Main cast: Iman Vellani (Kamala Khan/Ms Marvel), Matt Lintz (Bruno), Yasmeen Fletcher (Nakia), Zenobia Shroff (Muneeba), Mohan Kapur (Yusuf), Saagar Shaikh (Aamir), Rish Shah (Kamran), Laurel Marsden (Zoe), Arian Moayed (Agent Cleary), Alysia Reiner (DODC Agent Sadie Deever), Laith Nakli (Sheikh Abdullah), Nimra Bucha (Najma), Azhar Usman (Najaf), and Travina Springer (Tyesha)
Director: Meera Menon
So, by the end of the previous episode, Kamala Khan achieves the final dream form of every teenage girl: she learns that she has special super powers, and this revelation is done publicly enough to instantly level her up in the social hierarchy of high school. So, here we are, at Crushed, where Kamala is finally living the life of the perfect young adult fantasy heroine.
The natural progression of such an arc is the instant love triangle, as anyone that has read and watched enough of these “special teenage girl” stuff will know. Naturally, there is the “I’ve always been your friend and I’m also your simp; if you are a Twitch thot, I’d be that guy giving you hundreds of dollars each night under a pseudonym” fellow that is Bruno.
You know how it is: strong, independent modern women don’t like simps even when these simps conform to their ideal non-toxic masculinity standards. No, deep down their feminist core throbs and yearns for bad boys that will look down on them until they too manage to make the bad boy eventually kneel before them in abject adoration. Hello there, Kamran.
This episode has it all: Kamala discovers that she’s not that special yet, at least compared to Zoe, but Simpy assures her that her powers come from her “core” (the one that he likely respectfully would like to tap, no doubt) and not her bracelet like they both initially suspect; teenage girls take on Muslim patriarchy, because teenagers know everything about how the world should be run; respectful male objectification as Disney’s ongoing effort to take down toxic male privilege, and people wanting to capture Kamala because she’s so special.
It’s pretty remarkable, actually, how Kamala’s annoying factor rises by at least 300% when she thinks she’s as cool as ice because she now has powers.
This episode of Ms. Marvel suggests that the episode is slowly morphing into a standard young adult romantic fantasy fare, right down to how shallow and superficial teenagers are, no matter how much they claim to be different from other teens. It’s a formula that has worked before, although sadly, looking at reports of the viewing numbers, it’s not working so well for this show.
No doubt some people would claim that this is because the world is sexist, chauvinist, racist, et cetera, but honestly, this kind of stuff can be found everywhere and anywhere these days. If anything, the lack of success of this show compared to other Disney+ MCU shows only suggests, if you ask me, that it’s time these people stop assuming that the MCU brand will automatically make people tune in.
At any rate, this episode is alright, but it’s not particular memorable. After all, I’ve seen and read this story many times before. Let’s hope that the next few episodes will have some surprises in store to keep things fresh and interesting!
