Cloak and Dagger Episode 3 Review

I really enjoyed the last two episodes of Marvel's Cloak and Dagger, but this episode lost me. It was one big setup, and I really hope this show doesn't take an entire season to kick off like Runaways season 1. 

On a side note, something about the title card bothers me. It is so cheesy and low quality.

This episode starts with Tandy and Tyrone finally meeting up and once again it is under unfortunate circumstances. Tyrone teleported to Tandy right as he pulled the trigger of the gun he was holding, and it caused her to crash.

Their encounter was brief and pretty pointless since Tandy just drove away immediately after.

I liked the blurred lens, high-pitched ringing, and exaggerated lights that were used to display Tandy driving with a possible concussion. It made me nervous to watch but properly put the audience in her shoes. 

The rest of the episode was extremely slow. Tandy goes home, and her mom covers for her as the police come looking, but she runs away again. Tandy takes a bus to escape the city, but when she falls asleep she awakes in a strange dream-like world where she finds a young version of Tyrone. Tyrone’s older brother enters the scene, and they seem oblivious to Tandy. In this world, Tyrone’s brother never goes with his friends and stays with Tyrone, so there was never a reason for him to die. 

The scene changes to a forest and Tyrone is arrested by police over and over again even though he tries to change the outcome each time. 

The dream world is very heavenly and accurately represents Tandy’s beautiful powers with lots of bright, white lights and a well-lit set.

Tyrone is having a difficult time adjusting to his new powers, so he prays and is overheard by Evita. She takes him to her voodoo aunt to possibly get some spiritual help with his struggles. 

Tyrone is told he needs a bath full of specific ingredients to bathe away the evil spirits. Evita and Tyrone get the supplies, and he takes a bath. Tyrone then wakes up in a similar dream world as Tandy. However, his world is dark and gritty, much like his powers. Tyrone finds a younger version of Tandy on the roof of the Roxxon corporation. 

Child Tandy begins to dance on the rooftop and is very out of place with her white dress on the cold, dark, and damp roof. The scene changes and Tyrone watches an older Tandy look into a room full of corporate men waterboarding her father. Tandy runs away, much like she goes with the rest of her problems. The scene repeats over and over again, and no matter what she does she can’t stop the torture and eventual killing of her father. 

A dream sequence that I did like consisted of Tandy giving deadly pills to her loved ones in the same way that churches give the bread or body of Jesus to their members. It was a dark and unusual scene that dug deeper into Tandy’s character. Tandy believes that she poisons everyone in her life, even if they are willing to follow her and help her. 

Eventually, the two teens wake up and are back in the real world. 

A corrupted cop told detective O'Reilly that Tandy’s rape and assault case was closed, but the official story is that the rapist was mugged and assaulted by a junkie. Just after she learned the news, O’Reilly gets a call from Tandy who says she is ready to stop running away and fight her problems. 

I don’t know much about the comics, but I do know that Cloak and Dagger are a couple. If the show decides to go this route, it will be interesting to see how Tandy and Tyrone’s powers affect the relationships of those around them. Maybe it will drive them away from each other and lead to Tandy and Tyrone becoming a couple.

This episode didn’t add much to the overall story. We saw a dream-like and visual representation of the two character’s struggles and flaws, but we already knew this information.

Tyrone is forever guilted with the death of his brother and is very repetitive with his actions. Tandy is forever guilted because she was not able to save her father. She is always running away from her problems. 

Overall, this episode could be skipped or made much shorter and still would have gotten us to the same place in the story. It felt like a filler episode and I hope the series doesn't have more episode like this. I'm all for character development and diving deeper into emotions and characteristics, but not when it is just repeated information over and over again.