After last Episodes "Cosmic" ending, we begin on the most overtly teenage beginning to a marvel episode ever. Where Kamala all of a sudden becomes infinitely more confident as she feels on top of the world post her previous night's antics, and then is immediately bummed out seeing her high school "enemy" Zoe hogging all the clout.
It is during this beginning sequence that she meets a new character and her latest "boy of her dreams" Kamran. and upon learning of him going to Zoe's party to celebrate "the fragility of life" immediately want's to go despite her hatred for Zoe.
I'm just going to randomly insert a quote from harry potter and the half blood prince the movie, cause as much as I hate the adaptation compared to the novel, this line is perfect given the context.
If you know you know.
Anyways, distractions aside, we see more of Kamala's Muslim background as she rushes to a mosque to give namaz, and we see something exceptional, we get good representation while critiquing some of the more negative aspects of the religion like the giant partition between men and women, when Kamala calls out "its kind of hard to hear you since you are so far away" or something like that I forget, huh, so it is possible... what a surprise.
And we see Kamala encouraging her friend Nakia to be the change and stand for the board, man we are doing leaps and bounds here.
Much of the beginning half of the Episode is taken in Kamala discovering and learning the wheels around her new powers, and we learn that the power is coming from within her and not the bangle, so... inhuman storyline still possible? Maybe? I mean come on the king of the Inhumans was literally a member of the illuminati in doctor strange in the multiverse of madness. Granted, that was a different universe, but... if it can happen once... anyways, getting sidetracked.
we soon learn more about how she got this power, specifically about her great grandmother Aisha, who, "Brought shame on the family".
We hear about it during a dinner of the Khans with Kamala's brother's wife, where we hear that Muneeba's family (Muneeba being Kamala's mother) has an interesting story about the partition.
And this is so beautifully done, I'll just quote Amir(Kamala's Dad), "There's a story about Muneeba's family from during the partition. You know, they had to get on to the last train that was getting out of the city. Yeah? Now, her mother, Muneeba's mother, Sana, who was just a toddler then, she got separated from her parents on the train station. Her father tried to find her, but you know he was injured and needed a walking stick to get around, so he couldn't really keep up with her. But here's the thing. Nobody knows how the little toddler, Sana, managed to get back on the train just before the train pulled out of the station."
"Well what did Sana say happened. How did she find her father?"
"Well, Sana always said that, she followed a trail of stars... right back to her father."
I was smiling with tears in my eyes when this story was told, everything from the narration, to the score, to the amazing acting by everyone involved was perfect, and isn't this just like how a child's fantasy would work? Aren't these the daydreams of a kid? And the thing is, in the context of the show, it's most likely true, it seems very likely that Sana's mother, Aisha, had the same powers that Kamala now possesses and used them, to bring Sana to her father, and faced repercussions for having revealed herself, and so post partition she disappeared.
I had said, in the first episode review, that this was part of the appeal of the show, fantasies and dreams coming true, someone who fantasizes about being a hero, i.e. one of us, getting to be one.
Muneeba doesn't want to talk about it though, but she clearly knows more than she is letting on, and if any of you legends thought that while in the previous episode she put away Sana's gifts as trash, she knew something, I believe this is the show telling us we were right, and more is yet to come.
Also, two sidenotes, one, the fact that the power is coming from Kamala and not the bangle, is revealed to us by a device Bruno made, and with this and Ned and Peter, how many hyper intelligent prodigies do we have in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for plot convenience? Although I guess technology has just taken off at such a pace in the MCU, even kid made tech seems hyper advance, and it makes sense that Kamala is caught by the DoDC so quickly given the high technology in the universe.
And secondly, I must say that was a very good representation of what the partition represents for Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis alike, huh, suck in that doctor who. although, I will say, it focused on Pakistanis more than the other two, but I'll give that a pass, seeing that the family is Pakistani.
Now, to talk about Kamran, the man who is implied but not mentioned by name (although now I mentioned him by name but you know It's not just about him, I'll use it make a broader point *Cough* Amber Heard Sucks *Cough*)
So, Kamran is this new senior boy that comes to Kamala's school and Kamala is immediately smitten by him, and he seems to be into her too, a little too much actually, and also kinda out of the blue?
So after her almost failed attempt at saving a young kid who climbed on a bell tower for a selfie, when she runs away and is almost caught by the DoDC, using the drones from Spider-Man: Far from Home, he swoops in and saves her, in his car, and we learn that the woman who has been appearing to Kamala in her visions given to her by the bracelet presumably, is his mother.
My theory is this is Aisha, I know the credits list her as Najma, but you know, maybe she changed her name, and so... Kamran is Kamala's great uncle? Yeah that's a weird can of worms I don't want to open.
Also two last sidenotes, I love Nakia, and how she uses wordplay to get a vote from Kamala's dad, which would have otherwise been impossible, and I love how they call the group of Aunties during the Eid celebrations as IlluminAunties, cause man, if you've ever met an Asian Auntie, you know.
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