Marvel's Runaways S02E05 Review: Robert Minoru is a Badass

Marvel's Runaways, Season 2, Episode 5: Rock Bottom

So that was an interesting episode, and definitely kept the momentum from the fourth episode. Sure, the actual cliffhangers from episode 4 were resolved surprisingly quickly -- Nico calling out Topher was quickly handwaved aside by his believable-and-reasonable cover story (which, admittedly, wasn't the most unbelievable one); whereas Jonah's revelation was short and basically told us a relatively simple revelation -- they're aliens, and the thing under the dig-site is Jonah's spaceship. He was ejected early, and one of the glowing beings apparently still trapped within the spaceship is Karolina's "brother". And via the Stein-parents storyline, we learn that the gravity surges are from Jonah activating the sunken ship's anti-gravitational engine. But then we do get the episode centering around a pretty damn badass series of events that spiral out and seems to resolve the Topher storyline. 

Topher basically explains away his backstory with something that's believably flawed and tragic. He was driven away from his home, and while on rock bottom (eh? Get the pun of the episode title? EH?) he found some mysterious radioactive alien rock on some dumpster and got high on power, and felt like he could do anything. Which, of course, is believable enough in the world of Marvel Comics, and when he starts confiding with Molly about how he just wants somewhere to be accepted in, you might just believe that this is how they're taking this character. Making him kind of a less-morally-lawful teammate. Plus, there was that whole bit of trying to bond with Gertrude, with the whole "the sister of my sister is also my sister" deal... but, of course, when he starts to ask Molly for the dig site and information about it, it's pretty damn obvious what Topher is trying to do... which, knowing that he's at least partially fueled by an addiction, makes him feel... a bit more desperate, I guess. A bit more human. 

Of course, that doesn't excuse any of his behaviour later on. He charges into the dig site, and appears to at least kill some of the workers (at least one on-screen), and then proceeds to carjack some random dude before breaking into his old home and beating up his parents, demanding that they take him back. And as the Runaways tail Topher, they find out that not only was Topher lying about the circumstances of his family (they were scared of him), Topher also lied about how he got the magic space-rocks... he was a worker in the laboratory and found the rock in the aftermath of the explosion that killed Molly's parents.

I kind of do like that we move very quickly with the Topher storyline, and not drag on the "is he evil/is he not evil" drama for what it's worth. Of course, it does kind of make Topher kinda feel like a less interesting character than he could perhaps be, but he's honestly pretty well-done, particularly the complex emotions that he elicits in the Runaways. Molly's not entirely wrong or dumb -- she saw Topher beating people up during the car-jacking sequence, and she knows she's been lied to. But whereas the other kids, Nico in particular, are basically out for blood and just see Topher as an enemy to beat. Molly, meanwhile, chooses to try and at least see the good in Topher and is willing to try and work out a compromise. 

Of course, when Topher attacks his sister, Molly ends up going full-on Princess Powerful. It's not quite enough, though, because Molly's clearly holding back her punches. A combination of Nico's spell, Topher tossing dumpsters around and Chase using the Fistigons causes the dumpster to get thrown towards Gert... and Topher ends up pushing Gert's car away and catching the brunt of the dumpster. The slow-motion was a bit much, but the choreography was well-done, and I do really appreciate the usage of some of the seemingly-throwaway scenes earlier (like Topher and Gert's little scene) to build up this confrontation. 

The Runaways are forced to leave Topher behind, and Nico's argument with Molly afterwards is amazingly done. Nico's line about how she will protect her family, and that family includes Molly and not Topher, is amazing... but so is Molly's comeback about how that's exactly what Nico's mother would say. And Gert later telling Molly that she's proud of Molly for standing up for herself and something she believes in is also something that's amazingly done. 

That's the main A-plot, but as always, we've got a bunch of B-plots running around. Karolina's revelation is pretty short and she gets back to the Runaways pretty quickly, but is clearly disturbed enough about what's going on in the dig-site and her whole 'brother' situation that she's trying to deflect attention away from that. Fortunately for her, Topher's there as a far more immediate threat and distraction. Karolina's attempts to go "yes, let us go and stop Topher from hurting people, and not because we have to protect the dig site!" is actually pretty well done acting. There's enough sense of Karolina being ever-so-slightly-desperate that it's believable that it's odd to some of the other kids, but not too much that the other kids look like idiots for not noticing the obvious deflection. The Gifted's second season had a particular problem with everyone around Polaris being utter idiots like that. 

Anyway, Frank and Leslie find this out and are equally worried but also confident that Karolina isn't an idiot... and she at least has enough sense to show up and confront Leslie about just what she is before she "turn her back on everything". Which might mean either the Runaways or the Church of Gibborim, dun DUNN DUNNN!

Speaking of Jonah, he's the subject of an assassination attempt! And of all people, it's Robert Minoru of PRIDE, who's been played up as kind of the least threatening member of PRIDE. He's not a super-smart comic book scientist, he's not a former gangster with a lot of connections, he's not a sorceress... hell, it was even a running gag in the first season that everyone is surprised that Robert even had the balls to cheat on his wife. But Robert tells the other members of PRIDE that he has a plan to take down Jonah... and when Amy is brought up, you end up realizing that Robert might be just a man... but he's also a father who knew and has been sitting on the information that Jonah killed her daughter. 

And hoo boy, even though I know that this is the fifth episode in a 13-episode season, so Robert's attempt was kinda doomed from the start, it was pretty badass to see him basically make Jonah squirm. Sure, Robert swaggering around the alcohol and whatnot is kinda silly for him, but his monologue about how he's amplified Karolina's power-dampening bracelets and use it to hurt Jonah is pretty damn badass. Hell, if he wasn't so intent on pressing Jonah for information, he would've probably been able to kill the alien. Instead, he gets whacked in the head with a vase by those two creepy Shining-esque Church of Gibborim ladies. Which is kind of a shame. 

It's kind of a shame since the scene was pretty damn badass, and being clonked by literal nobodies for what amounts to a brick joke to Frank Dean's interaction with them earlier is kind of a shame... but still, good effort for Robert. He's beaten up and/or dead when Jonah tosses him in front of the other members of PRIDE, and while Robert might've failed in permanently ending Jonah, it's going to not bode well for the rest of PRIDE's interactions with Jonah. 

Overall, wrapping up the Topher storyline (for now, at least), delivering a lot of alien-flavoured revelations as well as a confrontation between Jonah and a member of PRIDE, and a bunch of smaller plot developments here and there, things are moving forward a lot and I'm definitely a huge fan of a lot of the developments. This is a series that has honestly grabbed me a lot more than I thought it would. I liked Runaways' first season, but man, this second season has been on fire. 

Random Notes:

• Other B-plots that go on in this pretty busy episode:

• Frank Dean gets trusted by Jonah to be his new lackey, but he basically refuses to compromise his humanity, and he gets a nice little reunion with Leslie. 
• The Steins basically concoct a plan inside Victor's weird little hallucination-memory dome about how to deal with Jonah's anti-gravity shield in his UFO. 
• At the end of the episode, Gert escapes to a hospital to seek some medical help, and... seems to call her parents? Oh dear!
• Some people are seemingly making graffiti of Molly and her glowing eyes, which is cool, they're really becoming superheroes!
• I know that Runaways sort of exists in its own little bubble in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the best way to think about these MCU TV shows is to pretend everything else just doesn't exist, but man, SHIELD really dropped the ball on this particular alien ship, huh? Although I guess PRIDE might've used their resources to hush it up.
• A random side-effect of Topher's exposure to the stones is apparently causing him to stop aging, which I guess is what Jonah is able to do? I'm not sure why that doesn't affect Molly, though. The idea that Topher is actually a whole lot of older than the rest of the kids and how he was definitely trying to come on to Nico even creepier than it already was. 
• So since this seems to be the end of Topher's story arc (at least for now), in the original run of the Runaways comics, Topher is actually a straight-up vampire (Blade is a thing, after all) who joins the Runaways for a while, befriending Nico and becoming her quasi-love interest, before turning out to be super-duper evil.
• The not-aging bit, I guess, is our little nod to Topher's vampiric comic book counterpart. 
• It's so great to see all six Runaways together now that Karolina and Alex have finished their respective side-quests!
• Seriously, though, Robert Minoru gets a lot of badass lines in this one. 
• Eiffel's interrogation at the hands of PRIDE, with her small army of lawyers and her insanely confident attitude -- as well as the Yorkes hiding behind each other -- is the comedic highlight of the episode.