There’s some good stuff in “Hostile Takeover,” sort of. Gregg Sulkin has a lot of fun as Chase plays negotiator and delivers an inspirational sports speech to a sleeping Gert, evoking Riverdale’s recent attempt to have Archie give a similar speech. (I don’t know how it took me this long to realize it, but Chase is definitely the Archie of Runaways.) Lyrica Okano continues to anchor the season, and make scenes of Nico grimacing while holding the Staff Of One feel compelling. And we get confirmation that some of the members of Pride have, in fact, been possessed by the aliens from Jonah’s ship. At the very least, it seems like AWOL is out of the picture.
Livvie brings AWOL to The Hostel after he threatens her family, and the bulk of the episode is taken up by a standoff between the strike team and the Runaways. AWOL proves to be a deeply uninteresting villain, serving mostly to provoke Alex and yell things from an old movie about dirty cops. I’m sure there will be some people who find his shtick compelling, but I’m not seeing it.
Though there is one fun moment when Alex tricks AWOL into pursuing him into the roof of the building, only for Karolina to set an airborne trap, the beats of the hostage situation are mostly about waiting for Nico to use different spells. First, she camouflages the outside of the building, keeping the strike team at bay for some reason and taking her out of the picture while Chase negotiates via security cam. Then, she turns the building into a fortress (why didn’t they do that in the first place?) to keep AWOL trapped inside. Finally, apparently under the influence of the staff, she tells the strike team to “get out” and seemingly disintegrates them.
I don’t mind the focus on Nico; Lyrica Okano is probably the best member of the ensemble, including the parents. I don’t even mind the “magic is too much power for me” stuff, even though feels like it’s coming dangerously closing to full-on Dark Willow territory. (Have we had any indication before now that the staff has been speaking to Nico?) But this episode largely papers over the way that, compared to the rest of the team, she’s become overpowered, or at least the writers’ easiest solution to narrative problems. That makes the rest of the team feel useless. The best action sequences from this season—the airport rescue, the confrontation with Topher—have useful contributions from everyone, and I wish that this showdown had continued that, rather than using the rest of the Runaways as a stalling tactic.
There are definitely some good moments peppered throughout this plot, at least, mostly because of Chase. (In particular, Chase admitting that Alex is smart even if he’s been messing everything up is fun, and a good moment between the two frequently self-assured boys.) And toward the end of the episode, Chase, in a reversal of Gert’s decision from earlier in the season, brings the dying Gert and Old Lace to the only people who would know how to treat a dinosaur—the Yorkes. Stacey, it turns out, somehow managed to release an airborne pathogen that made Old Lace sick, and only has enough of the antidote to cure one of the two. I really hope Stacey is one of the aliens from the ship, because this is a super weird and out of character thing for her to do. If the idea is to make Stacey more interesting and easier to fold into the villainous Pride fold, I guess it makes a certain kind of sense—but it really feels like it’s coming from out of nowhere.
Mostly, I’m concerned because Victor and Tina have taken the center stage as the most important Runaways parents, since they’re no longer actual Runaways parents: By the end of the episode, we’ve confirmed that those two, at least, are both aliens from Jonah’s ship. I was really hoping that Janet would be the one to be possessed, because it would be cool to have all of the moms get the chance to be more villainous—but I guess when you have James Marsters on the show, it makes sense to use him this way. I will miss more of his buttoned-up Victor, who reacts to realizing he has forgotten having sex with Janet by condescendingly telling her, “Janet that’s ridiculous, you know how important a clean lab is to me.” Victor ends the episode by putting up fliers looking for other refugees from the ship.
Frank’s takeover of the church, meanwhile, proceeds apace, a bizarre B-plot that increasingly feels like it should be part of a different show. Leslie is committed to destroying the church, but… hasn’t shut it down, or stopped services from happening? I haven’t mentioned the way that the Church Of Gibborim is an obvious analogue for Scientology yet (though it is), but the comparisons are growing more and more obvious. Frank, an aging actor without a support system, needs more than just his family—he needs mass validation. Though Leslie expresses a desire to just put their family back together and leave, he’s unable to put the church behind him. The last we see of the Deans, Leslie is being forced into some kind of “reconditioning” procedure, which definitely does not bode well. Will this plot wind up connecting back with the aliens slowly taking over the rest of Pride? Who knows. As long as AWOL isn’t there to growl about it.
Stray observations
- “Hostile Takeover” is written by Ashley Wigfield and directed by Jeffrey W. Byrd.
- Gert, summarizing the last 15 years of prestige television to her boyfriend: “People don’t change, [David] Chase. The sooner you realize that the better.”
- Livvie leaves Alex to go protect her own family, which I guess is reasonable in the sense that the Runaways have a target on their back, but is unreasonable in the sense that Livvie is far less equipped to protect her family than, like, the team of super-powered teens. Besides, Alex has gotten pretty difficult to deal with.
- Runaways Dad Of The Day: Dale, I guess? He’s trying. Sort of.
24 Comments
Is it intentional that Frank Dean doesn’t seem to have any interest in the whereabouts of his daughter?
Why are the aliens so horny? I mean, I get that they’ve been locked in a spaceship with only family plus one for thousands of years, but you’d think they’d be working on plans and not trying to bang the closest human.
Yeah that thing I said about ‘hopefully not regretting praising the pacing’ earlier in the season – the back half definitely made me regret it. The Flores/AWOL ‘arc’ (does it even really deserve to be called that?) was an utter waste when we had a much more important and quality plotline to be following. Yes it gave the kids something to do while it sets up the ‘some of the parents are possessed’ story and ‘Nico’s magic is out of control’ story but both of those stories could have really done with much more focus and time that this took away.
What would have been better is if Nico had killed AWOL and his mooks off in the first episode after AWOL first appeared, then Karolina’s thought about her power being darkness leading to Karolina supporting Nico through learning her own powers and perhaps, through her light, inspiring Nico to become the first person to draw power from the Dark Dimension without it being inherently unethical.
Chase is definitely the Archie of RunawaysTotally disagree. Alex is the Archie: makes poorly considered decisions all over the place, creates messes for his friends to clean up, has trouble admitting when he’s a poor leader and constantly asks everyone to trust his dumb plans, which usually involves running straight into some violent confrontation. Are we watching the same show? Chase never tries to be the leader, never says his way is the right way, takes care of the people around him, works to control his emotions and stress and generally supports the group.
I presumed stacey was also possessed when she didn’t need her glasses. but it’s a bit strange that she then seems to go back to ‘real’ stacey while tina and victor’s aliens seem to stay. will all of the parents be taken over?
I actually thought this episode was a lot of fun, maybe my favorite one of this season after 2.07. But after reading your review I guess I can see it was a weak episode for many reasons. Favorite moments: Tina talking talking about metal, Tina flirting with Janet, Karolina catching Alex in the air with her powers (which by the was a great addition to the show even if we’ve never seen her use them in the comics… her parents did but like in one panel, ANYWAYS), Chase convincing the Yorkes to cure Old Lace, and of course Dale’s panicked looked during like the whole episode. I do think that Stacey is possessed, or at least that’s what the acting choices are hinting at. And it’s a great setup because they’re the strongest actors out of the parents. I do wonder if Robert isn’t possessed, then he really is okay with scrambling her daughter’s brain??? Like for real? Wow.
Stacey is definitely possessed by an alien. She’s seeing without her glasses and behaving completely out of character. It’s obvious to me.
Yeah, I thought that was telegraphed pretty clearly. Any time we see Stacey not wearing glasses on her nose, it’s a moment where the alien is running things.
Y’know, in the Amazon Prime version, when you pause it, in the cast it completely spoils everything, with James Marsters cited as ‘Jonah’s son’ and Brittany Ishibashi (Tina) as ‘Jonah’s Daughter.’ Brigid Brannagh (Stacey) is cited as ‘Jonah’s Wife,’ so it really just ruins everything,
Wow, I’ve found the Amazon pause information useful sometimes, especially when it names the song playing in the background that I’m curious about, but that’s just completely evil.
The show’s core difficulty hit me in this episode and it is a puzzling one. They seem to approaching character arcs as blocks and not only do they choose to focus on a few blocks at a time, they seem to literally ignore the other storylines when the focus happens.Alex is the core example of this as they introduced Livvie in the first few episodes, then not only ignored her, but had Alex openly still pine for Nico before suddenly bringing her back here as some meaningful deep emotional connection for him before shipping her away again. We’d seen some brief indications of Alex’s darkness before, but here he suddenly ramps it up several degrees by not only deciding that lethal force is necessary, but pushing his teammates to use it as well.Nico is another example of this as Robert made a comment about the Staff being dangerous when Tina gave it to Nico in the second episode, then nothing until now it’s suddenly a central theme out of almost nowhere. Meanwhile after rushing through several beats in the last episode concerning Karo/Nico, in this episode they feel distant acquintaces with Karo barely reacting at all to to Nico’s suffering. Also that conflict between Nico/Molly? Long ignored.It’s such a confusing issue as I understand the need for focus, but I can’t recall a show that is intent on ignoring the other character relationship/storylines when they aren’t on the forefront. It also really hurts the emotional beats as it never really feels continuous.
I agree. 100% true. I also became very excited when Robert said: “You know what it did to you.” It was so confusing to not see anything about it before these last few episodes.
It was infuriating how even while Gert was dying there, nobody brought up even the idea of going to her parents who are legitimately the best people around to help her. Also it continues confuse me why Gert hates her parents so much compared to what we have seen. Additionally I really hope we see Molly make peace with the Yorkes as we don’t see enough positive adoptive storylines.Having written that. I absolutely love whenever Chase quotes his coach. Just the way Sulkin sells those lines is funny as hell.
(yes, I am super behind on watching these)
Chase is rapidly becoming my favorite, which I didn’t expect. But he seems like the teen that the writers understand the best, and Sulkin is great at conveying the core of sorrow that motivates him.
I love the Doctor Strange tie in! Nico’s eyes were like Kaecilius’s from Doctor Strange, he drew his power from the Dark Dimension just like Nico!!! #ItsAllConnected
Looks like I’ll be the first here to mention Nico having Kaecilius eyes after smiting AWOL’s mooks.
I was wondering where I had seen those before!
While I agree with the idea that losing the most ‘active’ parents is a shame, I really love bimbo Tina. I also think Victor has been taken over by “Jonah”, rather than just a nameless alien.Also, the best part of that sex in the lab quote is definitely the muttered “Also it’s 2 pm.” afterwards.
“Jonah” got hit with the poison; he’s dead. That’s actually why Stacey being one of the possessed parents is such a problem now; she could sabotage any attempt by Dale to make more poison.
The quote is actually “Its 2 pm on Wednesday.” James Marsters is cited as ‘Jonah’s son’
Whoever is running this show is garbage at pacing. They took 10 episodes to get the Runaways to effing RUN AWAY last year, but then they charged through the rest of that storyline in just 7 episodes this year & had to start making ridiculous crap up because they had 6 episodes left & aren’t ready for the next comic arc yet (which they’ve already compromised thanks to what they did to Xavin).
Agreed. At this point, I’m terrified to see how they handle Victor and Klara.
We’re heading into season 3 still dealing with Pride & the Gibborhim. Molly’s gonna be old enough to drive by the time they’re ready for Victor & old enough to vote if they ever get to Klara. (Unless the show just goes ahead & brings ‘em in early like Xavin.)