloak & Dagger HQ? Anyway, Ty unpacks his belongings, including the missing photo we noticed earlier, puts up his hoodie, and waits. Tandy arrives with provisions. A care package, she calls it. I guess she is moving out (back home to the Bowen house) and he is moving in.
“I didn’t know you knew how to care?”
“I’m learning.”
And scene. That’s it for Season 1!!
Or is it …
A post-title card scene takes us to a marsh where a not dead, but not looking great either, O’Reilly emerges. She scurries on to land, turning to the camera quickly before hurrying off. She’s moving in some kind of cut scene speed motion way. It almost looks like the creepy girl from the Ring. At San Diego Comic Con, it was teased that her comic book alter ego, Mayhem, would be appearing in Season 2. It seems those teases were correct.
Thoughts.
I have watched countless hours of television, including all manner of Season Finales, and rarely, if ever, have I watched a more complete and thorough and satisfying conclusion to a season long story. “Colony Collapse” concluded Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger‘s season long origin story in a full way, while still leaving plenty of strings to pull at in Season 2.
Things we learned tonight included the discovery of Tyrone’s new Darkforce dimension absorption power – until now, we had only seen the evolution in Tandy’s powers so it was nice to see Tyrone progress; a sign of his maturing control over his basic cloaking power.
Also, we finally, FINALLY saw Tyrone and Tandy realize their need for each other. With the help of Evita and her dire warning of the Divine Pairing and the necessary sacrifice, T&T turned hard into their shared destiny of New Orleans’ savior. There was no more running, no more hiding, these teenagers accepted their fate and went to work (after an inspirational pep talk from Tandy). And then, when the moment of actual action arrived, Tyrone tried to spare his partner and accept what he saw as his fate. But, Auntie was wrong – she didn’t appreciate the unique nature of this iteration of the Divine Pairing. As Tandy tells Tyrone inside the core chamber, their mojos are mixed and so, whatever is on one, is on them both. No fear, no hesitation, these two kids who barely understand their powers, simply get to work.
The character development of Tyrone and Tandy this season has been a hallmark of this well written, acted and executed show. In my loud preaching about people’s need to watch this freshman series, the main idea I always return to is how Cloak & Dagger is prime, top tier drama first and a superhero show, second. And it’s because of that reason that you are invested in these two teens.
If C&D was just about special effects and light daggers and cloaking abilities, the gimmick would have run dry early on and no one, other than the biggest superhero show nerds would be watching. But this show is about loss, depression and feeling alone in the world. It’s also about learning to trust, and to work together for a common goal, and about learning to love – yourself and others. And, most importantly, it’s about trying to make your way in this world which is broken BUT maybe, salvageable.
Season 2 promises to be a whole new chapter in the lives of our favorite vigilantes. With Tyrone living in Dagger Church, still on the run for Fuchs’ murder; Connors still on the loose; Brigid “Mayhem” O’Reilly also on the loose; and Scarborough still presumably running Roxxon Gulf, Tyrone and Tandy will be walking into a chock full of problems and issues to encounter and tackle. And personally, I CAN NOT wait to see their adventures.
One additional side note, Joe Pokaski did a wonderful job this season of using music to help move the show’s narrative along. And tonight was no different. The recurring usage of “Come Sail Away” throughout the episode helped set a tone of danger and hope but it was in the final moments of Ty and Tandy working together to stop the Roxxon core meltdown, where the power of the song’s crescendo helped you feel fully invested in the danger and appreciate the stakes involved in them being successful. That Pokaski used a cover of the Styx classic by show star, Olivia Holt, was just a nice Easter egg for fans.
“We’ll live happily forever
So the story goes
But somehow we missed out
On the pot of gold
But we’ll try
Best that we can
To carry on
…
I thought that they were angels, but to my surprise
They climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies
Singing come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me”
Find a way to carry on. Indeed. For your listening pleasure, the Olivia Holt cover of “Come Sail Away.” See y’all in Season 2.