Disney Plus
The latest episode of Ms. Marvel starts contrasting the start of the first episode, with Kamla confidently making her way through the same beats except without taking any crap from any teacher or student. There’s some sort of reference to looking a lot younger than they are, which I wonder is a joke about Paul Rudd, but we find out that saving the day at the AvengerCon has led to people confidently calling her ‘Nightlight’ as the new superhero in town (although nobody knows it’s Kamala).
There’s also a new player in town, a new senior named Kamran (Rish Sha), the immediate target of a crush by Kamala that might actually be reciprocated — he’s older, tall, good-looking, a POC, and British — easy to see why Bruno might be getting jealous. At Zoe’s party, someone tricks Kamala into drinking booze (although she shouldn’t have trusted that dude), while Kamran saves the day and bonds with Kamala over a love of Bollywood movies.
There’s a theme of changing or changing too fast, as the world Kamala has known has changed in unimaginably fast ways, a good metaphor for the nature of change in the real world. There’s a nice moment connected to this as she admits she’s always thought Nakia found everything so easy, while the other girl explains that choosing to wear the hijab was a personal choice not really appreciated by her family.
She explains she too feels out of place, too white for some or too ethnic for others and this feels like a direct connection to the actress Yasmeen Fletcher, who has a white father and a mother of Lebanese descent — and there was a lot of controversy from some circles about her casting. We also get a pretty interesting storyline about Nakia canvassing to be a community leader, doing an amusing and effective job of guilting Yusuf about possibly supporting her.
Disney Plus
The episode really gives us a lot of interesting context about the religious environment of Kamala and her friends and family, with both scenes at their mosque, and a lot of the episode spends time at the local Eid celebration. We also get a little more insight into Kamala’s brother and upcoming sister-in-law, with that mystery of the bangles peppered in — the story of how Grandma Sana as a toddler somehow found her way to her family sure sounds like someone who might’ve had powers, doesn’t it?
Even if the show is still teasing out that reveal. One of the big plot threads is about Kamala practicing her powers with the help of fellow nerd Bruno, which directly leads to Kamala struggling but managing to save a kid in front of her whole neighborhood. There’s still a lingering thread of Bruno being accepted to Cal Tech early and being worried to tell her about it, and a different one about Zoe being interrogated by those government agents we saw in the last episode. Bruno’s direct jealousy is a running theme too, the worry of things changing too fast as Kamran bonds over so much, and even helps Kamala learn how to drive.
The episode ends with the introduction of a mysterious new figure, who I believed is credited as ‘Najma’ from actress Nimra Bucha, but I can’t be 100% sure until they actually say her name out loud. Naturally the show is setting up a direct cliffhanger to make sure we’re interested.
The episode was pretty fun, helping us get a better sense of the world Kamala lives in while adding a bunch of new complications. As is typical for these Marvel shows, it’s teasing out the mysteries, but as long as the payoffs are well handled (like Loki) I’m fine with it. But it’s a pretty strong start for this series, with a vibrant performance from Iman Vellani as she continues to impress.
New episodes of Ms. Marvel stream Wednesdays on Disney Plus.
Share this post
