‘Cloak & Dagger’ Recap: ‘Shadow Selves’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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When a brand-new villain is introduced in a superhero story, a certain set of expectations for this new baddie, or baddies, immediately move to the forefront of our minds. For example, we expect to learn at some point, what exactly made them turn their back upon humanity, helping us to understand their plight and their particular brand of evil. And speaking of that evil, it’s also an expectation for them to commit to the darkness within their soul so that we don’t feel a sense of pity of them, providing us with a sense of safety and comfort as we root for the hero to take them down, and this is a series of tropes that have been with the superhero genre for as long as I can remember.

Which is why I’m always so pleasantly surprised by Freedom/Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger, because this particular series always finds a way to shatter the tropes and the norms that come with this particular genre and while the change ups have mostly applied to our dynamic heroes, it just so happens, that this unique style of storytelling, is going to extend to villains as well. Because the next episode in this magnificent series, ‘Shadow Selves’, took the time to not only explain how Detective Brigid O’Reilly’s doppelganger Mayhem came into existence, but it also turned the notion of what motivates a villain upside down since Mayhem, is not quite what we expect her to be in the slightest. But before we dive too deeply into what makes Mayhem tick, it’s important we take a moment to discuss how she came into existence, and that was handled by way of our favorite Roxxon scientist, Mina.

Because she was desperate to understand how the leak of evil that dominated the season one finale, managed to turn people into raving and violent lunatics so quickly, and as she dug into the matter, she stumbled upon something incredible, in that…in some rare instances and under the right circumstances, those exposed to the darkness would manage to spawn a double, with disastrous results. Because the duplicate felt the need to be the only one in existence, possibly due to a deeper understanding of the fact that only one of them should exist, and you know what that means. But those perfect set of circumstances are also what allowed for Brigid to split, thus creating Mayhem and well, the end result of this split is what turned out to be the centerpiece of this episode.

Because Mayhem initially went along with the expected results that Mina uncovered since she planned to kill Brigid and assume her life and identity, but the discovery of Connors and his crimes changed her agenda and that’s where everything took a left turn, in an intriguing way. Because Mayhem was suddenly obsessed with putting Connors down, and that in turn led to a quest to find purpose and to fulfill the satisfaction she found in dealing with bad people in extreme fashion, which eventually led to her desire to solve this little mystery involving the missing girls and well, that’s what makes her so unique in that, she’s not a traditional villain in the slightest. Yes, she takes lives, and she doesn’t worry about moral implications in the slightest, but she’s more vigilante than villain at this point in the story, operating in that grey area where she subscribes to bad and good and that’s just fascinating to say the least.

If anything, this is a brilliant twist, since Mayhem’s official arrival accomplishes so many things. For one, it ensures that the Roxxon storyline from season one doesn’t fade away and that lasting implications come forth from something that important, but it also challenges our heroes since Tandy and Tyrone will be forced to ponder upon what it truly means to be a hero, and what a genuine heroic act looks like and most importantly, it hooks the audience in new and exciting ways. Because we don’t understand Mayhem in the slightest, and the mystery surrounding her and why she isn’t committing to evil one-hundred percent will likely be a focus in the weeks to come and I’m so good with that. Because getting to know a new villain, one unlike any other in comic book shows, is supremely worth my while and I’m excited to go on this journey in what is hands down, the smartest superhero show on the air right now. Until next time.   

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