Red Stewart reviews the penultimate episode of Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger…
When I was a kid, one of my favorite episodes of X-Men: Evolution was the girl power episode “Walk On The Wild Side.” I thought it was fun to see Jean Grey and her fellow female X-Men get a chance to kick ass in the spotlight. Years later, I found said episode on Marvel’s YouTube page and, to my surprise, read mostly negative comments under it, saying that it would have been better if Jean and Scott had talked about their problems in the beginning rather than act brashly later on.
As a dumb teenager, I couldn’t believe the idiocy of such people, wanting these character to talk to one another like regular human beings and work out their issues, over going off and doing vigilante work. As an adult, though, I finally understand what they were saying: that when you’re older, you have an obligation to handle negative situations as maturely as possible, as they are usually brought about by poor communication.
Watching ‘Back Breaker’, I couldn’t help but feel like I was witnessing a regress back into that era of superhero serials. But then again, to be honest with you guys, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the episode and its intentions. You see, usually when you’re reviewing an episode of a show you get an idea of what the writers were trying to do or go for. They may have faltered with the execution, but at least you knew what they wanted to accomplish.
With ‘Back Breaker’, my only theory is that said writers realized that they only have two episodes left to wrap up this season’s various character and story arcs, and therefore decided to squeeze everything into the penultimate episode to save room in the finale for all the clashing action beats.
This is both good and bad because it means literally every experience beforehand is brought back into the foray for better and worse. Remember Tyrone’s romantic interest Evita who conveniently disappeared for a bit? She’s back, and still interested in Tyrone. Remember Greg’s killer, who Tandy conveniently forgot about when she decided to let Roxxon off the hook? She’s back, and with a new target. Remember Liam, who we all thought was conveniently left behind when Tandy bailed on his bail? He’s back, and willing to rebuild their relationship.
Those are just a few of the past events that are returned into the foray. And, as you can imagine, their implementation doesn’t feel quite organic, especially when we still have to continue the plot threads from the previous episode ‘Ghost Stories’, namely that of Tyrone and O’Reilly dealing with the aftermath of Connor’s confession. On the one hand, Tyrone’s parents have a neutral reaction to the police revealing that they are opening up an investigation into the incident, which angers Tyrone to the point of him acting out at school. On the other hand, you have O’Reilly depressed over the murder of her boyfriend and fellow officer Fuchs. Meanwhile, Tandy is sapping everyone’s hopes and desires in order to get a high to distract herself from the knowledge that her father was abusive.
These are all tense emotional conflicts that had the potential to create a powerful entry in Cloak & Dagger before the final episode, were it not for a small counterpoint: with the exception of O’Reilly, who is surrounded by corruption, Tandy and Tyrone could’ve both avoided their pains if they had the gall to just talk with their parents. Yes, they’re both young people who have undergone traumatic events, but we are a point where the model of the “rebellious teenager” has become cliche and unrealistic. It’s true kids who have been put through tough situations have a good chance of finding unhealthy ways of dealing with their mental suffering. However, that only comes about when they feel they cannot communicate with a parental or guardian figure. When you don’t have that kind of connection with someone, it can lead to social withdrawal.
For Tandy, her mother Melissa has not been a great parent since the death of Nathan; she indulged in alcohol and drugs and clearly didn’t help a young Tandy cope. But at the same time, not only was she not abusive, she was changing. In prior episodes we have seen her covering for Tandy against the police, try and inspire hope in her daughter about a potential case against Roxxon, and even attempt to make a full recovery through avoiding the bottle. Why Tandy refuses to even ask Melissa about this memory of her father (and I insist again that it was only a single memory, which could have been one instance and not a part of a pattern) makes things feel artificial.
Tyrone, contrarily, has no excuse. From the second his parents leave the police building, they tell him that they will talk to him. However, he chooses to avoid them and let his rage go loose at school. And though this leads to an interesting (and provocative) debate about God with his history teacher and school pastor/counselor Delgado, the whole aftermath can’t help but feel unnecessary.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, we also have the return of Evita’s Voodoo aunt, whose only purpose is to treat the audience of Cloak & Dagger like idiots by painstakingly foreshadowing the future. But wait, there’s even more! Intersected throughout the episode is a lecture from Delgado talking about the arc heroes in fiction go through, including their rise and fall. You honestly have to wonder if the writing team has contempt for Freeform viewers.
Luckily, there are two things that save ‘Back Breaker’ from being a complete misfire. The first, as mentioned before, is O’Reilly’s subplot. Things are depressing enough as it is, but as she’s drowning her sorrows in the local bar Connors arrives, evidently reinstated, leading to some of the show’s darkest moments. I don’t know if I have ever praised actor J. D. Evermore in the past before, but if not I have to commend him for doing a great job at portraying this narcissistic, detestable detective. If he had more of a backstory, he would go down as another great villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s television division.
The second regards Mina, who, in a small yet integral role, happens upon some Roxxon employees near an unstable pipe. The resulting accident gives us a very strong hint as to what to expect in the finale.
Overall, it’s clear that the writers didn’t do a great job at planning out the series over the course of its 10-episode season. Then again, with all the issues that come up during production, it may not be fair to blame them entirely. However, when they choose to incorporate nonsensical, hackneyed elements like Voodoo fortune telling and character induced stupidity, they are the only ones at fault. I just hope the failures of the penultimate episode were worth it for a good finale.
Rating: 6/10
Red Stewart
