It-girl influencer Zoe Zimmer shows up to help as well, though her presence is more sudden and awkward. They’re even joined by an enthusiastic Aamir, sent by the Khan parents to chaperone the superpowered teens as they hide out at their high school. Despite the friend trio’s tensions, Bruno, Kamala, and Nakia reunite to help Kamran, whose new candescent powers prove to be a bit of a problem. After a pit stop at the mosque, where the kindly Imam Sheikh Abdullah “disguises” the absconding duo with ridiculous matching hats (cue this year’s new most popular couple’s cosplay, “Haram” and “Halal”), the show’s various threads finally collide in rip-roaring fashion. This charming detour lasts just long enough before the plot invades, with Nakia informing the Khan family that Bruno and Kamran are on the run. In another refreshing change from typical superhero fare, her family is proud of her, despite their obvious concern. However, these symbolic considerations would be moot if they weren’t also grounded in the show’s delightful character-centric banter, beginning with Kamala coming clean to her family and admitting that she’s the “Light Girl.” Of course, gossip travels quickly in South Asian families, so Yusuf and Aamir must pretend to be surprised (they do a poor job). It presages a poignant scene where her mother, Muneeba, presents her with a fully formed costume based on the spare parts she’s collected during the series (Bruno’s domino mask, Waleed’s blue tunic, Kareem’s scarf, and part of her own name in Arabic), now fashioned into a superheroic salwar kameez a blend of East and West. ![]() The decision speaks, in a subtle way, to how far Kamala has come as a child of two worlds. Where the first episode made use of the Weeknd’s synth-heavy “ Blinding Lights,” the finale deploys a song so aesthetically similar - “ Cpt Space” by Pakistani band Janoobi Khargosh - that, for a moment, it sounds like a cross-cultural remix of the former (even though “Cpt Space” predates it). The opening studio logo is accompanied by a fun music choice. A red-and-blue superhero costume, woven with a mother’s love à la Superman, and resembling a litany of in-world influences as much as it evokes an American flag, flowing in the wind as Kamala sits atop a streetlight (another comics throwback). A stray shot of the Statue of Liberty here. The show isn’t subtle about the parallels it hopes to draw between superpowered crackdowns and Muslim harassment, and while it remains content to make surface comparisons (it moves too quickly for a consequential portrayal of persecution or its effects), it strikes with some effective and idealistic shorthand. When Deever charges into a mosque later in the episode, its worshippers - amusingly and grimly - have their IDs at the ready even before she demands them, while she describes her fugitive as a “Pakistani or Arab” youth. Those “wrong people” are used to the charade. ![]() To set the stage, the episode (titled “No Normal,” after Kamala’s introductory comic arc) resolves last week’s awkward cliffhanger by catching up with Bruno and a newly powered Kamran on the run from the Department of Damage Control (the DODC), as a scheming Agent Deever comes within inches of admitting that her anti-superhero crusade against Jersey City’s Muslim populace is rooted in the “wrong people” having powers. In short, the company’s new namesake doesn’t “Marvel it up” - a refreshing outcome - and keeps the focus squarely on friendship and community while still giving Kamala Khan her due. ![]() Marvel rides right up against that line but ends up bucking the trend in favor of a fun, intimate, and only occasionally disjointed episode that feels perfectly in step with its initial coming-of-age chapters. Its movies’ third-act problems have consistently been transposed to the small screen, between lore and laser battles subsuming character stories, and a pervading trepidation when it comes to lasting change (if not outright adherence to status quo). A year and a half into Marvel’s life as a TV juggernaut, concern comes with the territory.
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