Ms. Marvel (2022) s01e05 – Time and Again

While director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy continues to have action scene problems, the rest of the episode’s direction is so spectacular it doesn’t matter. There are only a couple minutes of superhero action, with the rest being child-missing-in-crowd stuff. Obaid-Chinoy’s perfectly fine with the latter; it’s just the superhero stuff.

Last episode left Iman Vellani stranded in the past; the cute boy she likes has an evil mom, Nimra Bucha, who tracked Vellani to Pakistan to force her to open a rift between worlds. Vellani didn’t want to destroy the space-time continuum and refused; they tussled; Vellani ended up in 1947 India, witnessing her grandmother (as a child) trying to make it on the last train out during the partitioning.

All of that setup will be important for Vellani, but she doesn’t start the episode. Instead, it follows her great-grandmother, Mehwish Hayat, from her arrival in a small Indian village to the train station action event. Hayat’s an otherworldly magical being, but once she meets local Muslim farmer Fawad Khan, she’s delighted to settle into a human role.

The episode tracks their meet-cute, which is cute, and the salad days of their marriage. Right up until Bucha arrives, vaguely threatening Hayat. It just happens to coincide with the partitioning, making now the time to run.

The show’s been talking about Hayat for ages, so there’s built-in curiosity to see her story realized. Especially once her path crosses with visiting Vellani, it gets very emotional, with some interesting contrasts (Vellani’s emotional because she knows she’s Marty McFlyed into family history, and Hayat’s emotional because she’s scared of losing her family). It’s a beautiful protagonist hand-off.

Then comes the two-part action sequence, past and present, where the punchline involves Vellani’s mom, Zenobia Shroff, and grandma, Samina Ahmed, tracking her down during her big superhero origin battle. Then, after a potentially too brief farewell to Aramis Knight, the local superhero who’d been helping Vellani, the episode focuses on the three generations of women, Vellani, Shroff, and Ahmed, for bonding.

They’ve got regular stuff to bond over—Vellani not knowing mom’s teenage rebellious years—the historical stuff to bond over—Ahmed finding closure with her past–and the fantastical stuff to bond over—Vellani is, after all, literally magic. It’s beautifully paced, with gentle timing from Obaid-Chinoy, and fantastic performances from the three stars.

Fatimah Asghar gets the script credit. It’s outstanding.

The only place the episode slips—besides, obviously, the superhero action—is the end setup. Once again, the MCU is the easiest place to travel around the literal globe, in this case setting up Matt Lintz and Rish Shah for next episode’s action thrills. Shah seemingly takes four hours to get from Pakistan to New Jersey. It’s a good scene for Lintz and Shah, arguably long overdue, but it’s a functional tack-on compared to the otherwise sublime episode.

Ms. Marvel (2022) s01e04 – Seeing Red

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is not an action director but in an okay enough way. This episode’s mostly well-directed; Obaid-Chinoy just doesn’t know what to do with the first superhero fight or the chase scene. But, the chase scene works out. There’s the chaos aspect, and it being Iman Vellani’s first Bond movie chase scene through exotic locales, though pin in the locale. So it’s okay.

The first superhero fight against Aramis Knight goes on too long. It passes through its awkwardness—Knight attacks tourist Vellani in a deserted train station—into comfortable banter but then drags on some more. Because Knight’s a good guy too. He just thought Vellani was an evil djinn.

The episode begins with Vellani and mom Zenobia Shroff flying to Karachi almost immediately after the last episode. In between, Vellani’s grandmother, Samina Ahmed, has apparently told Shroff she’s sick and needs them to come over directly. It’s actually subterfuge; Ahmed knows something’s up with Vellani and the superhero business because they share visions. The previous episodes used Ahmed as a grandparent-on-FaceTime gag, but once they establish her, the character’s entirely different. In addition to Vellani finding out some of her superhero origin stuff, the episode’s a mothers and daughters piece contrasting Shroff and Ahmed’s relationship with Shroff and Vellani’s. Vellani gets to find out fun family secrets about Shroff for once.

Okay, the locale stuff. The episode takes place in Karachi, where Vellani wants to confab with Ahmed about the djinn magic superhero stuff and then look around for the locations of her visions. Her cousins want to goof off, and mom Shroff wants to deep clean Ahmed’s apartment, but Vellani’s on a superhero mission. Her visions reference the 1947 split of India and Pakistan, which figures into Ahmed and Shroff’s joint (and separate) histories. It bundles superhero origin, historical event, and family event. It’s really good.

And it shows how this thirty-to-forty-minute episode format is hurting “Ms. Marvel.” This episode’s got a cliffhanger, so it’s a two-parter amid the greater series, but it should’ve been its own thing. “Ms. Marvel” would’ve worked better as ninety-ish minute movies or two forty-five-minute two-parters. There’s just so much content.

The episode didn’t film in Karachi; instead using Bangkok. Director Obaid-Chinoy does a fantastic job showing the visit from Vellani’s perspective; she’s a returning visitor who’s better able to appreciate it than the last time she was there. She’s older, she’s got agency, plus she’s a superhero. The city showcase isn’t about its colonial-minded exoticism; it’s about Vellani seeing the difference between here and home. I initially thought the trip to Karachi would be a layover in the series, but it’s a great character development arc for Vellani.

And it lets Shroff do a whole bunch more than she gets to do at home.

In addition to Ahmed, guest star Farhan Akhtar is also outstanding. He’s the leader of the anti-djinn secret society who mentors Vellani a little. Nimra Bucha and the bad djinns are back, too—the MCU Supermax is a joke (I forgot, that scene is another where Obaid-Chinoy’s action directing is a problem). They’re undistinguished villains but still very dangerous.

Even with the unsteady action sequences—the finale action is an improvement—Seeing Red is probably the best “Ms. Marvel” episode so far. It’s not exactly a fair comparison to the others; it’s “Ms. Marvel Vacation” with all sorts of new stakes, and it’s excellent.