Ms. Marvel – Seeing Red Review

One of the things I love so much about Ms. Marvel is that it’s not simply concerned with putting the pieces in place for the next MCU installment. Sure, we’re getting to know a character who will be involved in at least one upcoming MCU film (2023’s The Marvels, although should the bangle turn out to be of Kree origin, there’s a chance Kamala or someone in her orbit could pop up in the upcoming Secret Invasion series, depending if the Kree are involved with that plot at all), but the main thrust of the series isn’t about checking boxes to make sure we understand a future storyline (which has been the case with some of these series – even the great ones). Rather, it’s been about exploring identity and family – both with Kamala’s own relationships with her mother, grandmother (and, to a lesser extent, father and brother), and those of various found families she finds herself involved with throughout the series.

“Seeing Red,” this week’s episode – whose title is a reference to the introduction of the Red Daggers and not necessarily a hat tip to the Pixar film of the same name, although the series’ continued focus on the mother-daughter relationship has a lot in common with that film as well – doubles down on the complexities that come from all familial relationships. Muneeba has a complicated relationships with her mother, Sana, blaming her focus on (what Muneeba believes to be) fictitious stories as the reason she felt she was the laughing stock of their community. While there was some thawing in the relationship between Muneeba and Kamala this week (that toffee scene was lovely), there’s still an underlying tension in that Kamala is undertaking a quest that her mother doesn’t know about – and one that is so tightly linked to her own issues with Sana that the revelation of Kamala’s current powers will be a massive earthquake to the relationship of all three women.

And then there’s the found families. Nakia is (rightfully) giving Kamala the silent treatment after discovering that she’s a superhero and didn’t bother telling her other best friend. The Clandestines are down a few members after a brutal fight with the Red Daggers, and down one teenager after Najma left Kamran in New Jersey following their escape from Super Max (what do we want to bet that he makes his way to Pakistan somehow – especially since the New Jersey to Pakistan flight seems to get you there in record time with no real jet lag). And our newest character, Kareem (a great Aramis Knight, effortlessly playing both a slightly sinister and super dreamy teenage fighter), lost his mentor Waleed in the epic fight with the Clandestines, leaving him alone to figure out the best way to stop the villains from opening a portal to Noor and allowing that reality to overtake ours (somehow, this potential apocalypse feels less interesting as a motivator for Kamala’s actions than her continued attempts to figure out how the bangle and her family history are linked over the years). But, in the truest sense of the phrase found family, the final moments of the episode take Kamala back into the past – where Sana was lost in the train station, desperate to find her father and get on the last train to Karachi.

Now, it might be a bit too on the nose to have Kamala be the person who provides the trail of stars for her grandmother to follow in order to find her father (although, it would be a nice narrative touch, despite being the obvious answer). But perhaps this is the chance for Kamala to finally meet Aisha, face-to-face, to find out just what the Clandestines were banished for and why Aisha refrained from opening that portal to Noor when she had the means (while Aisha likely couldn’t due to her genetic make-up, Sana almost certainly could). Maybe the pair work together to rescue Sana (perhaps the Clandestines were involved in her becoming separated from her father)? But the past is where the most important lessons lay for Kamala, and now that she’s fallen through the veil into another time, I’m hopeful she’ll find what she needs to take down the Clandestines once and for all in the present. Oh, and work things out with both her blood and found families once more.