Viewer Log: Ms. Marvel ep 5

Time traveling shenanigans. 

Last time on Ms. Marvel, Kamala and her mother visited her grandmother in Karachi. While Kamala tries to learn about her history and her Great-Grandmother, she does a little sightseeing and ends up being attacked by a Red Dagger. The Red Dagger, later revealed to be named Kareem, and Kamala fight, but eventually get to talking and Kareem brings her to meet his master, Waleed. Waleed explains some of the history of the Clandestine and how the Red Daggers have been protecting humanity from various Djinn for centuries. He also explains that breaking the veil between Earth and the Noor dimension will lead to the destruction of the Earth dimension. While this is happening, mama Muneeba and Grandma Sana start to mend their relationship a little. The Clandestine escape from Supermax prison and make it across the planet to Karachi and attack Kamala and the Red Daggers. A chase across Karachi begins but ends with Waleed getting stabbed to death by Najma. Kamala and Kareem face off against he Clandestine, Kareem killing one of them. Enraged, Najma attacks Kamala, striking her bangle and seemingly breaking the space/time continuum. Kamala wakes up in 1942 India, the night her grandmother and great-grandfather left India and her great-grandma Aisha disappeared. Damn. Enough recapping let’s get to it.

 

Episode 5: Time and Again

 

Great-Gammy is terrifying.

We open with a history lesson about India being freed from British rule and the beginning of the Partition. We then jump to Aisha, Kamala’s Great-Grandma running from a hunter that she then kills with her knives. Aisha walks to a nearby village, where she sees a young man with a cane and stiff leg orating to his neighbors that they shouldn’t go along with the British plan to move them out of their homes. Soldiers arrive and force them to disperse. Aisha keeps walking and looking about, she eventually falls asleep in a field of flowers. She awoken by the man with the lame leg, who offers her food and a place to stay for a bit if she wants it. She does take him up on the offer and he goes about wooing her. Huh, so Kamala’s Great-Grandpa Hasan has something in common with Arthur Curry’s father Thomas, they both fall in love with a weird woman that they find on their property. Time passes and Aisha and Hasan bond, Aisha giving Hasan a proper walking stick, and Hasan helping Aisha conceive Sana. Ha, sorry, couldn’t resist. Years later, Hasan listens to the radio and hears about all the fighting the Partition is causing while Aisha sings to Sana, who is playing with the bangle in her crib. Aisha says they’ll get through this, but Hasan looks angry. A neighbor stops by giving them milk and some groceries, which pisses Hasan off something fierce. Apparently, in the last few weeks their rose business has been dying and others are refusing to sell them food, due to Hasan being Muslim and the British induced religious tension. Aisha apologizes for Hasan, but then gets pulled away when she sees someone in their garden. She finds Najma waiting for her. Najma is obviously upset with Aisha for hiding from them for five or so years. Najma hugs her and then insists that they put the plan to go home into action. Aisha clearly doesn’t want to go back to Noor anymore, as her home is with her family, but she tells Najma that she’ll retrieve the bangle from her special hiding place in a few days. Najma gives her until sundown tomorrow.

 

This is a very sweet family, it breaks my heart to
think they're not going to be together much longer.

Aisha hurriedly convinces Hasan that they need to run while they can. She gives Sana the bangle, saying it’ll keep her safe wherever they go. They hurry to the train, Hasan struggling to keep up with his injured leg. Aisha just tells him to keep up since this is the last train but he knows that they’re running from something more than the unrest and demands to know more. They sit and Aisha shows him the bangle and that it has transformative properties. Hasan tells her that he didn’t care about her past as she chose their family. Aisha tells him to keep Sana safe and make sure she gets on the train, to which he agrees but says nothing will happen. They keep going for the train, but Aisha senses they’re being followed. She passes Sana to Hasan and goes to face Najma. Najma demands to know where the bangle is, but Aisha refuse to tell her. Najma stabs her and says she’ll find it. As Aisha bleeds out she tells Najma it won’t work. Hasan gets to the train but then notices that Sana isn’t at her side. She went back and is calling for her mother. Obviously, Hasan has trouble getting back to her given his injury and Aisha is dying. She says that “what you seek is seeking you,” the bangle triggers and Kamala Khan appears in the station.

 

Ignore the time paradox, Kamala and get baby-grandma
to Great-Grandpa.

No one seems to comment on the young woman in strange dress in 1940s India, but what are you going to do. Kamala finds her, and Aisha begs Kamala to protect Sana. Kamala is obviously worried about her baby-grandma reuniting with her GG-pa, but Aisha says that Sana will be fine, because Kamala is here. That’s some nice time travel paradox to soothe her in her last moments, because Kamala is in the past, that means Sana gets back to her father so that she can beget Muneeba who begat Kamala who went back in time.  Kamala takes Aisha’s photo of her family and searches. She finds Sana and starts looking for Hasan. The crowd makes moving difficult, so Kamala decides to try something. She makes platforms to help Sana move through the crowd. It works for a bit, but then she’s knocked over and the platform breaks. Seemingly on her own, Sana begins manipulating the Noor left over, making the trail of stars back to Hasan. Kamala realizes that she did help with the trail of stars just as she’s blasted back to the present. No time seems to have passed since she was knocked down, and they discover that a rip has formed in the veil.

 

Back at the house, Muneeba is stressing out about Kamala’s long absence. Sana isn’t too worried, suggesting that maybe Muneeba should get Kamala chipped if she’s so worried. Muneeba tells her mother that there is a difference between a human daughter and her dog, but that if it was legal she’d have done it years ago. Kamala’s cousin Owais points out that Kamala’s phone is on a family plan, so Muneeba can just track it with the find my phone app. “So it’s like spyware for parents?” she asks. When he confirms she says “So why am I just hearing about it now?” and I chuckle.

 

Solid heroic sacrifice to fix her mistake, I'll give
her that.

The rip in the veil is clearly unstable, pulsing with energy. The surviving Clandestine tries to go through, but her body is turned to ash, and she collapses. Guess they really did need two bangles. Kamala tries to block the energy with her own Noor but she can only slow it down. She asks Najma to help her to close it. Najma wants to go home, but Kamala tells her that she can’t leave Kamran. Realizing that no, she can’t just abandon her son for nothing, Najma runs into the portal and forces it shut. As she does so, energy leaves her, travels to Kamran, and infuses him with Noor. Kamala blocks the final wave of energy, just as her mama and grandma walk up. Muneeba is skeptical but Sana just seems vindicated. Kamala proves that her Grandma isn’t crazy by giving her the photo she took from Aisha, which showed all three of them together. Muneeba asks what the heck is going on, and Sana explains that two people fell in love and made something much bigger than either of them could on their own. Which is just so damn sweet. Kamala runs back over to say goodbye to Kareem. He tells her that Waleed would be proud of her and she thanks him, and Kareem says that he’ll be there if she calls. He gives her his Red Dagger mask before walking off. On the ground, Muneeba finds Kamala’s necklace on the ground. Remember that, the necklace that spells her name in Arabic? Well, it broke, the Arabic script now just showing a very familiar lightning bolt pattern…

 

Later, Kamala and her foremothers’ bond over some old pictures and stories about how Muneeba was quite the rebel when she was younger. She apparently ran away from home to follow Bon Jovi. Respect. Muneeba apologizes for holding Kamala too tightly of late because she wasn’t ready to let her go, and Sana apologizes for not holding Munneeba tight enough and they all hug. It’s jut real sweet.

 

Oh, Giving Kamran powers can't possibly be good.

Back in Jersey, Bruno leaves the Circle Q to throw out trash when Kamran approaches him. They have a very awkward moment in Bruno’s apartment, Kamran trying to talk to him about some of his posters and Bruno being quiet. Kamran asks if maybe they can start over and they reintroduce themselves to each other, shaking left hands because Bruno’s right is in a cast after the wedding fiasco. And this is where Kamran reveals that he honestly thought Bruno’s name was Brian and no one corrected him. He apologizes and they try to figure out a plan. Its then that they notice a Damage Control drone spying on them. Kamran fires a Noor blast at it, knocking it out of the sky and it ends up firing a rocket into the Circle Q causing a fire.

 

Okay, I like this flashback episode. It gave context to who Aisha was, as a Clandestine, as a parent and what happened to her. Seeing a greatest hits of her relationship with Hasan juxtaposed over the country falling apart behind them was well done. I liked that she got to live long enough to get her time paradox confirmation that Sana ended up okay by seeing her Great-Granddaughter. Najma sacrificing herself to seal the portal is nice, but kind of rushed. Like, she goes from being willing to leave her son without a thought but then is like “I’ll die to seal the portal,” because Kamala pointed the obvious out. Just odd. Oh, fun fact, Kamran’s hand glowing blue for a second is a nod to how he showed off his powers to Kamala the first time in the comics, diamond fist. Sealing the portal kind of feels like it should be a part of the finale, but we need to get back to Jersey and finish the Damage Control plot we shelved for two episodes. All of that is why I said the Clandestines felt like a season 2 villain group. I did like that finding out about Kamala’s powers and that Sana’s memories were real was the catalyst to help Sana and Muneeba as well as Muneeba and Kamala to start healing their relationship. It felt earned. So yeah, a good penultimate episode. Next time, the finale. See you then. 

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