Bruno and Kamran go on the run from Damage Control, while Kamala tries to smooth things over with her family. At the same time, Agent Deever continues her pursuit of both Kamran and Kamala.
Tropes:
- Alliterative Title: No Normal.
- Almost Kiss: While hiding from Damage Control, Kamala and Kamran almost kiss before Bruno interrupts them.
- Apologetic Attacker: After she smashes the vehicle carrying the sonic cannon, Kamala makes a point of asking if the DODC agents in the vehicle are okay.
- Badass Pacifist: Kamala resolves the whole situation without harming anyone, not even the Damage Control agents who are actively hunting her and Kamran.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Yusuf and Aamir are terrible at pretending they didn't already know Kamala is Night Light. Tyesha can only sit there and laugh.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: As Kamala prepares to head to the Circle Q, Muneeba tells her she's not going anywhere —then adds, "dressed like that" as she reveals that she made Kamala her own superhero costume.
- Bittersweet Ending: Kamala reconciles with her family and they accept she is a superhero, she earns the acceptance of the community for her heroism at the high school by protecting Kamran from Damage Control, while Agent Deever is unceremoniously relieved of duty for her actions, making her no longer a threat. However, Kamran is forced to leave the country for his own protection, so he and Kamala might not see each other again, and Kamala switches places with Carol Danvers, leaving the audience wondering where she is.
- Blatant Lies: Kamran, believing that people will never accept him, tells Kamala that she'll never be accepted either, even though the crowd has been cheering for her and vocally supporting her for the entire fight.
- Bookends:
- Muneeba's reactions to her daughter in a Captain Marvel costume. In the first episode, she dismissed the Captain Marvel costume as exposing too much. In the final episode, she makes a brand new outfit for Kamala and helps her embrace her destiny as a hero.
- Kamala's first step to being a hero is saving Zoe from a nasty fall with one hand at AvengerCon. She fully cements herself as a hero by saving a crowd from a police car using both her hands.
- Brick Joke: Hameed shows up in the TikTok montage at the end, both praising Kamala for her actions, and mildly complaining that her attempt at saving him led to him breaking a leg.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": The insignia on the costume Muneeba gives Kamala is a stylized Urdu "K", based on the broken "Kamala" necklace from earlier. (Luckily, from the proper angle, the Urdu "K" can be made to resemble the comics' traditional Ms. Marvel lightning-bolt insignia.)
- The Bus Came Back: Zoe comes back after sitting out 3 whole episodes.
- Call-Back:
- "Ko Ko Korina" makes its return as a distraction for Damage Control, with a device posing as a bomb that's revealed to be a speaker. Then a disco ball drops with some laser pointers aimed at it.
- In "Seeing Red", Kamala observes a graffiti of Ant-Man growing into Giant-Man. This seems to be the inspiration to Kamala's Embiggen skill which she uses in this episode.
- In "Generation Why", Muneeba gives a speech about how important it is to follow traffic laws. When Kamala runs through the air on floating hardlight stepping stones to help Bruno and Kamran, she stops in midair at a red light.
- The Cameo: Carol Danvers appears in the Stinger, somehow swapping places with Kamala.
- Celebrity Paradox: Nakia invites Kamala and Bruno to shawarma by referencing Mean Girls, which starred Christine Palmer herself, Rachel McAdams.
- Chekhov's Hobby: In the first episode, Muneeba sews a "Tiny Hulk" costume for Kamala to wear to AvengerCon, which Kamala hates and doesn't even try on. Here, Muneeba puts her skills to good use and makes an original superhero costume for her. It's modest but not overly so (unlike the Hulk costume), has Pakistani design elements, is in the same color scheme as Kamala's idol Captain Marvel, and has a symbol derived from Kamala's name in Arabic. Kamala absolutely loves it.
- Cliffhanger: As mentioned above, the episode ends with Kamala and Carol switching places. Where has Kamala been taken to? We will find out in The Marvels.
- Confusion Fu: Kamala's plan relies on everyone dressing up in identical red hoodies and baseball hats, and filling the school with weird, confusing traps, to keep the DDC squad off balance until Zoe's followers can get the school surrounded by a mob of angry citizens.
- Continuity Nod:
- Muneeba's sewing skills show up again, having crafted, apparently overnight, a costume for Kamala.
- The sonic cannon used against the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk shows up again, first as smaller rifles used by DDC soldiers and then as the full-sized deal against Kamala and Kamran. Appropriately, Kamala embiggens and smashes it, Hulk style.
- The DDC rifles themselves seem to be a refined version of Coulson's Destroyer gun, which he used to blast Loki in The Avengers.
- Contrived Coincidence: Zoe Zimmer just happened to be in school on Saturday, after Nakia pointed out that it should be empty. And Zoe's social media savvy proves instrumental in exposing Damage Control's practices and ruining Deever's career.
- Creator Cameo: Kamala's co-creator, writer G. Willow Wilson, appears in the TikTok montage near the end of the episode, with the handle "TheRealGWW".
- Discriminate and Switch: Played with. Surveying the ruins of the Circle Q, Deever mutters that it's what happens when the wrong people get powers, conveniently leaving out that it was a Damage Control drone which blew the place up. Agent Barrie, likely mindful of the fact that both enhanced individuals they're pursuing are suspected to be Muslim, asks her what she means by "the wrong people", to which Deever clarifies that she means kids. Doesn't make her any less of a bigot.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: Even after getting something of a handle on his powers, Kamran isn't quite as precise with them as Kamala is, nearly crushing the crowd with a vehicle he sends flying with too much force.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Zoe says that she kept Kamala's secret because it should be her choice when to let the world know. Zoe had her own Coming-Out Story in the comics.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The Musical Nod to the theme of X-Men: The Animated Series is officially credited in the end credits as "X-Men '97 Theme", a series which would not debut until nearly two years after this episode.
- Embarrassing Cover Up: Nakia pretends to be hiding Miguel in a closet in order to delay DDC for a minute.
- Engineered Public Confession: Kamala's plan is a variation of this. As she says, the Home Alone-like tactics are just a diversion. The real plan is to use Zoe's social media influence to get Damage Control to be seen assaulting teenagers with high-tech, lethal weapons.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Kamran is fully willing to kill the Damage Control agents coming after him, but he draws the line at killing civilians and is clearly horrified that he nearly crushed the crowd with a vehicle he sent flying in their direction.
- Even the Jersey City police are so disgusted by Damage Control's actions that they switch sides and defend Kamala.
- Excellent Judge of Character: Invoked by Aamir, who is prepared to give Kamran the benefit of the doubt because Kamala, whom he calls one of the smartest people he knows, is willing to stick her neck out for him.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: Kamala tries to stage a dramatic coming out to the rest of her family, only for them to stage absolutely terrible fake surprise. Ammi told Abbu, who had his phone on speaker, so everyone already knew.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Just before Kamala and Carol switch places, Kamala's bangle starts glowing with the same color energy Carol's hands glowed with when her powers first manifested.
- Funny Background Event: Bruno dancing with the science lab skeleton during the planning montage.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: Zoe puts out a distress signal to all of her Tik-Tok followers that Damage Control is after her and her friends, and they all need help. The entire community rallies to her, including the local police department after Damage Control goes too far.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: While the other episodes had only toyed with it, this one fully sets up Agent Cleary as the good cop and Agent Deever as the bad cop. Cleary, mindful of the bad press their approach is generating, is willing to cut Damage Control's losses and let Kamran and Kamala go. Deever, on the other hand, ignores his orders to stand down, orders the planned attack (on a high school) to proceed, calls in reinforcements, and tries to kill two teenagers in front of dozens of witnesses, many of whom are shown to be live-streaming the assault. A furious Cleary finally manages to relieve her of duty, pointing out that all she's done is ensure Damage Control will take a big hit to their reputation by coming across like jack-booted thugs.
- "Home Alone" Antics: Part of Kamala’s plan to stall for time is to set up traps to keep Damage Control busy. It works at first until Damage Control gets serious.
- Hypocrite: Deever, upon seeing the convenience store that one of Damage Control's own drones blew up, says "This is what happens when the wrong people get powers". She continues this trend in the climax, when her own boss orders her to stand down because of the PR nightmare that hunting Kamran to a school has caused, by ordering her unit to both engage and then escalate the conflict to the point that it endangers civilians on the sidelines. Apparently what happens when the "wrong people" get powers is that government agencies hunt them down without a care for collateral damage. Ironically, Deever herself is clearly the wrong person to have power, since she doesn't temper it with the least bit of humility: she's fully confident about her own righteousness and has an "if you're not with me, you're against me" attitude to everyone she encounters.
- Iconic Attribute Adoption Moment: Kamala finally receives her standard costume as a gift from her mother in this episode.
- Ignored Epiphany: Kamala brushes off Bruno saying there's a mutation in her DNA, dismissing it as "just another label."
- Inspector Javert: Deever ignores orders not to break into the school, and is insistent on trying to arrest Kamran and Kamala even after all the civilians and local police present rally to their defense. This gets her relieved of duty because of how massively public the whole affair is, on top of disobeying orders.
- Internal Reveal:
- When Kamala tries to confess to her family that she has powers, it turns out the rest of them already know, thanks to Muneeba telling Yusuf, which Aamir and Tyesha overheard because he left the speakerphone on. Zoe also figured it out offscreen.
- Kamran figures out that Najma is dead based on Kamala's short description of what happened in Pakistan.
- I Owe You My Life: Zoe's rationale for helping Kamala's group is that Kamala saved her during Avengerscon.
- Kansas City Shuffle: Nakia successfully delays Damage Control from seeking Kamran in the mosque by insisting that they do not go into a particular room. She makes various excuses only to reveal that a decoy was hiding there, supposedly her boyfriend. Meanwhile, Bruno and Kamran sneak out.
- Lampshade Hanging: At the end of the episode, Bruno is driving Kamran’s car, claiming that Kamran said he could have it. Nakia and Kamala don't buy this, and tease him over it.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Deever ends up getting relieved of duty after all the grief she's caused Kamala and her family throughout the series, though Cleary makes specific reference to her defying orders and painting Damage Control in a bad light as his reasons.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: During the TikTok montage, a woman says that Kamala "looks so familiar". This woman is G. Willow Wilson, co-creator of Ms. Marvel, and her handle is "TheRealGWW".
- Leitmotif: When Bruno reveals that Kamala’s powers might be through a mutation, the first few notes of the theme song of X-Men: The Animated Series plays.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: When Damage Control blasts her and Kamran with a Wave-Motion Gun version of their stun weapons, Kamala says "Embiggen" and surrounds her entire body with a construct that lets her smash the vehicle said gun is mounted to.
- Let's You and Him Fight: Kamala and Kamran wind up at odds thanks to his mother's death and his distrust of the Red Daggers. She eventually manages to talk him down.
- Locker Mail: Near the end of the episode, Bruno slips a letter into a school locker.
- Meaningful Name: Yusuf explains to Kamala that her name as two meanings: it means "Perfect" in Arabic, but "Wonder" or "Marvel" in Urdu.
- Mêlée à Trois: When Kamran starts getting some control over his powers at the school, he starts attacking the Damage Control agents with lethal force, meaning that Kamala has to fight them and protect them at the same time.
- Mood Whiplash: After Bruno states that there's a mutation in Kamala's genes, she just goes "Eh, just a label. Let's go get shawarmas!"
- Musical Nod: When Bruno says that Kamala's powers in-part come from a mutation, the opening riff from X-Men: The Animated Series plays.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Nakia uses this when Zoe unexpectedly offers to help, not forgetting her earlier antipathy.Nakia: We're with you. And I guess so is Zoe.
- Mythology Gag:
- Whereas Kamala's hard light is a pinky-purple color, Kamran's is light blue, similar to how his powers manifested in the comics.
- The young protagonists of the ClanDestine book initially thought they were mutants, and tried to become superheroes. Kamala, technically a Clandestine, finds out that she's in fact a mutant on top of everything else.
- Kamala finally declares "Embiggen," her catchphrase from the comics.
- Nakia questions why Zoe would choose to keep Kamala's Secret Identity, and Zoe answers with an extremely heartfelt "I think Kamala should be able to tell the world when she's ready." In the comics, Zoe is eventually revealed to be a closeted lesbian.
- "No Normal" is also the title of the first Ms. Marvel collected edition.
- Needle in a Stack of Needles: Everyone dresses in identical red hoodies and baseball caps to confuse Damage Control during the raid on the school, allowing Kamala and Kamran to sneak out by ditching the disguises.
- Never My Fault: Deever blames Kamran for the destruction of the Circle Q, even though she's the one who sent a heavily armed drone after him.
- Nothing Is Scarier: We don't know where exactly Carol was at when Kamala swapped places with her, but judging by Carol's reaction it can't be anywhere good.
- Oh, Crap!: When Carol finds out that she and Kamala have swapped places, she is horrified that a little girl is wherever she was at.Carol: Oh, no, no, no.
- Paper-Thin Disguise:
- In full MCU fashion, Sheikh Abdullah's idea of a disguise for Bruno and Kamran is baseball caps that say "Haram" and "Halal". They quickly realize that the caps do very little to hide themselves, and promptly ditch them when meeting Kamala.Kamala: What are you guys wearing?
- Later turned on its head during the clash with Damage Control at the high school, which has Bruno, Nakia, Zoe and Aamir all running around with identical baseball caps and hoodies to throw them off finding Kamala and Kamran. The disguises are meant to draw attention and cause confusion, which is made more effective by it being dark, using fire extinguishers to create fog, and being constantly in motion. Damage Control initially thinks that Kamran's powers include copying himself.
- In full MCU fashion, Sheikh Abdullah's idea of a disguise for Bruno and Kamran is baseball caps that say "Haram" and "Halal". They quickly realize that the caps do very little to hide themselves, and promptly ditch them when meeting Kamala.
- Police Brutality: The DDC agents respond to Bruno's dance-off by slamming him in the face with the butt of a rifle. They slam Zoe, Nakia, and Aamir to the ground. They're using weapons capable of tearing apart concrete. And they're hunting children.
- Averted with the Jersey City police, who defend the heroes after seeing how badly the DDC has overstepped on Deever's watch.
- Power Incontinence: Zig-zagged. Kamran's control of his new powers gets progressively worse in the beginning of the episode, which he describes as feeling like his insides are being crushed. He gets a handle on them later, seemingly driven by anger at both Damage Control and the loss of his mother. However, during the battle with Damage Control he starts to blaze wildly out of control, sending spiky tendrils of energy in every direction that nearly kill a lot of people before Kamala uses her own powers to contain him. She then manages to talk him down, allowing him to regain control once more.
- The Power of Love: Part of what brings Kamran back from the brink is knowing that his mother made a Heroic Sacrifice to save the world for his sake.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Cleary rips Deever several new ones after she attacks the school, pointing out the huge PR disaster she's caused by disobeying orders and attacking a bunch of teenagers while being livestreamed by dozens of people.
- The Reveal: Bruno tells Kamala that her powers appear to be the result of a mutation, rather than simply being a descendant of the Clandestines and wearing the bangle (though the latter probably helped). Inverted in that she doesn't really care.
- Roof Hopping: Kamala sprints down the street in mid-air by perfecting creating hardlight platforms as she goes, occasionally jumping from roofs or street lights.
- Secret Ingredient: According to Rasheed, the secret ingredient in his "yummy, yummy chocolate chip cookies" is nutmeg.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Everyone is stunned to realize Zoe has known all along it was Kamala who saved her and kept quiet, as she felt it was Kamala's choice when to tell the world.
- Seeking Sanctuary: Bruno takes Kamran to the local mosque because places of worship are supposed to grant sanctuary. This is even a legal practice in some countries. However, as Nakia points out, mosques in America tend to be under surveillance by a number of government entities.
- Sequel Hook: In the stinger, Kamala and Carol Danvers swap places, and Carol is horrified that Kamala is now wherever she was.
- Shout-Out: When Nakia takes the wheel (and the keys) from Bruno, she has this to say before they take off:
- Skewed Priorities: Aunty Ruby insists it will be very difficult for Ms. Marvel to find a husband.
- Slave to PR: Cleary tries to call off Deever from attacking the high school because, even at night, attacking children in a high school is terrible PR that Damage Control does not need. She doesn't listen. This is further exploited by Zoe, who uses her online following to draw a massive crowd of civilians to make things even more awkward for Damage Control.
- So Proud of You: When Kamala unmasks herself to her family, all of them take it very well. Her father says he is proud of her and the whole family is "in awe" of her. They're just worried about her getting hurt, but they trust her.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Nakia suggests that Bruno and Kamran head to the high school to hide from Damage Control because it is Saturday and the school will be empty. Subverted in that Damage Control locates them almost immediately, and also Zoe turns out to be there because it has good lighting for her videos.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Zoe and Aamir each pull a Stealth "Hi" on Kamala and the others.
- The Stinger: Kamala's bangle acts up, causing her to swap places with Carol Danvers, setting things up for The Marvels.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Nakia points how stupid it was for Bruno and Kamran to try to hide in the mosque. Yes, it's a place of sanctuary, but it's a mosque in America; it's under heavy surveillance by pretty much every federal agency. Sure enough, Damage Control is on their doorstep within minutes, and Nakia barely has enough time to hide Bruno and Kamran from them.
- Take That!: Aren't houses of worship supposed to offer sanctuary? Yes, but this is a mosque in America. Even sanitation has them under surveillance.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Agent Deever's face is just screaming this when Agent Barrie hands her his phone, knowing that she's in deep shit.Agent Deever: Yes—
Agent Cleary: Don't say anything, don't do anything, just get out of there, okay? You went against my orders, publicly, and then you attacked a bunch of kids, using our name, and you know what that means? Yes. That means that you're relieved of your duty, a unit is coming to fix your mess. Get out of there, now. - Title Drop:
- When Kamran asks how he's supposed to be normal now, Kamala replies, "There is no normal."
- When Kamala and Yusuf are sitting on the roof outside her bedroom, his story about her name ends with him revealing that he and Muneeba always regarded her "our own little Ms. Marvel".
- The Unreveal: Kareem tells Kamala that he has a contact in Jersey City's harbor who can get Kamran to safety. The identity of this contact is never revealed; once Kamran escapes the school, the next time we see him is him meeting Kareem in Pakistan.
- V-Sign: Kamala flashes two of these in her Embiggen form after she saves the crowd.
- Wham Episode: The existence of Mutants in the main MCU timeline is finally confirmed.
- Wham Line: Bruno went through some scans in regards to whether or not anyone else in Kamala's family had powers, and comes up with an explanation as to why only she has them. Said explanation being:Bruno: Kamala, there's something different in your genes. Like... like a mutation. [cue the X-Men: The Animated Series theme]
- Wham Shot: Kamala suddenly getting transported to who-knows-where by the bangle, with a very surprised Carol Danvers appearing in her place.
- You Are Not Alone: Thanks to Zoe sending an online video out to her followers revealing DODC's current actions, a large number of Jersey City residents are present during the final confrontation with Agent Deever, and are willing to join Kamala's family in protecting her. Even the police side with Kamala when they become appalled with Deever's tactics.
- You Can't Go Home Again: With Kamran now a known fugitive and no longer safe within the U.S. government's jurisdiction, Kamala phones Kareem and asks him to get the Red Daggers to help Kamran out of the country. Kamala later buys Kamran time to escape by punching a hole to the sewers while she holds off Deever and her team.
