Marvel's Runaways S03E09 Review: Cell Service Sucks

Marvel's Runaways, Season 3, Episode 9: the Broken Circle

Well, that's... unexpected. I guess the writers of Runaways' third season had more of a heads-up that their series is ending, because episode 9 feels more like a season finale which presumably leaves episode 10 as the series finale as a whole? Or something? But then you have the first half of the season with the Magistrate's family and the abrupt ending that that storyline got... I dunno.

Anyway, "The Broken Circle" has the Runaways and the still-surviving members of the PRIDE take the fight against Morgan le Fay and basically take her out. And, all things considered... Morgan's probably not the best supervillain in Marvel's TV series. She's certainly not the worst, not at all, but all things considered she's sort of just kind of there, charming, threatening and hammy enough when she's needed to be, but compared to how personal Jonah and PRIDE felt when it was their turn as the show's villains, she feels like kind of a disappointment.

Basically all the characters are thrown into the chaos, with PRIDE reuniting to rescue Molly by masquerading as CDC employees and demand that the hotel Morgan is using as a ritual place be shut down (hooo boy, considering recent events) so that they can run up and rescue Molly from the crazy ritual Morgan is casting, which, according to the Minorus, will allow Morgan's 'Dark Army' or something to come from the Dark Dimension. They mostly look like goopy, oily arms, but I really wished the Dark Dimension episodes actually showcased this a bit better. Most of the PRIDE members really don't get to do much here beyond be hammy and act like they normally do, and Tina mostly is there to do some minor spells and say some exposition about what Morgan's doing. Molly's honestly rescued without too much of a problem, other than a slightly-wounded Geoffrey. Oh, and the cybernetic Janet Stein also helps out to hack the internet to interfere with Morgan's plans, because apparently her magic crow-phones still operate by standard internet rules.

The rest of the Runaways spend a good chunk of the first half of the episode sort of bickering. Alex and Nico want to take the fight to Morgan, while Karolina, worried about Nico's safety and worried about Nico in general, wants to take the time to regroup. Plus, the audience knows all about the ominous Evil Alex that Dagger saw last episode, which doesn't actually come to pass. Chase and Gert... make up, with Chase actually helping Gert research her school in the future or something. Again, it's sort of a romantic sub-plot that happens in the background, but it's a nice thing that happens anyway and makes the ending of this episode extra-bitter.

And then Molly brings PRIDE to the hostel, meeting with the rest of the Runaways, and everyone sort of shares a series of quick, rapid scenes with each other which is actually quite nice, and I sort of wished that it wasn't so fast-paced. Perhaps the most impactful, for me, would be the long-awaited talk between Alex and Geoffrey. Alex is still stone-cold, even with the revelation that Geoffrey was wounded (not mortally, it seems) during the hotel raid by the brainwashed Molly. Everyone's suiting up and preparing their weapons, and Dale ends up figuring out that they could extract the antibodies in Karolina's blood and innoculate everyone from witchy possession. Which... okay, sure, got to give the sci-fi side of the power spectrum something to do. In what's probably the most obvious showcases of the show's inability to consistently show off their CGI Deinonychus, the magic-antibody process cuts off Gert's connection to Old Lace, and she has to be locked in a room. Alex, Victor, Digital Janet and Chase hack into cell phone towers to bring them down.

Nico is adamant that the magical dagger that Dagger gave her is the key to taking out Morgan, and devises a ritual involving some blood magic salt that Tina prepared to seal Morgan again. Tina also quickly gives some last-minute backstory on Morgan, which is honestly too little, too late -- they knew each other when they were studying witchcraft, and she considers the Staff of One to be her birthright or something... which really doesn't tell us much that we don't know about. She's magic, she's evil, she used to be sealed in the staff. Sure.

Morgan shows up via portal, Dagger's dagger proves completely ineffective, and Morgan demands obedience from the Runaways in exchange for their parents' lives... and they initially do seem to kneel... but it's just a ploy for time for Digital Janet to disconnect the cell phones and take down all the Corvus Phones... which drains Morgan of power? Sure. Molly, Nico and Karolina try their best to ineffectually take on Morgan. Karolina's alien powers ain't worth jack shit in this second half of the season, huh? Also, Morgan's two pretty witch minions also show up to help out, but one is knocked out by Chase's Fistigon blast, and Alex saves the non-Tina parents by straight-up stabbing another one in the neck. Holy shit, Alex.

It's ultimately Gert who ends up taking down Morgan, stalling her with a angry stare-off and giving this whole speech about motives, feminism, power and how she draws her power from her family. It's all, of course, a ploy to complete the salt circle around Morgan which ends up containing Morgan and allowing Tina to banish her again to the Dark Dimension... but it's a bittersweet ending, because Gert was actually seriously injured before the speech, having been stabbed by a fallen chandelier, and she succumbs to her wounds, and the episode ends with the Runaways, PRIDE and Old Lace gathering around Gert's dead body.

And... and it's ultimately a pretty decent conclusion to the Morgan storyline? Again, it's kind of a shame that the episode feels so chaotic. Which definitely works in the second half when everyone's pulling out all their weapons and Morgan's minions teleport in and everyone's doing something, but in the first half? It really does highlight a lot of the season's weaknesses, with Tina's exposition about Morgan really highlighting just how flimsy the villain is written (Elizabeth Hurley's fantastic hammy performance notwithstanding) and the whole cell phone power-up thing not really holding up particularly well. And the ending really ended up just focusing mostly on Nico and Gert, doesn't it? I think that's been one of the weaknesses of a lot of Runaways's huge conflict episodes, where half the cast end up feeling redundant. In this case, nearly every member of PRIDE that's not Janet and Tina really honestly didn't contribute much to the climax, although some of the relationships and gags are certainly appreciated. Ultimately, though, that's certainly an interesting way to wrap up the Morgan storyline, and I'm actually curious to see how the show's going to resolve itself.

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Other than Alex's death at the end of the first run of Runaways, Gert was actually the second one of the team to die in the comics, taking a dagger in the gut meant for Chase.