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Finales are thankless tasks, particulary when they’re meant to wrap up a show whose story will be continuing across a vast storytelling landscape. How do you make an ending feel definitive — or at least satisfying — when your main characters are about to make the bright purple, cosmic leap to someone else’s story? While there might not be a one-size-fits-all answer, the team behind Ms. Marvel certainly has it figured out where Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) is concerned.
The finale picks up immediately after the shocking conclusion to last week’s episode, with Kamran (Rish Shah) and Bruno (Matt Linz) on the run from the Department of Damage Control following the explosion at the Circle Q. Even though it really does look like it was the DODC drone that blew up the building, that doesn’t stop Agent Deever (Alysia Reiner) from making it her mission to apprehend the enhanced individual and take him into custody.
While Kamran and Bruno struggle to keep Kamran’s abilities under wraps, Kamala finally comes clean to her family. Or at least she tries to, as Muneeba (Zenobia Shroff) couldn’t keep the secret any longer, and let things slip to Yusef (Mohan Kapur), Aamir (Saagar Shaikh) and Tyesha (Travina Springer). As if Muneeba’s acceptance of Kamala’s abilities wasn’t enough of a surprise, she also presents her daughter with a custom tailored outfit for her to wear, incorporating her mask, her red scarf, and the lightning bolt symbol derived from the “kaf” (or “K” sound) in Kamala’s name.
Bruno and Kamran make their way to the mosque, assuming that the house of worship will be treated like a legal sanctuary. As well-intentioned as they are, Nakia (Yasmine Fletcher) points out that the political climate is not exactly inclined to treat a mosque with the same respect as other places of worship. Her feelings are quickly proven correct when Agent Deever storms into the building, accompanied by a handful of armed men, and demands that the congregation turn Kamran over to her. While Nakia and Sheikh Abdullah (Laith Nakli) had the upper hand the first time Deever showed up, they have no such luck this time around.
Fortunately, all they needed was to buy the boys enough time to escape and make a break for the high school, which is where Kamala catches up to them en route. Realizing Kamran’s condition is beyond her ability to help, she calls Kareem (Aramis Knight) and asks for his help. He agrees to get Kamran out of the city, provided he can get to the harbor by midnight.
The four of them reconvene at the high school, where they are quickly joined by Zoe (Laurel Marsden) and Aamir, who offer to help them fight off the DODC agents surrounding the building. While Aamir is ostensibly there to chaperone at Muneeba’s insistence (and to Kamala’s horror), Zoe’s presence is a surprise to the group. She brushes it off as something she is doing in exchange for Kamala saving her life, but it’s clear the act meant a lot to her.
Because the show hasn’t lost its lighthearted touch, even at the end, Kamala devises a plan of Home Alone proportions designed to keep the agents at bay. For a moment, it seems as if her whole strategy won’t be needed, as Agent Cleary (Arian Moayed) calls Deever and orders her to stand down. Deever disregards this and calls in back-up, effectively causing more damage than her department can hope to control. This is made infinitely worse for the department when Zoe begins a livestream, alerting the community at large to the threat the group is facing at the hands of the governmental agency.
As the group fights their way out of the building, Kamran begins to lose his cool when it becomes clear to him that something happened to his mother Najma (Nimra Bucha) and that she isn’t coming back. His understandable grief is at war with the reality of needing to escape, and it causes his powers to manifest in an increasingly erratic way. This stands in some contrast to Kamala and her powers, which are now so under control she can harness her embiggening power, which allows her to not only grow, but to stretch as well. There was some natural concern from comic readers that the series would take this ability away from her in favor of the flashier abilities she’s shown thus far. But her story is only beginning, so there’s plenty of space to enhance her skill set as time goes on.
With a crowd amassed outside — including Kamala’s family, and the community from the mosque — and with Nakia, Zoe, Bruno, and Aamir in custody, Kamran’s rage becomes too much for him to handle. He doesn’t see the point in fighting when his chance to go home has been taken from him. He truly is lost, because for all that he was born in this dimension, it’s clear Najma sold the idea of the Clandestine’s home as Kamran’s “true” place of belonging. Kamala talks him down and reminds him that Najma died to give Kamran a chance at life. She stalls while he escapes to the harbor to leave for Pakistan, and is then protected in turn when her community storms the barricade and protects her from Deever long enough for her to make her escape.
Throughout the episode, we see the threads that connect Kamala to her community, which makes her an all-around much richer character. These moments were, after all, a highlight of the season as a whole. Beyond the way everyone rallied behind her for her safety, we see the clear traces of Kamala Khan woven into her superhero persona. The “kaf” on her costume is one such example, and the origin of her superhero name is another. Fed up as she is with being called “Light Girl” and “Night Light,” she tells her dad that she is still brainstorming the perfect superhero name. He tells her that her name, Kamala, comes from the Arabic for “perfect” though in Urdu the translation is closer to “marvel.”
Because Kamala is such a Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) fangirl, naturally she is beyond excited to share a name with her hero. But while she has made a personal connection to Captain Marvel’s name, what the show has done here is take the most obvious aspects of her superhero identity — her logo and her name — both of which were attributable to Carol Danvers, and made them something that reflects Kamala and her heritage instead.
The episode ends with Bruno telling Kamala that the root of her power stems from a “mutation” in her DNA — which might possibly be the first time someone has called someone else a “mutant” in the MCU — which Kamala plays off as just another label. This is however followed by a post-credit sting where Kamala’s bracelet pulls her into parts unknown and replaces her with a very panicked-looking Carol Danvers, setting the stage for both of them to return in The Marvels.
If I have one critique of the episode as a whole, it is this: with so much to wrap up in under an hour, there are a few storytelling leaps made that just push the boundary of believability (and I do realize I’m talking about a story featuring a superhero). Things like Zoe not only being at the school late on a Saturday, but also happening to overhear them somehow across the building, or Kamran’s wildly shifting mood, or the fact that Muneeba is not only fine with her daughter’s superhero ways, but even had a costume made. All these things do make sense in context, of course. But the rush to wrap things up left these moments feeling a little disjointed for me.
On the whole, however, Ms. Marvel was an absolutely delightful watch. Was it perfect? No, nothing ever is. But it does hold the distinction — at least to me — of being one of the more consistent, and certainly the most enjoyable series Marvel has put out on Disney+. Even as the superhero side of things began to ramp up, Ms. Marvel never lost sight of what made the series so special. From the engaging cast, to the cultural elements that are both hyper-specific yet somehow transcend communities, the show has real heart, a heart that kept beating throughout all six episodes.
While the post-credit scene ended with a promise that Kamala will return in The Marvels, it’s my fondest hope that we also see more of her in future seasons of this absolutely delightful series. The movies are fun, of course, and watching Kamala interact with both Carol Danvers and Monica Rambeau is absolutely something to look forward to, but another season would give audiences more time with Kamala and her burgeoning powers, of which we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface.
Rating: A
All episodes of Ms. Marvel are streaming now on Disney+.
