Red Stewart reviews the eighth episode of Cloak & Dagger…
As we move further into the future of streaming and online services and away from the past of cable and satellite venues, I’m beginning to wonder whether or not we’ll come to a point where seasonal mandates by content providers will be less standardized and more subjective based on the requested needs of said contents’ creators. I know I have complained about this before, but these days it does not seem right to force every show to produce a certain amount of episodes per a channel’s season. Yes, back in the day when there were only a few major television companies that relied on non-serialized shows, it made sense to ensure that there was enough material to last a good part of the year to provide enough advertising revenue.
But we don’t live in those times anymore. We live in an age where Nielsen ratings are inaccurate, where every network has a streaming service of some kind, and where people would rather pay a subscription fee than sit through a pointless ad. While cable is far from dead, it certainly is at a point where its old format needs to adapt if it wants to survive in the new landscape, and having writers and producers make pointless cliffhangers and filler because they have to fill a seasonal quota doesn’t help that goal; when someone is watching an engaging storyline, especially one dispersed over a weekly format (compared to the episode dumps Netflix employs), the last thing they want is to be dragged for another week knowing full-well that there was no need for it. Perhaps this is why HBO’s Game of Thrones has succeeded in keeping its fanbase: rather than force David Benioff and D. B. Weiss to continue with the 10 episode format for the last two seasons, they were allowed to shrink it based on their story needs.
I don’t mean to scapegoat Cloak & Dagger for these issues present in the current model of television, but I do wonder when Marvel will learn their lesson. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ratings have suffered from having to fill 22 episode seasons; several of the Netflix shows like Luke Cage and Iron Fist have been criticized for running longer than they should have. And now it appears that Cloak & Dagger needed less than 10 episodes, or at least more consistent writing.
Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, the eight episode of Cloak & Dagger focuses on the eight year anniversary of the Roxxon oil rig explosion. As such, everyone is morose, especially with no major developments going on at the justice side: O’Reilly is unable to make headway into Connor’s corruption while Ivan Hess from last week’s “Lotus Eaters” has little recollection of anything that transpired prior to the explosion.
To start with the critiques, I found this latter point a bit annoying. Considering how much time we invested with Hess in “Lotus Eaters,” I was hoping to see some major story beats come out of his non-comatose state. But no, the only thing we get is that Hess remembers a memo Tandy’s father Nathan sent out regarding the Roxxon board’s decision to avoid adding new heat shielding to the rig. If there was ever an opportunity to delve deeper into the hidden nightmare of the disaster, it should have been with “Ghost Stories,” but alas we will have to wait for things to come to fruition in the last two episodes.
Tyrone’s plot, on the other hand, blends with O’Reilly’s. After learning that Connors is also unnerved by the anniversary of Billy’s death, Tyrone decides to concoct a scheme with O’Reilly to force a confession out of him. As I noted in my review of “Lotus Eaters,” not much of that episode explored the aftermath of Duane’s death. Here, however, we see that plot point picked up with O’Reilly clearly disheartened after the incident and wanting to make up for it, and I have to give credit to actress Emma Lahana as she does a good job at conveying the melancholic attitude O’Reilly has gained from entering this dark world of police corruption.
Unfortunately, I can’t give her that same credit when it comes to portraying what should be O’Reilly’s tough exterior. What I mean is, when deciding to go through with Tyrone’s plan, I couldn’t help but feel that she came off as too subservient when agreeing to it, which should not have been the case; she’s a law enforcement official initiating a covert campaign against a fellow officer, and that isn’t something one does lightly without feeling like they have control over the implementation and outcome of the stratagem.
Their strategy is admittedly genius, and provides some of the best use of Tyrone’s powers that the series has shown up to this point. Making it all the more engaging is the fact that Tyrone wears his eponymous cloak for the first time to help him control the Darkforce energy he is connected to.
Tandy’s narrative, on the other hand, is more straightforward, and not necessarily in a good way. We see that her mother has cleaned up, if only briefly, to prepare for their yearly vigil for Nathan. I was disappointed because there was no exploration of Melissa’s reaction to Greg’s death in “Call/Response.” Did Tandy even tell her what happened, or did she just leave her to assume that he went back to his family? In either case, why didn’t Melissa regress back to her alcoholism? Why is she all of a sudden strong enough to avoid the temptation? Remember, addiction is a disease, and not one that can be fought off using willpower alone.
Upon finding Nathan’s memo, Tandy goes on the offensive by kidnapping Roxxon Gulf CEO Peter Scarborough (who conveniently has no bodyguards around him) and giving him an ultimatum: either go public with his company’s negligence or suffer from media litigation brought about by a combination of evidence from Greg and Nathan’s collections. While Tandy’s approach does fit her character, in retrospect it would have been cool to see the writers have her do something with her powers, much like Tyrone.
If “Ghost Stories” had just been focused on getting these respective conclusions to each of the protagonist’s conflicts, it could have been a strong outing. But my aforementioned complaint about showrunners having to incorporate filler or padding to match network quotas comes into play here in the form of two things: flashbacks and the ending. Flashbacks have, of course, been a part of many Cloak & Dagger episodes before, and that’s just the problem: they’ve been a part of many Cloak & Dagger episodes before. Yes, this being the anniversary of the incident makes them inherently necessary, but we more or less get rehashes of things we have already seen, minus some painful on-the-nose allusions to spirits from the stereotypical Voodoo aunt from “Funhouse Mirrors.”
The second aspect is the ending. Now, usually I avoid spoiling the endings in my reviews because I do want people to have some surprise when they walk into a television episode, but I feel obligated to talk about this because it not only felt tacked on, but engaged in the worst aspects of the plot twist trope. After Tandy and Tyrone hold Melissa’s hands during the vigil, they are taken into a negative memory where it is revealed that Nathan was abusive to her. At least, that’s what I think the writers were trying to go for. All we actually see is one instance of Nathan hitting Melissa after she spills some coffee on the documents he is working on.
Now don’t get me wrong- aside from self-defense purposes, any man who hits his wife deserves to be arrested and thrown in jail. But when someone is stressed out from work, it can lead to them acting out of the ordinary, as Marvel ironically depicted in the comics with Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne. For me to buy that Nathan was this abusive spouse, they should have shown him constantly beating her in the memory. Or, if this was planned from the beginning, at the very least they should have incorporated stronger hints of his hidden behavior into prior episodes. Instead, based on all we were shown, he was nothing more than a good person and a good family man who, at worst, was too into his work.
A good plot twist not only lays enough bread crumbs out, but also changes the narrative for the better. Sadly, even that latter aspect doesn’t happen here. Tandy uses this discovery as a justification for trading over all the evidence to Scarborough in exchange for a lump sum of cash. It is beyond irritating that she would not pursue this topic further with her mother; it is downright infuriating that she would ignore all the immoral actions Roxxon has done, such as poisoning its employees, polluting the environment, and, oh I don’t know, murdering Greg!
Tyrone’s arc is good enough to avoid putting “Ghost Stories” in the bad category, but I couldn’t help but be very disappointed in an ending that was clearly implemented for the sake of giving the show more story for its final two episodes. At a time when M. Night Shyamalan is making a comeback (side note- Glass looks awesome!), it is bitterly amusing to see his worst writing tropes make their way into contemporary television.
Notes:
-Now that Tyrone has his costume, more or less, it will be interesting to see when or if Tandy will ever get hers. Granted it would need some changes from the comic book version, but I would like to see her don one rather than just wear white clothing.
-Props to the writers for turning the fridging concept on its head. You guys will know what I’m talking about when you watch the episode.
Rating: 6/10
Red Stewart
