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Five Thoughts On Runaways‘ “Devil’s Torture Chamber”

By | January 14th, 2020
Posted in Television | % Comments

Runaways in back for season 3! It’s bigger! It’s bolder! It’s…ending. But that won’t hold us back from having a great time watching. This show has been one of Marvel’s strongest for two years now and this season seems like it’ll be bonkers in all the best ways. So watch with us! We’ve got crossovers, morally ambiguous friends, and Los Angeles fires to spare.

1. What is this, a Crossover Episode?

This episode picks off exactly where the last one left off- when Nico tries to access the dark dimension/Purgatory/literal hell with the Staff of One (which I definitely haven’t been calling the Staff of Destiny), Cloak (Tandy) and Dagger (Tyrone) (of Freeform’s Cloak and Dagger) show up. As it turns out, Nico’s magic use is messing with the duo’s Vibes and she’s going to irrevocably ruin all future vibe checks if she doesn’t cut it out. Instead, she needs the help of Cloak and Dagger because that’s what crossovers are all about. Before they can get to the dark dimension, though, they have to get Gert, Chase, and Karolina out of that weird basement that Geoffrey has them, Dale, Stacey, and Victor trapped in. In a fun sequence with a lot of Tyrone teleportation, the three parents get dropped off at the Hollywood sign and the whole group heads back to the Hostel to start our adventure. It’s fun crossover plot convenience that sets up a decent episode of the show. Probably the most notable thing here is the fact that Nico and Tandy immediately don’t get along but that’s about it for important things that happen in the first 10 minutes of the episode. It might’ve been smart to do at least a little more character work here but it makes sense that action became the priority here- Tye and Tandy’s powers are cool and worth showing off.

2. The Rules Keep Changing on the Runaways

When the group arrives in Purgatory, the dreamlike haze of the place is gone; the hostel is empty and Quentin is nowhere to be found. When they set out into dark dimension Los Angeles, they make the smart decision to split into pairs, given that they all got split up and sent into their own personal trauma simulators last time. When they walk out of the hostel, though, they find themselves looking out over a burning LA. Turns out they don’t get to be prepared for this round- the rules are different this time. It’s a smart narrative choice that both avoids a repeat of episode 5 and to keep the Runaways on their toes. As the group moves through the City of Angels (or should I say Devils?), they find Darius’s goons out on patrol and get chased down into an alleyway, only for Quentin the Racist Sorcerer to intervene, saving them with Doctor Strange powers and sending them on their way to Darius’s hideout.. To be totally frank, it’s a bit of a dull start to the episode. We get pretty far into things without all that much real momentum and it doesn’t feel like we get so much interesting character work as a tradeoff. From here, though, things move in a much stronger direction.

3. A Sweet Dream and a Beautiful Nightmare

On the long walk to Darius’s lair, we’re given a pretty steady stream of character observations, making all of the subtext of the past few episodes into text that feels just short of being clumsy. As Nico leads the group, Tandy points out that they’re just following her blindly and that she doesn’t seem to know what she’s doing which is broadly acute, though they are walking in an underground tunnel that mostly goes to one place so feels at least a little unfair on the micro level. Later, after Tandy sees Nico’s greatest hope (thematic insight is one of her powers), marrying Karolina, she realizes that Nico and Karolina balance one another out. It’s nice as a means of settling some of the tension between Nico and Karolina but doesn’t feel like enough to solve their problems for long. Gert, Chase, and Tye get separated from the group after Gert gets attacked by a weird monster version of young Molly and they teleport away. Here, we get a little bit of Gert worrying about her ability to have a normal future and a pet dinosaur and super-powered little sister, as well as further confirmation that Chase is deeply important to her after Tye sees her greatest fear(he also has character insight powers), being unable to protect Chase and Molly. Eventually, the group gets reunited to hold off a group a Darius’s henchmen. After a cool fight where Nico shows some more control over her magic, a zombified Quentin shows up, ready to rain on the group’s parade. The whole sequence is pretty much in line with the rest of the episode- decent and fun but not quite living up to its potential. The characterization is good but not particularly insightful. The story itself is barely present which isn’t easily excused given that the character work is so straightforward. It’s all good, just not great.

Continued below

4. So, Alex is Definitely Bad, Huh?

So apparently for the past six months, Alex either sitting in a cell with his mother or getting tortured by Darius, who’s been trying to get Alex to give into his dark side. The rest of the Runaways arriving in Purgatory again turned out to be the perfect opportunity for Darius; he makes Alex watch footage of the Runaways being beaten down by Quentin. When Alex responds in a rage, Darius gives him an ultimatum- kill Catherine or accept his friends’ death. It’s a real dilemma except for Alex the answer seems to be pretty clear. Within a couple of minutes, Catherine Wilder is laying in a pool of her own blood in a prison yet again (she really can’t catch a break). After a few of episodes spent away from Alex (Alex in his own body, at least), it’s tough to reunite with him and immediately see a turn toward the dark. It’s especially hard after our last real Alex scene saw Catherine give a whole speech about how he was strong for resisting that side of himself. We never actually got to see any off the trauma that led Alex here and maybe if we had, this would be an easier pill to swallow. It also honestly feels like a bit of a disservice to Catherine; being reintroduced to her only to see her get killed again as a means of a pretty sudden character shift is a bit upsetting and it’d be nice to have seen a more fleshed out arc for her as well.

5. Back to Life, Back to Reality (Cloak and Dagger Remix)

After Alex kills Catherine, all of the villains fade into the ether, the Runaways reunite, and Cloak takes everyone back to the real world. When the whole group joins hands, though, Tandy sees Alex’s deepest hope- to have some amount of all of his friends’ powers. It’s an image that drives home Alex’s turn toward the dark but when Tandy tells the group about what she saw, Alex waves it away and blames the dark dimension. It’s hand wave-y in a way that doesn’t feel totally honest, especially given how much tension there tends to be between Chase and Alex, but we’ve got two more episodes to see where things are going with that storyline so I suppose I’ll allow it. Tandy and Tyrone leave (after a quick interaction between Tye and Old Lace) and hint toward a future crossover which is sad given that both shows have now been cancelled but that’s showbiz, I guess. The episode ends with Molly being inducted into Morgan le Fey’s coven which is definitely interesting but feels at least a little bit random. Stick around and we’ll see what happens next episode.


//TAGS | runaways

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