“Time and Again”

Ms. Marvel takes a trip back to the past and further develops the power of family connection across generations.

The ending of the previous episode was striking. It presented an opportunity for the show to intimately explore a horrific historical moment in a way that links directly to Kamala and her journey to understand her own family history. Partition has been set up as personally significant to Kamala’s family who act as a microcosm of the widespread consequences of it for countless families. Exploring how it affected their family shines a light on how it affected others and Kamala being back in time shows the scope of that impact.

Kamala’s time in the past is actually very short-lived and the bulk of the episode focuses on Aisha (Mehwish Hayat) living her life in pre-Partition India. She is introduced on the run from Najma and the other ClanDestines before stumbling onto Hasan’s (Fawad Khan) property. He offers her food, protection and kindness while unknowingly giving her a place to hide from her pursuers. They fall in love, become parents and are eventually forced from their home along with the other Muslims made to flee India. The episode very quickly cycles through those milestones and delivers the headlines of the story being told but lacks the detail that such a flashback arguably required. Other than seeing the Aisha/Hasan’s dynamic very little about Aisha is learned outside of what had already been stated or heavily implied in prior episodes. There’s no texture to the relationship because it is presented as a montage spanning years. It’s unavoidable given that the season is only six episodes and there is limited time though it begs the question of why try to tell this important personal story when there isn’t time to give it the attention it deserves.

One thing that comes across is the tragedy of being forced to abandon a stable and loving home. Hasan wants to make peace with everyone but his desire is an impossibility in the time he lives and leaving is a matter of survival. Staying means death so the only choice is to uproot with little more than the clothes on their backs in order to board one of the few trains that can take them to safety. Showing the loving home Hasan and Aisha build together and the domestic normality underscores what is lost by abandoning it. A more tangible emotional connection is missing but the high-level fact of people being forced from their homes is innately tragic. The episode largely allows the self-evident nature of the tragedy to speak for itself and the horrific visual of the chaos in the train station makes the point about the scale of the upheaval and how devastating it was to those involved. It’s an example of scope combined with the intimacy of the impact on a single family.

The depiction of the relationship is to provide context for Kamala playing her part in the time loop. Pushing aside the inconsistencies in the MCU’s time travel rules it has been easy to predict that the “trail of stars” would come into play in a big way. Kamala finding herself in the past at the end of the previous episode coupled with the mention of Sana following a trail of stars leading to her father pointed to the possibility of Kamala being responsible for those stars. She comes across the dying Aisha who is pleased that the events she set in motion have come to pass. She wrongly assumes that Kamala is the grown-up Sana but other than that she puts her trust in Kamala to fulfil the role she envisioned and is able to die content that her family will be safe. Iman Vellani’s performance in this scene is beautifully subtle with the instinct to be consumed by the shock of witnessing a death happen right in front of her actively compartmentalised following recognition that she doesn’t have time to become paralysed by shock. Kamala has a lot to deal with in the moment and doesn’t have the luxury of allowing herself to be overwhelmed by what she is experiencing.

Kamala plays her part in her family history by helping the young Sana reunite with Hasan. The trail of stars is one of her light Noor constructs smashed into fragments leading Sana to Hasan and Kamala bears witness to this key moment in her family history that has been regarded as fanciful. Kamala being responsible for the trail of stars connects her to her heritage in a very tangible way and makes her more aware of the hardships endured that would eventually lead to her existence.

As effective as this was, Kamala’s trip to the past could have been so much more. She isn’t part of events for very long so there isn’t much opportunity for her to truly explore the time period. Most of the historical portion of the episode is devoted to Aisha and Hasan’s life together with Kamala only entering the story at the very end to play her part before being returned to her own time. Travelling to the past should have been a way for her to viscerally understand what went on and gain a renewed perspective on Aisha as well as Najma but her role is very singular and lacking when considering the potential associated with Kamala witnessing Partition first-hand.

The rushed nature of the plotting fails to properly establish Aisha and Najma’s relationship. Najma tracks Aisha down and iterates her desire to return home before presenting her with the ultimatum to return the bangle within 24 hours. When Aisha disobeys and tries to run away she is stabbed. This show has a villain problem and that bleeds into this episode. Instead of developing Najma’s backstory along with her relationship with Aisha the episode does nothing more than confirm she was always a threat and that there’s nothing she won’t do in order to achieve her goal. It’s a repetition of information that was already established and does nothing to deepen Najma as a character or antagonist.

It’s especially unfortunate when a major plot point depends on Najma possessing compassion for others and some sort of ethical grounding. She abandons her chance to get home when Kamala reminds her of Kamran and sacrifices her life to protect the world that he’s part of. It’s a wholly unsatisfying development because Najma has never been anything more than a one-dimensional antagonist. The potential was there in the background but the show never capitalised on it so her sacrifice lacks meaning and her death has no impact. There is no tangible danger to the Veil being open as the danger is only suggested in dialogue and no urgency is associated with it being open. One of her nameless followers being killed in theory establishes the danger but the lack of development makes it difficult to invest in it. The sequence was oddly staged and bereft of tension.

Najma’s change of heart is completely unearned. This is a woman who spent decades trying to return home, murdered her friend and abandoned her son mere hours prior so the fact that a few words from Kamala are enough to make Najma completely abandon her plan is completely unbelievable. It’s also jarring to apparently have the ClanDestine plot wrapped up with one episode left. There is a strong hint of a continuation through the energy forced into Kamran but Najma is no longer a presence and her specific plot is now resolved. It amounted to nothing and was weakly portrayed from the moment it was introduced.

The family theme is picked up with Muneeba learning about Kamala’s powers. Her reaction is oddly subdued though it’s a nice touch that a teenage boy hanging around with her daughter immediately becomes her priority when she notices Kareem is present. The conversation about her powers and the implications of them is completely dodged with the episode skipping to the aftermath where Muneeba has come to accept them. It works because of the shared moment between Kamala, Muneeba and Sana where Kamala gets a glimpse of her mother’s more rebellious youth. It’s another example of relationships and understanding being enhanced by context. When Kamala questions why she has no knowledge of her mother’s past she is flatly told that she never asked. This is intensely relatable as it’s common for young people to never think about their parents existing before they were born. Early episodes detailed Kamala being frustrated about how misunderstood she is and seeing her parents as obstacles to her own independence. Seeing that her mother also had a rebellious phase helps her understand where that overprotectiveness comes from as well as having the opportunity to hear her declare that she isn’t ready to let her daughter go yet. Logically, she should be really concerned about Kamala’s powers and the trouble that invites. It isn’t evident in this episode but it will likely play a part in the final episode.

There’s a sense that this experience has strengthened the relationships. The previous episode showed Sana and Muneeba’s relationship as strained because of Muneeba’s lack of willingness to believe in Sana’a claims that their family was magical. Now she has seen evidence of that first-hand she is more open to what Sana has to offer and they find common ground that creates a more relaxed dynamic. The same applies to Kamala and Muneeba and together they are far closer than they were before they made the trip to Karachi. Sana achieves some semblance of closure on her own loss by recognising that she guided Kamala towards her destiny and her being rewarded by being given a picture of her as a child with both of her parents was incredibly moving.

The episode has a lot of finality to it even if some of it is clumsy which raises questions around what the final episode will detail. It will have something to do with Kamran being hunted by Damage Control but with the Najma/ClanDestine plot wrapped up, there’s a lack of a villain presence and only one episode to deliver another threat. There was so much potential that went unfulfilled that I can’t help but wonder if the first season of this show should have focused on Kamala’s development as a local hero and getting to grips with her powers with the origin of her powers and associated mythology being left for a second season. So far the narrative progression of the show has been jarring as it started as a grounded story about a teenage superhero coming into her powers and figuring out what to do with them and then transitioned to being a large-scale narrative about the end of the world that was clumsily resolved. A more grounded approach to the entire first season may have been more satisfying. Time will tell if the final episode reveals a grand cohesive plan.

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Verdict

An uneven episode that rushes through some important plot developments but delivers truly meaningful character moments. Kamala’s time in the past is very short-lived with the bulk of the episode focused on Aisha living in pre-Partition India. The episode very quickly cycles through the milestones of her life with Hasan and delivers the headlines of the story being told but lacks the necessary detail. Other than seeing the Aisha/Hasan’s dynamic very little about Aisha is learned outside of what had already been stated or heavily implied in prior episodes. There’s no texture to the relationship because it is presented as a montage spanning years. One thing that comes across is the tragedy of being forced to abandon a stable and loving home. Hasan wants to make peace with everyone but his desire is an impossibility in the time he lives and leaving is a matter of survival. Staying means death so the only choice is to uproot with little more than the clothes on their backs in order to board one of the few trains that can take them to safety. Showing the loving home Hasan and Aisha build together and the domestic normality underscores what is lost by abandoning it. A more tangible emotional connection is missing but the high-level fact of people being forced from their homes is innately tragic. The episode largely allows the self-evident nature of the tragedy to speak for itself and the horrific visual of the chaos in the train station makes the point about the scale of the upheaval and how devastating it was to those involved. It’s an example of scope combined with the intimacy of the impact on a single family. The depiction of the relationship is to provide context for Kamala playing her part in the time loop. Iman Vellani’s performance in the scene where Kamala finds the dying Aisha is beautifully subtle with the instinct to be consumed by the shock of witnessing a death happen right in front of her actively compartmentalised following recognition that she doesn’t have time to become paralysed by shock. Kamala being responsible for the trail of stars connects her to her heritage in a very tangible way and makes her more aware of the hardships endured that would eventually lead to her existence.

As effective as this was, Kamala’s trip to the past could have been so much more. She isn’t part of events for very long so there isn’t much opportunity for her to truly explore the time period. Most of the historical portion of the episode is devoted to Aisha and Hasan’s life together with Kamala only entering the story at the very end to play her part before being returned to her own time. The rushed nature of the plotting fails to properly establish Aisha and Najma’s relationship. This show has a villain problem and that bleeds into this episode. Instead of developing Najma’s backstory along with her relationship with Aisha the episode does nothing more than confirm she was always a threat and that there’s nothing she won’t do in order to achieve her goal. It’s a repetition of information that was already established and does nothing to deepen Najma as a character or antagonist. It’s especially unfortunate when a major plot point depends on Najma possessing compassion for others and some sort of ethical grounding. Sacrificing her life for Kamran is a wholly unsatisfying development and completely unearned because Najma has never been anything more than a one-dimensional antagonist. The potential was there in the background but the show never capitalised on it so her sacrifice lacks meaning and her death has no impact. There is no tangible danger to the Veil being open as the danger is only suggested in dialogue and no urgency is associated with it being open. The family theme is picked up with Muneeba learning about Kamala’s powers. Her reaction is oddly subdued though it’s a nice touch that a teenage boy hanging around with her daughter immediately becomes her priority when she notices Kareem is present. The conversation about her powers and the implications of them is completely dodged with the episode skipping to the aftermath where Muneeba has come to accept them. It works because of the shared moment between Kamala, Muneeba and Sana where Kamala gets a glimpse of her mother’s more rebellious youth. It’s another example of relationships and understanding being enhanced by context. There’s a sense that this experience has strengthened the relationships. The episode has a lot of finality to it even if some of it is clumsy which raises questions around what the final episode will detail.

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