Viewer Log: Ms. Marvel ep 6

Escape from New Jersey 

Last time on Ms. Marvel, we got a brief history of Aisha. We quickly covered the six or seven years she spent in India, meeting, falling in love with Hasan and having Sana. Things got complicated as the violence increased around the Partition, and Najma finding her and demanding they use the bangle to get home. Aisha and her family flee, but Najma follows and stabs her at the train station. Using her connection to the bangle and the last of her strength, Aisha pulled Kamala back in time to help Sana. Kamala helped her young grandmother return to her father, making the trail of stars Sana spoke of to lead her. In the present, a portal opened through the Veil to the Noor dimension. But it’s unstable and it kills the Clandestines that try to use it. Najma tries to risk it, but Kamala pleads with her not to leave Kamran alone. Najma still approaches the portal, but uses her Noor to seal it, and transfer energy to Kamran back in Jersey, giving him power. Kamala, Muneeba and Sana bond after the ordeal, and the Matriarchs learning of Kamala’s powers. Back in Jersey, Kamran seeks Bruno’s help. He reluctantly gives it, but they’re spied by a Damage Control Drone which destroys the Circle Q when Kamran destroys it. Enough recapping let’s get to it.

 

Episode 6: No Normal

 

We open with Deever and other Damage Control agents investigating the Circle Q explosion. She says this is what happens when the wrong people get powers, claiming she means teenagers when her partner gives her the “did what you say what I think you said?” look. Also completely ignoring it was their weaponized drone that did the actual damage. She orders the city get locked down and the use of non-lethal rounds, to capture the kid alive and figure out what he is.

 

Meanwhile, Kamran and Bruno are on the train and trying to head upstate. A situation made complicated by Kamran’s powers being unstable right now. His hands are coated in shining Noor, and spreads to things he touches. Damage Control tarts catching up to them, they try to run, but Kamran gets shoved, and he makes a spike of hard light Noor, damaging the train. They keep running as Damage Control follows.

 

Yusuf is a good dad, I like his relationship with
both of his children.

At that moment, Kamala is home with her family, Muneeba passing out souvenirs to everyone as Kamala gets their attention for an announcement. She tells them she’s the girl with powers, to no one’s shock. Turns out, Muneeba told Yusuf, and Aamir and Tyesha heard because Yusuf like most men his age always keeps his phone on speaker. They are all very excited for her, though and they’re all proud of her, so that helps not getting to blow their minds. Also, love that they aren’t doing the secret identity thing with her family. Nakia falls Aamir, as she didn’t know Kamala was back yet, and informs her that Bruno is missing, and Circle Q exploded. Damn

 

Kamala tries to call Bruno but only gets voice mail. Her mother comes in and tells her she’s not going anywhere… not dressed like that. Kamala opens the gift Muneeba has for her, which turns out to be her own costume. Made from the various materials she’d picked up on her journey, or at least close lookalikes, and made in Pakistan. Kamala suits up and runs via platforms in the sky to the downtown area.

 

Kamala has a solid crew, not going to lie.

Bruno and Kamran make it to Kamala’s mosque where they meet up with Nakia. They assumed that a place of worship would offer them sanctuary, Nakia points out this is an American mosque and that pretty much every government agency down to the department of sanitation probably is watching them. Whoops. She tells them to go to the high school when the coast is clear, and she’ll call Kamala. Because it’s the only place guaranteed to be empty on a Saturday.

 

Deever and her team arrive at the mosque, demanding IDs from everyone present, all of whom have theirs out before she’s finished talking. It’s sad how accurate that probably is to real life. Sheik Abdullah comes in and lets her know that, based on her search perimeters of male, 16-25, Pakistani or Arab, they’ll be looking for a while as that’s most of the people here. And that they should feel free to have a cookie while they work. Sheikh Abdullah quotes Abe Lincoln at her as they go searching. Nakia distracts them by acting super suspicious about a hall closet, only for it to be another of her friends, Miguel. He was at the party in the second episode, and you’d be shocked at how hard I had to look for that name. She claims is her secret boyfriend to explain her attempt to hid him. Meanwhile, the Sheikh pulls Kamran and Bruno from a secret closet and leads them to the door. He gives them hats as they go, and advice to Kamran that ‘Just because someone treats you as their enemy doesn’t give you the right to treat them as yours.” Outside, they run into the suited up Kamala. She and Bruno hug as Kamran’s powers grown more unstable and he starts causing shockwaves. He hears his mothers voice , and he tells them he’s feeling like he’s being crushed from the inside out. They run.

 

Damage Control cordons off the area as they make it to the high school. Kamala sends them ahead and calls Kareem. She begs him to help Kamran sneak him out of town. Kareem agrees, reluctantly, saying they just need to get Kamran to the harbor by midnight.

 

They get into the high school and meet up with Nakia. There is an awkward moment as Nakia and Kamala talk about the whole hero thing, but they’re interrupted by Damage Control’s arrival. She tries to get the others to leave, but Damage Control has messed with everyone a little so they’re not leaving. Also, Zoe joins them and informs them about Damage Control trying to make her turn on Kamala. Turns out the theater has good lighting and Kamala has the easiest to guess secret identity since Tony Stark.

 

They are really cute, if I'm being honest.

Kamala makes a convoluted plan to distract the DODC to get Kamran out. Aamir also shows up as Muneeba told him to look after his sister, to her annoyance. They’re going to use a bunch of things like the science lab chemical explosion that Kamala did in episode one and something with Nakia and a bunch of softballs to distract DODC long enough to get Kamran out. This is obviously too much stuff for them to do in the time that it looks like they had left, but this is somewhat waved away by Deever having to get approval from her superior Agent Clearly. Something she’s not getting because apparently attacking a high school is frowned upon. He orders her to pull back, but she refuses.

 

Nakia and Zoe bond a little. Zoe revealing that she kept Kamala’s secret because she saved her life at Avenger Con and that she wanted to give Kamala the chance to tell the world when she was ready. Kamala pulls Bruno to the side and explains to him what happened to Najma, while Aamir grills Kamran on what he was doing with his sister and if he even likes Great British Bake off like he claimed to explain his English accent when he was “Cousin Kamran.” Bruno tells Kamala to keep Najma’s fate quite until they get out of there. The doors get breached by DODC soldiers. They get close to a device, they think it’s a bomb, but when they try to run it starts playing an Urdu song and drops a disco ball. While the DODC is dealing with minor inconveniences, Zoe is using her online presence to live stream what’s happening at the high school. The goons are chasing their target, a teen in a red hoodie and a baseball cap, not realizing until its too late that they’re dealing with multiple targets. They get led into the science lab, where a bunch of goons are caught in a slime explosion. Kamala and Kamran try to stay unnoticed and run into Gabe’s office. While they hide, they hold hands. The agents get drawn away as Kamran and Kamala’s Noor energies mix. They almost kiss when Bruno runs in and tells them they need to run. Kamran takes a moment to stop and thank him as they run. Bruno draws more goons to him and does a little dance so they tackle him. Nakia leads her group through the gym where she, Zoe, and Aamir fire baseballs via pitching machine. This lasts for a few moments before they’re captured.

 

As Kamala and Kamran try to escape, he starts asking questions. He’s not thrilled about being protected by Red Daggers and asks where the Clandestines and his mother are. A DODC goon bursts in. Kamran tries to blast him, but Kamala blocks him, everyone being knocked back by the shockwave. Kamala tells him what happened to his mom, and he doesn’t take it well. More DODC goons show up, and Kamran crushes them with lockers before trying to crush them. Kamala stops him with a giant hand but gets knocked back as she runs.

 

Yeah, huge hands!

Outside, a huge crowd has gathered and taking photos. DODC keeps them back as Kamran comes out. He’s pissed off and not willing to cooperate. He summons Noor, and blocks when they try to shoot him. He blocks for a few seconds but then Kamala leaps in to save him when his shield breaks. Deevers calls off the shots but then has them activate a sonic cannon that knocks them back. S they charge up another shot, Kamala gets up and does her comic catch phrase “embiggen” to encase herself in a full suit of Noor energy. She jumps up and smashes down, destroying the sonic cannon. She throws shields at DODC guys to knock them back. Kamran gets up and uses his Noor Hard Light to knock DODC goons around. He nearly kills Deever by shoving a car at her, it misses, flies up and nearly crushes the crowd, but Kamala grabs it and throws it back. Deever pulls a gun on Kamran, who fires off a shockwave of Noor, knocking everyone back and causing spiked vines to grow from his body. Kamala, still in her Embiggen armor, walks toward him. Once close enough, she blocks him with her own Noor, encasing them in a sphere. Kamran tells her that these people won’t accept them, and his mother was right, they’ll never be “home” here. Kamala says that Najma chose him in the end, giving everything that she had to protect him. When he asks how he can live a normal life now with all of this, she says that there is no normal, you just have to live life. She makes a tunnel for him to escape and says she’ll hold them off. The field drops and the crowd rushes to protect Kamala from Damage Control, including the normal cops. While they distract the DODC, Kamala gets into the air and runs away on her platform. Clearly gets in contact with Deever, telling her she’s in big trouble and that another team is on the way to fix her mess and she needs to pull out.

 

We get a bunch of TikTok videos of people reacting to the show. Including Nakia and Zoe clearly being friendly with each other. These were all watched by Kamala. She looks at herself in the mirror and looks extremely proud as she does the superhero hands on hips stance. She goes out to the roof, to look at the stars. Yusuf joins her. He asks what she’s going to go by, she says she’s still figuring it out, and he agrees they’re all figuring things out. We’re shown quick flashes of everyone, Bruno walking around in a Caltech shirt making his choice clear, Aamir explaining to Tyesha and Muneeba an (exaggerated) tail of his heroics, Nakia giving Sheik Abdullah a list of repairs and upgrades they can do for the mosque, and Kamran meeting with Kareem in Karachi. That’s going to be awkward, if they both talk about Kamala, just saying. Yusuf tells her that in just helping one person, she is saving the world. He then tells her the origin of her name. Just judging from the age difference between her and Aamir, you can guess they had trouble conceiving. It was so bad that they’d almost given up hope when Kamala came along. As she was perfect in their eyes, they used Kamal as it means perfect in Arabic. He then goes onto explain that in Urdu, Kamal means something more like Wonder or… Marvel. Hearing that her name in Urdu is the same as Carol Freaking Danvers, excites her. Yusuf says that he doesn’t know who that is, but to him, she’s always been their own Ms. Marvel. Oh, that’s a name. As she goes off to do hero stuff by platforming, Yusuf says to himself “Magic, absolute Magic.”

This is a damn neat shot.

 

We’re shown Kamala sitting on a streetlight, looking at Jersey. We time jump to a week later, with Kamala meeting with Bruno and Nakia in Kamran’s car. Bruno claims that Kamran gave it to him, specifically, as they bonded in the last day they were together. After some teasing on who is going to get the car, Bruno tells Kamala that he was looking at her test results again. Dude, that sounds creepy. Anyway, he was looking at her results as Aamir was asking if he might have power too. He compared Kamala to the rest of her family and there was something different to her genes, like a… Mutation. Oh my. Kamala, not realizing the gravity of that statement says it’ll just be another label and asks for the keys. Nakia is already in the driver’s seat; having stolen the keys and they drive off.

 

I'd probably have a similar look if I found myself in
a room that's basically a shrine to me.

In the post credit scene, Kamala is in her room when the bangle starts glowing. She looks at it, and disappears in a flash of light, ramming through her closest. Carol Danvers gets out of the closet in her place and is probably shocked to see the shrine to her. She says Oh no and runs off. I can imagine Muneeba’s reaction to this. “AH! What is this white woman doing here?”

 

Overall, I liked Ms. Marvel. I still think that episodes 4 and 5 were a digression that really should have been a season 2, but that’s my one big gripe. I liked seeing Kamala’s suit finally come together. I think the origin here might be better than in the comics. In the comics, her original costume was a “burkini” that she and Bruno modified with some super mega glue he made to make it sturdier and yet bend with her body. In the show, it has a little bit of everything she’s gathered and formed into a suit. Also love that they made it clear the lightning bolt on her costume is in the shape of her Arabic name. It’s a nice touch. The… Home Alone vibe of the final fight is a bit odd, but again I can forgive it. The final struggle with Kamran does boil down to two people with the same powers wrestling with each other, which isn’t the best, but I do like her message that there’s no normal, you just need to keep going was a good one. Getting to see Kamala embiggen was nice, too, but I wish they’d set up her catch phrase before this point. Again, I liked that the show isn’t having Kamala keep a secret identity from her family. From the populace at large, I get keeping your ID a secret. But, I would 100% tell my folks and siblings, since they can be aware that they’ll need to be on the look out for weirdos in spandex. The cast gave 1000% for this one, and I’m glad we’re going to get more Kamala Khan in the Marvels next year. Also, yes, in the MCU continuity, they’re implying that Kamala Khan is a capital M Mutant. A member of Homo Superior. It’s a significant departure from the comics, but I kind of get using one of the biggest characters in modern comics to prepare people for one of the biggest paradigms shift that will be the comic of Mutants. Also, I know and care who the Inhumans are, but the vast majority of people don’t. Yes, even after the show and Black Bolt being in Dr. Strange 2. So long as they don’t try to retcon Kamala being a Mutant in the comics, I see no harm in this. She’s not the first character to have her powers heavily modified. This show has me hyped for the Marvels, which I guess Is the point. We’ll see where that after credit’s scene is going then. Have a good night, tomorrow is Love and Thunder. 

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