'Cloak & Dagger' Recap: 'Princeton Offense'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

Sometimes brand-new television shows make the mistake of slowly altering their formula and design in order to either find their stride and potentially become more accessible to a larger audience and that sometimes has mixed results. Because in making that kind of change, the show can either alienate the audience it already has, or ruin something magical in the making. But sometimes, a new show does everything in its power to stay true to what it has introduced thus far, and that’s precisely why I’m becoming such a huge fan of Cloak & Dagger.
 
Because this is a series that refuses to do anything but stay the course and while it’s slow burn design and gentle approach to creating a pair of superheroes may turn some away, I flat out applaud it since we are finally getting ourselves a quality superhero tale, one that truly makes its characters earn their status and oddly enough, last night’s episode, ‘Princeton Offense’ found a way to offer up a new wrinkle when it comes to that concept. After all, at this point now, Tandy and Tyrone should be doing everything and anything to learn about their powers, but only one of them has taken the time to embrace them and it was simply fascinating to watch this duo take such an interesting pair of paths over the course of the hour. 
 
Take for example Tandy, a character who I think we can all agree has perhaps had the most to overcome in this tale, completely and utterly embraced her powers in this episode as she worked hard to learn more about Roxxon and her father’s death and If anything she seems to be the most heroic of the duo right now since she put herself in harm’s way time and time again to uncover whatever it is that Roxxon is hiding, and while this was neat, the show stayed true to the character’s flaws by giving her an opportunity to harm one of the company’s executives before the good in her prevailed and well, I loved every minute of her story in this tale, and how it was such the polar opposite of Tyrone’s.
 
Because while he showed signs of heroism in the last episode, it would seem that Tyrone is doing everything and anything to avoid testing and learning about his powers since he made a great effort in this one to stay as normal as possible, even going so far as to finally commit to a relationship and the big game, and he was even legitimately nervous and concerned about how that game was going to go. But there is no escaping destiny and after his powers let him see what might happen to the opposing team’s players if they lost and that the ref was rigging the game to pay off some debts, the heroism I made mention of came about at last since Tyrone in essence, threw the game, and found a sense of satisfaction in doing so since it allowed for him to take charge and be his own man, and do some good in the world as well.
 
Yet, as this series is wont to do, there’s plenty more story building up in the background. After all, Tandy has discovered the daughter of a man who appears to have been involved in the disaster that took her father’s life, and Tyrone is now learning just how deep the conspiracy goes when it comes to his brother since his childhood friend Duane is involved in running drugs with Connors and is fully aware of the fact that the crooked cop shot Tyrone’s brother and I have no doubt that this revelation will further embolden Tyrone to take up the heroic mantle, and that he and Tandy will be teaming up soon enough since it’s clear these two need one another to set things right in the world. Until next time.   

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