'Cloak & Dagger' Series Premiere Recap With Spoilers

After months of anticipation, Freeform has finally debuted the first two episodes of its first [...]

After months of anticipation, Freeform has finally debuted the first two episodes of its first live-action Marvel series, Cloak & Dagger. The series premiere double feature, which includes the episodes "First Light" and "Suicide Sprints," gives us an exciting, but grounded introduction to the world surrounding these characters.

Below, we explain and break down the series premiere, complete with spoilers, so be careful. If you haven't watched the show yet, but you're interested in learning more about it, check out our full review here.

Now, onto the show.

  • Cloak & Dagger begins with a couple of childhood flashbacks, showing Tandy as a young girl struggling in her dance class, and waiting alone on the sidewalk for her someone to pick her up. Tyrone as a boy caught up in the troubles of his older brother, whose friends are preparing to steal back a car stereo. Wanting to help his brother, Tyrone steals the stereo while the older boys aren't paying attention. Once Tandy's dad picks her up, there's mention of her mother being at home and on some sort of pills.
  • This is where things start getting interesting. Tyrone and his brother go on the run when they're caught by the police. This results in the wrongful shooting of the older brother at the hands of one of the officers. Simultaneously, Tandy's father is on the phone about a rig exploding. As the vessel on the water goes under, Tandy and her father crash into the harbor. Tyrone jumps in after his brother at the same time, leaving the two children in the water along with whatever caused the rig explosion. Another burst of power occurs and hits both kids, likely giving them their powers. There's some solid symbolism here as Tyrone is saved by a mysterious light, and Tandy by a random darkness. They grab each other as the opening title card appears.
  • Fast forward to what I assume is present day, and Tandy walks into a club. She picks out a rich guy sitting in a VIP section and makes a connection. Meanwhile, Tyrone is called out by his basketball coach during halftime of their game. He tries to defend himself, but it doesn't work. Tandy flirts with the guy and convinces him to take her back to his uncle's house for a more private party. As it turns out, Tandy's interest was all a work. She drugs the rich guy and, along with her real boyfriend, steals all of his stuff. Tyrone, now in the second half of his basketball game, is done being pushed around. Once an opposing player knocks him down, in a clearly dirty play, Tyrone takes a swing and starts a brawl. He can really pack a punch, though. Gotta give the kid that.
  • Tandy's story gets even sadder when gets "home." Her boyfriend drops her off at what he thinks is her house, but she walks across the street to an abandoned church once he's out of sight, and holes up in a room she's made for herself. She snorts a pill she stole from the rich guy. Tyrone is equally alone in his own room, even though his parents are just downstairs. It's clear that there are still difficult feelings in that household leftover from his brother's death. Both teenagers, trying to escape their current situations, put on their headphones and pass out.
  • Flashback time again! Tandy watches as a group of men from Roxxon (the show's evil corporation who used to employ her dad before he was killed) tear apart their living room. They say that the company believes Tandy's dad went rogue before his death, and that the explosion is his fault. The company has basically screwed over the family to cover something up, and Tandy's mom turns to drugs as a result. Back in the present, Tandy is disappointed that she and her boyfriend didn't make more money. They're planning on robbing a party in the woods later on. A girl at Tyrone's private school gives him her number and tells him to go to the very same party.
  • Tandy goes to her mom's house, which is technically where she's supposed to be living? She pulls a duffel bag from the vent and puts all the valuables, cash, and pills she stole into it. Meanwhile, Tyrone gets to the party and immediately seems out of place. This isn't really his scene, that much is clear. Tandy "accidentally" bumps into him and spills her drink. They flirt a bit and exchange names before Tandy walks off to get some towels. When Tyrone goes to buy a beer for the girl that brought him to the party, he realizes Tandy stole his wallet and takes off after her. The chase leads the duo into a graveyard, and ultimately introduces their powers. When they touch, Tandy's hand begins to glow brightly and causes a blast that sends them both flying. Tyrone's hands are emitting some sort of darkness.
  • In a moment of clarity, Tandy asks if Tyrone is "that kid from the beach." When they touch again, their powers ignite and Tandy disappears in the light, leaving Tyrone on his own. Whatever happened in the water that night has kept them connected somehow. This leads Tandy to an inquisitive conversation with her boyfriend (who we now know as Liam). She brings up the night of the accident, and she believes that some kind of miracle, or angel's hand saved her.
  • Tyrone goes home and falls onto his bed, wrapping himself up in a dark sheet. When he wakes up though, he's not in his bed at all. Tyrone gets up, with the sheet billowing off him like a cloak (because symbolism), and looks out over New Orleans from the roof of the Roxxon building. In a flashback, Tyrone's family is told by an officer that his older brother's body was found at the bottom of the water with drugs in the system. They're lying about the police shooting him, saying that his body was in "no shape to look for bullet holes" and that no officer fired a weapon. Tyrone describes the cop that shot his brother but he's told that there is no one in the department matching that description. But when teenage Tyrone walks down the stairs from the roof, who does he see getting into a car across the street? That old cop, of course.
  • Tandy is surprised by her mom's appearance at home and forgets to put her duffel bag away. When her mom touches a cut on her hand, Tandy flashes back to a good memory from childhood, where her mom and dad were together and well. Her powers keep appearing, but she isn't sure how to control them. Of course, like all parents in this genre, Tandy's mom thinks something is wrong with her.
  • We finally get the first real glimpse at Tyrone's relationship with his parents when his mom tells him that the school called and said he never showed up. He blows up a bit and tells her off because she's afraid of losing him, no matter what he does. They have a friendly moment at the end of the conversation though, and it seems like things might be looking up. But when he goes to bed, Tyrone's powers do that thing again and he wakes up in the trunk of a car. Meanwhile, Tandy is approached in an alley by the guy she robbed, and he brought some other guys with him.
  • One more flashback? Tandy's comment about "the boy from the beach" makes a little more sense now as the younger version of her wakes up on a beach next to Tyrone after the accident. She gets up and runs away while he's still asleep.
  • Back in the present, the rich guy pins her up against a wall and tries to assault her. The trunk opens on Tyrone and he finds himself in the middle of a drug deal. The driver of the car is the cop he's been looking for, and he manages to flee the scene without getting caught. Tandy, who's scared for her life, is up against a wall but she refuses to give up. Without knowing it, her hand produces a dagger and it extends into the rich guy's stomach, stabbing him and setting her free. When she looks at the dagger in her hand, it disappears. Tyrone runs into an abandoned building and the cop finds him. When the man chokes Tyrone, the room gets dark, and he remembers the night of his brother's shooting. Tyrone takes off and disappears into a black tarp, waking up back in his own bedroom. He's accompanied by a bullet that the cop shot at him, but he's not hurt. In one final flashback, the child Tyrone wakes up on the beach, alone, trying to figure out what happened. Teenage Tandy tries to produce a dagger again, but she can't do it. Instead, she wraps up in the black hoodie that she got from Tyrone all those years ago.
  • The second hour of the series premiere begins with a shot of a car with a "just married" bumper, that's been totaled, pinned up against a tree. In the city, a detective investigates the murder of Tandy's assaulter in the alley. Both Tandy and Tyrone are on their own, trying to figure out how their powers work, but neither one is having any luck reproducing the effects of the previous night.
  • Tyrone has breakfast with his family and his dad asks him about basketball, saying he may lack worth ethic and can be "all over the place" sometimes. He knows Tyrone is going to see his coach for the first time since the fight at the game. Tandy panics and tells her boyfriend about stabbing the guy the night before. He's talking about taking her to the "dry cleaners," which we learn later is a place that creates fake IDs and papers. Tyrone lets the audience in a bit when he's talking to his counselor/priest about the fight, and says he doesn't take the pills he's prescribed (and doesn't drink) because he wants to always have complete control. The power probably doesn't help that. He asks whether or not finding the cop could solve a lot of his anger. Tyrone has another exchange with the girl who took him to the party.
  • The following montage shows the detective looking through the rich kid's phone, Tyrone leaving school and looking for the cop, and Tyrone's mom getting out a gun to find a rodent that's been going through their trash. The detective then brings in two of the rich guy's friends for questioning, and Tandy arrives at the dry cleaners to get a new ID to get out of town. It's going to cost her about $11,000 to get what she needs. It's a lot of money, but the rich guy is in I.C.U. and she wants to be gone before he wakes up.
  • Tyrone fell asleep while on the lookout for the cop. He wakes up to texts from all of his teammates and realizes he's late for the first practice since his fight. The coach has been making the rest of the team run as punishment, and as you can imagine, they all hate Tyrone for it. Meanwhile, Tandy goes back to her mom's house to find her with a new guy. They found Tandy's duffel bag and stole everything out of it, spending the cash she had and taking the pills.
  • At the dry cleaners, Tandy and Liam have only scrounged together $5,500, and they need more. They see a man in a tux at the shop, and Tandy gets a plan together. They follow him to an expensive wedding and decide to crash it. Tandy's plan is to rob the cash bar, steal the tips from the wedding planner, and get out with the envelopes from the gift table. The detective after Tandy now has a sketch of her and she's asking around.
  • Tyrone is all alone in the gym, and he does all of the sprints that his teammates had to do without him. When he finally goes into the locker room, some of the other guys show up, beat him, and lock him in an equipment cage. At the wedding, Tandy is feeling her powers at the wedding reception, and she has a vision of what a wedding with Liam could look like. Of course, she panics and hides out in a bathroom, where an older woman gives her some sound advice. When Tyrone breaks out of the cage, he's on a warpath, and goes back after the cop. After almost getting caught, he goes back home and asks his mom how she can keep everything together. He's finally starting to realize he needs help, and she tells him to turn his pain into positive energy. When Tyrone hugs his mom, he has a vision of a grocery store where he sees himself and his brother as kids, followed by a vision of their mother looking at both of their graves.
  • As it turns out, the woman in the bathroom was the wedding planner ,and Tandy stole the money from her purse. Tandy and Liam leave with the money, the envelopes, and the newly married couple's getaway car. It's the same car from the beginning of the episode. While they're changing into their normal clothes at the dry cleaners, Liam tells Tandy that he knows she's living in the church. He assures her that he can help her, and that they can handle life together. Tandy tells him that "there is no we" right before she leaves.
  • Tandy starts to drive the newlywed car out of town. As Liam walks home, he's arrested by the detective that has been following Tandy's trail throughout the episode. Liam calls her and tells her that he got arrested and needs her help, but she hangs up the phone and continues to drive. Tyrone busts into the cop's house and points a gun at him. However, right as he fires, the black curtain behind him swallows him up. He appears on the road in front of Tandy's car, and the bullet goes through her windshield. She swerves to avoid him and the episode ends.

What did you think of the Cloak & Dagger premiere? Let us know by dropping a line in the comments below!

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