Marvel's Runaways S01E05 Review: Daddy Issues

Marvel's Runaways, Season 1, Episode 5: Kingdom

So perhaps this is an episode with a very strong premise -- its an episode that has its fair share of action scenes, showing the Runaways as a team and united with superpowers for the first time. It's also one that focuses on the relationship between Geoffrey Wilder, ex-con-turned-real-estate-mogul, and his son. There's a lot of other parent-child interaction in this episode, too, of course, but it's undeniable that the Geoffrey-Alex one frames the majority of the episode.

We end up framing the relationship between Geoffrey and Darius, which... I'm not sure we needed? This feels like the cartel subplot in the Gifted all over again where in an attempt to give one of the characters a complex backstor of hanging out with a bad crowd it ends up taking up way too much screentime than all the interesting things going on (kid superheroes, genetic experimentation, cults, sexual assault, conspiracies, a magic wand, affairs, human sacrifices, time travel and a mummy man in a basement).

And the Darius storyline is... serviceable. Darius tells Alex that his father isn't what he thinks he is. Of course Darius is talking about the betrayal of their past bond as former gang brothers, of Darius taking the fall for a murder in good faith that Geoffrey would take care of his family and not forget his roots... but Alex is already embroiled in so much more with the 'my father is part of a cult sacrificing teen girls in my basement' stuff that he gets pretty traumatized at the end of the whole thing. Sure, I don't really believe that Darius is going to hurt the kid -- he seems honourable even when he extorts money and puts a gun to Alex's head -- but the stress of the night causes Geoffrey and Alex to lash out at each other. Other than the happy-go-lucky Yorkes, Geoffrey and Alex have the healthiest relationship compared to the Minorus, the Steins and the Deans, so it's definitely a moment that I think the series earned, even if the way we get there was somewhat forced.

The problem with the Darius/Geoffrey subplot isn't that it's not interesting. Because it is! The flashback is really effective at showing the bond that Geoffrey and Darius had before the former gets recruited into Pride, and the whole 'you betrayed your roots' and social class storyline is pretty interesting. But it's just kind of shoved in in-between like seventeen different plotlines, and thus as a subplot that really feels oddly disconnected (like, y'know, Finn and Rose's casino animal-freeing jaunt in The Last Jedi) and as such makes you wonder why they chose to insert this bit into this part of the story.

The answer, is, of course, to make a low-level enemy that our burgeoning heroes can fight. And also to foreshadow the man behind Pride -- played by Dr. Doom himself (so he's definitely going to return), Geoffrey's mysterious benefactor might very well be the true identity of the desiccated corpse that Leslie keeps in a locked basement room and sometimes makes love to. 

Still, we do get a pretty cool showdown between the Runaways and an angry Darius. Poor Gert doesn't get to bring her pet Deinonychus along, sadly, so she skips out on the superpower showdown (everyone plays catch-up in the guest house with everyone else's powers, though) but the moment when Molly finally is able to let loose, grab the car and stop it from going forwards... and then we get the barrage of Karolina's light powers, Chase's... lightning-shooting iron gloves and Nico's staff creating a magical barrier. Sadly it's a bit less cool than I really hoped it would be, and perhaps anything that's too flashy would absolutely fuck up poor Darius, but still... I dunno. 

While Nico, Karolina, Gert and Molly are mostly playing car chase, Chase himself actually spends the majority of this episode bonding with his dad Victor. We learn that, well, not only is he secretly resenting how he's now part of something bigger and can't just revel in the joy of inventing as he did before, he's also fighting brain cancer. Both of which might explain (but not really justify) how horribly he's treating his wife and kid prior to their bonding over making a super-power glove. They also have a moment where Victor digs out an old time-travel device... well, it's only able to bend light so they can see the future through it, but Victor gets frustrated and smashes the future-TV without realizing that it actually worked and is showing a destroyed Los Angeles. Really felt like Chase's creation of the Fistigons were a bit more prominent even from episode 1 beyond the brief sight of the blueprints, though -- the advent of his superpowers felt a lot less organic compared to the girls.

Still, Chase's interactions with Victor is definitely one of the unexpectedly better parts of the show. I really loved how the show expresses how Victor is able to bond with his son over their shared interest in machines, but at the same time still show an abusive relationship. If not in the present, the way that Chase goes from excited to immediately flinching and apologizing when Victor gets pissed off at his old invention is a very realistic and well-acted abuse victim response. Victor's look of disgust at himself for inspiring such fear from his own son is also well-acted. Kudos for both actors for really nailing their respective roles.

It's all a great moment, until I realize that this episode is supposed to be the halfway point of the series and... the Runaways haven't actually ran away. It's taking its short, sweet time slowly developing its characters, and while I approve of that choice, it is somewhat disappointing that the whole parent-cult storyline is just foreshadowing heaped upon foreshadowing heaped upon cryptic dialogue with stuff like 'going ultra' that we don't really get the context of. 

Of course, during the scuffle, Alex shoots Andre -- the young, happy hacker that's just following orders -- and Geoffrey drags him away and shoos Alex and tells him to get a cab home. It's a very strange bit considering Alex was kidnapped and held at gunpoint by Darius a while back and Geoffrey isn't remotely interested in even accompanying Geoffrey back to the Wilders' residence... but then Geoffrey summons all the members of Pride, telling them that they finally have a body. Andre is sacrificed -- not in the Wilders' cult basement, but in the Church of Gibborim's basement, where the glowy-penis mummy gets revived (we get a scientific explanation from Victor about how it's simple transfer of energy, what do you mean it's magic?) into... well, Dr. Doom! Or, as he is properly called, Jonah. And he is 100% Karolina's dad. 

So yeah, at least the plotline's moving forwards a bit. The Runaways get to show off their powers and their attempt at infiltrating the basement cult room proved fruitless as they're not using it in the moment, while Pride manages to finally resurrect their seeming leader. Alex is a bit angsty at not being able to save Andre and being the only member of the Runaways to not have superpowers in one way or another, so... yeah. 

Karolina is another one who, like Alex, is a bit angsty. She gets to have some fun finally unleashing her glitter light-bright powers for once, but at the same time her absolute faith in the religious institution of the Church of Gibborim and her parents have been absolutely shattered, and it's gloriously melancholic. Where Chase suddenly gets an unexpected bonding session with his abusive dad, Karolina and Alex, who had been pretty decent with their parents, are having huge bits of friction with them, with Karolina losing faith in their cult-like church that's a cover for abducting kids, while Alex is disappointed in his father for so many things. Molly and Gert don't get much, but that scene in the raptor pen where they just ask each other why their parents do all these horrible things is pretty poignant too.

What else is going on here? Molly's sheer exuberance at finally being involved in cool shit like a car chase and being able to stop a car with her bare hands is absolutely fun, and she apparently goes straight to sleep after using her superpowers as it tires her out (it happened last episode too but I didn't think much of it). The affair is still going on and Robert Minoru keeps wanting Janet to move in with him and abandon their respective spouses. And Frank Dean apparently just... failed to 'go Ultra', which is easily the most forgettable plot point in all this .