‘Cloak & Dagger’ Recap: ‘Alignment Chart’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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Whether we like to admit it or not, there are people from our past that we work hard to forget simply because they were downright horrible to us. They hurt us, and their brand of pain left at the minimum emotional scars and while we work hard to leave those people behind, the human mind and our wild imagination always leaves us wondering, what exactly we would do if we were given one last chance to confront them? Would we exact a fitting revenge? One that makes them feel exactly as we did when they shattered us so long ago? Or would we take the high road and turn the other cheek? These are of course, questions that we will likely never get the chance to answer since we avoid these people like the plague, but fiction allows for us to ponder upon such matters in intelligent fashion and all of this is on my mind today simply because all of this served as the focal point for last week’s episode of Cloak & Dagger.
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For ‘Alignment Chart’ picked up immediately where the last episode left off, plunging Tandy and Tyrone into the aftermath of Tandy’s voyage to the void since Connors was long gone from the Church, meaning that Tyrone would soon be hot on his trail and that brings us to the first real surprise of the night since Tyrone started his search, alone. Because Tandy had some loose ends in the kidnapping mess that she wanted to deal with and perhaps it’s best in a weird way that these two split up for a fair chunk of this tale because our intrepid hero caught up with his tormentor and well, found himself plunged into unfamiliar territory. For this was not the same egotistical and bold Connors we met a year ago, oh no, this was a broken man, one that finally had to face the hard truths of the disturbing life he lived and in stunning fashion, he surrendered himself, to Tyrone in order to finally pay the price for all of his unsettling sins.

Of course, this is a deal that seemed to be too good to be true for Tyrone and as is usually the case in stories such as this, the easy path is often a lie, meaning that Cloak had to dig deep on this one and follow every lead and every possibility. Especially when Connors offered up a secret file that his Uncle had, one that could clear Tyrone’s name in an instant. But that turned out to be a snipe hunt, putting Ty into one tough place, one that reflects what I made mention of at the start of the article. Should he exact his own brand of revenge since it seemed as though absolution for both men would remain impossible since it seemed as though Connors was lying through his teeth? Or should he take the high road and find a different way to getting what both men want and thankfully, Tyrone chose the latter of those two paths, involving his mother to help him figure out a better way.

Yet while that powerful story alone could have carried this episode, I made mention of the fact that Tandy felt the need to walk her own path in this tale, and her story is equally as important. For in many ways, she explored the opposite side of that particular coin, opting for a measure of revenge in order to bring peace to the ache that comes with her cause and well…how badly her mission backfired reminds us that vendettas achieve nothing, they only blind us. Because the deeper that Tandy dug into trying to find the brains behind this trafficking ring, the more she believed whatever was in front of her, and while that got her close to some of the thugs responsible for kidnapping the girls, her fury allowed for her to completely and utterly miss the fact that Lia was the true ringleader of this outfit and now, Tandy’s life is in danger, since she has now become Lia’s latest victim…

If anything, this was just another magnificent episode of this incredible series. Because once again, there was depth present when it comes to our characters and this tale did a fine job of reminding us that our past is always with us, it’s simply a matter of how we learn to live with it and deal with it and it was fascinating to see how Tyrone and Tandy worked through the respective skeletons in their closet over the course of the hour. But considering how this one ends, I would venture to say that Tyrone’s issues will need to be put on hold for just a little bit longer, because Tandy is in incredible danger, and it will be up to her best friend to save the day. But knowing this series, we’re not done diving into our heroes’ psyche just yet, and if the toast that Tandy was giving in her mind in this story was any indicator, we’ll be taking quite the harrowing trip through her subconscious later tonight. Until next time.

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