Ms. Marvel – Time and Again

By starrymag | July 12, 2022

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

 

 

When the episode starts, we’re going back to before there was a Kamala (Iman Vellani), Muneeba (Zenobia Shroff) or even Sana (Samina Ahmad). The year is 1942 and it’s time to spend some time with Aisha and Hasan, Kamala’s great-great grandparents. For starters, Aisha (Mehwish Hayat) was running from a British soldier and Hasan (Fawad Khan) is protesting British imperialism. Aisha kills the soldier and Hasan’s words are connecting with the crowd, but he gets forced off the podium by a group of British soldiers.

 

Aisha and Hasan’s first encounter isn’t your typical meet cute. She’s sleeping under a tree, and he tries to wake her up, but she’s still on high alert so she threatens to break his leg if he touches her. He motions to the cane he needs for walking and points out he doesn’t get a lot of use out of it anyway. He then jokes that he just wanted her to stop smothering his roses, but he decides she needs his help more than the roses. Therefore, she can come inside if she needs somewhere to lay low. She’s still not sure who to trust, but reluctantly she follows Hasan into his home. Then, after some good-natured teasing, he manages to convince her to have dinner with him. He gets a name out of her, but for obvious reasons (she’s from a different dimension) she won’t tell him where she’s from. For the time being though, Hasan just seems to like her lack of backstory and all.

 

He tells Aisha that when he saw her that he remembered a line from his favorite poem, “What you seek is seeking you.” That’s the inscription on the bangle and you can see how Sana and Kamala ended up so fanciful. Some people would be alarmed by a strange woman threatening to break their limbs; however, Hasan married Aisha. We fast forward a few years and Aisha is pregnant with Sana. Hasan and Aisha seem pretty happy. She surprises him with a new walking stick, and he playfully reminds him of that time she threatened to break his leg. Aisha simply says she changed her mind.

 

Next, we see baby makes three and they’re proud parents, but unfortunately things being good for their little family doesn’t mean things have improved for India as a whole. The unrest has continued, and we learn that in the market some people have started refusing to sell food to Aisha and Hasan because they’re Muslims. Then it seems that their problems are about to get otherworldly when Najma (Nimra Bucha) appears.

 

We flash forward a little further. Long story short, Aisha loves Hasan but she still hasn’t told him all of her secrets. So, when she notices her old friend lurking outside their house, she pretends to just be going for a walk. It’s a tense reunion between the two women. At first it is because Aisha assumed the gang had all died. And then it is because Najma very much wants to go back to Noor and Aisha’s unlikely to want to leave her human husband and child. Najma wants to put their plan into action and not wanting a confrontation Aisha stalls by saying she stashed the bangle and will need time to look for it. Najma says she has until tomorrow to produce the bangle.

 

The next day Aisha is aggressively packing. The way she sees it she can’t give Najma the bangle, but they can’t stay either. Aisha attributes her eagerness to leave to the riots, but there’s a whole other threat she still hasn’t told Hasan about. He tells Aisha that India is all he’s ever known. In fact, the house they’re living in was built by his own father so he’s not eager to leave it all behind. Aisha tells him that no Muslims will be safe staying there as their homes are being burnt and at the rate that they are going they might not live long enough for little Sana to have anything to inherit if they stick around. Then, she tries a gentler approach and reminds him that they can build a home anywhere as long as they’ve got their memories and each other. Aisha tells Hasan that he taught her that. She turns to Sana (Zion Usman), now two years old, and gives her the bangle and promises it’ll keep her safe.

 

It seems that Aisha managed to convince Hasan because later we see them heading to the train. Aisha is rushing and Hasan is struggling to keep up because of his leg. Plus, he knows Aisha’s not telling him something and demands to know what they’re really running from. He also wants to know about the woman she was talking to last night. They stop because, urgency aside, they can’t avoid this conversation anymore. Hasan asks Aisha for the truth, and she opts to show him instead. She activates the bangle and tells him he was right when he used to say she was magic. Additionally, she’s curious about why he never pressed her for answers about her past. Hasan says he’s always known she had secrets and that he just didn’t think it mattered because she chose him and Sana.

 

Aisha promises that she’s still choosing him and their daughter, but she asks him to make sure Sana gets on that train no matter what happens. Hasan promises her that nothing will happen. She doesn’t share his confidence though. For a minute it seems like they might get to leave together but then Aisha looks behind her and spots Najma. She tells Hasan that Sana isn’t safe and puts her in his arms. For obvious reasons he’s confused when Aisha begs him to trust her and runs off. And he’s not alone in his confusion as their daughter doesn’t really get why her mother is leaving.

 

Aisha comes face to face with Najma who accuses her of turning her back on her real family. She demands to know where the bangle is, but Aisha isn’t handing it over, so Najma stabs her. Then, Najma swears she’ll find it if it’s the last thing she does and leaves Aisha bleeding in the crowd. Aisha tries to tell Najma that her plan isn’t going to work, but she’s beyond listening.

 

There’s a lot of chaos and Sana, clearly confused, goes out into the crowd looking for her mother. Hasan tries to go after her, but it’s hard because of his leg. Aisha is delirious and looks at a picture of her family and quotes the inscription “What you seek is seeking you.” The bangle glows and Kamala appears, and she finds Aisha. Aisha says it works and she assumes at first that Kamala is Sana. Kamala tries to explain, but Aisha says they don’t have much time and they need to get Sana back on the train. She tells Kamala she has everything that she needs and gives her the picture. Kamala is sad that Aisha is dying and thought that she was the one who saved her Nani. But Aisha tells her it’s okay and that if she’s here right now, that means it all works out.

 

With those words Kamala goes to find Sana and tries to comfort the terrified little girl. She tries to make it a game and uses her energy blasts to lift the little girl back to Hasan who is frantic at this point. Unfortunately, Kamala gets knocked down and she’s afraid this spells disaster for her Nani.  Thankfully, there is the trail of stars Sana has been talking about for years as Aisha creates them and she follows it right to her father. The train leaves and Kamala is thrust back into the present. Remember that big fight from the last episode? Well, Kareem (Aramis Knight), Najma and Fahira (Adaku Ononogbo) have been unconscious while Kamala has been getting this very immersive history lesson. When everyone wakes up Najma and Fahira are still relentless, and the veil is open.

 

On the home front Muneeba is worried. Time did not freeze for everyone else, and she doesn’t understand why Kamala is MIA and not answering her phone. Sana tries to reassure her, but from her perspective this is just more strange behavior from Kamala. The cousins tell Muneeba to use find my phone to find Kamala’s location.

 

The veil being open is about as destructive as Bruno (Matt Lintz) and Waleed predicted. Kamala and Kareem try to evacuate the civilians in the area. Kamala tries to reason with Najma by telling her it won’t take her home and that it’ll just destroy everything. She asks Najma to think of Kamran (Rish Shah) and help her close it. Kamala says all Aisha wanted was a family and home and she took that from her. She pleads with her not to take that from her son as well. Najma says she’s right, but there’s only one way to stop all this. She says Kamran’s name and then turns to stone. She and Fahira turn to dust as well.

 

Kamala uses her powers to shield herself and Kareem from the impact of the veil closing just in time for her mother and grandmother to see. Muneeba puts the pieces together and realizes that Kamala and the “light girl” are one in the same. Sana’s way more chill about the whole thing and says she’s been telling Muneeba for years that their family is magic. With that being said, Kamala gives Sana a picture of her Nani as a child, Hasan and Aisha. Sana is touched because she’s never had a picture of her mother that she didn’t paint herself.

 

Muneeba wants to go home because there’s a lot to discuss, but first Kamala needs to say goodbye to Kareem because a “see you soon” text feels insufficient after a shared near-death experience. Kamala thanks him and he tells her that possible warrants in the states aside (this may or may not be a joke), if she ever needs him that he’ll be a phone call away and tosses her his red bandana.  He also gets choked up telling her that Waleed would be proud and they part ways.

 

At Sana’s house it’s time for a less magical trip down memory lane. Over pictures and stories Kamala learns about her mother’s more rebellious years. When Muneeba was Kamala’s age she ran away from home to chase Bon Jovi. Kamala’s not-so-secret trip to Avengers-Con now seems tame by comparison. Still, Muneeba tells Kamala that she and Yusuf had a lot of adventures together. She acknowledges that maybe she’s been holding on tightly to Kamala lately, but that’s because being her mother has been an adventure and she’s not ready to lose that or her. While the healing is happening Sana admits that maybe she didn’t hold on tightly enough to Muneeba when she was younger. But Muneeba says at the time she just couldn’t see what she needed her to see, yet now she can and she’s sorry. There’s a group hug and Sana says this was the journey she needed to take – the one that led her back to her daughter.

 

Most of the drama being over for the Khan family doesn’t mean all is well just yet. The magical essence that left Najma goes into Kamran. Not knowing where to turn he tracks down Bruno, probably because Bruno is the only other person in the city who knows the truth about his family. Bruno invites Kamran inside and the boys bond a little. It turns out that they both like cars and Kamran wasn’t trying to be a jerk – he really did think Bruno’s name was Brian. They talk a little about Kamran’s mother. Kamran wants to wait for her to return, but Bruno points out she bailed on him. Kamran says it’s complicated as he clearly is just viewing it as a rough patch, so Bruno decides not to push. Then they’ve got a government sized problem: Damage Control has found them and they don’t seem to care about what happens. So, they blow up Bruno’s house with him and Kamran inside.