Red Stewart reviews the sixth episode of Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger…
I don’t blame Cloak & Dagger for experimenting with its presentation format. After all, we live in an era where new and old superhero shows are being produced every year, a trend that isn’t going to stop anytime soon. Because of this, you need to be able to stand apart from the competition; as the cancellations of Agent Carter and Marvel’s Inhumans proved, brand name isn’t enough to survive in television.
But experimentation only works if it doesn’t mess with the one thing necessary for quality assurance, which is pacing. As I noted in my review of “Stained Glass,” the surrealist atmosphere the filmmakers had created was cool, but because the episode dragged on it ended up killing any emotional investment I had.
Though not quite falling into that category, the sixth episode “Funhouse Mirrors” did make some strange decisions that I’m surprised weren’t erased in the draft stage. For starters, we get a half-baked attempt at a framing device via Tyrone’s girlfriend Evita and her aunt Clarisse, who, ironically enough, were also integral parts of “Stained Glass.” I say half-baked because they open up every commercial break with some cliche foreshadowing of future events, but it’s all so heavy-handed and silly that you can’t help but wonder who greenlit this in the first place. It reminded me a lot of the Native American plot points from Smallville’s second and third seasons: lame, cultural appropriation that has nothing to do with the comics.
Thankfully these scenes are relatively short, at least in comparison to the voodoo doll 3D-printings in “Stained Glass,” allowing the episode to focus on other things. Tandy has decided to continue her infiltration of Roxxon by becoming a pseudo-intern for the company’s resident engineer Dr. Mina Hess, whose father coincidentally worked alongside Tandy’s back in the day. Meanwhile, Tyrone, seeing that his friend Duane has connections to the corrupt cop responsible for murdering his brother, tries to become a part of the latter’s drug peddling business. While this was a natural development, I will say that I was disappointed that there was no focus on the aftermath of Tyrone throwing the state basketball game in last week’s “Princeton Offense.” Whether it was his friends, teammates, coach, priest, or himself, nothing is really shown.
Because the two storylines are distinct, there isn’t much interaction between Tandy and Tyrone, but what is there is good enough because the writers make the wise decision to have Tandy be a sort of “bad influence” on Tyrone by encouraging him to use his powers against others for the sake of achieving his goals. Since we have seen in prior episodes how morally resistant Tyrone was to doing such things, it makes for an intriguing dynamic here in that he needs Tandy for solace, but at a cost to his ethics.
While Tyrone spends time trying to gain Duane’s trust, Tandy goes out swamp walking with Mina in an effort to bond with her. There is an attempt here at creating a mini character arc for Tandy by having her go from being someone who sees Mina as a simple stepping stone for her ultimate take down of Roxxon to a fellow victim of the corporation’s greed, but the way it’s handled is so syrupy and intoxicating that I couldn’t help but be reminded of the numerous romances propagated in the Arrowverse, particularly Supergirl: lots of smiles, giggles, and cheery optimistic dialogue that feels more fit for a Lifetime movie.
I don’t mean to make things sound worse than they are. I mentioned in my review of “Call/Response” that Cloak & Dagger is a neo-soap opera, a genre interested in exploring character relationships in strong detail, and “Funhouse Mirrors” does just that with Tandy and Mina and Tyrone and Duane. The conversations between the characters can be interesting to listen to, but when it falters it falters hard.
I will openly admit that part of the reason I was a little more on edge was the mediocre direction by Jennifer Phang. 90 percent of the episode’s shots are handheld close-ups, and it gets nauseating to watch very quickly. Whether it was to capture the emotional reactions of the characters better or give the episode a more realistic feel, it didn’t do anything good.
There is a third subplot focusing on Detective O’Reilly continuing her investigation into Connor’s drug ring, but to explore it would be to go into spoiler territory. Rest assured, that it does lead into a haunting climax that almost saves “Funhouse Mirrors”….almost.
Rating: 6/10
Red Stewart
