Tandy and Tyrone come face-to-face as the two are able to sit down and talk. Having not been able to tell anyone else what they have been experiencing, both take the opportunity to finally confide in the one person who may truly understand what they are going through. Meanwhile, Otis reveals a secret side of himself and Greg seems to be onto something with Melissa’s case against Roxxon.

Tandy and Tyrone have finally come together and after what feels like an excessive amount of teasing, we’re finally getting into the mystery of it all such as Tandy’s father’s death, their powers, and more. I’d have liked to have seen this point sooner in a faster paced series we’re we need to be for things to get rolling.

Interspersed with their meeting we also explore the two’s outside world as they use their powers or smarts to deal with the issues facing them. Tandy wants to find out more about her father’s death but to do so she must figure out if her mother’s new boyfriend is trust worthy. The twist there is rather unexpected and a nice change of pace. Tyrone wants to find the killer of his brother and for that he must face the police. A young black man confronting the police isn’t something he wants to do and we as viewers are all to aware of the reality of that.

And that’s one of the strengths of the series. It, so far, hasn’t been afraid to tackle real world issues straight on with Tyrone and the police being a prime example of that. The series is all the stronger for it and places it in our reality helping us relate to the stakes better. The episode goes beyond that ongoing issue to also discuss suicide with a public service announcement at the end. It’s a shocking twist and one that’s a bit heartbreaking. It’s also some of the most real any of these characters have been. These two topics show this is a show that might revolve around heroes but it’s the real people that’ll make or break them.

We also get the focus on relationships beyond just Tandy and Tyrone but with their parents or a love interest. Much like the reality of police brutality or discussion of suicide it all grounds the series for the better. It took us too long to get to this point but we’re finally here and for that I’m grateful. Hopefully the rest of the series is more focused like this one instead of dancing around setting things up. While it’s good to watch the first three episodes this is the one where it feels like the series really starts.

Overall Rating: 7.75

Tandy is on the run as Detective O’Reilly closes in on her, but the detective may not be after her for the reasons Tandy thinks. Tyrone is desperate for answers and turns to Evita and her Auntie Clarisse, a Voodoo priestess, for help.

The third episode of Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger dives in to the connection between Tandy and Tyrone as each have spiritual journeys. And it’s those visions that are fascinating.

Tandy sees the experiences of Tyrone in a way invoking police brutality and lynching with imagery that are gut punches and evoke some of the more consciously aware aspects of Marvel’s Luke Cage which airs on Netflix.

It’s an interesting episode in that much of it is told from visions that eventually bring our two heroes together. They’re connected and through this we see them coming together in a way. The imagery is fantastic. The choice to do things this way is… creative and different.

Some of my criticisms of the previous episode are minimized too. The acting is better and there’s a lot of interesting emotional moments. The series is still a bit too slow but it looks like it might finally be picking up. While not the best Marvel adaptation for television, it’s an intriguing one that I want to catch more of.

Overall Rating: 7.5

Two teenagers from very different backgrounds find themselves burdened and awakened to newly acquired superpowers which are mysteriously linked to one another. The only constant in their lives is danger and each other.

While I know of Cloak and Dagger, the characters are two I never read a lot of. I’ve enjoyed their cameos in other Marvel Comics series, and the little I’ve read is entertaining, but the pair aren’t two characters that were must reads for me in their 42 years of existence. With Freeform‘s new live action series, the characters are now in the spotlight.

The characters, and series’ underpinnings are familiar. Two very different individuals are brought together through a connection. In some cases, like those of Shakespeare, it’s love and romance, but in this case it’s shared traumatic experiences and superpowers linked to each other.

Olivia Holt is Tandy Bowen, aka Dagger while Aubrey Joseph takes on the role of Tyrone Johnson, aka Cloak. One representing the light the other the dark, at times the idea of the presentation of a blond haired white girl representing the light while a black man represents the dark would make me wince. What Freeform and Marvel has done here however is give us a debut episode that challenges our biases, twists our expectations, and updates the series in a few ways.

No longer are the two runaways who gain their powers from synthetic heroin, instead they’re teens who have each experienced trauma. Tandy’s father died in a car crash in which she was in the back seat while Tyrone witnesses his brother being shot. One reminds us of the corrupt corporate America we live in while the other reminds us of the corrupt police state we live in. Both speak to modern times. But, instead of Tyrone being a thief in the comics, instead he’s the troubled youth who’s good underneath while Tandy is the one lashing out at her life situation. The light is a little dark and the dark is a little light. It’s not too shocking in ways and feels rather comic by numbers, the changes from the source material make more sense and feel fresher in many ways, though the use of opioids would have been rather timely.

The debut episode is a solid one that has me interested in finding out more about these two, their powers and what Roxxon corporation has to do with it all. That corporation is a thread that has run through many of Marvel’s live action movies and series and the use of it here is smart in that it not only ties into the greater meta but also delivers a villain for the times.

The two actors give worth performances that are entertaining and touching and their chemistry for the time they’re together is good. Each is put through their own situations and we get to know them and it sets up what we can expect.

Production value is good and while a lot of the show is shot in a dark setting, it’s not to a point that it’s difficult to see what’s going on. The use of special fx is minimal and when it’s used, it feels special and unexpected.

The show is a grounded one having more in common with teenage drama than superheroes and spandex. The series is another shift in Marvel’s live action offerings and fills a space that feels empty in many ways. Based on this first episode, it’s a welcome one as the debut has me wanting to come back for more and feels like the perfect entry for late spring/early summer television standing out while all the other comic shows are winding down.

Overall Rating: 8.5