The Short Take:
Filled with love, joy, and good advice, Episode 3 raises the stakes and begins to unravel the series’ mythology.
[I’m leaving a trail of SPOILER stars from the beginning. Catch up on the series before you continue.]
The Long Take:
I could pridefully pretend that I knew this all along, but I need to be honest with you, dear readers. I missed a big reveal at the end of last week’s episode. When Kamala gets into Kamran’s car and he says he wants to introduce Kamala to his mom, the woman in the back seat who says, “I’ve been waiting a very long time to meet you” is not only Kamran’s mother, but the woman in Kamala’s cosmic visions. That’s on me for not paying attention the screen shots that I took myself and piecing together the puzzle that was right in front me the whole time. Oof.
This week, I finally recognized Kamran’s mother, Najma, as the mysterious figure reaching out to Kamala through a bangle-induced inter-dimensional plane during the flashback to British-Occupied India 1942 that kicked off Episode 3. Once I saw Najma’s hair pins I instantly realized that a.) her face was the same as the woman in Kamran’s car and b.) that she was also the woman from Kamala’s visions. I’m embarrassed to admit that I was so oblivious.
Najma — and not Aisha — being the one who has been trying to communicate with Kamala introduces an intriguing new wrinkle into the show. Her scenes with Kamala introduce some of the mythology and MCU-specific lore that this series will invoke. Najma explains that she, her compatriots, and Aisha are all non-human beings that go by many names; they call themselves the Clandestines in their home, the Noor Dimension, but most Earthlings know them as Djinn or Jinn. Viewers may know Djinn as ethereal, spirit-like beings from Arabian mythology.
Kamala’s father, Yusuf, translates the Urdu from Bruno’s “homework” on the Djinn, which just happens to give a perfect MCU sci-fi explanation. He says,
“Supernatural beings of pre-Islamic folklore, the Djinn, have had many names across time and cultures. Some call them genies. Others, demons. Legend tells of a group of hidden Djinn, exiled from their home world and damned to live out their days trapped in our own. They move in shadows, searching for the key that will help them get home. But to unlock such an ancient barrier will require a primordial power.”
I usually discourage my students from using enormous block quotes when they can paraphrase in their own voice, but in this instance I want to illustrate how closely the second half of this explanation hews to what we had already learned about the Clandestines from Najma. The exposition here once again builds out Marvel’s theory that all religions and mythologies around the world are real. That what we call the supernatural is is in fact science. We most recently saw this in Moon Knight when Tawaret explains that there are many afterlife planes, but follows a myth-borrowing move that goes as far back as Thor.
I’m not sure we needed an explanation this on-the-nose, since Najma earlier had already explained where they came from. But, if I consider for a moment why it’s worth repeating, I suppose Najma is untrustworthy because she has a more sinister agenda, trying to kidnap Kamala. So this exposition from a neutral document, translated by Yusuf, is valuable information for us and for Bruno, confirming that at least this part of Najma’s story checks out. I also noticed in the 1940s flashback that Najma seems so much more caring and warm than she does in her present-day scenes, so I’m very curious as to what history we may learn about her relationship with Aisha and what has caused her to become so bitter. Does she resent Aisha for taking the bangle and disappearing? How did Aisha actually disappear? Where did she go? Is she still alive somewhere? As repeat readers may know, I love a good mystery. Also, WHY IS THE SEVERED ARM BLUE?!?!
The Western world has anglicized Djinn as genies, but I get the sense that a big blue cartoon Robin Williams is a far cry from the actual myths. My other American pop culture reference points that actually use the word Djinn instead of genie are NBC’s Grimm or, more recently, Netflix’s The Witcher. Kamala tells Bruno that this revelation stresses her out because this makes her “like the stuff of [her] childhood nightmares,” and that idea is in keeping with the appropriation of the Djinn in these other horror fantasy shows. Will their representation here be more authentic or will MCU-ifying them make them more like these other Western adaptations of them? Yusuf puts the papers down and says, “Interesting. Haven’t heard that one before.” I see this as an acknowledgment that this is Marvel’s twist on real-life folklore. Someone more in the know, please let me know as the series continues! In the meantime, I will try to do more research on pre-Islamic folklore.
Aside from the lore-building we start to get in this episode, a classic yet worthy theme emerges for Kamala’s own coming of age/superhero origin story: family. And no, I don’t mean the meme-able all-purpose invocation of family a la the Fast and Furious franchise; I mean a more specific message about isolation and how family, friends, and community can support us in tough times. Kamala hears a lot in this episode that she doesn’t have to go it alone, and I think that “it” refers specifically to her life as a superhero and trying to solve the mystery of her inter-dimensional lineage.
To convey this theme, there is so much beautiful, heartfelt counsel and advice across the episode, from Muneeba dressing Kamala’s wounds to Yusuf giving Aamir a pep talk before his wedding. Even Sheikh Abdullah gives Kamala advice about how it’s not about being good but doing good. He opens their porch heart-to-heart with “What are you doing out here all by yourself?,” which reinforces this idea that isolating yourself isn’t healthy. Yusuf says to Aamir, “You are brave, my son. Because you have chosen family. And the man who chooses family is never alone.” Through his words, the series argues that being brave — being a hero — and choosing to love are one and the same. Meanwhile, Muneeba tells a touching story about how challenging her early days as an immigrant were. She says “I’ve never felt so alone in my whole life,” and when Kamala asks what helped her, she lists different members of her support system and says, “And I let them love me.” In sensing Kamala’s struggles but not knowing specifically what they are, a loving mother tells her daughter, “Whatever mountain you’re facing, you don’t have to do it alone.” See how many times this episode uses the word “alone”?
As a side note, the episode cinematically supports all this love and community through Aamir and Tyesha’s wedding. Seeing characters I’ve very quickly come to love letting loose, having fun, and celebrating was so much fun. The extended dance sequence in particular stood out to me as pure fun. No character was immune to the music. Even Bruno, who seems to have been welcomed into the Khan family and Muslim community, got in some killer moves. The fact that Kamala awkwardly teeters atop the shoulders of the other dancers, to the point where her brother says she’s going to fall, warmed my heart and reminded me what I clicked with and related to in the first episode. The music in this series in general has been on point. In this episode, I love the mix of Pakistani music with Bon Jovi, who seems to be the Khan family’s mascot. Playing “Livin’ on a Prayer” during Kamala’s first big fight scene was inspired.
In leading a double superhero life Kamala feels like she has to go it alone. Even Bruno, her best friend and biggest champion, expresses skepticism at her desire to help the Clandestines (partly because he’s jealous of Kamran but partly because he’s legitimately suspicious). But the show is trying to say that Ms. Marvel will be a better hero if she lets everyone around her in on the secret and lets everyone love her, even if that’s difficult at first. I suspect a later episode will have to show Kamala choosing love and family, and choosing not to be alone anymore.
This makes the moment in which Kamala actively shuts out her family all the more painful. As they recover from the sudden interruption of such a happy occasion, Kamala’s family asks her if she pulled the fire alarm and just generally what’s going on with her. After all the advice, all the talk of not being alone, she still says that she can’t tell them. She still chooses to go it alone. We can already see how Nakia’s immediate reaction to Kamala’s powers is anger, hurt, and betrayal. This is not going to encourage Kamala to tell her family what’s going on, but maybe we’ll get to see them work it out in a way that will ultimately help Kamala let her parents back into her life.
Or perhaps she will look to other parts of her family, farther away. In a surprise video call from her Nani at the end of the episode, Nani/Sana says that she saw the image of the train that Kamala did. This is presumably a flashback to the train Nani/Sana found her way back to during Partition? Nani urges Kamala to come to Karachi before she hangs up, so I think this means that next episode, we’re leaving Jersey City and going to Pakistan. What additional clues do you think Kamala will discover there? What more will we learn about her powers?