The flipside of the Runaways equation.
Being a parent can be difficult. There’s the scheduling — trying to balance a career on top of a family and all that — for starters. Then there’s all the feeding, nursing, helping, cleaning and driving that can come with it.
You know what makes being a parent even harder? When you and your spouse are living a secret second life as a supervillain that the child absolutely cannot know about.
The second episode of Marvel’s Runaways — entitled "rewind" — takes a look at the parents' side of things, this time, instead of the children. We see the events that lead up the Pride meeting, where their all coming from and why they joined the Pride in the first place, as well as the events that immediately follow it.
Prior to the events of the Pride meeting later that evening, we begin with the Wilders. We quickly learn that Geoffrey was part of gang some time ago. He’s since moved on to start a family and come clean, but his past still haunts him from time to time.
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The Pride is about to break ground on a construction site for a school they want put up (for some, currently unknown reason) when a bunch of Geoffrey’s ex-gang members show up. They send the workers home and the leader, Darius (DeVaughn Nixon), requests Geoffrey’s presence.
Over at the Stein residence, Janet spends the morning trying to calm down Chase after he has an outburst of how terrible of a father Victor is. Janet doesn’t disagree, but once Chase leaves we see her make an evocative phone call to an unknown receiver, suggesting she might be harboring secrets of her own. “I can’t wait to see you tonight,” she says over the phone, implying it’s another Pride member. “Even with him there.”
Down in the basement, we see Victor fiddling with the giant black metal box/chair thing seen in the first episode. He puts a living rat into the machine, clearly trying to make it transport (or do whatever it is the machine does), only to receive failed results. Frustrated, he once again takes out his anger on Janet when she comes down to check on him.
Then we head over to the Dean couple — practically the complete opposite of the Steins. Leslie is seen ordering people around the church, while Frank (Kip Pardue) barely holds any power at all. In fact, Frank has also just been fired by his agent from his job as an actor due to his ties with the church, suggesting that this guy really doesn’t have much of anything going for him.
Not that Leslie really cares, though. Frank soon comes with her to a request to let him go “all in” with the church, which she isn’t overly enthusiastic about. This is her church, after all, and she’s not really looking to share the power. Plus, she’s spent the entire morning convincing Destiny — who reveals that she has a daughter out there that she left behind — to come join them for a special ceremony at the Pride meeting tonight (which Leslie refers to as a ‘promotion’) and really doesn’t have time to deal with Frank anyways.
Robert and Tina have had a somewhat different kind of morning than all the rest. After starting a fight over the trophy Nico broke in Amy’s room, Tina lashes out by using her staff — which is again seen later that night at the meeting — to entrap Robert in the room. He eventually talks her out of it, but from this scene, it’s clear that the two have been grieving Amy’s death on their own and have plenty of issues that they need to work out.
Finally, we reach Dale and Stacey, who — more or less — show up to remind us that they exist too. We see them talking in the car, complaining about the meeting tonight and debating who their least favorite Pride member is.
Back at the construction site, the moment we’ve all been waiting for happens as Geoffrey walks up, sharply dressed, carrying a briefcase. Darius tells him that he’s turned his back on the people who brought him up and, as a result, “there’s taxes to pay.”
Geoffrey isn’t about to stand for it. While he may have refined his methods, he’s still not about to let anyone push him around. He opens the briefcase — which Darius had assumed was the money — to reveal a video of Darius’ grandmother’s house, under surveillance. “She made the best spicy chicken, shit kept me alive for years. If you keep messing with me, that chicken recipe is going to be all that’s left of her.”
Defeated and humiliated, Darius and his crew return to their cars after Geoffrey gives them a speech of all the good he’s doing for the community.
However, once in the vehicle, one of Darius’ henchmen informs him that the download is complete, revealing they’ve been taking information off his phone during that whole conversation. Seems like that won’t be the last of we see of Darius.
It’s then that we move into the Pride meeting. The assembly stands around the kitchen, debating — or rather, avoiding — the implications of what their about to do. Leslie has convinced everyone that the sacrifice they're about to make is for the better good — but still, most of them, especially Geoffrey, prefer not to think about it.
They all head down to the basement and dress in their red robes. Victor’s black box is brought in, Tina uses her staff to create the sound barrier and Leslie gets Destiny prepped. Everything plays out in a similar manner as we saw it before — Destiny is de-robed, given a mysterious liquid and put inside the box. Only this time, we see Destiny’s reaction — and she’s horrified. She begs and pleads with them to let her go, making the whole process even more painful for them to watch.
That’s when the flash comes in. Turns out the parents didn’t initially see who took the photo, but they're quick to investigate. The Runaways make it out of the basement and, due to some quick thinking by Alex, turn of the circuit breakers to make them think it was a power outage. Geoffrey and Catherine buy it hook, line and sinker as they walk in on the kids laughing together and playing Twister.
Which is all an act, of course. They're all terrified and trying to comprehend what they just witnessed. Nico appears to be the only one to call it as it really is, saying “I think our parents killed that girl.”
However, we soon realize that may not actually be the case. Geoffrey and Catherine return to the Pride, informing them that it was a power shortage and nothing to worry about. They all leave to go change back into normal clothes, except for Victor who stays to pack up his box. That’s when he hears the knock. He methodically opens the box to reveal Destiny, still pleading for help. “You shouldn’t be here,” he says.
Meanwhile, while all this is taking place, Frank has decided to take matters of the church into his own hands. He’s begun snooping around Leslie’s office, trying to get into the locked room in which she does her “private meditation.” His investigation is cut short, however, when Leslie’s assistant walks in and escorts him out.
The Pride meeting has now ended, and all the parents have re-joined their children in the Wilder household. In a reunion of sorts, the parents and children banter with one another for awhile, pretending as if nothing is wrong. Alex and Nico share another moment hiding from their parents in the bathroom, ending with Alex telling her they’re all in this together now.
We see a similar interaction between Molly and Gert, as well as Alex, sound out a group text message to everyone saying they have to meet tomorrow. The episode ends with a tender moment between Geoffrey and Catherine, as they reassure each other that everything will be alright and they’re doing the right thing. But that’s when Geoffrey finds the hairpin — a pink kitten — lying on his office floor. And, you guessed it, it belongs to one of the Runaways.
Now Geoffrey knows they were in the office, and it’s likely not going to take long before he starts connecting the dots and figures out where the flash really came from. However, while no good can surely come of this, the second episode of Runaways did something incredibly important — it gives us sympathetic villains.
The Pride isn’t a group of people looking to reign down chaos on to everyone they encounter — it’s quite the opposite. They’re doing what they’re doing to protect each other and their families. While this involves some shady things, they’re clearly conflicted about it.
Where it all goes from here, is anyones guess. The Runaways are obviously more in the right here, seeing how they aren’t the ones who attempted to kill an innocent girl, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the Pride is wrong either.
For now, all we can do is keep tuning in to Marvel’s Runaways every Tuesday, when the new episode drops. In the meantime, read our other Runaways recaps by clicking here.