Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger – Funhouse Mirrors

By: Darryl Ley

At Auntie Chantelle’s (Angela M. Davis) apartment she and Evita Fusilier (Noëlle Renée Bercy) are preparing for a reading while she asks Evita about her relationship with Tyrone. Evita wrongly assumes the reading is about her, but Auntie Chantelle reveals that it is a reading for the city of New Orleans all while continuing to prepare the ritual for the reading.  Auntie Chantelle mentions that she smells Tyrone’s power on Evita, the same power she sensed when Evita brought him to her. There have been ordeals that have faced the city from time to and Auntie Chantelle wants to know how he is connected as we fade to the opening title screen.

We see a couple having sex in an expensive looking apartment before we see the same couple heading into a workshop and it is revealed as Duane (Dalon J. Holland) and his girlfriend (Lila Blake Palmer). We see that Tyrone (Aubrey Joseph) has him under surveillance. In the Roxxon building’s car park we see Mina Hess (Ally Maki) heading to her truck speaking French angrily on the phone when she is approached by Tandy (Olivia Holt) who is pretending to be Liz, her new intern. Mina initially refuses but relents as Tandy walks away and gives her a chance.

Tyrone walks into Duane’s workshop as he is talking to one of drug dealers Kev (Tanner Ellis). Tyrone has come asking for a game saying he needs it after losing at state. Tyrone says he thinks his life could have been different if not for the murder of his brother, but Duane argues that he is college bound and correctly assumes he has a cheerleader girlfriend. Duane says that Tyrone will find his path before taking his leave,.Tyrone decides to follow Kev.

At the police precinct an angry woman leaves interrogation causing the rest of the police officers to stop and stare, Officer Fuchs (Lane Miller) approaches Detective Brigid O’Reilly (Emma Lahana) about the recent activity around drug arrests and her investigation. He thinks it is dangerous to go after Detective Connors. Tyrone is still following Kev, but he gets too close and Kev pulls a gun on him before leaving.

Auntie Chantelle continues her reading on the city where she explains further the nature of the cyclical disasters that affect New Orleans like the hurricane, wars, fire, etc. She believes that another such disaster is coming soon and that Tyrone will be involved. Tyrone is at the church waiting for Tandy to get back when she arrives he compliments her on her control of her power. He reflects on the fact that he didn’t teleport away when Kev held him at gunpoint and he then explains his plans for getting to Connor.

Tandy suggests targeting the young drug dealer if dealing directly with Duane is not working. She also fills him in on her targeting Mina Hess for information by being her intern and joining her on her trip to the swamp and she too suggests that Mina represents a potential life for her without her father’s death and disgrace. Tyrone asks if she will look at Mina’s hopes and Tandy replies that he can do the same and use his nightmare powers to get leverage on Kev and steal his job.

Tandy heads to work and we see that Mina Hess lives in a disused carnival out in the swamp. When Tandy arrives Mina is making cookies. As Tandy looks around the living space she comments on the Roxxon blueprints she finds on one of the tables. Mina is responsible for making the building more green and Tandy questions her about the rig and Mina’s father, but Mina deflects and eventually they both head off to work which will be an inspection in the swamp.

Kev and some other dealers are at their spot while Tyrone watches hidden. Detective Connors comes up (J.D. Evermore) comes up to Det. O’Reilly at the precinct and the took talk about the source at the top of the drug chain in the city. He suggests they ride together today and they leave with Officer Fuchs looking on concerned.

As the reading continues Evita recounts the major stories told to her by Auntie Chantelle, a famine centred around a boy and girl, the Wilson Brothers Feud and various conflicts. Auntie Chantelle highlights the common thread, two people always at the center, a divine pairing with Evita asking the obvious question if Tyrone is one of these two then who is the other?

At the swamp we see Tandy and Mina trudging through. Tandy notices Mina seems to be searching for something which turns out to be Bee Arthur, the American Bumblebee species whose numbers have fallen greatly over the past few years. Tandy says it sounds like Colony Collapse Disorder, which Mina asks her to define and eventually we see that it was a test of sorts showing that Tandy had read Mina’s Master’s Thesis. Mina talks about a mass extinction of bees that happened 65 million before.  It seems an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs and that the bees then reappeared afterwards.

Detective O’Reilly and Connors are driving around the city talking about the drug situation with O’Reilly saying that despite taking drugs she’ll still go after the dealers because they target kids. They come up on the same group Tyrone is watching and they all split and run with Kev dropping the bag. O’Reilly goes looking for it but Tyrone has already grabbed it and he leaves. Tandy and Mina come out of the over growth onto a road. Mina wants to show Tandy her valve which does what drilling platform did in a more environmentally as well as safer way. Mina also reveals that they are not drilling for oil but some unknown fuel that burns much more efficiently than and twice as hot as oil.

As they continue their walk to the valve Tandy questions whether her father Nathan Bowen might have been responsible by making a mistake in the drilling platform but Mina replies that her father once said Nathan never made mistakes. They are interrupted by Stan (Preston Vanderslice) from Roxxon who informs Mina that there is a problem with the valve.

Detective Connors catches Kev who is confused as to why Connors is chasing him. Connors gives him a message for Duane that he is garnering too much attention and that the two need to meet. When O’Reilly catches up he beats Kev up before letting him go. Back at the valve Tandy correctly sees that it has been installed in the wrong place. Mina reads Stan the riot act who made the change to save money. She dismisses him saying that she will re-install it with a crew the next day. After Mina leaves Tandy follows her, but not before deflating Stan’s car tire with one of her light daggers.

Kev has tracked down Tyrone and the bag and confronts him with Tyrone drawing him into a nightmare when Kev tries to go for his gun. The nightmare vision sees Kev caught in the dark with two doors leading to safety while a sinister nursery rhyme plays becoming increasingly more so when Tyrone stops Kev from leaving the vision by holding both doors close. One the vision end Kev looks terrified and runs off.

The reading continues as Auntie Chantelle seems to say that the disaster cannot be avoided when Evita asks that the only way would be for the divine pairing to take action. Back at the workshop Kev has called Duane to inform him that he lost the bag just as Tyrone comes up and returns the bag to Duane in person. When Duane asks if he wants a reward Tyrone responds that he wants to what Duane does so he agrees to take him on a ride along to see what it is that Duane actually does.

Mina and Tandy are walking back to Mina’s place and Tandy makes up a story when Mina asks how she can read blueprints. They talk more about their fathers as Tandy still pretends to be someone else and is about to look at Mina’s hopes when a bee landing on her interrupts things. When it is gone Tandy decides not to use her powers.

Back at the precinct Connors is talking to Duane and setting up the meeting for that same day before heading out to speak to O’Reilly, who he informs that he has a lead. Duane and Tyrone talk about where Duane’s life has lead him and the decisions he has made as they drive. As Mina and Tandy are heading up to stairs to her place she again asks Mina about her father and Mina asks why. Mina asks if there is anything she wants to tell her and she reveals that she has figured out that she isn’t Liz. She is Tandy Bowen daughter of Nathan Bowen. She calls her a bad liar as Tandy looks suitably chastened.

Back at the reading Auntie Chantelle is regreting that it is looks like one of the divine pairing will die. Back at the workshop Duane says his initial assessment of Tyrone was wrong and that he is stronger than he first thought, but while he is complimenting he lets slip that he was there on the night Billy died and saw Tyrone jump in after him.

Tyrone is surprised and angered by the fact that he is working with Connors knowing what he did to Billy. Tyrone tells him that his parents thought he was crazy that he thought it himself. Duane says he would be dead too if he came forward that perhaps even Tyrone might be dead too. Tyrone tells Duane that with his actions he kills Billy every day, which seems to affect Duane deeply the two are ignored by Connors banging on the front door while O’Reilly waits in the car.

Connors heads back to the car and tells O’Reilly to give him five minutes then follow him in. Mina comes to see her father at the hospital and gives the nurse the cookies she baked that morning. We meet Ivan Hess (Tim Kang) as he is in a chair and non-responsive to Mina speaking to him. Tandy arrives to apologize for the subterfuge. She admits all she does is lie when asked why she didn’t just tell Mina the truth. Tandy asks to try to talk to Ivan and uses her power to see his hopes. In the vision we hear Ivan humming to himself but he is locked behind a door that Tandy cannot open. Tandy seems to realise that she needs Tyrone to see into whatever nightmare Ivan is locked in.

Tyrone watches as Connors comes in to talk to Duane. He hands him a gun with a “plan” for him to shoot O’Reilly. When she enters seeing this Tyrone tries to warn her but she ignores his call. O’Reilly enters and shoots Duane before he can fire. Tyrone shouts giving his position and way and gets chased by Connors. Reilly is visibly upset by the shooting.

Connors chases Tyrone to the street and shoots at him as Tyrone tries three times to teleport away. Eventually, he ends up in the church where Tandy sees how upset he is yet she can’t comfort him due to the way their powers interact. He starts to cry.