Summary
“The Broken Circle” pitted heroes against villain in a climactic standoff, and we lost a major character. But isn’t there still one episode left?
This recap of Marvel’s Runaways Season 3, Episode 9, “The Broken Circle”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
Everything is not okay in “The Broken Circle”, whatever Molly might have been instructed to say by Morgan’s coven. Karolina wants to regroup; Nico and Alex want to fight: “This is war,” after all. Gert apologizes to Chase for how she’s been acting lately, but he isn’t really listening since he’s busy researching her academic future. Everything’s very uncertain in Marvel’s Runaways Season 3, Episode 9, the penultimate episode of both this season and the entire show.
Pride, meanwhile, reunite to discuss how best to save Molly. Tina provides some witchy exposition. If Morgan is casting a major spell she’s going to need organic matter to power it, and Molly is especially useful for that since she’s a superhero, but they should be able to interrupt the incantation. Cue Heist Movie Mode.
This is all lots of fun in “The Broken Circle”. Infiltrating the hotel where Morgan is holed up, Stacey and Dale (doing her adlibs) pose as CDC employees and demand the place is shut down. On the roof, Morgan, in her full comic-book cleavage-accentuating attire, is performing the ritual. Pride are able to rescue Molly but not prevent the incantation, the intention of which is to smash all the various worlds together and build a dark army for Morgan to assume control of.
There’s a final battle to prepare for, which takes up much of Marvel’s Runaways Season 3, Episode 9. The kids get to enjoy plenty of scenes with their parents, who all have ideas for how best to take the fight to Morgan or defend themselves against her when she arrives. Dale figures out that the antibodies in Karolina’s blood might protect everyone from Wiccan possession. Alex, Chase, and Victor handle the tech, with assistance from Siri Janet, who helps them hack into the cell phone towers. Tina performs more blood magic, this time putting several years of her own life into some salt that’ll hopefully create a magic-stifling barrier. Tina also provides some backstory on Morgan: They knew each other when she was studying witchcraft, and she considers the Staff of One her birthright.
Dale infects Molly and Gert with the protective serum, giving them alien DNA, though it might sever Gert’s connection to Old Lace, who is locked away as a precaution. Eventually, Morgan herself arrives for the showdown. The kids’ initial defences don’t seem to work, and seemingly out of options, they all kneel before her in a misguided attempt to save their loved ones from her wrath.
Of course, it’s all an act designed to buy the tech team time to deactivate the cell towers, thought the triumphant moment is a bit undermined by the kids explaining this outright when we can see it quite clearly for ourselves. Morgan battles Nico’s witchcraft. Chase attempts to fight off her backup. Gert has a feminist empowerment standoff with Morgan, which is all a ruse; she sneakily creates a circle of magic salt around her, so that Tina can banish her away again using lots of swirly visual effects. She’s gone.
But so, too, is Gert, who was mortally injured in the commotion and passes away on the floor. Old Lace, having freed herself from captivity, arrives for an emotional reaction slightly offset by some ropey CGI. With only one episode to go and no villain, how is Runaways going to conclude?
