My favorite super powered, endangered children are back in the second season of Runaways. It took a full season for the kids to actually run away but all the added material made for a fantastic soapy drama that I ate up. Season two of Runaways doesn’t start with a big bang but it does start to really become the show I think people wanted it to be. “Gimmie Shelter” finds the kids truly on the run and facing things they didn’t completely think out all the way. Fair warning, there will be spoilers in these recaps for both the show and the original comic book run.
1. On The Run
At the very end of the first season finale, Gert, Molly, Alex, Chase, Nico and Karolina finally ran away from their evil parents after a big showdown at the dig site. They’ve left but they’re also wanted by the police because their parents are evil but also want them back immediately. They are being framed for Molly leaving her relative’s home and now they’re fugitives which makes their predicament even more precarious. Running away is one thing but the cops also want them and so does the city. Things are getting very real, very fast. This premiere hits all the right spot for me with the drama and great character bits. I left this more excited for the rest of the season than I was at the end of season one.
2. Losing Privilege
One of the biggest things about Runaways that I don’t think gets talked about so much is how privileged these kids are. They’re rich and go to a fancy private school. They didn’t have to really struggle for a lot in this world and now, they have to struggle for everything. They have to fight to survive, to find somewhere safe to sleep and have to steal to eat. They are living the lives of the people their parents were supposedly trying to help and it’s when Gert really looks around and sees all this that it starts to sink in. Yes, they did choose to run away from that life but they are trying to do the right thing by stopping their parents. They have nothing but each other now and are seeing the world for how dark it can be.
3. Leadership
Both sides of this conflict are a bit of a mess, the parents more so than the kids. The parents have a lot of separate conflicts happening and they’re kind of craving leadership. They really need it honestly, because this group is about one more little micro aggression from falling apart entirely. Tina Minoru is a natural leader. She’s a little bossy but also good at getting people to get their shit together. However, she’s met with push back by The Wilders because they don’t take orders from just anyone. They come to an agreement but it’s one of those fake double agent type of agreements and I’m super into it and all the drama with them. Meanwhile, the kids are also kind of a mess but for different reasons. They are just unorganized but they have Alex who’s trying to do everything he can to keep this group afloat by doing whatever necessary. To do this, he’s been working with Darius. He’s been meeting him and doing odd jobs for him. This will eventually put him at odds with his father even worse than he already is and Darius is keeping blackmail against him anyway but it kind of works. Alex is doing things that the rest of them aren’t really willing to do and in a later point I’ll elaborate more about this and how this really works me. There’s a level of unpredictability to things because of the direction things are going with Alex and I love it.
4. Those Evil Parents
One of the things Runaways does that I love is make us almost second guess how evil the parents are, especially the Yorkes. They are mad scientists but when they talk about their kids you almost believe that they aren’t so bad. This is really the case with all the parents but I guess even when you’re evil, you still love your kids a lot. One of the core parts of this episode finds the parents having to deal with Graciela and the tape that Molly found at the end of season 1. Graciela tells the press that they should look into PRIDE and that basically cements that she’s done and that’s exactly what happens. She tries to fight them off but it doesn’t work because PRIDE is not so easily defeated. I love to hate the parents and this is a good example of what the show does so well with their characterization.
5. Karolina The Mole?
Part of the appeal to me about this take is that it does take a lot of liberties. Adding in this whole thing with Karolina’s father has given things a level of unpredictability that I needed as someone who read the comics more than once. Karolina goes to Jonah and they start talking about what she really is and it seems to be working. Karolina knows that he and the rest of the parents are the worst but she has questions that only he can answer and it leaves me to wonder if she’s going to be the one who betrays everyone. Alex isn’t doing the things that comic Alex did. He’s not showing signs of villainy and it’s possible we could end up being completely swerved but framing Karolina as the one who might do it because she’s lost and confused about who she is is a really intriguing idea that I want to see play out more.
