The anniversary of Billy and Nathan’s deaths hit Tandy and Ty hard. Will they finally find justice this year? Find out in our recap of Cloak & Dagger episode 8, “Ghost Stories.”
An Anniversary
After being stuck in the past (almost literally) last week, Tandy and Ty are ready to move forward in their lives and take necessary action to find closure. However, it’s an uneasy path filled with unexpected alliances and some shocking revelations.
Cloak & Dagger likes to frame the days pre-accident as the better days, so the episode starts like many others with flashbacks of Ty and Tandy having sentimental moments with Billy and Nathan.
Billy promises Ty he will be “bigger, stronger, braver” than him, and Nathan encourages Tandy to hold herself up.
This is all easier said than done.
Tandy gets valuable information from Ivan Hess about a secret lockbox her dad kept, but a glimpse of Peter Scarborough foreshadows that Roxxon won’t be easily defeated. Even Ivan was hesitant to help as he feared for Mina’s safety, but it’s frustrating for both the viewer and Tandy that all her allies seem to flake or wind up dead.
One person who is there for Tandy, at least for now, is her mom. Melissa seems sober despite it being the anniversary of Nathan’s death. She wants Tandy to join her in their annual memorial of releasing a balloon into the sky. She even helps Tandy find the key to her father’s safety deposit box, which is probably more than she’s done for Tandy the entire season.
Andrea Roth gets to show off a different side of Melissa, making her even more sympathetic, adding emotional complexity to her relationship with Tandy.
Things are much tenser at the Johnson household since no one wants to talk about Billy.
Nothing breaks up the tension like a surprise drop in from Tandy. For once she doesn’t lie, and tells them about her dad, but makes it even more awkward when she asks if they do anything to commemorate the day.
(Also it turns out she lied a little because she was there to swipe his mom’s Roxxon badge. Did I miss them mentioning she worked there?)
In a flashback, young Tandy leaves the scene of the accident and steals a phone to try to call her mom. I might not always love how heavily Cloak & Dagger uses flashbacks, but each one is intentional. We’re witnessing Tandy’s first act of theft and seeing how that day was the first domino in many ways.
The RedHawks Mardis Gras crew shows up at Ty’s house to work on their regalia for the parade. In a far too obvious conversation, Ty asks the difference between a cloak and cape, and he’s told that a cloak hugs you. It’s a clunky scene, but it leads to Otis breaking down into tears over Billy’s unfinished work.
If the Bowens suffer from unbridled emotion, the Johnsons have been repressing theirs for way too long.
O’Reilly, already suspicious of the circumstances around her having to shoot Duane, learns Connors still wants to hunt down Ty. Ty refuses to listen to her warnings to lay low, angry and tired of waiting for justice.
Flashbacking to the day of the accident, young Ty leaves the scene and stumbles upon Evita’s aunt giving a ghost tour (super convenient.) In her foreboding, Voodoo way, she tells him to not be afraid of ghosts. Ghosts seek justice, not harm.
Ghosts of New Orleans
While Tandy plans to bust into Roxxon, Ty plans something even more convoluted. He tells O’Reilly and her colleague/ boyfriend Officer Fuchs that he wants to pretend to be Billy’s ghost to force Connors to confess.
They protest, but Ty reveals his powers to them, proving to them he can do it without being harmed. His revelation is a gigantic act of trust, but it gets them on board.
Ty’s plan works surprisingly well as he uses his powers to “haunt” Connors and controls his fear. Even though it’s a somber mission, it’s also a little hilarious to watch O’Reilly tell Connors she can’t see anyone.
Tandy’s plan doesn’t go so smoothly and she’s forced to pull a dagger on Scarborough.
After an episode of the protagonists working together, Cloak & Dagger falls back to its old structure of parallel narratives, which can be frustrating at times. It feels insincere that Tandy and Ty would go through everything they did in Ivan’s head only to go their separate ways again.
Nonetheless, the writers do a fantastic job with Ty’s scene getting a confession out of Connors. While we’re used to viewing Connors as a one-note villain, the scene really wrings out the guilt mixed with self-righteousness brewing in Connors.
Connor’s privilege means he can feel guilty over accidentally shooting Billy while believing he can justify the cover-up. The nuance makes him even more human in the worst way possible.
Tandy’s ready for her own confession, stacking up the evidence against Scarborough, who tries to seduce Tandy with money. You can see in her eyes she falters for a split second before declaring, “I want my father back, asshole.”
She storms out, not willing to make a deal with the devil.
At the station, O’Reilly drops some major Marvel connections, as she confesses she’s seen superheroes before working in Harlem. She also mentions her old colleague Misty Knight. (What?! Ready for that crossover ASAP).
Tandy and Ty meet back by the water for Nathan’s annual memorial, sharing their victories (Connor’s confession, whistleblowing on Roxxon) and contemplating their future. It’s a more hopeful moment than we’ve seen in a while
Something’s not right though, as Ty and Tandy are pulled into Melissa’s subconscious as she takes their hands. The first memory they see of Melissa and Nathan, as a happy young couple, gets replaced with a different reality as Tandy and Ty rip through the movie theatre screen.
Instead, they see the true memory of Nathan striking Melissa in anger.
Tandy’s torn apart as she realizes Scarborough told the truth earlier when he said her father wasn’t the good man she remembered.
Pulled back into reality, Tandy releases the lantern and it floats into a pitch black sky.
Ty follows Tandy back to the church and there’s flashback of Melissa telling Tandy she can’t rely on anyone. In the end, Tandy calls Scarborough and tells him she wants the money.
The triumph felt earlier in the episode leads way to something more somber, but everything seems to have turned a page.
That is until O’Reilly finds Fuch’s dead in his apartment. The demons of New Orleans have not been vanquished after all.
Additional thoughts:
- I started this episode annoyed they were wasting any time on Fuchs rather than developing O’Reilly as an individual. By the end, I was audibly GASPING at that shock ending. In addition to being horrifying, it’s an interesting gender reversal of the comic book trope of fridging. Will this be a turning point of O’Reilly?
- Yikes, did Nathan really have to be a bad guy? It adds some clarity to Melissa’s struggles, but won’t Tandy’s silence about Roxxon ensure another disaster?
Cloak & Dagger airs on Freeform at 8 p.m./7c every Thursday. Stay tuned to The Marvel Report for more coverage.