In two episodes, Runaways has set itself apart from its comic book counterpart in a way that has given it a life of its own without stepping on the legacy of that series. It’s a show that takes all that’s great about teen dramas and combines with just the right amount of superhero fueled conflict to become something very unique in Marvel’s constantly growing lineup. The third episode, “Destiny” is another really good episode for this show that has become about more than just a tagline. These kids will eventually runaway (I think) but the reasons will go much deeper than we can probably imagine right now. Let’s jump into this but be warned, there will be spoilers throughout.
1. Funeral For a Friend
This episode opens up with a funeral that takes place ten years before the events of the series. We find out very quickly that this is the funeral of Molly Hernandez’s parents who died in a mysterious fire. It is implied that Nico’s mother may have had something to do with this and we are shown that everyone in The Pride is troubled by this death. The Yorkes specifically are deeply hurt by this death and this is how Molly comes to live with them and is raised with Gert. There is a level of mistrust in this group and this scene really gets into that which is something that isn’t entirely clear to us in the early days of the comic. For TV, a lot needs to be adjusted and I think this is where I will stop comparing it to the comic because it so wonderfully has become its own thing.
2. Molly The Brave
Before meeting up with the gang, Molly is beside herself. She can’t find the kitty cat hair clip that her mother gave her. Who has it? Geoffrey Wilder and he’s shown it to his wife Catherine, a tough as nails attorney who plans on confronting Molly with some kind of serum the Yorkes have been working on that makes you forget things. Apparently this was used on Frank Dean at some point and he’s never been the same. I can’t wait to find out more about that but for now, we’ll stick to Molly. Catherine finds Molly at a local coffee shop and tries to corner her and Molly escapes to the bathroom and uses her super strength to get out of it. However, her newfound powers come with a cost and she gets incredibly tired after doing something and when she passes out, Catherine takes her the car to a secluded area. When she wakes, Catherine tries to push her but Molly goes on about her own changes and what she’s been dealing with as she goes through whatever physically is happening to her. She makes up a story about trying to break into their liquor and talks more about how she’s often picked on or left out because she’s the youngest. Catherine buys what she’s selling but Molly wasn’t really lying. That’s what magical about this. She used this moment to kind of unload a lot of stuff she’s dealing with and it ends up saving her. She keeps the secret of that night and gets some things off her chest. Molly is the bravest of them all and I will fight for her forever.
3. Sneaky, Sneaky
The kids decide to meet up at the beach to figure out what’s next. What they decide to do is investigate their own houses and see what’s going on after Karolina gets a text from Destiny saying she’s on a mission trip in London. Alex goes home to try and get back into the secret basement is parents were in but is stopped when his dad gets home. This scene is really cool because they call each other on their phones and because they live in such an enormous house, they aren’t super close by and Alex uses this call to try and swerve his dad away. Meanwhile, Karolina asks questions at the Church of Gibborim but ultimately doesn’t get much. Nico takes advantage of her parents going out on a very rare date night (more on this in the next point) and does everything she can think of to get to her mother’s staff. She has no idea what it does until she opens a drawer in her mother’s desk that also happens to have her sister Amy’s diary in it. When she gets a hold of the staff, she’s still confused and she starts to linger on Amy’s diary. She picks up one of those cut out paper snowflakes, gets emotional and it starts to snow in the office. She calls Alex to help her figure out what to do and when the staff pricks his finger, it immediately dies down. Nico still doesn’t know what the staff really does or how it works but she knows it’s tricky and to get her mom to believe that she wasn’t up to anything down there, she and Alex clean the snow and then fake getting caught in bed together. Elsewhere, Gert and Chase go to Gert’s house to figure out what’s going on downstairs in her parents’ lab. They’re still looking for Destiny and think she might be there but they stumble upon a dinosaur (OLD LACE BAY BAY) who calms down when Gert asks it to. Old Lace is not a CGI triumph for this show in all honesty. It’s rough and I was worried about this. Old Lace does actually matter quite a bit here so hopefully it works itself out and we see some improvement as the series progresses.
Continued below4. This Isn’t “50 Shades”
In the first two episode of this series we knew that Janet Stein was having an affair with someone but we didn’t know who. It turns out, she’s having an affair with Nico’s dad, Robert. Tina Minoru takes a big step in this marriage and tries to get Robert to go out with her on a date and get closer again. Since Amy died, they’ve basically been living separate lives and their date goes very badly because of this. Tina goes all “50 Shades of Grey” on Robert by slipping him her panties over the table and tells him she got them a hotel room. He rebuffs her completely and claims that she’s been so distant and that she’s taking every step all at once and it’s too much for him. What he actually does is get a ride to another place where he meets with Janet and they spend the night together. Since the Yorkes succeeded in their recent experiment and they all believe Destiny was sacrificed, he thinks he’s finally free to live whatever life he wants. Janet is not entirely on board and man, this is something. The lives of these parents are just as mixed up as their kids but in very, very different ways. I find myself really invested in what happens to both sides of this story and I especially love how developed the parents have become. There is dissension here and these parents aren’t as united as their comic book counterparts which is honestly for the best. This here is really good television and I’m here for it.
5. Destiny’s Destiny
What exactly happened to Destiny??? Well, she died. However, she didn’t die in the box that Victor Stein made. Presumably when he realized she didn’t die, he killed her and threw her body into the ocean. That body has now washed up and her murder is all over the local news now. This is a problem because as we see back in Leslie Dean’s meditation room, the wrinkled old man should have been reinvigorated but he wasn’t. He wasn’t because Destiny wasn’t sacrificed the way she should have been. Victor in his cover up for his mistake has just made a bigger problem than ever before for The Pride. What will be the thing that makes these kids break away from their parents? Running away hasn’t even been thrown out there yet and honestly, despite it being so different, I’m so into it. This is a slow burn but I am honestly so into that and cannot wait to see how the rest of this season shakes out.
