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The latest episode of Ms. Marvel is called ‘Seeing Red’ which is a play on words for the mysterious ‘Red Dagger’ vigilantes wearing red bandannas over their mouths — although the other meaning of the phrase, meaning to lose sight of things due to extreme negative emotions, doesn’t really come up at all.
In the episode we start immediately with Kamala and Muneeba on a plane to Pakistan, with this explained as grandmother Sana insisting that they both come to visit. So Muneeba still doesn’t have any clue about Kamala’s powers as by the end of the episode, she’s still decrying her own mother’s wild theories and trauma at hearing her mother called ‘crazy’. By this point maybe she should be realizing in a world of magic and aliens that her mother’s theories should be reexamined, but after a lifetime of denial, it’s easy to imagine how hard it is to accept she was wrong.
Once in Karachi, Kamala is introduced to a bunch of her local family, including cousins Zainab and Owais and an Auntie who comments on how ‘Kamala’ isn’t a typical Pakistani name (seems like a self-aware meta-joke). Her Nani easily admits their Djinn genetic ancestry, which is pretty nice change of pace to the classic ‘mystery box’ stuff we usually get in these shows.
There’s still plenty of that in the show though, like when Kamala hears from local anti-Djinn leader Waleed that the inscription on her bangle says ‘What you seek is seeking you’. This could be a reference to the time loop thing we’re seeing at the end of the episode or maybe something to do with Captain Marvel herself. The meet cute (with a fight, the classic MCU style of a meet cute) with the new ‘Red Dagger’ (actually named Kimo, played by Aramis Knight) is fun enough, with the dude yet another potential love interest to toss on the pile.
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We see the djinn easily break out of their captivity — maybe the Damage Control folk had no idea how strong these beings were because it sure seemed they escaped easily. Then they also quickly show up in Karachi to surprise our heroes, and the newly introduced Waleed is killed in front of Kamala and Kimo. Seems like it’d be pretty traumatic for Kamala, but it’s not so much for us, as the character was cool but had no emotional connection to anything or anyone. Feels like a bit rushed as a mini-storyline, and not really so impactful.
There’s a fun enough chase scene through the city, although it’s not particularly original, and then another fun enough action scene that really only gets interesting when Kamala falls backward in time to the actual train leaving for Karachi during Partition. It sure doesn’t seem to be a vision, although I guess with the MCU you never know. Time travel is always tricky, even Endgame had a bunch of plotholes, so I’m a little concerned how this will be paid off.
Although the ‘Marvel’ stuff in this episode wasn’t really so amazing, I still really enjoy the character beats and feeling of ‘authenticity’ the show is capable of. The intergenerational stuff remains the strongest part of the show, even when it’s a little drop like Kamran’s hurt at seeing his mother leave him behind.
I can appreciate the action stuff for what it is and the difficulty it takes to put it all together — I suppose that I don’t need quite as much of what seems like a requirement for an MCU episode, gotta have those action beats in there. For me the drama and characters are what’s working for this show, and what’s kept me invested and hopeful for the rest of the season.
New episodes of Ms. Marvel stream Wednesdays on Disney Plus.
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