Runaways - Table of Contents

Season One: 

Episodes 1-5
Metamorphosis
Refraction
Tsunami
Doomsday
Hostile

Runaways - I say we have to think about each other.

Runaways: 1x10 Hostile.

The best way to think about the two separate arcs on this show is the contrast between how the parents of the Pride and the kids of the Runaways interact with each other. In a central scene for the parents, Tina Minoru proposes murdering Leslie Dean, and the only way their already fractured group (as the Wilders have chosen a different path, and Victor is still in a coma) comes together again in in plotting against their newly found enemy, Jonah. Their cooperation isn�t based on love and respect for each other, it is a pragmatic solution to all of their children being lost, and there is no love lost especially between Leslie Dean and Tina Minoru, after Leslie reveals that she knew about what happened to Amy all those years ago and kept it a secret to protect Jonah. All of these sad, incompetent people have done nothing but betray each other in trying to manoeuvre for a better position, and Jonah had an easy time manipulating them into being pawns in his game. It is only now that they realise what they have been part of this whole time, and even think to ask questions about the mysterious energy source they�ve supposedly been digging for this whole time. They�ve been so busy struggling and doing Jonah�s bidding that it didn�t even occur to them to make the same logical leap that the Hernandezes made years ago: That what is buried deep beneath the Wilders� building site is something else entirely, that could put the entire city, if not country and world, in danger. 

Contrast this with the bravery that the Runaways find in this episode when they are faced with an impossible opponent and odds that are stacked against them. It�s completely obvious from how the fight that started last episode continues here that Jonah can overpower them without much effort, and yet, they all get back on their feet once he thrown them, they all face them again, because it doesn�t even occur to them to give up. Even Alex, who brings nothing, even Nico, who has lost her staff and only source of power, even Gert, after Old Lace has been tranquilised by her father. They may disagree over what the best way is to take care of the group � significantly, Alex seems to argue over the group over individual safety when he advises to give up on both Karolina and Old Lace � but regardless of these differences, the main focus point is always the well-being of everyone, and their newly found camaraderie and friendship. They may threaten to fracture around methods and next steps, but their intentions are always good, and they care for each other deeply. Runaways feels different from some of the other current, dark Marvel shows, where having the moral high ground is usually not worth much, especially in light of the depravity and darkness of its villains, but I think it counts for a lot in Runaways, which is going a different path in terms of tone. 

So it happens that the scene with the most emotional resonance happens between Gert and her dinosaur � Arsenic and Old Lace, forced to part for a few hours, until Gert realises that Old Lace has enough of a will of her own to be able to disregard commands when she wants to stay with her. It�s an episode where she and Chase navigate the fall-out of last episode�s events individually, and mostly through Nico (who ships them hardcore), so that Gert�s other primary relationship � with a genetically engineered emotional support dinosaur, a lasting gift from the parents she can no longer trust � become the emotional bulwark against all the horrors of the world. 

Nico: We�re not leaving you. Don�t do this, please, I�m begging you. You can�t do this alone. I�m not leaving you.
Karolina: Nico, go. You have to go.

The greatest threat to the group is being split up. I like that Nico�s realisation of how much Karolina specifically means to her happens in small scenes � the vehemence with which she argues for them staying with her when she faces Jonah, and later her insistence that they do not leave her behind in the Church of Gibborim, when the others are ready to move on without her. Nico isn�t very open about her feelings, or expressive about her emotions, but she doesn�t leave a doubt here about how much Karolina means to her. She also understands the others well enough to know that the way to argue for her rescue is to remind them how much Karolina has fought for them, and how she chose to save them instead of running, which was always an option. Thinking about each other, instead of thinking about the group, means that none of them is expandable, and nobody will be left behind. 

The jail-break is a bit too easy for my liking in the end � they sort of manage to get Vaughn (Yawn) on their side, and Molly and Chase go undercover, and basically just wander in and out with Karolina, with very little resistance, which feels odd especially after the Wilders get turned away so effectively earlier. There is a hint here with a mysterious, anonymous text message, that Jonah has an inside man and maybe wanted Karolina to run (is he tracking her? Does he think it�s a convenient distraction for the other Pride members until he gets Victor back on track?). Of course, the idea of someone being a mole still hangs over the Runaways�, and Alex acts fairly sketchy in this episode, somehow curtailing a gun and a stash of cash from his father�s enemy in exchange for � something we do not see. Alex is still an enigma, because some of his actions do seem to be motivated by the fact that he doesn�t have any powers, or dinosaurs, of his own, and is struggling to gain more power and leverage somehow with the resources that he does have. My guess is that the mole thing will be a red herring, because the show has already diverged enough from the source material to get away with that massive edit, but we�ll see. 

It�s a perfect contrast: Leslie deciding to switch sides after Vaughn tells her that Jonah is claiming the church back for himself, Frank Dean still allying with him because it gives him a sense of power and control that he�s never had in his whole life, Tina grudgingly being incapable of avenging her daughter because Leslie still holds leverage over her. All the Pride members are deeply, profoundly broken, while their kids find love and support in their group. While Tina suggests that they all kill Leslie in the Yorkes� basement, their kids are curled up together in the back of the van, ready to do whatever it takes to keep each other safe. 

And then there is also this: Nico, who spends the episode figuring out how Chase feels about Gert and how Gert feels about Chase while also fighting for them to save Karolina, gets the girl, in every sense. She saves her. She protects her. She looks at her with such pure desire that it blows away any doubts about whether this is just an experiment for her, or confusion. She kisses her first, this time, and Virginia Gardner manages to make Karolina glow without the special effects. It�s a completely amazing scene, one that I wouldn�t in a million years have hoped to get in the first season of this show (consider that these same characters are still years away from any of this in the comics, after about fifteen years). 

It all happens in spite of the rushed events in this episode, which culminate in what we�ve probably been waiting for this whole time: the Wilders, out of options, call the police on the kids, thinking it will help protect them. So�

Karolina: What do we do?
Alex: We run.

Random notes: 

For a season finale, this episode does feel a bit disjointed, with odd pacing and a few false starts and loose threads � it�s almost as if it is just a set-up for a second season, or a holding pattern, which is a bit frustrating considering that they were only given ten episodes in the first place. I�ve enjoyed this first season a lot, and I think the casting is absolutely perfect, but one of the questions this show will have to answer in its second season � which will at least have thirteen episodes � is how to juggle its many, many characters and give each of them enough story to create emotional resonance. And I would still argue that the kids deserve much, much more room to grow, and that the parents exist primarily in the background rather than in the foreground of their story, even if so many actors have done a stellar jobs with the roles (especially Brittany Ishibashi, who hits it out of the park here, especially in her scenes where she�s pitted against Leslie Dean). 

The Yorkes figure out that whatever is down in the hole is massive, and alive. 

There was some sarcastic commentary about how ill-suited these kids are for a life on the run because of their privileged upbringing � Gert still feeds Old Lace whole chicken from Wholefoods � that works pretty well here. 

Got some goosebumps when everyone put on their iconic outfits here, and even enjoyed the tongue-in-check failing at actually finding effective disguises. 

Nico snarking Chase about how they may have left him behind is even more effective considering that Chase would never ever leave any of them behind, plus the lengths he�s gone through in the comics to keep them all together. 

Jonah�s already disintegrating again, and I have bad news for Frank Dean regarding his future role in this whole thing. His future is going to be �bright� indeed. 

Runaways - If there�s nothing left for us to do then let�s dance.

Runaways: 1x09 Doomsday.

In the historical excavation of how everyone has come to this point, what the Runaways (who have finally at least discussed this cool nickname for themselves, without fulfilling the inherent prophecy within it) and the viewers realise is that it is much harder to come to terms with what the parents have done over the last fifteen years if they have become fully fleshed humans. It is much easier to reckon with this fight against them, the clear-cut antagonism of unlikely and more or less unwilling heroes against villains, if they remain 2D versions of themselves, solely motivated by selfishness, even if that selfishness regards the future of their children. The television show here goes a different route and shows how, for those fifteen years, the parents have consistently been pressured, blackmailed, undermined, they have betrayed their own values, done horrible things, and all of that because Jonah � a charismatic and endlessly dangerous man � has threatened their children. It�s so fitting that this episode goes from the worst possible moment � the Hernandezes lab going up in flames ten years ago, after someone (the implication is Leslie) has thrown a bomb in it � to Tina Minoru, walking in on Jonah having a tea ceremony with her little daughter Amy five years before that. The kids are the stars of the show, and the characters we care most about, but what the show manages to do here is show how people can become utter shells of themselves if they are under pressure long enough, if they live a life of fear and despair for a prolonged period of time, so that none of their actions remain their own. And maybe Victor Stein has always been a terrible man, even all those years ago when he, an arrogant physics student, met his future wife, but maybe the very specific way in which Jonah kills people�s souls has just affected him the most. 

Victor Stein is out of the picture for the whole episode, so the next best person � second worst parent, maybe, if we leave out Karolina�s mother, who is far gone beyond any possibility of redemption � is Tina Minoru. In an episode of great emotional moments and revelations, it is kind of astonishing what Brittany Ishibashi accomplishes here. It�s so easy to regard Tina with the same mistrust and dislike that the others members of Pride have reserved for her, but all the more complicated to comprehend what a complex and pained person she is when we watch her go above and beyond to protect Amy, only to lose her. She seems to be the one among them, with the exception of Leslie, who has had to deal with Jonah the most, because he trusts her, and he knows how vulnerable she is because she loves her daughters so much. Isn�t it all the more effective, emotionally, that she is the one among them who has also lost that daughter, only to have the other daughter turn against her so violently? 

It goes back to the previous episode, to that question of what the Pride�s parental love is worth if all it makes them into murderous and killers of children. What is Tina�s fierce love for Amy worth if I led, more or less directly, to Amy�s death and the Hernandezes blowing up in their own lab after they realise that Jonah�s intention, and his promises of a renewable energy source, are so empty? This episode does it both: It humanises the individual members of the Pride by showing why they did what they did, while also so clearly showcasing how their willingness to betray each other, and feed each other to the wolves, means they are beyond saving. After all, they were all fully grown-adults, they had all the relative power in the world when Jonah approached them, and here are their children, with none of that power, making the deliberate decision to hold together as a group � in spite of their inner conflicts, of their fierce disagreements over what to do � standing up to all of Jonah�s awesome power. They do so knowing fully well what it cost the Hernandezes when they made the same choice, because they just watched the VCR tape with Molly (and what a performance that is from the Allegra Costa � capturing not just the grief for the loss of her parents, but also the painful truth that she never truly got to know them, while her friends all have the luxury of still being able to make choices about the fate of their parents). It is therefore all the more fitting that the nickname �Runaways� isn�t touted around as a description of who they are, or what they will eventually become, but a tribute to all those kids that were lost in their parents� misguided attempt to save their own children over other people�s children. They couldn�t save, and they probably won�t be able to avenge, but at the very least they know that nothing is worth the moral depravity of sacrificing children to some space god who threatens your family. 

And all of this is hard, and this show wouldn�t be as emotionally moving if it weren�t, if it were easy for people like Chase and Karolina to except that their parents are terrible people not just in spite of, but because they were so willing to choose their own children over everything else in the whole wide world (literally, as they are working towards an apocalypse). Of course it isn�t easy for Chase to make that call, because he is still working through years and years of abuse and trauma, and can�t just let go of the idea that deep-down, the father who is now entirely unreachable to him is a good person, maybe just twisted into the monster that he was by a disease. Of course it isn�t easy for Karolina to fully embrace the idea that both of her parents are terrible people, not just her distant mother. So Chase blames his mum for the lies that amount to his life, and Karolina trusts Frank, because she is so desperate to hold on to the idea that there is one good parent left among them. 

Which brings us to Frank Dean � and the fact that he exists, that Kip Pardue has so perfectly impersonated a man who seems so hapless and nice on the outside, that Runaways went there to show how utterly dangerous it is when a painfully mediocre man spends so many years envying his wife�s power and then sees an opening to obtain his own. In this episode at least, between Leslie probably throwing that bomb that killed the Hernandezes and Tina becoming the person that she is now, Frank is the worst of them, because he showcases so perfectly that Jonah doesn�t even require any kind of alien technology, or actual power, to twist people into monsters. All it takes with Frank is a promise that he will be the leader of the church, that he will be more than a hanger-on, a little decoration. There is nothing more dangerous than the egos of mediocre men, and so Frank lets go of his one redeeming quality � not being mixed up in this mess, and being Karolina�s last hope � and betrays them all. 

Alex: What, it used to be a cool club!
Gert: It�s literally the club they use to show in every teen movie to show how uncool someone is.
Chase: Guys, come on, don�t take away his one thing.
Alex: You�re all assholes.

The one thing that stands between  - maybe the end of the world, if we believe the conclusion that Molly�s parents arrived at before their death � is the Runaways finding each other again after Chase�s betrayal. It�s each and every one of them realising that the greater good is more important than their individual opinions on how to approach this situation. The Hernandezes tape works like a rallying cry that manages to bridge their differences, because Alex in particular realises that what�s at stake is so much greater than the question of their parents� culpability. They are digging down, and don�t even know, or care to ask, what the outcome will be. Remember the resources their parents have, in particular Chase�s and Gert�s � they are both brilliant scientists � and the fact that they chose to ignore what the implications are of Jonah�s empty promise that they are digging for renewable energy. They should know Jonah well enough to guess that this is a lie, that they have been the tools for a much more sinister end all those years. But none of them have the bravery to face that fact. 

Bravery means facing unlikely odds. There�s Molly, who has just been through the worst nightmare of her life, her adoptive parents sending her off to a woman she has no recollection of, with no way of making her own choices. She also has superstrength. There�s Chase, who�s father is in a coma and in the hands of a man who has no good intentions, who has just changed the course of his whole life because of a group of people that he discarded years earlier. He has built his own weapon, with his mind and his hands. There�s Karolina, who summons all the bravery in the world in this episode and doesn�t just face the fact that there are no good parents left, but also that the world is ending, and that she has to kiss the girl she loves before she runs out of chances to do so. So she holds Nico�s face tenderly, and bends down, and kisses her � and Nico kisses her back, and neither of them let go of each other even when Chase and Gert enter the scene. There�s Nico, who doesn�t just face the fact that her sister didn�t commit suicide, but was murdered, but also chooses her friends over her family, after years of being violently alone. There�s Gert � who always thought she was invisible � who dances with the boy she likes, who is honest about her feelings for once (even if it just lasts for a bit), who also has a freaking dinosaur. And there�s Alex, who has the keycard for his father�s building site. 

It was always going to come down to this moment, of the Runaways facing their own parents, and it�s the accomplishment of the show that this moment means so much more now � that it is a culmination of wrong and right choices, of two groups who are so disparate in terms of what they could have done to arrive here, and yet the least powerful ones, the teenagers, have chosen the good path over their parents. The core idea of the books was always that these kids don�t want to be heroes, that their lives force them to be, that they only want to stay alive � but these six kids here are already way beyond that, somehow. I�m so glad we will get at least another season of this. 

Random notes: 

This episode reveals that Molly got her powers from some of the samples that the Hernandezes dug up from the crater (which, I am assuming, would be the landing site of whatever craft Jonah came to earth with, but we don�t really know that yet). 

The fact that Alex could only contribute the keycard is also a solid reminder that the show needs to do some figuring out when it comes to his character in case it doesn�t go for the book�s twist. Genius hacker, I guess?

This is also a gentle reminder that in the 100,000 years that have passed since the first edition of the books came out, Nico and Karolina have been the most painful slow-burn in the world� whereas it�s literally been nine episodes for Nico not to pull back in show from that kiss, but in fact go in for more. Like, I don�t think this will go entirely according to Karolina�s plans still, and I think it should be taken into consideration that a few of Nico�s actions may be motivated by how she feels about Alex right now � but this is still pretty glorious. 

Also, Go Gert! Please stop self-sabotaging so much. 

WE�RE A FAMILY. 

Runaways � I�m still here, and I deserve the truth.

Runaways: 1x08 Tsunami.

I keep coming back to this quote from the first season of Luther, where Alice is still weighing Luther up, weighing up her knowledge about him. She says �Love is supposed to dignify us, exalt us. How can it be love, John, if all it does is make you lonely and corrupt?� It�s a comment on the main character, whom we are meant to root for, making unsupportable decisions and justifying them with his motives. It�s a judgement on the very idea that acting out of love in and of itself justifies any deed. 

This whole episode swirls around that very idea. The big question at the centre of the show as well as the dangerous, ticking time-bomb that is threatening the Runaways� unity is the question of why the Pride exists. Not just the Pride � which may as well simply be a tool for Jonah, who does not seem to care particularly about the individuals that make up the group � but the parents, as parents, in regards to their children. If they act out of love and protectiveness rather than selfishness and hunger for power, does that excuse the murdered teenagers, the many lives that have been taken in the pursuit of Jonah�s goals? Of course it doesn�t. It doesn�t matter why the Pride exists, its actions are heinous and inexcusable, but it�s a whole different story when you�re one of their actual children, and grappling with the actions of them as parents. It�s easy to say that regardless of their motives, the Pride deserves whatever fate would await it if the Runaways published the videos that Alex is decoding � but a whole different story if you�re Chase and your only hope to see your father as a loveable human man depends on the Pride not going to jail. 

There is almost a discord in this episode � between the comical uselessness of the Pride and their handling of Victor�s impending death, and the genuine sorrow and rage that drives Chase to choose a path that is so hurtful for his friends. It�s very simple to be highly amused by the way that these parents are not actually friends, in fact hate each other so much that they�d be all too willing to sacrifice each other as long as they get off clean � but at the same time, this episode also shows Chase holding on with all his might to the idea that his father is a good man, that all of his bad deeds, all of his violence against Chase and his mother, were the result of a brain tumour. It�s horrifying to watch how Chase can disregard that violence so easily just because he is so hungry for a second chance with Victor Stein, while his mother is literally mopping up the blood that is, more or less, the direct result of Victor�s abuse of his family. Runaways here is a portrayal of all the insidious aspects of family abuse, the complicated emotional connections, the conflicting priorities, the self-manipulating decisions. 

And in the end, perhaps it won�t even matter that much whether what Alex found will be released or not, because this whole time, two other threads are spinning towards the end of the Pride. Molly, sent away by the Yorkes (and I will say for them that neither of them ever leaves a single doubt that they consider Molly their child, that they are acting out of wanting to protect her the same way they would Gert), discovers a secret message left to her by the Hernandezes, who perhaps didn�t trust the Yorkes as much as first thought. The trail leads to a videotape (which, comically, Molly, being 14 in 2017, fails to identify), and perhaps a whole new collection of proof against the Pride. And at the same time, Nico, after Alex reveals to her that Amy managed to hack into Wizard but also got caught up in the surveillance that followed, finally finds her sister�s lost mobile phone, which will finally reveal that Amy probably didn�t commit suicide after all, but found herself trapped in the Pride�s power moves somehow. 

Nico: Alex, there is no explanation that would justify you having this information and just sitting on it, knowing that I can barely stand to be alive, thinking that I did something, or that I missed something..
Alex: I missed something. I�m the one who should have seen it coming. I�m the one who should have done more. Who should have stopped her.

This whole story-line is heart-breaking, because we never really get much of a sense of Nico before the loss of her sister, but at the same time the show makes it so clear how traumatic her loss was, and how much she has transformed since, not just physically but mentally. Alex kept secrets from her, secrets about her sister Amy, and this is very likely an unforgivable transgression. Alex knew that Tina Minoru had Amy�s computer hacked, that she put one of Wizard�s security guys on her (although it remains unclear in the episode if the guy revealed to Tina that Amy was the perpetrator, or if Amy simply drew her own conclusions). So much of the tension in the show, at least for viewers who�ve read the books, still comes from the question of Alex� choices, and where he will go in the future, but I think the way this played out � his genuine grief for the loss of his friend Amy, his feeling responsible for her death � hints that the show will depart profoundly from its source material here, and if anything, will only leave traces of the great reveal of that first volume in how it approaches Chase (and maybe Karolina, who betrays everyone�s trust here more or less unwittingly). 

The greater thread here is people doing awful things while having good intentions. The Yorkes make Molly�s greatest nightmare come true when they send her away, but they truly do it out of love. Chase hurts his mother profoundly when he chooses Victor�s side, because he is so trapped in the dynamics of his abusive family. 

Janet: I could have done something else, I could have invented something and changed the world. But instead my life became about managing the brilliant Victor Stein. So you guys, you all took Jonah�s gifts and you got success and fame, and I got an abusive megalomaniac.

Janet�s story is so tragic. She finally slayed her beast to protect her beloved son, and yet, Victor is so important to the Pride (maybe the only truly important member) that all of them basically raise hell to save him. It goes to the point where Jonah asks her to sacrifice herself, and it�s only the complicated network of relationship and intimacy that saves her (Robert is about to sacrifice himself, but Tina intervenes and destroys one of Jonah�s magical boxes). 

What worth does all of that parental love have if all it leads to is to kids, being led to their death in these rituals? What value does it have, if the sole result is death and destruction? All of that love, in this episode, leads to Molly�s despair, to Chase�s fury, to Amy�s pure fear, when she sent off that last message, that someone had found out and was coming to the house. 

Random notes: 

A beautiful dynamic here, as well, when Chase�s first instinct after the catastrophe is calling Gert (the call goes to voicemail), then Karolina, who in turn responds by calling Nico first. 

�If Chase needed you, why would you even call me? Why didn�t you just go straight to his place? Because you don�t wanna be alone with him. Because he kissed you� and you don�t like him, you like Nico, who likes Alex. We should go right away. I�ll drive.�

I think they�ve finally turned a corner with Gert and Karolina in this episode, it�s such a relief, because they make the best of friends. 

When Karolina finds Frank in the Stein�s mansion, she tells him� something, that happens off-screen, but very likely it�s something she shouldn�t have shared with a parent who is so dangerously unrooted and mostly acts out of jealousy of his wife�s secret life. 

�Also Lacrosse sticks are not the cure-all for everything.�

Stacy: I�m willing to say I�m Spartacus if everyone else is.

This sums up the Yorkes so well. 

And there are so many golden moments when the Pride tries to decide who should go into the box. 

What about Dale, what�s so great about Dale, what has Dale ever done for Pride?

Robert: Why don�t we just get Frank put him in the box, he�s not even in Pride.
Leslie: Not the worst idea. 

Dale: When my girls are involved, that�s where I draw the line.  Now somebody is getting in the goddamn box and personally I don�t mind if it�s Tina, that�s my vote.

Jonah says that the only person who knows how to make the boxes is �legally dead�, which makes me wonder � because the wording is so peculiar that it doesn�t seem to refer to Victor, who for the most part seems to have simply attempted to figure out how they work. There are quite a few people who are legally dead, obviously, including Jonah himself, Amy, and the Hernandezes. 

I mean the subtext in this episode is clearly that the Runaways are a team of people who love each other while the Pride is an assortment of families who absolutely loathe each other, hence why they will never win this game, but how we get there is pretty entertaining for an episode that was focusing on the Pride's perspective of things, which so far have been my less favourite ones in the season. 

Runaways � Enjoy it while you still can.

Runaways: 1x07 Refraction.

Seven episodes into Runaways, I�m still not sure what the focus on the parents adds to the show. It�s hit and mix � hit, when it fleshes out how distressing it is for our kids to make the decision that will change their entire lives, miss when the focus is on the parents� history and relationships with each other, all the parts that don�t necessarily include the Runaways themselves. There is a distinctive conflict at the heart of this show � which is that uncovering the history of Pride is like archaeology, digging into personal family histories, uncovering the pasts � while the kids are most concerned about how their discovery will affect their future. They are still trying to grasp what it would mean to have all of their parents (save Frank Dean, who will raise them all) locked up for their crimes. What are the very real world outcomes of not only discovering that parents aren�t infallible (and have affairs, and so many personal flaws) but that they are criminals that a working justice system would deal with swiftly? 

But instead of that, we travel back in time to discover how the Pride became to be, or rather, how the individual members of Pride became entangled in it. It�s a two-directional movement, because at the same time, in the present, Leslie Dean has to heal all the fractures in the team. It�s not yet clear why it is so important to Jonah that the Pride remain tightly knit, that it doesn�t get torn apart by Robert� and Janet�s affair. 

That affair is a red herring in and of itself. It deeply affects Nico, as her one good parent intends to pursue a new life with a woman who makes him happier than Nico�s mum does, while it remains fairly unsubstantial in terms of what it does to the Steins, who are dealing with the much more twisted issue of Victor�s mental health, abuse and violence. But in the end, the Pride isn�t coming apart because Robert Minoru and Janet Stein have been having an affair � it is coming apart because there is no unity in the methods or the goals of Pride anymore. There are factions within Pride, and secrets that are being kept. While Leslie believes that she has returned the group to the status quo, the Wilders are convincing the Yorkes that Molly has to be sent away to be protected from Jonah and Leslie. While Leslie still thinks the problem is the affair, Victor snaps once again, except this time Janet has the means to protect her beloved son. 

As much as this episode feels like a necessary goal post on the journey to the finale, to the inevitable running away of the Runaways, it does have a beautiful structure. Victor Stein is reprehensible, his violence, aggression and abuse inexcusable, and I think this episode serves less as an attempt to understand him than to portray how utterly destroyed his mind and soul are way before Janet fires that gun. He started out as an arrogant and curious scientist, obsessed with the idea that time travel could allow him to position himself perfectly. When they first meet, he shares this idea with Janet � that time travel is less about making up for mistakes in the past, but using the knowledge that it brings about the future to improve your current situation. We know where this idea leads, 25 later � obsession, a blind drive to find a way to communicate with the future that will leave his family in shatters. He looked at his son when he was first born and thought that this was all that matters, but then, somewhere inbetween, something broke. Or maybe it�s that Chase didn�t turn out the way he wanted, that he focused so much on sports. That moment in the car, a disappointed child whose father doesn�t care about what he cares about, and doesn�t care about Chase enough to pretend, and then that sudden escalation of violence (I think this may have been the first time, which is why it was included here). It�s a spiral that feels inevitable because Victor doesn�t regret any of it � even now, in the present tense, he doesn�t talk about making up for it, he is merely obsessed with haven been given a new lease on life, and he is propelled by what we find out (because Gert�s dad discovers it in an involuntary self-test) an unnatural high from Jonah�s treatment. In short, it�s an impermanent shift in his mind that cannot last, a temporary fix for a broken man who has done unforgivable things, and the low that will follow the high is like a ticking time bomb throughout the episode. 

There is also the fact that Victor receives a warning in the beginning of the episode when his invention works � a future Chase, a young man, sending back a warning to his father to not pick up the Fistigons. This then of course turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy, the inevitable irony of time travel, or having knowledge about the future. Temporarily, Victor is elated by the fact that his son must have become a genius inventor in the future to be able to communicate with him through the device. Temporarily, he wishes to congratulate the physics teacher who must have done a better job than he thought he did, discovering things in his son that he has always been too blind to see. The warning itself seems so very easy to comply with, a simple avoidance, but of course it works like the fairy tale does � where Sleeping Beauty�s parents, obsessed with the witch�s warning, attempt to destroy all the spindles in their kingdom, but the one they overlook will always inevitably find their daughter�s finger. 

This whole episode is about time � for one, there is a constant timer that is running out as Alex decrypts the videos on Tina�s server, their one concrete piece of evidence that will doom their parents. There�s the photo that Frank finds, in his attempt to fully embrace the church now that Jonah has shared some of his awesome power with him in order to make him feel special (and how perfect that he chose that particular gift for a man who would delight so much in being able to heal and help). It�s time travel as well, into the dark history of the Church of Gibborim, which Jonah has warned Leslie is about to fall apart. Nobody mentions the horrifying fact that apparently, Leslie has been groomed by her father from an early age to become Jonah�s bride, predestining everything that is happening now, every decision that she has made since, and Karolina�s entire existence. It�s like a slow reveal of past horrors and present dangers, which is very different pacing from the very sudden way in which things unfold in the books. It is still all coming together in a similar way, and the show also finally introduces the trigger that will inevitably lead to where we were always meant to go: that horrible, horrifying moment when Molly comes home to find her foster parents packing her bags, that moment that she must have always had nightmares about ever since losing her own parents. She is being sent away, she isn�t wanted anymore. Gert � the best sister, who gets a lot of very good moments in this episode � knows that she can�t effectively protect Molly, that her parents have all the power in this situation, that for now, Molly has to go (and I think this moment is very, very effective in a show that is all about how horribly skewed the power dynamics between children and parents are, especially if the parents in question aren�t good). 

Gert: Molly, you�re going to get through this. You�re the strongest out of all of us. And I�m not going to let anything bad happen to you, not now, not ever. We�re sisters, we�re sisters forever, and no one is going to change that.

At its core, Runaways is about family � an adopted family after actual biological family turns out to be the opposite of what it should be. There are so many broken promises in this episode: the Yorkes genuinely love Molly, and yet they are doing the worst damage to her when they go with the Wilders plans. Fred thought he was a husband and father, but now finds himself as just another pawn in a game that is too big for him to comprehend. Leslie, on that photo, was a normal school child, being asked to pose with her father�s friend, also just a pawn in someone�s else�s machinations. And worst of all, there�s Victor Stein, who promised that this was all that matters � the small child in his arms, with his entire future ahead of him � and then turned into his son�s worst nightmare, the fickle beast that is threatening the people he loves the most. He asked him to do one thing � he bent time and space to do it � but Victor couldn�t even do that. 

Random notes: 

Also building towards an inevitable reveal � Nico keeps asking Alex about the password thing that she knows was a lie, and he keeps trying to dodge her. I�m still curious as to whether this is going the way of the comics, or if the show will swerve from that deliberately because we already know what is going to happen otherwise. 

The reveal with the photo seems to substantiate the idea that only Jonah is the alien, that Karolina�s mother is human and she is half-human. How horrifying to think that Leslie Dean was groomed her entire life for this, a pawn in this power game for Jonah to play with. 

Karolina: It�s not your fault. This is too much for us to handle, let alone someone your age.
Molly: You�re like three years older. 

This is a very brutal episode, especially for Chase and Janet, but there are a lot of tender moments in it as well that serve as a reminder of why we are here, and how the Runaways are growing together as a group. Karolina tries to cheer up Molly who can�t keep her secret any longer and feels frustrated that nobody is taking her seriously (except when she tries to join the cheerleaders again, they are taking her even less serious, and with none of the love and kindness that the other Runaways have for her). These two have the most demonstrable, obvious powers, that both of them have to hide (Molly has to do it in the hardest moment in this episode, when the Yorkes are sending her away). How hard is it to have powers but not to be able to share them? How hard is it to be so strong but never to be taken seriously, and to have so much to share but to have to keep her entire self a secret? 

Karolina: That�s what I love about you Molly. Our parents are killers, the cops are crooked and we almost got killed by gang members. But you see it as everything is going great.
Molly: You know my true superpower is my positive attitude.

There is also a very lovely moment between Karolina, who isn't manning the Church of G booth anymore, and Gert, who has been betrayed by her fellow feminists - I think this whole storyline is so much stronger when Runaways focuses on the fact that these two know things about each other that the others don't, and when that is used as a connection between them rather than a point of contention. And Gert is so much better as a supportive (snarky, yes, but also always demanding the best because she knows it's there) friend than she is as a jealous competitor. 

Runaways � The devil will have his due.

Runaways: 1x06.

It does raise the stakes that Runaways in its television adaptation shows more of the parents, their backstory, how they ended up here, but even more so that it focuses on the relationship these parents have to their children. It muddies the waters a bit in terms of clearly distinguishing between good and evil, between the correct way to move forward and the wrong one. The flashback we see in this episode, of the Pride�s first human sacrifice to Jonah, the first time they even realised that this was what was asked of them, is a reminder of how people start to become complicit in crimes, and guilty not necessarily for what they have done (most of the Pride�s members don�t even know what is going to happen when Leslie Dean guides a disciple of the church into Victor�s pod), but for how they deal with their responsibility after the fact. When they realise that Tina Minoru recorded them, that they will all face the consequences if any of them go public, they decide to keep stum, to continue doing Jonah�s bidding. Faced with their parents� crime, the kids have a similar choice: they are the only ones who know about this, who will, by the end of the episode, have irrefutable evidence that their parents are killers. What will they do with that evidence? Will they change their own world forever by allowing their parents to go to prison? And, in that regard, does it matter that some of them, like Nico and Chase, are suddenly finding themselves in a situation where their most withholding, distant and cruel parent is reaching out to them for the first time in their life?

It reveals a lot about the characters if they follow absolute moral ideas here, where the wrongness of their parents� actions overrides any kind of loyalty or love they may feel for their parents, or if they still feel conflicted about all of this. While Nico and Chase struggle, while Alex seems to drive them forward because he had the clearest experience of a trusted parent doing the wrong thing, while Karolina�s rebellion isn�t even necessarily targeted at her mother, but at everything that her former life stood for, while Gert still seems to be so steadfast in her idealism that she doesn�t flinch (which is such a surprising thing � because her parents remain the ones that are most relatable here in their haplessness, they seem to have stumbled into this the most unwillingly, but in the back of my mind I feel like that the show will reveal something about them that will change this very soon) � everyone forgets about Molly. It�s what they always do, because they are 17 and Molly is younger, because regardless of the fact that she is the strongest, nobody ever listens to her. They forget that their parents are her only connection to her parents, that she doesn�t have the luxury of being conflicted about her parents� motives because they died years ago, and all she probably has left of them are a few memories. Molly hesitates because she knows that the only way to find out about her parents � about their reason for joining the Pride, and the circumstances of their death � is by keeping Catherine Wilder, who has made a promise to talk to her about them, out of prison. So in this episode, as Nico and Alex are gearing up to steal the footage from Tina�s servers, Molly knows that she is running out of time to get to know her lost parents.

This doesn�t occur to anyone, first and foremost because they are all teenagers, and they all have their own dramas to deal with. I think it�s also important to remember that these six kids were separated for such a long time, and are still figuring out how their individual friendships and relationships fit together. I hope they grow closer as a unit at some point as this progresses, but for now, they seem to operate more as precariously connected cells of interpersonal relationships, with very clear break lines between characters who aren�t so tightly connected. This is most obvious, and frustrating, between Gert and Karolina, who have somehow and unwittingly managed to trap themselves in the worst teen show clich� of all: the love triangle, which, in this case, isn�t even truly a triangle. This situation is all the more frustrating because it brings out the worst first of all in Gert, but then, later in the episode, in Karolina as well.

It starts very promisingly with Karolina and Nico, getting ready for the big fundraiser party. They both go into this scene with all of their family baggage: Nico has just surprisingly reconnected with her mother, who explained to her daughter how the Staff of One works (it�s science so incomprehensible and, well, alien, that it might as well be wicca), while Karolina has realised that her entire life, especially her mother�s religious cult, is a complete and absolute sham. In a beautiful throwback to when Karolina told Nico that she didn�t need all that make-up to hide behind in episode one, Karolina is the one who helps prepare Nico for the party, applying her make-up, helping her dress-up. They are open with each other.

Nico: That was weird, like I was trying to make you glow or something.
Karolina: Were you?
Nico: Maybe?

Imagine that: Karolina basically asking Nico if she was flirting with her and Nico definitely not categorically denying it. It�s like you can see Karolina�s face light up, like she sees an opening, a possibility that she hadn�t even considered before. What if she can use all this chaos and destruction of the world she thought she knew and finally be open with the girl that she has just realised she�s been in love with this whole time? Because realising you�re gay is twice hard, depending on your circumstances � realising it for herself was hard for Karolina, because of everything she was ever taught about herself, but it�s even harder to share that new part of her with other people, especially those whose judgement she values so much. It�s so scary, because how terrible would it be to be rejected not just for a feeling, but for who she is, as a person? And how much worse would it be to be rejected in that particular situation she is in now, with everything out of balance and no certainty, with everything else changing?

Nico: What I saw you do the other night, it should never make you feel afraid, or ashamed.
Karolina: It�s just; everything in my whole life has been has been for my mom and the church, then I learned what I thought was the ultimate good is somehow part of the worst thing imaginable. What if what I do is connected to that? What does that make me?
Nico: You know who you are. I know who you are. And neither of us is our parents, or the messed up shit they�re doing. Although nothing is more messed up what my mum  is doing now. Actually being nice for the first time in years.
Karolina: It�s funny, you were always the rebel one, now you�re fairly close to your mum, I was always the momma�s girl, and now...
Nico: And now what? You�re the rebel?
Karolina: No I�m serious. Gert was right.  I was the perfect church girl. I never did anything disobedient, or different, or what I wanted. And now that I know that I�m like a total freak, maybe I�m free. To be who I am. And to be honest who I want to be with.

Imagine being in Karolina�s shoes, having found out not just that her mother is involved in a murder cult, not just that she is gay, and in love with her best friend, but also that her actual superpower � her ability � is sparkling like a literal rainbow? It�s a beautiful power, an awesome one, but also one that is impossible to hide. Once she takes off that bracelet, she has no way of pretending that she is like anyone else on this planet, because she is obviously different. More than that, the particular way in which she is different may fit in with what her mother has been doing this whole time � so maybe there is something wrong with her, something evil inside of her. Nico does the kind and gentle thing here which she can do because she must feel similarly � after all, her mother�s weapon cannot even distinguish between Tina and Nico, and they are much more similar than Nico is comfortable with. She knows exactly what Karolina needs to hear, and it�s so much the right thing to say that Karolina almost comes out to her. I�m convinced she would have been brave, she would have dared it all, if Molly and Gert hadn�t burst in without knocking.

It�s one of many crimes Gert commits against friendship in this episode, but the far worse one is what she does later in the episode. Let�s assume that there is an alternative version of this episode where Karolina managed to be brave without any alcohol fuelling her, where she looks Nico in the eyes and tells her that she loves her � it�s a moment that is stolen from her, a grace she isn�t given (it would have been hers, regardless of Nico�s reaction). Instead Gert, later at the party, takes her aside, but not enough for them to be in private, and asks her point-blank if she is into Nico. She doesn�t sit her down. She doesn�t even express her support except as an afterthought, like saying �I still love you, whoever you are� isn�t the most important thing she can say to her right now. Instead, what she does say, and what Karolina hears, is Gert�s desperation to hear that Karolina isn�t in fact competing for Chase�s affections with her, with, to be clear, Karolina has never ever done. It�s unforgivably unkind of Gert, and a betrayal of all the values she holds so dearly � which doesn�t mean that it isn�t relatable, that people don�t something betray their own values when they are desperately in love with someone who doesn�t reciprocate their feelings. There�s a lot at stake for Gert, but at the same time, she of all the characters has a whole ideology about supporting other women, one that doesn�t seem to count for anything when her actual friend Karolina needs her love and support. I find this even more painful considering that Gert knows how much bullying Karolina suffers at school for being a �church girl� � but instead of being supportive of her, she joins in the chorus.

It�s even more painful because the scene felt like the exact opposite of a scene in a different show, one that I always thought was perfectly executed: Hanna and Emily, in the beginning of Pretty Little Liars, are in a similar spot. They were estranged for years and they have recently reconnected over trauma. When Hanna realises that Emily may be gay, she is kind and gentle. She is supportive. She is the greatest friend that Emily could possibly hope for, and this follows her through seasons and seasons of the show. Gert does none of that, she does something incredibly selfish, and for once, because Karolina is in that particular mood, because her entire world is crumbling, Karolina does something cruel back. She doesn�t even do anything as much as finally give in to something, because it�s so easy to do. Chase does have a crush on her. He has been low-key chasing her this whole time. She goes up on the roof with a bottle of vodka, and she wants to be alone, but she never really is alone. It�s a concession. She falls off the ledge and Chase can�t catch her, but she saves herself because it turns out that she isn�t just a glowing rainbow stick � she can also fly. It�s a completely exhilarating moment for her, because as much as she feels different from everyone else for all of these reasons � for being gay, for being in love with her best friend, for sparkling � she can also freaking fly. It�s an overwhelming moment of joy, so much so that when Chase kisses her, she doesn�t bother explaining that he�s read this whole thing completely wrong. Her world is crumbling, and for once she goes for an option that�s easy. The scene doesn�t leave any doubt that she doesn�t particularly feel like kissing him back, that she just doesn�t have it in her to hurt him in that moment. But Molly sees, so inevitably, someone will get hurt.

It fits in so perfectly too that Gert excels in this episode where she is also the worst. She enters the fundraiser with so much apprehension and insecurity (Molly, being the greatest as always, tells her that she looks amazing and is impressing everyone), but then later manages to dazzle not one but two security guards with how smart and funny she is � it�s not what she wants, but it�s also a perfect demonstration of how low self-esteem, or having suffered bullying, can fuck people, and especially teenage girls, over twice: Not just with the embarrassment of the moment, with making an environment hostile, but also the self-doubts that are so hard to shake later on, when they taint any accomplishment and win. Nico tells her to just be herself to distract the security guards, and that�s exactly what she does, and it works like a charm on them. She doesn�t tear herself down, she doesn�t really hesitate because she knows what�s at stake, and she is awesome.

So much more happens. Alex and Nico manage to retrieve the footage from Tina�s office, but not before witnessing Tina having a breakdown there (they don�t know that she is crying because Victor has just revealed that Robert is having an affair with his wife). Tina Minoru has seemed desperate to save her marriage, she has tried to get her daughter back, she has tried to find intimacy with her estranged husband, but everything is falling apart for her too, even now that they�ve made another successful sacrifice and brought back Jonah. Karolina�s dad, after failing to go ultra, is doubting his whole life as well, a beautiful parallel to his daughter, and this is also a reminder that Karolina is the sole member of the Runaways with the luxury of having a parent who isn�t involved in the Pride (except things look fairly dark for Frank Dean, now that Jonah has come back to meet his biological daughter, and his deleted memories of his wife sleeping with Jonah are resurfacing). Most importantly, after revealing that his wife is having an affair and collapsing in front of the entire assembled crowd at the fundraiser, Jonah injects Victor with a mysterious substance (it�s ALIEN, all this magic very involved technology is ALIEN TECHNOLOGY practically indistinguishable from magic), which seems to heal him but also delete the horrifying abusive streak that has terrorised his whole family. If this is an intended side-effect on Jonah�s part, or something else, we will soon find out. And in the end, the fact that none of the other kids ever listen to Molly, or pay her much attention, proves to be their greatest weakness: desperate to get to Catherine before she is arrested, Molly accidentally reveals that she was indeed present when the Pride attempted to sacrifice Destiny.

Random notes:

I still feel like Victor and Tina are the worst, but I did enjoy that little moment when Tina showed Nico how to use the staff and giggled about her daughter�s wish being for her to be quiet. They are similar but not the same.

Gert: Dating is so heteronormative.

Oh HONEY.

It does speak to the show's ability to make all of these characters loveable even when they're at their worst, but oh boy, does Chase not know how to read a situation, or rather, probably every experience he's ever had and everything he's ever been told has led him to completely misinterpret everything Karolina does. Watch her face in the limousine, and while he kisses her. He's going to have a very rude awakening soon.

This is once again hard to write about with spoiling anything, but I do wonder if the show is building up to something here: first there�s Tina telling Nico that �you never really know what is going on in someone�s mind, even someone you love� � a comment that is meant to be about Amy, about knowing why her older daughter killed herself (we know that there�s a good chance she didn�t), but one that could also be an ominous prophecy about things to come for Nico. And then there�s Alex, somehow figuring out the password for Tina�s office, which does seem way too easy.

The Yorkes� are charming as always, monopolising the food at the fundraiser, but I think if we put the pieces together we�ll find that Dale and Stacey have contributed a fair share to Jonah�s project � Dale is the one who poisons the sacrifices, and he admits to having erased Frank Dean�s memory after he stumbled across his wife and Jonah. These two are more culpable than their quirky exterior gives away. I wouldn�t be too surprised if they were closely involved with the Pride causing Molly�s parents� accident (which I assume happened in the first place because the Hernandezes were the only ones who wanted to leave the Pride after finding out about its true nature).

Chase: You hear about our parents? They�re having an affair.
Nico: What? My mum and your dad?
Chase: No, my mum and�
Nico: Oh god, and my mum.
Chase: No, my mum and your dad.

Like, Robert seems to passive even to his daughter that this option doesn�t even OCCUR to her. Beautifully played, honestly.  

Runaways

Spoilers for episodes 1 to 5

There are so many points at which to depart on this journey. From those first five episodes of a show that has been years in the making, based on a beloved comic that started in 2001 (!) and had been on an indefinite hiatus until earlier this year � the best thing is seeing these actors inhabit their characters so perfectly, bringing them to life. I hadn�t read many comic books before Runaways, so the concept of different artists bringing their own interpretation of characters to the table throughout the run was new to me � and in that regard, the television show is just another facet of Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona�s original story. 

This is loosely based on what happens in the first series of books. How closely it will follow will soon be revealed, but it will be hard to write about some characters without keeping in mind where they go in the comics. There are some distinctive differences here, too, some of which are owed to the amount of years that have passed since the first book, some to the requirements of a television show vs. a comic book, some perhaps because the creators wanted to tell their own story. A few of the characters have a very different background, and therefore, motivation � Nico gets a very traumatic backstory with the death of her sister Amy, Karolina�s arc starts in a sect that looks a lot like Scientology except all that wacky ideology will ironically be based in fact here (not that we technically now this yet, but from what we�ve seen, it isn�t exactly a spoiler to say that the Deans are Not From Earth). The most tangible difference in terms of storytelling is the focus on the parents as well as the children � we are given much more of an insight into their activities, if not necessarily, or yet, the motivations behind their actions. This isn�t a surprise, considering how both Savage and Schwartz approached storytelling their previous shows about teenagers. 

I�m torn whether this is a particularly good idea, as one of the most moving and immediately captivating things about the books is the way in which these six teenagers are thrown into flight without too many orientation points. They see their parents do something terrible, they realise that everything about their world was a lie, and they leave � it�s quick and breathtaking, disorienting, but at the same time, a lot more eloquent than the slow realisation that the television show allows the characters, along with the difference in perspective, since we see what happens behind the scenes as well. The entire second episode is dedicated to showing the same events of the first from the perspective of the parents, and I�m not sure if that really contributes much to Runaways apart from giving some of the high-profile actors hired to play the parents more to work with. On the other hand, it means that the unlikely opponents � the kids� parents � are more fleshed out, which sets the stakes much higher. 

It is too early to judge, so why not focus on what absolutely works here, which is how the show establishes its main characters and their relationship to each other. There are deeply affecting and memorable moments for all of them in this first half of the season � they are each developed individually � but at the same time, the show brings them all closer as a group as well, a process that feels completely organic in spite of the conflicts that the show doesn�t glaze over. They are all heavily burdened by history even before any of this starts, even before discovering the dark secret of their parents. The glue that used to hold them together wasn�t as much their parents� connection (one that nobody in their right mind would describe as friendship), but Nico�s sister Amy, whose death tore them apart. They couldn�t find each other anymore after that, and grew apart to the extent that they barely acknowledge each other in the school they still go to together. The process of falling apart has placed them in very distinctive social groups at school. They line up fairly well with the Mean Girls cafeteria scheme of things, but obviously, many of the preconceptions will turn out wrong. 

There�s Karolina Dean (Virginia Gardner), whose mother is leading a cult called �Church of Gibborim� and forcing her daughter into being the face of her church, an identity that seats increasingly uncomfortable with her and makes her the ridicule of all the other kids at school. When Destiny, one of the runaways her mother has picked up to join the church (and to become the unwilling human sacrifice for the Pride, her power-hungry group of wealthy supervillains), talks to her, she asks her about what it is like to rebel, voicing so clearly how desperately she wants to discover the world beyond the confines of her mother�s church. Even before anything else happens, before any of the other shocks rock her world, something is set in motion. One night she breaks out and attends a party, and sees two girls kissing each other � a moment that opens up something inside of her figuratively, and literally once she takes off a bracelet that she has worn her entire life. She transgresses against her mother�s limitations, she is suddenly able to put the pieces of her identity together, or at least start to, and the result is glorious � she turns into an actual, beautiful, glittering rainbow. Considering that this is a show about teenagers, but also one about superpowers of all sorts, this is the perfect translation of the idea that being a teenager is glorious, overwhelming, as the world changes with every new revelation about the self � here, it�s not just Karolina realising that she might like girls, but also, Karolina seeing her true form for the first time (a form that isn�t human). So even before we find out about her mother�s identity, about how the Pride consolidates its power with human sacrifices, there is a sense that she has kept a tight grip on how much of herself Karolina has been able to explore, and now that she has taken the first step, the floodgates open. 

It�s also important to remember that this happens before Karolina, Nico, Chase, Gert, Alex and Molly reconnect as friends. They�ve been estranged for years, and it will only be later that night when their shared discovery of their parents� activities will bond them again. It�s Alex� doing � Alex who seems most concerned about the importance of their togetherness, who was perhaps second-closest to Nico�s sister Alex, who insists and insists that they must become friends again and go back to who they were before they broke up. He denies the validity of the argument that they were only friends because their parents were, but I think what happens here is all the more powerful because when they reconnect, they are different people, who meet each other after starting to realise all these new things about themselves. 

The greatest surprise for me was how quickly Gregg Sulkin manages to capture how very torn Chase Stein is. On the surface, he is a jock, someone who runs with a crowd of bullies who ridicule all of Chase�s former friends. Beneath the surface, his greatest battle is with his over-bearing , violent father Victor Stein, who keeps his wife and son in line with aggression and corporal punishment, who instils so much fear in Chase that he flinches whenever he makes even the slightest mistake. This is a visceral, horrifying portrayal of a kid who has suffered abuse, and is still desperately trying to make his dad proud with his inventions, who is still trying to see the good side to a man who is absolutely abhorrent. In spite of portraying Victor as someone struggling with immense responsibility and sickness, Runaways doesn�t leave any doubt that this man is as despicable abuser. All of these characters are influenced by who their parents are, and the question the show asks is what happens when those people who have shaped them turn out to be evil � but Chase (and Nico) are the ones that have most shaped themselves in opposition to their respective dominant parent. Chase steps in and protects Karolina when she is in danger. He is like a big brother to Molly. When  he fails � like in how he treats Gert, he mostly realises soon after. He can�t rely on a superpower, so the ways in which he protects his friends and makes himself strong are through hard work (he is the inventor, in the shadow of his father, but his inventions protect). 

If Chase becomes, especially through his relationship with Molly, a sort of father, Gert Yorkes (Ariela Barer, perfectly cast) is a more or less unwilling mother. She is an outspoken feminist, trapped in a high school world where most people seem apathetic about politics. Her parents, compared to the other kids�, are not too far off from normal middle-class � the Yorkes aren�t outlandishly rich, and instead came into the Pride as, it appears, upstarts who are grudgingly tolerated especially by the regal and arrogant Tina Minoru. They also appear to be much closer and genuinely caring than the other parents, and have fully adopted Molly Hernandez (Allegra Acosta) into their family after the tragic death of her parents (which is another unexplained foundational trauma here). More than the other parents, the Yorkes� decision to keep secrets from their two children seems like a genuine attempt to protect them rather than to retain power over them. 

Consequently, one of the most beautiful moments in the series so far is Gert singing to Molly to try and calm her after they witness the human sacrifice. Gert, who is struggling with her own demons (like, being in love with Chase, having a lot of misplaced jealousy of Chase�s connection with Karolina, who already rubs her wrong because of how her religion clashes with Gert�s feminism), has to be strong for her adopted sister. Later, she will become even stronger when she realises that her parents have raised a genetically modified dinosaur to protect their daughter, one that listens to every command she gives. 

I think there is a parallel between Chase�s arc and Gert�s, one that fits beautifully in with the fact that they are the star-crossed, central romance in the comics (beautifully revived in Rainbow Rowell�s new arc after the hiatus). Chase tries hard to become a better person because he is desperate to be kinder than his father. Gert has to realise at some point that her own actions conflict with her feminism whenever she allows her jealousy to come into her friendship with Karolina, who needs her support. I�m a bit hesitant to judge the shows� decision to dangle Karolina and Chase like a red herring for now (like, it makes sense from a storytelling perspective that Karolina would cling to some kind of normality to protect herself from all these mind-blowing revelations about herself?)

Speaking of Molly, the strongest among them, which fits in with the fact that she is the youngest, and most frustrated by the fact that nobody ever listens to her. Molly is doomed to constantly have a better grasp of what is going on than everyone else, yet failing to get anyone to listen to her. It fits that her superpower is so dramatic � it�s incredible strength, but one that comes with the high cost of requiring a nap right after using them. It�s a perfect example of how Runaways refuses the usual trappings of superhero shows. All of these kids are exhilarated and completely in awe when they find out about their individual powers/dinosaurs/being able to make those bionic gloves work. They are playful with their powers, experiment with them, the way any person would. This is such a stark contrast to how superpowers either doom or seem to lead to melancholic and lonely existences in other Marvel stories, or how they just tie in with some kind of global conspiracy or military operation in others. These are kids with superpowers, but foremost, they are still teenagers. Molly is giddy with her new power, especially in light of never being taken seriously (and it�s a lovely little moment when Molly is the one who comes up with the idea of covering up her very great change with one that would be more expected of a 14-year old). All these kids react like normal teenagers would when they find out that their parents aren�t infallible (and many of them have always known this anyway, like Chase and Nico, while others, like Karolina and Alex, come to the realisation very reluctantly). 

For some of them, their traumas of the past inform how they operate in the present. There�s Chase�s constant fear of his father�s judgement, and Nico Minoru�s (Lyrica Okano) existence in a household where her sister�s death looms large. She has lost the ability to connect with her parents, her mother is cold, distant, incomprehensible, her father is weak. She deeply believes that she is a witch, and tries again and again to awaken her powers � until, ironically, she realises that she is an actual witch, but her powers come from her mother�s staff. As much as she wants to generate them from herself, in the end, she has to take them from the mother she hates so much (and from what we�ve seen so far, Tina is en-par evil with Victor Stein, even though I�d argue that Karolina�s mum is secretly worse than any of them). I wonder why the creators decided to take a different route here (in the comics, the staff of one appears out of Nico�s body, when she is injured, and has very strict rules about how it can be used).

Nico has lived the past years of her life navigating her grief for a sister she loved, navigating what was very likely a lie that was told to her (that her sister killed herself), navigating finding her own identity in all of that. She does so by putting on a costume and calling out everyone around her that she perceives as inauthentic. Her gaze falls first on Karolina, who is hiding so much behind a symbolic costume, and a religion she doesn�t entirely believe in anymore. These two dance around each other, call each other out � but, in a central moment in the fifth episode, their relationship shifts even further when Nico adds another piece to the puzzle of Karolina�s identity. It�s a two-step process, realising she likes girls, then realising she likes her best friend, and a two-punch pain, thinking she cannot share this with anyone and seeing Nico kiss Alex. As much as Gert�s and Chase�s romance drives the plot in the comics, Nico and Karolina�s dance around each other, always narrowly missing each other, is already established as a driving force here, and we�ll see where it goes. 

Which leaves Alex Wilder (Rhenzy Felix), who starts everything. He brings all his former friends to his house. He causes the event that helps them find out the identity of their parents. He insists that they must uncover this secret together. He knows exactly which buttons to push for all of them to come to the house again � but in the end, it isn�t nostalgia that connects them, or the shared trauma of losing Amy, or even their shared realisation about their parents. I think their connection goes deeper than that, it is a genuine love for each other that only develops more and more throughout the season. There are the individual connections � Alex and Nico�s evolving romance, Gert�s feelings for Chase which might or might not be reciprocated, Molly and Gert, Molly and Chase, Nico and Karolina, Karolina and Chase � but they truly come together when they go looking for Alex after he is kidnapped, and use their powers together the first time. They trust each other to protect each other. As outlandish as it seems that that staff should grant Nico powers, they never doubt that it will save their lives. Alex himself, for now, doesn�t have powers beyond being very good with computers. As much as he serves as a leader of sorts, he remains unknowable � if anything, his conflict with his father is the most outspoken especially because his connection to him is so deep, because his father is s open about his love for Alex. We will obviously see where the show goes with this � for one, I wish it hadn�t given Geoffrey Wilder that particular backstory, that it would have reconsidered falling into all these clich�s about how a black family might have achieved power and wealth. But I think we�re stuck now with needing to find out what Alex will realise about himself in the course of this. 

2017-, created by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage based on the comics created by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona, starring Lyrica Okano, Ariela Barer, Virginia Gardner, Rhenzy Feliz, Gregg Sulkin, Allegra Acosta.