Tandy and Ty must team up if they’re going to get the answers they need. Find out what happens in episode seven (“Lotus Eaters”), one of the wildest Cloak & Dagger episodes yet.
Magic Doesn’t Exist
For what ends up being one of the strangest episodes of the season, it starts in a very familiar way. Cloak & Dagger loves a good flashback, and this time we see a heartwarming memory of Mina and her dad Ivan discussing cookie recipes.
This, of course, segues to a much more dramatic scene on the rig, as Ivan learns that the shielding tiles needed never arrived. Panicked, he tries to call Nathan Bowen.
The scene expertly builds suspense as you hear the cheery music stop and the emergency lights switch on, realizing you’re watching the day of the accident from Ivan’s point of view.
Talk about an explosive start, right?
In the present Ty deals his grief over last episode’s stunning ending. He feels guilty for causing Duane’s death but also mourns the last chance he had at proving Connor’s guilt.
The timing is bad but Tandy decides not to wait to ask him about helping her get through to Ivan, insisting it’s the only way to get justice for her dad.
They sneak into the hospital, not really knowing what they’re doing, but wing it and decide to count to three.
“Are you making this up right now?”-Ty
“Completely.”-Tandy
One of the best parts of this show is watching the duo learn more about their powers and each other, and this episode really showcases their relationship from the start to finish.
This is their first time entering a mind together and things get weird. Before they were always invisible to the person who’s sub-consciousness they invaded, but this time people can see them. Including a scary dude with an axe.
They escape, but when they find Ivan he has no idea who he is or what’s going on.
Tim Kang plays the character as whimsical and borderline creepy, reminding me more of Oliver on Legion than anything we’ve seen so far on the show. The whole setting feels very much like the astral plane.
After Tandy and Ty realize they’re in a loop of the rig exploding, Ivan tells them they can stop it by hitting the kill switch that’s blocked by the murderous ship workers.
While this effort ends up being futile since they just get stuck in the reset loop, it does lead to one of the first real action scenes of the show. Ty and Tandy are used to defending themselves, but now they’re really kicking butt.
It’s not all Dr. Seuss-esque rhymes and mystery though since Ivan reveals some critical information about how the initial energy expulsion of the mysterious substance they were drilling causes mass fear that turns the crew violent. There was more to the explosion than meets the eye, which offers an extra layer of foreboding for the disaster predicted by Evita’s aunt in the last episode.
Tandy and Tyrone try to explain they’re from the real world, but this version of Ivan doesn’t remember life before the accident. In a shock to Tandy, he reveals that the phone call he receives in the loop is from Nathan Bowen. The same call that led her father to veer off the road.
At first, Tandy’s chance to speak to her dad once more seems cathartic and sweet but she latches on to it like an addict who can’t stop. She puts her own selfish needs ahead of helping Ty and helping Ivan Hess.
But even when Ty manages to hit the kill switch, the loop resets. He tries to convince Tandy to leave with him, but at the last minute, she lets go. As always, she’s played him.
Someone Who Would Understand
Ty refuses to abandon her, but when he goes back it’s obvious the seconds that have past must have been much longer in the loop. Tandy barely remembers him. She’s become even more trapped, arguing that her life is better in the loop than at home. Home is where nobody called her because nobody cared about her.
She doesn’t see herself as anything more than, “Homeless, aimless, fatherless, friendless.” Fantasy is better than reality.
Tandy becomes even more unhinged, throwing daggers at Ty. Ty tries everything to get through to her, including bringing up the truth that the dad she thinks she’s talking to wouldn’t even recognize the person she’s become.
It’s not all cruelty though, as Ty admits he would do the same if it were BIlly, but to be honest he doesn’t even remember his voice. In a final plea, he challenges her to ask the voice on the phone a question her dad should know.
Tandy asks him who’s in the backseat and he replies no one. Tears stream down her face as she comes to grips with the fact its not her dad, just a recreation in Ivan’s mind. Once again, Tandy loses her dad. Even if he wasn’t real, it must feel that way.
Tandy uses her own breakthrough to refocus on Ivan, begging him to come back for his own daughter, giving an impassioned speech about how daughters need their fathers. She uses Mina’s cookie as a tether to the real world. Who knew cookies would play such a big role in this show, but I secretly hope they cut back on it since I end every episode wanting one lately.
Ivan teams up with Tandy and Ty to fight his way through to the core room to shut off the valve, allowing him to wake up for real.
It’s a bittersweet victory for Tandy to watch him reunite with Mina since she will never get her own dad back. But it’s also the first victory for the team together.
And that’s what they are now, a team. When Ty finds an old tape recorder from his childhood, it’s Tandy he calls.
“I just needed someone who would understand,” he admits.
Together they listen to the recording of Billy rapping. It’s hard to not smile at the fact they found each other.
Additional Thoughts:
- After a stretch of episodes where the narratives kept the characters apart, having a full episode of them together was such a treat. This episode feels like a turning point in their partnership. They’ve realized they’re better together and one step closer to becoming “Cloak and Dagger.”
- That said, the revelation around the Roxxon drilling sets up New Orleans for a certain disaster. Can Ivan help them stop it or is it too late?
- The use of “Sons and Daughters” by The Decemberists at the opening and in the end perfectly bookends the show. Apparently, the song means a lot to showrunner Joe Pokaski too.
I put a @TheDecemberists song in my first episode of Heroes years ago, but it got cut by the powers that be. Now I can cross it off my list. #CloakAndDagger
— Joe Pokaski (@JoePokaski) July 13, 2018
Cloak & Dagger airs on Freeform at 8 p.m./7c every Thursday. Stay tuned to The Marvel Report for more coverage.