After discovering her powers at AvengerCon, Kamala is filled with self-confidence and on top of the world. Then she runs into a new senior, named Kamran. It's Love at First Sight, but Bruno is not happy with this turn of events. He's still excited to help Kamala train her new powers as well as get in shape, because superheroes need to be fit!
Bruno's world is being turned upside down as well, because in addition to competition from a hot new guy, he's been accepted to early admission at CalTech. Before he can tell Kamala, Kamran takes her out for driving lessons, after which her brother Aamir and his fiancée spot them. In a hasty attempt to cover, she calls Kamran her cousin.
At dinner that night, Yusuf tells the story of Kamala's grandmother, Sana, and her mysterious great-grandmother, Aisha, who seems to be the object of family shame. Kamala experiences a mysterious vision, then investigates further by calling Sana, but she won't talk, and neither will Muneeba. Her next line of investigation is the aunties in the community, who will all be at Eid al-Adha. The gang helps Nakia campaign for the local mosque board while Kamala listens to tales of Aisha's misbehavior.
Meanwhile, Zoe's social media popularity has skyrocketed thanks to her dazzling tale of salvation at the hands of an unknown superhero. This brings her to the attention of the Department of Damage Control, who bring her in for interrogation. She lets slip that this new "enhanced individual" is South Asian, so Agent Deever starts casing local mosques.
As fate would have it, a young boy is about to fall to his death, prompting Kamala to jump into action. Dressed in her Captain Marvel costume, she barely saves the boy, discovering in the process that you shouldn't show off before the rescue is over. As she flees the scene, Damage Control shows up with EDITH drones. Still inexperienced, Kamala puts up a decent fight before being abruptly rescued by Kamran and his mother, Najma, who has been "waiting for her".
Tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming:
- Kamala finally corrects her gym teacher in this episode, who has been calling her "Camelia" for years.
- After getting everyone else's names right, Kamran refers to Bruno as "Brian". Nakia teases him about it, but Bruno is convinced that Kamran did it intentionally.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Kamran. In the comics he debuted in volume 1 issue 13, more than a year after her series' debut. Here he debuts in episode 2. Their storyline is also accelerated, as in the comics they had a date and a kiss and he revealed his powers to her before kidnapping her to take her to his mother.
- Affectionate Nickname: Nakia calls Kamala "KK", and Kamala calls her "Naks".
- Atrocious Alias: Kamala gets dubbed "Night Light" based on the glowing crest of her Captain Marvel cosplay outfit. This sets up a Brick Joke during the mosque rescue.
- Big Damn Heroes: Kamran shows up to rescue Kamala just as she's been found by Damage Control.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: Hameed says his favorite food is ice cream pizza. No, that's not ice cream and pizza separately, it's ice cream on pizza like pie à la mode. Kamala is confused and grossed out, as are several of the witnesses.
- Blatant Lies: Kamala and Kamran quickly spin a story about how they are cousins to avoid causing scandal. Aamir is gullible enough to buy it after an initial moment of doubt, but Tyesha gives Kamala a knowing grin before walking away.
- Brick Joke: During the opening scene, Zoe makes up an Atrocious Alias for Kamala: "Night Light". During the mosque rescue, when the food vendor Najaf spots her, he calls her "Night Light", implying that the name has gotten around in the community.
- Brief Accent Imitation: Kamran puts on a fairly convincing Pakistani accent when trying to pass himself off as a distant cousin of the Khan family, after his normal British accent draws Aamir's suspicion.
- Call-Back: Damage Control now use the EDITH drones from Spider-Man: Far From Home for themselves, albeit they seem to be unarmed and mostly for surveillance.
- Call-Forward: Sheik Abdullah briefly says "... and the smallest act of kindness" before interrupting his lecture to chide Nakia and Kamala for talking during it. This is part of the advice her father gives to her in the comics on how to live a good life, suggesting that this advice will show up in the series as well.
- Car Cushion: Kamala's Power Incontinence kicks in just as she's trying to help the boy she saved to solid ground. Her platform disintegrates under him, causing him to fall, and every time she tries to conjure a platform under him it just tips and he keeps falling. He ultimately lands on the roof of a parked car, breaking his ankle, but her efforts at least kept it from being a fatal landing.
- Child of Two Worlds: Nakia states that she felt like this when she was younger; both too light-skinned and too ethnic to fit in, calling it "this very uncomfortable, sucky, in-between". Her deciding to wear the hijab (it's implied her mother doesn't) was a way of claiming her own identity out of the conflict.
- Clique Tour: Kamala and Nakia give one to Bruno about their mosque. This includes the Mosque Bros (jocks), Pious Boys (nerds), Sunday School teachers, Insta-clique (popular girls), the Converts/Reverts (white and black converts to Islam), the Mini-Harami Girls, and the Illumin-Aunties (all-knowing middle-aged Gossipy Hens).
- Company Cross References: This is not the first time in recent Disney memory a character named Bruno was involved with a Bait-and-Switch regarding them letting go of a loved one over what turned out to be not quite so deadly a drop.
- Continuity Nod:
- Somehow it's known that Mjölnir is just there to channel Thor's power of thunder, which is what the bracelet is really doing.
- Kingo of the Eternals gets a mention when Kamala and Kamran talk about Bollywood movies, with "Kingo Senior" even getting a mention in reference to Kingo's habit of posing as his own descendants.
- In the last episode, Kamala imagines herself pulling off a Three-Point Landing in her Captain Marvel cosplay. Here, she actually does it for real (in her costume, no less) while rescuing Hameed.
- Damage Control has taken possession of Stark's EDITH drones.
- Contrived Coincidence: Kamran can drive, and not only provides the opportunity for Kamala to perfect her driving, but conveniently drives a wedge between her and Bruno. Subverted when it turns out his sudden arrival is very much intentional, and his real motive is to serve her up to his mother on a silver platter.
- Crash-Into Hello: Kamala's first encounter with Kamran is colliding with him in the school hallway. She instantly falls in love with him. The ending reveals that this might not have been coincidental.
- Dark and Troubled Past:
- Muneeba's family history is something she does not like to talk about, even for a story from the Partition, and is subject to much secrecy and speculation. The aunties believe it involved something awful like her grandmother either murdering someone, having an affair, or both. Despite this, everyone can only refer to it in vague terms as something that carries great shame onto Muneeba herself, so much so that it's part of the reason why she moved to America.
- This broadly applies to everyone who lived through the Partition. As is said in the episode, "Every Pakistani family has a Partition Story, and none of them are good." It was a very violent time, with ethnic and religious tensions breaking out into extreme violence. The train mentioned in the story is a common theme, with refugees crowding into trains hoping to escape the violence; Yusuf even mentions that Muneeba's grandfather was injured while trying to find Suna.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Kamala's powers involuntarily manifesting on her nose is briefly treated as a giant zit popping up at the worst time.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Kamala and Nakia both eagerly stare at Kamran as he emerges from the pool.
- Emo Teen: Yusuf and Muneeba tease Aamir by sharing with Tyesha the story of how he worked at Hot Topic during his teenage goth phase. Kamala jumps in to remind him of the spiked choker he wore.
- Everyone Has Standards: Agent Cleary is once again manipulating children into implicating themselves without bothering with anything such as a presumption of innocence or letting them call their parents. However, he's obviously uncomfortable with his partner's borderline racist description of the new enhanced, and advises her to be very careful with surveilling various Pakistani sites.
- Facepalm: Aamir does this when Kamala complains about the women's prayer section at their mosque.
- Failed a Spot Check: The Damage Control agents take ages to walk around their own vehicles, and somehow fail to hear or see the loud sports car that Kamran drove up in to save Kamala, reacting as if she vanished into thin air.
- Foreshadowing:
- Kamran says he moves around a lot with his mom and effortlessly follows along with Kamala's lie of being a distant cousin by seamlessly switching to a Pakistani accent. At the end of the episode, he rescues Kamala from being apprehended by Damage Control and introduces her to his mom, who's been looking forward to meeting her. This puts new perspective and a lot of implications on those earlier details.
- Kamran bellyflops in the pool after jumping off the roof, but shrugs it off. In the comics, he's an Inhuman.
- Part of the Khan family story about the Partition is that Muneeba's mother Sana got separated from her father (who had been injured in the fighting and couldn't keep up with a child) when they were trying to get on the last train to Karachi. After the train left the station, Sana was found to be on it, and when her father questioned how she'd gotten onboard, claimed she "followed a trail of stars" to him. Kamala's glittering energy platforms could be interpreted as made of stars.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Sharp-eyed viewers will notice that the boy Kamala saves wears Versace sneakers just like the ones that were stolen from Nakia at the mosque. Word of God confirms that he is in fact the Mosque Shoe Thief.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: Bruno lands an all-expenses-paid semester at CalTech, but he would have to move to California to take it and is clearly struggling with the decision when it would mean leaving Kamala. Naturally, this comes at the worst possible time: right as she becomes infatuated with Kamran.
- Friendship Moment: Kamala and Nakia share a touching conversation in the bathroom, even capping it off with a Platonic Declaration of Love.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Agent Cleary continues his bit from Spider-Man: No Way Home of buttering up interrogation subjects to catch them off guard. In this case, he flatters Zoe by pretending to be a social media fan before switching gears and accusing her of conspiring to protect the "enhanced individual". While Zoe is off-balance, Deever jumps in to grill her on Kamala's ethnicity.
- Gossip Evolution: Kamala tries to learn about her great grandmother from the aunties during Eid. Instead, all she gets is a bunch of random stories, because they know nothing, and the truth is a lot more complicated than any of them could guess.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Bruno is notably a little standoffish towards Kamran when Kamala seems clearly interested in him. He awkwardly tries to interject into their conversations on the car ride home.
- Handshake Substitute: Nakia and Kamala have one of the Dap variety.
- Hard Light: Name-dropped in regards to the nature of Kamala's powers. Bruno notes it's not exactly clever. Uncommonly, the fact they have mass becomes an issue when Kamala can't lift a hand construct when she makes it too big, as her new powers didn't come with super strength. This is despite her also being able to make free-floating platforms.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Though Kamala figures out how to make constructs after some practice, she has some trouble getting them to "anchor" correctly. Her platforms tip as if balanced on a single point, and a giant hand construct pulls her down because it's too heavy for her to lift. This also makes her rescue in the climax more difficult than it needs to be, because her platforms keep tipping unintentionally. This is on top of her visions manifesting randomly, causing the platform the boy is standing on in the climax to disappear because it breaks her concentration.
- How We Got Here: A nice in-universe example, with Yusuf quietly telling Muneeba's mother's Partition Story, with Aamir and Kamala both repeating what are obviously lines he's always included in the story, like kids repeating lines from their parents' heavily rehearsed How Dad Met Mom story.
- Huddle Shot: After Kamala faints at the dinner table from a superpower-induced vision, she wakes up on the floor with her family worriedly huddled above her.
- Imagine Spot: After meeting Kamran at Zoe's party, Kamala is overjoyed when she gets home, dancing around and air-singing to The Ronettes' "Be My Baby".
- Improbable Falling Save: Double Subverted. When a young boy falls out of a tower, Kamala uses her powers to hold him up until she can get in position underneath him. He slips, and she tries to catch him, only for his weight and momentum to make her fall too. She manages to catch them both with her powers before they hit the ground.
- Insistent Terminology: Nakia calls a clique of new black and white Muslims "The Converts" but Kamala says they're actually "The Reverts".note
- Internal Homage:
- The scene with Kamala dangling off a ledge while she begs Bruno to let her go is a reference to the similar scene in Avengers: Endgame with Black Widow and Hawkeye.
- Kamala ending up with the awkward alias of Night Light is similar to Peter becoming known as Night Monkey while superheroing in Europe.
- In-Universe Factoid Failure: Bruno says he has seen Baazigar and found the experience pleasant. Shah Rukh Khan played the Villain Protagonist who romances two sisters, kills one of them and the ending of the movie is a Bittersweet Ending, with him dying and the fact that he managed to avenge his family is the only reason it is not a full-on Downer Ending.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The Mosque Shoe Thief suffers a broken ankle in his fall... while wearing stolen shoes that are probably too big for him.
- Love at First Sight: Kamala is smitten with Kamran as soon as she lays eyes on him.Kamala: We're so not going to that party. [Kamran agrees to go to the party] We have to go to that party.
Nakia: [smirks knowingly] - Loves My Alter Ego: Zoe is fangirling "Night Light", but the situation is inverted with Nakia, who loves Kamala and calls "Night Light" a "budget Captain Marvel knock-off".
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: Nakia's speech in the bathroom implies that she is the result of one, with her mother being either a secular white woman or a more liberal Muslim, and her father being more traditional in his beliefs (her mother having a hard time looking at her because of her hijab and her father having a hard time looking at her because of "the girlies"note ).
- Mundane Made Awesome: After meeting her new crush Kamran, Kamala returns home and gets a drink out of her fridge in a song-and-dance number complete with mood lighting.
- Mythology Gag:
- At Zoe's house party, a boy tricks Kamala into sipping from a cup of "orange juice" that turns out to be spiked with vodka, prompting her to ask, "Am I drunk?" This is an almost perfect recreation of a scene from the comics, except that the boy there is Zoe's asshole boyfriend.
- Kamala drops Blatant Lies about Kamran being her and Aamir's cousin. In the comics, he is their cousin.
- Nakia gives Kamala a hijab at one point. The red/blue/purple pattern almost perfectly matches the scarf Kamala wears on the cover of her very first Ms. Marvel comic book
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- No Periods, Period: Played with; Kamala's nose begins to glow just before class changes, so she rushes to the bathroom before anyone can notice. Nakia follows and dangles a tampon over the stall door, clearly thinking Kamala had started her period unexpectedly. When Kamala (whose hand is now glowing) doesn't take it, Nakia mentions that she also has pads, saying she knows "how weird" Muneeba is about Kamala using tampons.
- Not so Dire: During the Training Montage, Kamala builds up the courage to create a hard light platform off the edge of the roof — which immediately collapses, and Bruno barely grabs her before she falls but can't pull her up or hold her much longer. She begs Bruno to let her go... and it cuts to a wide shot that shows she was just practicing above a slightly lower section of the roof and is only a few feet off the ground.
- The Oner: The Clique Tour scene starts on Bruno, Nakia and Kamala, then the camera makes fast-forward moves to focus on each of the described cliques in one uninterrupted shot. (Although some quick camera blurs may obfuscate a few cuts.)
- Parental Sexuality Squick: Kamala and Aamir react with disgust when their parents talk about how they never would have gotten together without Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet.
- Platonic Declaration of Love: Kamala and Nakia happily express their love for one another after their little heart-to-heart.
- Power Crutch: As far as Bruno can tell based on thermal imagery, Kamala's powers are fueled by an internal energy coming from her, not the bangle, which is acting as a focusing medium.
- Power Incontinence: Though Kamala mostly gets the hang of her powers through training, she's plagued by visions and has a problem with her nose and hand suddenly glowing during school.
- Product Placement: Kamran's Porsche (which Kamala audibly admires), Nakia's Versace shoes, and a Capri Sun drink pouch are featured in this episode.
- Profiling: When the Damage Control agents interrogate Zoe for distinguishing features, Cleary tries a more amenable approach to see if Zoe will volunteer anything herself, while Deever quickly moves onto ethnic traits like an accent or skin color, something Agent Cleary is shown to silently balk at. When they have reason to suspect a person of South Asian descent, he asks Agent Deever to watch over any community centers where the suspect is likely to congregate (including, long pause, mosques), but asks she do it sensitively since those communities are already on watchlists.
- Properly Paranoid: Kamala's parents noted that while they ostensibly trust her, they don't trust other people, especially at parties. Almost the moment Kamala arrives at Zoe's party, someone tricks her into drinking alcohol.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- Muneeba shows herself to be this in this episode, perhaps realizing being so strict with Kamala would only lead to more trouble. She accepts Kamala's apology for sneaking out to AvengerCon, then agrees to let her go to Zoe's party provided she's home by nine, though she does snark at Kamala to come in through the front door this time.
- Agent Cleary is this compared to Agent Deever. He tries to connect with Zoe before accusing it of being a prank for likes, a tactic designed to get her to volunteer information in her defense. Deever, by contrast, immediately starts prodding Zoe for details about the potential enhanced's ethnicity, causing Zoe to withdraw, and has to be reminded by Cleary to be respectful of people the FBI already has under surveillance.
- Relatively Flimsy Excuse: When Aamir catches Kamala and Kamran hanging out, Kamala tries to claim that Kamran is their cousin. Aamir is somewhat skeptical, but Tyesha, who can tell that Kamala has a crush, pulls him away before he can ask too many questions.
- Scylla and Charybdis: Yusuf intends to support his best friend Rashid for election to the Mosque Board (the equivalent to a Christian church council), but finds himself targeted by Nakia, who has also decided to run. She quite ruthlessly frames her campaign as the type of advancement which Yusuf and Muneeba moved to America to guarantee Aamir and Kamala would have, leaving him in Stunned Silence as he tries to decide what to do now.
- She Is All Grown Up: Another reason Nakia gives for feeling awkward is that apparently her father isn't sure how to react to his daughter going through puberty.Nakia: Between the hijab and the... girliesnote , my parents can barely make eye contact with me any more.
- Ship Tease: Bruno isn't particularly happy when Kamala and Kamran seemingly hit it off romantically, and Nakia seems to recognize it as she teasingly asks aloud why he's in a bad mood. Bruno is also displeased when he sees Kamran is taking Kamala for driving lessons.
- Shirtless Scene: Kamran jumps off the roof, into the pool, shirtless, Kamala and Nakia are both shamelessly Eating the Eye Candy, and simultaneously say "Mashallah" (an Arabic phrase Muslims often use to express praise or awe, literally translated "God has willed it"), which Nakia translates to a confused Miguel as "DAMN".
- Shout-Out:
- Kamala jokes that she and Ant-Man are similar because they're each charming and look younger than they are. There are any number of Running Gag memes which reference Paul Rudd not having visibly aged much over the last twenty-five years.
- Mr. Wilson compares Bruno's situation to those of Luke Skywalker and Andy Sachs while trying to convince him to take the opportunity to go to CalTech.
- On the school day when he is offered the CalTech opportunity, Bruno is dressed like Marty McFly.
- Kamran asks Kamala if Bowser taught her to drive.
- Kamala and Kamran discuss Bollywood movies, especially Shah Rukh Khan movies. Both agree that Baazigar is his finest work, even though most people think it's DDLJ, his Star-Making Role. Kamala later says, "There is no such thing as a bad Shah Rukh Khan movie."
- Shown Their Work: Three examples, all related to Kamala and Nakia attending Friday prayers at their mosque.
- Nakia removes her everyday hijab while she and Kamala are alone. Women and girls who wear a hijab only do so as a sign of public modesty, and don't usually wear it at home or when secluded with friends.
- Kamala and Nakia sit at a communal washing area to perform wudu, a ritual cleansing before prayer which involves washing the face, hands, forearms, and feet, all of which they are shown doing.
- Once Kamala and Nakia actually enter the prayer area, they're both wearing ceremonial hijabs, which while not actually required to wear, have become common throughout most forms of Islam. They're longer and more elaborate.
- Those who converted to Islam are described as "reverts" rather than "converts", because Islamic teaching holds that everyone is born Muslim and those who convert later in life are merely reverting to their natural state.
- Social Media Before Reason: A recurring theme throughout the episode.
- Two girls are told off by an elder for taking selfies at the mosque, in the middle of a lecture by the imam.
- Zoe is brought in by Damage Control after her posting about Kamala on social media led them to her.
- The boy Kamala saves from falling is only in danger to begin with because he was leaning out of a tower to get a selfie.
- The Suffragette: Nakia decides to try and become a member of the Mosque Board due to her irritation with inequalities in the women's section of the building.
- Tell Me About My Father: Kamala hears the family's Partition Story retold and is inspired to call her grandmother, looking for information about the bracelet, which leads to her learning about her great-grandmother and asking for more information.
- Three-Point Landing: Kamala strikes a superhero pose when she jumps off of her hard-light platform onto the mosque roof mid-rescue. Unfortunately, she's not quite finished with the rescue, and her showboating almost causes her to fail.
- Too Dumb to Live: Hameed leans out of one of the mosque's towers while sitting on the ledge to take a selfie. Unsurprisingly, he falls off and Kamala has to save him.
- Took a Level in Badass: Kamala has significantly more confidence when she walks into school than she did in the first episode.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Muneeba has backed down a bit on criticizing Kamala and putting her on a leash.
- Training Montage: Kamala practices using her powers with Bruno's help. Made a bit awkward by the fact that she's unathletic and uncoordinated.
- Women Are Wiser: Nakia and Tyesha both immediately recognize Kamala's crush on Kamran. Bruno knows enough to be jealous, but Aamir is totally clueless.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: When Mr. Wilson tells Bruno he’s been given the opportunity to study at CalTech for a semester, despite still being in high school, because of a program that allows it, Bruno is hesitant to accept it. Mr. Wilson tries to encourage him by likening it to a Call to Adventure where the hero has nothing to lose, not realising that, from Bruno's perspective, it's actually a Friend-or-Idol Decision.
- Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb: Hameed decides the best way to take a selfie would be leaning out of a high tower while sitting on a ledge. Darwin must be spinning in his grave.
