Cloak and Dagger, “Level Up”, Review!

It is the season two finale of Cloak and Dagger!  Tandy and Tyrone have entered Club Delight to finally confront D’Spayre!  Music plays, a jazzy rendition of “Take on Me” as a watch counts down, when it does a woman pulls down a yellow mask.  An officer is thrown out of a store window.  He is shot and other gunmen come out of the store.  A poliCe car crashes into trash cans and then no one is there.  The woman takes off her mask in the club with trumpet going, it must be Andre working on that “Blue Note.”  Melissa Bowen is also there silently watching.  Are the producers trying to tell us that jazz is dangerous? Sorry, it is relaxing to me, even if Andre is on the trumpet.  Tandy walks up as the trumpet plays.  She sees a body of a trumpeter that Tyrone is checking on.  She knows it is Andre playing.  Mina is medically scanning Brigid O’Reilly with her Mayhem identity in her.  She confesses that the Terror may have affected her.  Mina has detected rage and compassion in the O’Reilly fusion.  She hears something and Mina is gone! 

CLOAK AND DAGGER -- “Level Up” -- AUBREY JOSEPH, OLIVIA HOLT -- Alfonso Bresciani/Freeform.  

Tandy has taken them to see Evita who is listening to them.  She uses cards to see that a force is given all the power with “none of the responsiblity”, he didn’t know Spider-Man’s lesson.  Evita staple guns Tyrone’s jacket to the floor.  He steps up and the darkness emerges from his jacket.  Evita will watch out for them as they enter.  Darkness.  Tandy has her Light Dagger and they start walking to the Roxxon gas station.  She calls out for Papa Legba.  There is no way to get to Andre with the destroyed station.  Tandy despairs and Tyrone tries to keep up her spirits, he calls her “harbinger of hope.”  He has Tandy make Loa symbols.  She makes daggers.  Tyrone says, “I believe in Tandy Bowen.”  The mall is shown and they walk towards it, the record store is also shattered.  Evita speaks French over a candle.  Tandy says Andre is disrupting the supernatural.  Brigid/Mayhem attacks something from Evita and is there to protect her.  Tandy and Tyrone reach out their hand using their powers.  

Cloak appears and Tandy in her ballet uniform.  Brigid attacks shadowy forms.  They enter the record store with empty shelves.  Tandy hears the trumpet calling and follows it to the club.  The club is filled with the people of New Orleans.  Tandy sees her mother and the spotlight is on Cloak and Dagger.  She throws her dagger, the light explodes, and Tyrone raises his cloak.  He finds that Andre sent her elsewhere.  Tyrone cloaks towards him and Andre uses his trumpet to blast him.  Tandy is in a dark place and she sees her father, Nathan.  Tyrone takes off his hood and finds himself at his house.  The student Tyrone enters and faces him.   D’Spayre’s manipulation has been done with Tandy, she should be able to take it, but this is new for Tyrone.  Either way, Cloak and Dagger should on the power of each other as the Divine Pairing even when they are separated.  They are challenged by the Loa shadow selves.  Student Tyrone mocks Cloak and then they fight.  Tandy has her Light Dagger. They appear together and finally Tandy calls out for Tyrone, they are in the same place, but still struggling with the counterparts.  

CLOAK AND DAGGER -- “Level Up” -- NOELLE RENEE BERCY-- Alfonso Bresciani/Freeform. 

The shadow Tyrone now is police officer Tyrone so Cloak has to fight officers calling out for each other.  In a black room, Cloak and Dagger are reunited, they turn to face the shadow selves.  Brigid knocks down another shadow form that reveals itself to be Officer Fuchs.  Cloak and Dagger both realize they have to switch fighting partners.  Very smart!  Brigid faces Fuchs, she kisses him, as Evita watches.  She apologizes and then shows him his grenade pins!  Brigid puts on his tactical helmet as the Shadow Fuchs explodes!  At the drug lab, Tyrone takes on Nathan, Tandy battles police Tyrone.  She follows officer Tyrone to his home and counters his moves with his Light Dagger.  Tyrone bashes Nathan knowing that his daughter is stronger than him.  Andre at a loss, plays his trumpet, Tandy is in the motel room, Tyrone is out in the Loa woods and they face their shadow selves.  Nathan is not afraid of her Light Dagger so she makes it into a Light Sword!  “Perfect Tyrone” is struck by a storm from Cloak.  Tandy goes all Zorro on her “father.”  Both Cloak and Dagger accept their faults and are able to fight on.   

'They are back in the club, Andre is readying for the last act!  Andre plays his trumpet, it is knocked out by Tandy’s Light Dagger, Tyrone appears and is choked by Andre.  Tandy throws her blinding Light Globe and notes that it is great for his migraines!  She throws her Light Daggers which strikes her mother.  Then, Tandy unleashes her Light Globe, which again causes pain for Andre.  Tyrone has Andre’s trumpet.  Evita is trying to protect the candle flame while Brigid fights.  Andre thinks they “are out of tricks”, Tyrone’s answer?, he projects darkness and Tandy comes out if it with her Light Sword!  He is held by Melissa and the others he held captive. This is the Superhero Moment we’ve been waiting for and it is like the comic books, but unique.  Tyrone touches him to find out Andre’s despair.   He is sitting on a desk, Tandy looks through Andre’s albums, to find the one that he doesn’t play for everyone else.   She plays a record of trumpet notes and runs her Light Dagger on the record!  This why we moved to digital music.  The note plays over and over, Cloak and Dagger find themselves in the record store, shifting, and run out.  Evita and Brigid find the shadows are gone.  

CLOAK AND DAGGER -- “Level Up” -- LANE MILLER, EMMA LAHANA -- Alfonso Bresciani/Freeform.  

Tandy and Tyrone stumble out and are welcomed by Brigid.  She has a favor to ask of Brigid.  Evita blows out the candle and starts to walk away from Tyrone.  Adina and Otis watch on television a news report that a state senator is arrested over the police crimes.  Melissa folds clothes along her daughter.  A missing girl poster is picked up by Lia in prison orange fatigues.  Mina checks a white mouse.  Evita is drawing symbols on a tomb stone in a ceremony.  Tyrone disappears after watching her.  Father Delgado throws away an Andre Deschaine album.  Brigid pulls on a rope, at the shooting range, officers see the hanging body of Connors with a “Guilty” sign.  Tandy hugs her mother before leaving with a backpack.  Tyrone watches Solomon go to a car for a drug deal and sees drugged youths in the back and refuses the deal, Tyrone smiles.  Tandy is on a bus, Tyrone joins her, and they are looking for girls found on beach outside New Orleans.  He takes her hand as we end with the jazzy “Take on Me” as the bus drives the night streets.  

The episode ends with comic book panels of Cloak and Dagger and “In Loving Memory of Stan Lee.”  This season; very tight episodes giving us the exploration of the Loa world, a new villain more dangerous than anything in season one, more development of our characters, while looking back at characters from season one, and a very real world problem!  I would like to see Dagger throw daggers that hone towards targets with streaks purging them and Cloak swallowing opponents in his cloak to have them shiver with their evil like the comic books.  I like the ballet outfit, kinda close to the comic book, I hope Tandy will modify it to more superhero-styled, not the dagger cut-out on her chest, too revealing, but something functional and fashionable.  I will add that this season of Cloak and Dagger is one of the best superhero stories about confronting your personal demons and past and breaking through to move on.  

Five Light Daggers out of Five!    

#CloakandDagger, #LevelUp, #AubreyJoseph, #OliviaHolt, #EmmaLahana, #Noelle ReneeBercy