Summary
“Devil’s Torture Chamber” is another jaunt to a hellish dreamscape, though this time with some special guests.
This recap of Marvel’s Runaways Season 3, Episode 8, “Devil’s Torture Chamber”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
As it turns out, Ty and Tandy, aka Cloak and Dagger, weren’t summoned by Nico per se but arrived to investigate all the otherworldly fuss she was making. They have some banter and a lot of exposition is shared both ways, which is remarkably clumsy but also a lot of fun in that knowing crossover sort of way. Digital Janet appears on the computer and tells them where everyone is being held, so with Cloak and Dagger’s help, Nico is able to spring her friends from captivity. The parents are transported to the Hollywood sign (Ty is from New Orleans and doesn’t know any other landmarks) and the kids all arrive back at the Hostel, though the dark, hellish underworld version.
Alex is still locked up, now with Catherine, while the others try and find him and are pursued by AWOL and his men. They’re saved at the last minute by a hooded wizard who turns out to be the magician we met the last time the kids were here, and he has exposition to share about Morgan’s meddling with dimensions. Everyone not on-board with this plan is being killed or dragged to the horrific prison where Alex is currently enjoying an extended stay.
Marvel’s Runaways Season 3, Episode 8 feels a bit reiterative, as the gang is constantly beset by warped personal visions, but it’s livened up a bit by the presence of Cloak and Dagger. It also makes for some cool sequences, especially a scene in which Nico, Karolina, and Tandy fly between prison towers.
It takes a while of trippy diversions and effects-driven action for everyone to eventually hook up, though in the meantime Alex is forced to make an uncomfortable choice between his mother and his friends, and when they all hold hands to return to the real world, Tandy sees a vision of Alex which reveals his ambition of possessing all the other kids’ powers and gizmos. When they get back to the Hostel, she insists there’s something up with him, but he’s able to convince everyone that spending six months in a nightmarish dreamscape probably distorted what was in his head, explaining what she saw.
At the end of “Devil’s Torture Chamber,” Cloak and Dagger leave, having fulfilled their attention-grabbing purposes, though it was fun to see them nonetheless, and lessons were learned among the cast. The next job is to find Molly — and save the world. But that might be complicated by the fact that the episode ends with Molly being meddled with by witches. She wears one of the spooky pendants now. And when she opens her eyes, they’re glowing green.
