You’re arrested and unlawfully imprisoned in a super-villain supermax, wrongfully accused of turning a nation’s hero into a carbon stain and possibly possessing WMDs. We’ve all been there. However, you managed to break out and clear your name and possibly killing the evil conspirators that put you there. Black Panther is here to show us how a king does it with ease, grace, and zero body count.
1. The Defiant Ones
Getting busted last episode by a self-sacrificing, homicidal Winter Soldier, T’Challa gets sent up to do hard time in The Vault without a trial. Sixth Amendment violations aside, The Vault doesn’t seem like such a crummy pokey on the superficial, though as it turns out the place is more crooked than the Sochi Olympic Village. Security is apparently pretty lax, as minutes after Tony Stark leaves an innocent Panther to rot, Klaue and Crossbones casually stroll up to the cell and rip the damn door off. After quickly dispatching Crossbones, Panther and Klaue start to make a break for it in possibly the simplest jailbreak orchestrated. A sleeping guard allows the two to grab all of their weapons and shit from the unlocked property room and from there it’s just a quick jaunt to the nearest a/c vent and a straight shot to freedom. Hell, it’s so easy to escape from The Vault that Adrian Toomes literally just walks behind Klaue and Panther and casually makes his exit.
2. Kiss of the Spider-(Wo)Man
If anyone is going to make yet another cat quip, at least it’s straight from the spider’s mouth. Peter Parker makes his first appearance of the season and immediately plays well off of T’Challa the “cat burglar.” Unlike so many Marvel Way hero vs. hero misunderstanding scraps, this works pretty well in this universe as Pete is not dissimilar to his MCU counterpart (referencing Mr. Stark), which suggests a lack of experience and justifies his getting casually worked over by Panther. It’s certainly not going to happen in the MCU or comics proper, but I really dig this idea of Peter getting mentored by T’Challa instead of Tony Stark. The two work off of each other well (T’Challa ever the straight man) and Peter’s teenage need for a strong moral compass is easily met with Panther’s wise yet youthful responsibility rhetoric, without getting too stuck in fuddy duddy mud.
3. The Big Bird Cage
In what is another thinly veiled attempt at marrying the show to the MCU, our season introduction to Spider-Man drags Vulture in along for the ride. Adrian Toomes is mentioned by name earlier in the episode by Klaue, so it’s hardly a surprise when he suits up in a hideous take on his costume. Looking something more like a big bug, Vulture has talons similar to those in Spider-Man: Homecoming with an added high-powered super screech, you know, like vultures are known for. Besides the whole Spider-Man being in this episode thing, I have no idea why Vulture of all people features so prominently or what his role is in the long game, if he even has one. I’m also totally curious about just what the hell he did to land himself in The Vault considering that he was a high school teacher prior to this incident, which appears to be the first time he’s active as Vulture (if Spider-Man’s lack of recognition is anything to go off of)
4. The Experiment
Vulture constantly crowing about being a good guy and trying desperately to convince everyone of it got me thinking about the show and its ongoing narrative of what loyalty truly is. I don’t see it as this grand pontification on the cosmic meaning behind devotion, rather, how it shapes a person and their surroundings. There’s this constant wavering of loyalties and friendships from the premiere to now, with the budding relationship between Tony and T’Challa now in tatters, Zemo’s long con manipulation, White Wolf’s imprisonment for challenging royalty, and especially the impact of Cap’s sacrifice to help Panther achieve his goal. These are just a few examples of the many times alignment factors directly into the overarching plot development, and I’m certainly interested to look back and examine how T’Challa’s royal background is played down socially and quietly observes the idea of fealty and the gravity it holds.
5. The Fugitive
Welp, now that Panther has a new one-armed breadcrumb we’re full speed ahead into yet another MacGuffin. Despite there being quite a few potentially engaging plot devices to explore, Klaue informs T’Challa that Killmonger never cared about the Crown (he definitely did), rather, he was actually after some nonsense called the Heart of Wakanda. If the last half of the season was any indication, there’s nothing to get heated about for quite a while but the table is clear for a whole new list of fun potential supporting characters so maybe another puzzle hunt is what we need to plod along into more interesting globetrotting.
