Just when you thought it was safe to move to Los Angeles...
The fifth episode of Runaways — “Kingdom” — kicks off with another flashback, still leaving us in suspense of what happened to Alex after he was kidnapped at the end of “Fifteen.”
Before Geoffrey was the “family-man” we see him in Runaways, he lived a very different life. The episodes begins showing him in prison, talking to his old buddy Darius — the guy who showed up at Geoffrey’s construction site in the last episode.
Geoffrey gets a call from his lawyer — who is reveled to be Catherine. A mysterious man in a silver suit, played by Julian McMahon, has a business proposition for Geoffrey. He wants to but a small piece of land that Geoffrey owns. It’s just an old strip mall outside Los Angeles that shouldn’t be worth much at all, but the man wants to pay $5 million for it.
Geoffrey knows that there’s no way the land is worth that much money and that something’s up. So, he agrees to make the deal on one condition: He’s brought aboard as a business partner.
The man agrees on one condition of his own: He can’t have a business partner who’s in prison. That means Geoffrey has to find a way out, and fast. And that comes in the form of Darius. Geoffrey convinces Darius to confess for the crimes that Geoffrey committed, even though Darius is so close to getting out. Darius, eventually agrees, with a promise from Geoffrey that he’ll never forget the sacrifice he made for him.
Cut to the present day. Alex is sitting in the SUV next to Darius, revealing him to be the kidnapper. Geoffrey obviously didn’t keep his promise, and Darius is here to make sure he pays the price.
Back at the coffee shop, the rest of the Runaways are freaking out about what happened to Alex. Karolina thinks her mom’s church is probably behind this, but Nico shows off her mom’s staff to the rest of the group for the first time, using it to see where the car went.
Victor and Chase — the only one besides Alex not at the coffee shop — seem to be getting along a lot better as of late, though. The two are working on building the Fistigons, Victor going so far as to apologize for his behavior in the past.
Alex begins talking to Darius, trying to figure out who he is and how he knows his dad. Darius, who takes Alex to his Nana B’s house, tells him of how Geoffrey completely screwed him over back in the day. Thing is, Darius isn’t even that upset that he got the short end of the staff in the whole deal — he’s mad that Nana B had to suffer the consequences.
Darius gives Geoffrey a call, saying that he has his son and will only return him for $1 million. Speaking of Alex, it’s also revealed that he has his father’s gun along with him.
Geoffrey decides not to tell his wife about what’s going on, rather saying that Alex is off somewhere else and there’s a separate emergency he has to tend to. He calls his old detective buddy, saying he’s going to need backup for what’s about to go down.
The staff seems to be leading the group in the right direction. Gert finally got ahold of Chase, who decided to ditch his dad and meet up with the rest of the Runaways. Alex, meanwhile, starts talking to one of Darius’ younger accomplices — Andre.
Geoffrey finally shows up, guns blazing and ready for action. The shoot-out takes a turn, however, when Andre has Geoffrey at gunpoint and Alex — taking the gun from earlier — is forced to shoot him.
Geoffrey runs over to help Andre, while Darius kidnaps Alex AGAIN and escape in the SUV.
Except this time, they don’t get very far. The Runaways have shown up, now tailing Darius and his crew. As soon as the car stops at a red light, they all jump out. Molly grabs the bumper and begins lifting the back of the car, using her super strength. Darius gets out to see what’s up, and Karolina takes off her bracelet to blast him with her light beams.
Alex is able to escape and the driver runs away in fear, but it’s Chase — arriving with his Fistigons — that saves the everyone from Darius. Hurt and angered, Darius unleashes a storm of bullets, all of which are blocked by Nico and the Staff of One.
Darius hurries away scared, but Alex decides to take off too — needing to return to his dad to see if Andre is okay. He did just shoot a guy, after all. Geoffrey, however, doesn’t want any help. He tells Alex that he’ll make sure Andre is okay, and he should get on a bus and go home.
Alex, angry, knows that he’s lying and what they’ll do with Andre. He begins to ask his dad about Darius but is once again shut out. He finally leaves, and Geoffrey calls the PRIDE together. It’s time to make another sacrifice.
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The Runaways head back to the Coffee shop to celebrate their first acts as superheroes. The vibe is interrupted, however, when Alex returns and tells them that they need to rescue Andre. Reluctantly, they all head back over to Alex’s house to try and get into the murder basement again.
But the PRIDE thought ahead and aren’t headed to the murder basement this time. They’re in Leslie’s prayer room, where the old crusty guy is. They go through with the sacrifice and this time — according to Leslie — it works. She makes everyone leave the room so she can have a moment alone with good ole crusty man.
The Runaways are all frustrated and scared. Alex tells Nico that he shot Andre, and the two share a kiss before being interrupted. One of them found a camera in the library, with videos of all the sacrifices their parents have completed in the past. The videos are uploaded to a company called WIZ. Their plan, now, is to break into WIZ, steal all the footage and turn it in as evidence to the police.
They all set off in their own directions. Alex keeps digging, only to be interrupted by Geoffrey. The two argue about the events from earlier in the night — Alex tells his dad that he’s not a good person, and Geoffrey goes off. The two eventually calm down, but it’s then revealed that Catherine overheard everything and now knows that Darius is back.
Nico is also getting stuck in awkward confrontations with her parents. Tina catches her returning the Staff of One, and Nico is sure that she’s dead. But Tina, surprisingly, is cool with the whole thing — saying that she was bound to find out eventually and lets her hold on to it.
The Stein household is where things get real interesting. Chase comes back to find Victor excited about a new project he’s been working on. He says that working together on the Fistigons inspired him to dig up his passion project — a time machine. Together, he’s sure they can make it work.
Only, they can’t. At least not at first. No matter what they do, the thing won't start and soon Victor loses his temper again. Chase is scared, but Victor — becoming more human by the minute in this episode — then tells his son he has brain cancer and it causes him to act out sometimes. The two embrace and Victor vows he’s going to get past this.
And, GUESS WHAT, the time machine does actually work. The camera pans over to see the time machine predicting the future of Los Angeles — a desolate, crumbled wasteland. Yikes.
Then we get our finale cliff-hanger: Leslie in her office with crusty man, only this time he’s not so crusty. The sacrifice really did work, and he’s a normal human again — the very same human who made Geoffrey the business proposition in the flashback from earlier on in the episode. Leslie and crusty-no-more share a kiss, which is when crustless says he wants to see his daughter. Leslie looks oddly nervous about this, but crust-free is determined.
And that’s where we end. Make sure to watch Marvel’s Runaways on Hulu every Tuesday, and check out some of our other Runaways recaps while you’re here too!