Marvel's Cloak and Dagger, Season 1, Episode 5: Princeton Quest
And sadly we're back in another blasé episode of Cloak and Dagger. The previous episode was actually pretty great at exploring the emotional problems gripping the titular characters, as well as their own struggles, guilt and whatnot. This episode, though? It just runs around in circles, honestly. The huge fight between Tandy and Tyrone are swept under the rug with an awkward apology and the two are weird frenemies again, and for a significant amount of the episode it's just Tyrone playing basketball... and my god, I know this is technically the teen school drama version of a superhero show, but damn it, moreso than any of the cheesy relationship drama, I really, really dislike and don't understand why teen dramas seem to think that anyone would want to watch a fake basketball game for nearly half of this episode's screentime. I get it, it's a huge moment in Tyrone's life because of all the Billy angst, but the bit where Tyrone teleports to the garage now run by Billy's old basketball friend is so much more emotional than "oh no is he going to play in the game, tension wah wah."
And yeah, there's the slight bit of classism bit going on where Tyrone realizes that the referee prefers his more prestigious school compared to the one that he's fighting against (a school from the neighbourhood he used to grow up in), and I'm not sure if Tyrone flubs the final shot or not, or if Tyrone is even conflicted at all, because the basketball scenes are so freaking boring that I genuinely cannot be bothered to pay much attention. At least he gets Evita's respect and love? Eh.
Oh, and thanks to plot-convenience dreams, Tyrone learns that apparently Duane is one of the players in the whole drug story in New Orleans, and is working with Officer Connors, and knows that Connors is the one that shot Billy. Dun dun dunnn drama! Oh, and Tyrone is working alongside Officer O'Reilly to bust Connors, and O'Reilly has taken to sniffing drugs to get closer to Connors? S'cool. I don't mind these storylines, as haphazardly as they are showcased here.
Tandy, meanwhile, continues to go on her little investigation mission to get to the bottom of Roxxon, and while it's nowhere as mind-numbingly boring as whether Tyrone will make the shot that will make St. Petersburg win, it's still pretty much just a single step in bringing down Roxxon. She has basically appropriated the abandoned cathedral as her own gigantic little conspiracy board playmat, which I thought is kinda ridiculous, but fun.
And then, in a subplot that makes me roll my eyes as much as the length of the basketball game, Tandy impersonates a fake identity in a short while, gets a job at a fancy Roxxon party in order to find out the Roxxon Head Honcho, Peter Scarborough, and then pretends to break down and very nearly stabs him in the back all Assassin's Creed style before she touches him and sees that he's super evil, like "wants to drown his own employees and profit" evil. She then... decides to let him go (???), and return back to her huge conspiracy map and, oh, apparently she missed a couple of names? I seriously don't get this part of the episode. I mean, I kinda do, but the way it's told is genuinely baffling.
There's also the unfortunate implication that Tandy did really awaken her powers with a suicide or a life-defying attempt, which causes her to push Tyrone off of a ledge into a water when Tyrone accidentally teleports to her. Just to get him back to a goddamn high school ball game. And nobody noticed that Tandy threw another person off from a second story? Yeah, overall, I kinda understand what they were trying to go for in this episode, but the way it was delivered was pretty dang boring.
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