“Radio On” is definitely a slower episode, starting to move pieces carefully into place so that they can inevitably be wrecked by the more dramatic episodes of the season. There’s a lot of necessary-ish plot development—the power comes back on at the mansion, Alex tells everyone he’s been working for Darius, Janet begins to insert herself into Jonah’s revitalization process—but for the most part, the episode centers on one of its most powerful engines: teen romantic relationships. Where “Gimmie Shelter” kept a wide focus on all ten-plus characters in the main ensemble, this episode is largely divided into the stories of three teen couples: Gert and Chase, Karolina and Nico, and Alex and Livvie.
Gert and Chase have the sweetest (and, I think, the best) story of the episode, working through their unresolved feelings from their hookup at the dance to establish a pretty solid grounding for their relationship. Gregg Sulkin is very endearing here, especially when he lays out his rough sense of the dual anxiety and uncertainty Gert is feeling after their hookup and subsequent escape. (Chase might not be the most talkative member of the team, but he can be a good listener when he wants to be.) And Ariela Barer does a great job of communicating the complicated relationship between, not her and Chase, but their surroundings and her lack of medication.
Lots of TV that “tackles” mental health often does so in an extremely one-dimensional way, but when Gert cracks and admits that her meds would at least help, it feels like a more honest depiction of living with anxiety while not treating it as the be-all end-all of your life. This is one of a few subtle threads I’m excited to see getting integrated into Runaways—normal things that are part of normal-ish kids’ lives, without becoming the central focus. Also, it helps that Chase and Gert’s plot for the episode ends with the two of them comically scaring off city employees so Chase can get power flowing to the house.
Meanwhile, Karolina, Nico, and Molly go off to steal the Staff Of One. Lyrica Okano is the absolute MVP of the episode, veering wildly between all of the overly dramatic teen emotions you’d expect from the characters on this show. When Robert catches them at the house and promises that everything will be okay, Nico sadly expresses how thoroughly the kids have lost faith in their parents by telling him that she knows his words are lies. Later, when Karolina suggests that they move into the same room in the mansion, Nico nervously giggles before sputtering, “If you want.” And when the kids fight Tina wielding the staff, Nico puts up a hell of a fight.
This is a pretty decent action sequence for this kind of show, especially one that clearly isn’t a climactic, season-ending fight or anything. Mostly, the teens take turns trying to hit Tina (Robert just stands and watches, because of course he does), until TIna whacks Molly into the pool, then uses the staff to freeze it at what would have been a commercial break in a non-streaming show. (I appreciate that Runaways, unlike most other shows on streaming platforms, is committed to having act breaks.) Eventually, Tina just gives her daughter the staff, with the ultimatum that if she takes it, they’ll no longer be family. Nico doesn’t hesitate. Brittany Ishibashi often has to do somewhat thankless villain work on Runaways, but I appreciate the sad, hangdog way she admits to Robert that she was bluffing: “I didn’t think she would take it.”
Tina’s admission is the biggest moment any of the parents get this episode, unless you count Jonah starting to show Karolina her powers, which is a shockingly nice moment given that Jonah is the main villain of the show at this point. It helps that Karolina is basically boxed in by her father and her friends—though there’s some chemistry when she seduces Nico, it still feels a little forced, because she’s holding something back.
Finally, Alex goes to his “job”and almost immediately finds himself hooking up with Livvie. This plot is pretty color-by-numbers, but it’s also very fun. (I especially appreciated the way the camera focuses on Livvie when Alex insists he doesn’t have an “ulterior motive” for dropping by unannounced.) Though she instantly figures Alex out as a softie, the show continues to push the idea that Alex is getting in touch with his “roots” as she puts his hair in cornrows and gets him to admit that he doesn’t really know much about, well, being black. This is a thematic thread that could definitely go belly-up—especially with Darius about to sell Alex out to his parents—but for now, I’m impressed with how deftly the show has handled it.
So we’ve got our three couples, along with some slight changes in the Pride status quo. (Mostly, Janet asserting more power and a role for herself in Jonah’s ongoing attempt to get a new revitalization box.) Perhaps most importantly, Nico has taken on a very Tina-like role as, essentially, the team general, while Molly sneaks out of the house at night to go fight crime. This episode was relatively quiet, but it looks like we’re headed for some fireworks soon.
Stray observations
- “Radio On” is written by Warren Hsu Leonard and directed by Chris Fisher.
- Gert points out that teens would be more likely to smuggle a vape into the school dance, which raises the question: Which Runaway vapes? (My money is on Nico or Alex.)
- When Nico says the episode title and turns the radio on, it’s playing “Gangnam Style,” a creative decision that is good, to me, personally.
- Runaways Dad Of The Day: Robert, for continuing to stand around and watch while the women in his family almost literally fight to the death. My friend, I get it. (Also I’m pretty sure I own one of the sweaters Dale wears in this episode, but I can’t give it to him twice in a row.)
19 Comments
This sure would be a lot more powerful if Gert had been allowed to be fat like she was in the comics.
I’m having a hard time of believing the relationship of Karolina and Nico. For me the chemistry just isn’t there. I’m not saying it’s unbelievable that these two characters would be into each other, i just don’t believe the actors are selling it well.
I think the thing I enjoyed most was how one-sided the fight with Tina was. Having her try to bash Karolina’s head in with the staff was too far though. Even if she only cares about her kid, it wouldn’t make sense for her to risk pissing Jonah or whatsherface off.
Before that moment I was laughing how Tina was intending to explain to the Steins that she killed their daughter. Then I was honestly curious how she intended to justify to Jonah killing his daughter as he does not seem like a dude who would be chill and understanding about that.
Honestly, I don’t think Tina killing Karolina would have been too far, from a story standpoint. Would it have brought down Jonah’s wrath? Heck yeah. But Jonah also killed her daughter, so in the heat of the moment, I could see her getting revenge.
I can buy Tina wanting revenge. I don’t think she would kill Karolina to get it since she would hurt a lot more people than her one target. Also, Tina thought that convincing Nico to stay was possible, so it makes even less since that she would try to kill her daughter’s friend/girlfriend.
I was shocked how good the chemistry between Julian McMahon and Virginia Gardner was. It was the first time Jonah didn’t just feel like a cartoon villain and I was curious to see how that relationship develops. Furthermore it really helped to flesh out Karolina’s dilemma and make it more understandable why she would hold that information back.By the way, to push back on the review a bit, describing it as Karo seducing Nico makes it sound a lot more sinister than it was.
I agree — it was a sweet moment, not what I would call “seduction.”
Two smaller notes on the episode. First that final reveal with Darius and Alex honestly caught me off-guard and it felt like they are setting up a darker path fitting his comic book counterpart with Alex.Second Allegra Acosta, who plays Molly, was born in December 2002, which means that she was 15 when they shot the first season and 16 when they shot this. They reason I bring this up was that you can really see that her body has changed between the seasons, which isn’t a bad thing, but the costume department really needs to start accounting for that. Especially when they broke in to the Minoru house, Molly looked so awkward in those clothes that honestly felt far too small for the actress.
Yes. Allegra Acosta’s changes are quite noticeable. It makes their casting/adaptation choices for Molly seem even worse because they had to know that someone her age would still be growing. It doesn’t really help the problem when half of her lines feel like they were written for a younger actress.
I don’t even have a problem with the casting as I generally like Acosta in the role, but that they are doing nothing to help her. I mean I think they are literally making her wear the same clothes that she wore last season.The best, and probably most famous, counter-example of this is Sophie Turner on Game Thrones as it kind of obvious that they never expected her to grow as much as she did, but the show itself helps to make her presentation work. Here it just feels awkward.
I don’t have many issues with Acosta’s casting, but the casting of an actress her age creates other issues that the show hasn’t really handled well. Like Molly feeling like shes written at her comic age when she looks like a 16 year old.
I didn’t notice until now. Interesting
I like so much about this show, the conflicts between the factions of adults work. The dramatic situations between the adults and the kids work. Hell, Chase is even hot enough that the romantic plot-lines work for me.
But dang I really hope they get better at action sequences. It feels like watching a turn-based combat game play out in real time. I understand it’s hard given how special effects heavy everyone’s powers are, and I wouldn’t even know where to begin staging these conflicts. I just hope they get either… faster or more fluid so they’re not so clunky.You can just feel everyone standing around doing nothing while each person ‘takes their turn’ and oof.
– I wish that Nico had won the staff instead of just being given it, but I
like how shocked her mom was at her choice.
– Chase seems a lot less
douchey, and I’m SO glad for that.
– Nico and Karolina talked things out,
which was good.
This is one of the things that makes Nico so awesome, besides her Staff That Can Do Anything: she doesn’t hesitate to do what’s right even when the consequences are very heavy. Unlike the others, she can never go home again, but if that’s what it takes…
Also, that was probably the dumbest decision Tina will ever make in the entire series.
[Nico] doesn’t hesitate to do what’s right Well, except for when she hesitated to grab the dang staff after Molly punched Tina halfway across the lawn.
It was such a contrivance to get Nico the Staff that she needs to have. As the character of Tina has been established, she would never have really let the Staff go, especially as a bluff. (I think Tina will make many dumb decisions, but I think her decision to murder Graciela was equally stupid. There was no need. She could have choked Graciela to unconsciousness and then let the Yorkes administer the memory wipe. That may have confused the kids and softened them whereas murdering Graciela confirmed the parents’ villainousness.)
Robert Minoru is also a wizard in the comic books (apparently—I haven’t read them) and I don’t know why they changed that for the show. I think having him intervene when Tina seemed to be on the verge of killing Molly and Karolina would have been in established character and easily could have resulted in Nico getting the Staff. Then he could have defended himself against Tina’s anger by pointing out that the Yorkeses and Leslie would have become enemies if their kids were killed. I like Tina’s complexity, but I don’t think Robert needs to be defanged so much for Tina to have the complexity.
Nico has a lot of justified reasons for her anger at her parents, but I find her one-note certainty in her anger less interesting to watch than the other kids’ tornness.
well, the show does have commercials, so that makes sense