The narrative time jumping continues on Cloak and Dagger as we learn more about Mayhem. This is the surprise duplicate of Detective Bridget O’Reilly that we saw at the end of last season, but didn’t realize at the time. They get clever with the storytelling, and bring back another character from last season for some background on what’s going on. Our heroes have some split reactions to what they find about the newest character.

Before rejoining our main characters where we left them last time, we see Mina Hess, the researcher that was part of last season. She’s studying mice who have been exposed to the chemicals from the Roxxon spill that happened at the end of season one. Her mutterings bring us up to date on what she’s been up to, and then, when there’s another major power flicker, she gets a surprising result.

 

Jumping back to 242 days ago, Mayhem pulls herself out of the water and goes home. The news is covering the Roxxon incident, but also a story that’s a big surprise to Mayhem. After throwing a temper tantrum, Mayhem pays a very unusual visit to a hospital. She doesn’t manage to do what she planned to, but does hear enough to remind her about Connors, the crooked cop who was a recurring villain first season. This is enough to give Mayhem a new focus, and even get a small act of kindness out of her.

 

Back in the present, the two O’Reillys stare at each other and there’s a lot of both confusion and putting pieces together. Mayhem wants Tandy to work with her on the missing girls case, but when the others don’t seem to want to jump on board, pulls her gun on them. Tyrone decides it’s time to go, and ‘ports them all back to his church. He’s definitely getting better at that. This stunt impresses Tandy and exhausts Tyrone. Tandy starts hurling questions at O’Reilly, who doesn’t have answers, until Tyrone gets her to stop. They realize they need someone with answers about what happened.

 

This brings them to Mina, who is fascinated by the concept and examines O’Reilly. She gives them some background on what she’s learned in her studies so far. 236 days ago, Mayhem rents a room in a cheap hotel and deals with a sleazy desk clerk named Dale. Back in the now, O’Reilly is coming to a few realizations about what’s been going on with her life. Tandy pushes the detective to help them figure out where Mayhem would be, and this leads them to the same hotel, and the clerk is much more… respectful… when he sees O’Reilly than the first time we saw him. They talk their way into Mayhem’s room and see a crazy wall about the missing girls and a few other things.

 

Jumping back to 200 days ago, Father Delgado, Tyrone’s former advisor, packs his things and leaves the school. Mayhem finds him on the way out and asks about Tyrone. Delgado is clearly in a bad place, and doesn’t really feel like talking. They have a disjointed conversation about careers and Tyrone’s charges. In the present, our heroes comb through the room for clues, finding a credit card that explains some of O’Reilly’s financial issues. Tandy starts getting really pushy again, and Tyrone says they’ll wait in the lobby, although they only go to the hallway. He and Tandy talk about protection versus destruction while O’Reilly finds some stuff from her old habits when undercover, which I think was also a nod to Daredevil supporting character Ben Urich. The next lead O’Reilly finds is a dead end as the old standby of Plot-Point News shows the place on fire, leading them next to Bourbon Street.

 

Delgado drunkenly babbles near another New Orleans landmark, and Mayhem speaks with him. She seems fascinated by the troubled priest. 122 days ago, Mayhem sneaks around the police station, gets some info she needs, and narrowly avoids her duplicate. She does set up a situation which confuses the “real” O’Reilly.

 

Back to the present, the trio of good guys trace Mayhem to a strip club on Bourbon Street. O’Reilly worries about the young heroes handling someone this strong, and waits outside. Tyrone seems to have other issues with going inside, but one very sloppy entry process later, they’re in. They do find Mayhem beating on some guy, and the dark detective once again asks Tandy to join her. When she doesn’t, Mayhem gets past both of them, faces down her meeker self, and walks off.

 

Continuing her past investigation, 113 days ago, Mayhem attends a community meeting and sees Tyrone’s mother pressured into voting to end an investigation that has the community outraged. Mayhem follows the man who pressured Mrs. Johnson and has a chat with him. It ends ugly, but shows Mayhem more of what she can do. It gave some brief hope of clearing Tyrone’s brother of his old charges, but Mayhem ended that as soon as it started.

 

102 days ago, Delgado is in a bad way, and Mayhem comes to visit again. He makes a despair-laced comment that God lost his number so he’s not taking confessions, but she keeps talking. Working through some of both of their difficulties, Delgado offers her some practical, if bleak, advice. This steers Mayhem in a new direction. In the present, the good guys are once again a step behind, but they find some of the missing girls and another wrecked ambulance. Tandy and Tyrone debate Mayhem’s actions, and there seems to be some enraged white girl bonding going on.

 

48 hours ago, Mayhem works the case her own way, and commits the club massacre we saw. Tandy tries to use her vision power to get a lead, but is shaken by realizing the girl she’s trying to help has lost all hope. Tyrone’s darker touch gets them the location where the girls were being taken. Mina takes notes on her studies while Delgado rants in the street. Tyrone gets them to the building he saw, and Tandy starts psyching herself up to go in.

 

36 hours ago is an expanded version of Mayhem confronting O’Reilly that we saw before. In the present, Tyrone uses his ability to scout out the building, and is clearly getting winded from multiple uses of his power. Tandy uses her own new abilities to distract the gang inside with an impressive light show. Tyrone takes advantage of this to start evacuating the girls, pushing his powers hard. Tandy and Tyrone are both discovered by gang members. Tandy gets rescued in vicious style by Mayhem’s arrival. The vigilante takes up a gun from the gangster she took out and storms the building, almost killing the young thug Tyrone saw. Tyrone saves him with a new trick, and then dispatches Mayhem the same way he did Connors last season. The final scene is a very creepy one with Mayhem in her new circumstances.

 

What I liked: Tyrone and Tandy work great together. They’re both expanding their abilities and are clearly doing their best to do the right thing. The Mayhem/O’Reilly split is an interesting development, although I don’t much care for what they left O’Reilly with. I liked the nod to Urich and O’Reilly’s New York (Netflix) roots. It’s hard to watch, but Delgado’s fall is being shown nicely. The past scenes of Mayhem were good storytelling.

 

What I didn’t: I’m not sure where all the rage from Tandy is coming from. If it’s more backlash from her past, it seems to be manifesting suddenly and strongly. With corporate issues it’s impossible now, but I really would have loved to see Tyrone and Tandy meet up with some of the Netflix heroes. I’m also starting to think we’re never going to even hear their codenames, which isn’t a big thing but would have been nice. I miss Tyrone’s cloak that was around for such a brief period.

 

I thought this was another great episode. I’ll give this one a 4 out of 5.