‘Cloak and Dagger’ 2×05 Review: “Alignment Chart”

Wow, Cloak and Dagger. Wow. You’re not kidding around this season, are you? Because that ending was both amazing and heartbreaking. You came straight for our heart and left us devastated. Thank God this isn’t the season finale or anything close to that, because I need resolution for this YESTERDAY. In fact, can I get the Lifeboat or the time stone to take me to next Thursday now?

Other than the rather evil cliffhanger, this episode was all about, well, of course, about Tandy and Tyrone, and about how they compliment each other, and how little the show – and what they’re trying to do, truly, works when they’re at odds with each other. The best way to go forward with life, with their individual pursuits, etc, is for them to be together.

I’m no talking together together, I don’t think they’re there yet, though this is, of course, epic OTP setup, I’m pretty convinced of it. But Tandy and Tyrone are, above all things, best friends first. Like Tandy says at one point in this episode, they’re each other’s ports in a storm. And that’s the thing that makes this show work, the thing that makes us continue to watch.

Because, yes, we’re sorta invested in their individual journeys, but no one else in their inmediate circle is as important to us, as viewers, as the two of them. When Tandy and Tyrone fight, when they aren’t working together, when they don’t have each other’s backs, bad things happen. LIKE THE END OF THIS EPISODE, DID YOU SEE THE END OF THIS EPISODE, CAN WE GET THAT FIXED SOON, THANK YOU.

Of course, Tandy’s investigation is part of the storyline for this season, and yet Tandy, like many of us, has been dealing with a monster she doesn’t really understand or, frankly, give enough credit to. And the worst part, of course, is that it’s not a real monster.

That’s life, though, and that’s something the show has, so far, done a good job of portraying. This is a superhero show, yes, but even for superheroes, the bad guys aren’t usually aliens or scaly monsters, the bad guys are just, bad people, going with their every day job of doing bad things.

You know, like human freaking trafficking.

As an aside, I want to talk about that moment between Tandy and her mom, that moment when Tandy basically shamed her for staying with her abuser, the moment where Tandy demonstrated how very little she understands this cycle, despite all her good intentions. I imagine this will have repercusions later, and Tandy will come to understand, though boy, I wish she didn’t have to, not really.

The truth, though, and this needs to be stated, is that it’s never the victims fault. Period. Abuse has a mental component that so many people disregard, and as easy as it is for Tandy to tell ehr mom that “leaving someone that hits you isn’t hard, you just leave,” the truth of the matter is that it can be the hardest thing in the world, and victims deserve our support and our understanding, not our condemnation.

I understand Tandy’s desire to blame her mom, and I understand how easy it is to say, hey, I would have walked away, how couldn’t you? And yet, that attitude comes from ignorance, not just of the pain, but of the mental toll abuse takes on its victims.

Let’s be better than Tandy, and let’s go on this journey with her and hope she learns how to be better, while we hope that this knowledge doesn’t require a hell of a lot of pain. Oh, yes, and while we hope time flies by and it can already be next Thursday so we can find out what happens.

Cloak and Dagger airs Thursdays at 8/7c on Freeform.