‘Cloak & Dagger’ Showrunner on That Wild Finale, Introducing Mayhem & What’s to Come in Season 2

WARNING: Major spoilers ahead for the Cloak & Dagger Season 1 finale…

Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger just concluded its record-breaking first season in dramatic fashion on Thursday night. Roxxon was (mostly) defeated, Connors was sucked into the void of Tyrone’s cloak, and O’Reilly finally made her transition into the villainous Mayhem in the show’s post-credits scene.

With so much to talk about, ComicBook.com sat down with Cloak & Dagger showrunner Joe Pokaski to break down all of the twists and turns of the finale, and to look ahead at what’s to come in Season 2

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ComicBook: When the writers’ room first started crafting this story together, was this the ending that you had in mind from the get-go, or did this evolve as the process continued?

Joe Pokaski: No, I think it definitely evolved. I think the important thing we were always talking about were we wanted the threats to come three-fold, whereas there was a threat from the police, specifically Connors, there was a threat from Roxxon still. And then there was a bigger threat. Kind of more in the superhero grocery aisle as to something bigger that Tandy and Tyrone would have to rise up to.

We talked about for a long time about crafting a season in which all three would be coming at Tandy and Tyrone. You never knew which punch would be coming and then by then end everything kind of melded into one big night.

One of the biggest pieces in the finale was that cover of “Come Sail Away” that played throughout the episode. Why that song?

We listened to a lot of songs. We wanted to find something that was … there was this crazy Venn diagram we had to find the middle of. Part of it was a song that was vaguely familiar, so when you heard it even hummed in the very first moments, or you hear it played on the clarinet, you go “Where did I hear this song? Where do I know this song? Is it Come Sail Away?”

​But also just really, my music supervisor Jonathan Christopher and I were just like okay. I literally sat down and was like “So it needs to start off kinda wistful, then they have to save the world. Then build more, actually and then get optimistic. There’s not a lot of songs that do that. Then we actually listened to a few. When we laid down “Come Sail Away,” we were like “it’s good, but it fells kinda ’80’s.” It felt like we were trying to be a little too Guardians.

​Then it was suggested maybe Olivia [Holt] sing a cover of it. That was a great idea. All of us were totally down with it.

She’s amazing. As if you weren’t impressed with her enough as an actress, just sitting in a music studio with her, she’s really in her element. She really understands. It’s almost like seeing LeBron play. It’s like she really gets what she needs to do and elevates the material.

So it was super fun. I’m a television write. To be able to produce a cover song like that, it’s kind of ridiculous. Some of the producers from Joy Wave helped us out. I really liked their sound. It all worked out really well, it was kind of a dream.

As the credited writer of the episode, and a known Spider-Man fan, how happy were you with that “With great power” line?

I love the fact that I could do that. Listen, I’m a Spider-Man guy at heart, like Tandy and Tyrone. And it felt like such a good line and also such a good commentary on American corporate greed.

And that wasn’t the only Easter egg in the episode.

There’s stuff that you missed. There’s some that I’m sure I’ll get in trouble for at some point.

A lot of the episode dealt with the history of those Divine Pairings. Are those the only four that exist, or will we see more going forward?

​I think these are the four we know about. There’s a question as to whether do Tandy and Tyrone stops the cycle. ​And we left it that way, particularly in the era of parkland the idea that as if someone says, “This is the way the world is” and then two kids stand up and say, “Nope. It’s this way now.” But, I hope to make a hundred episodes of this and there’s something interesting about the idea of a new divine pairing coming to Tandy and Tyrone. I know it’s morbid later on in their careers.

In the post-credits scene, we finally saw O’Reilly’s transformation into Mayhem, and the story was tied pretty closely to her origin in the comic books. What went into crafting her arc throughout the season?

​Yeah, I mean listen I think detective O’Reilly – I think we all very early saw the opportunity in laying out a first season and there’s a certain risk to it because you don’t know you’re having a second season. But, the idea of laying out an ally to Cloak and Dagger and then knowing over the course of these nine episodes that you’re actually telling the origin story of a villain of sorts. So it was really interesting, particularly with the women in the room, when we talked a lot about her character and how to make her a cop that didn’t necessarily try to pretend to be a guy to be a good cop. I think we gave her her own personality. And not enough can be said about Emma Lahana who understood that and brought it to the screen with two episodes without saying a word.

​I think as we started talking about other things it all fell into place. Particularly with Fuchs and as to reversing the gender roles with those two. If you go back and you watch – I think we’ve talked about this a little. He actually plays what I would call the early female worrying character you’ve probably seen in those fifties movies where he’s like the nurse who’s like, “I’m worried about you. You’re working too hard.” We kind of reverse something and then of course we put them in the refrigerator and really kind of drive her downfall. And then, just seeing how kind of Emma can play the nuance of this character and help her in this character really just got us excited to making her take a turn that hopefully will actually be a little unexpected.

Of course, the big change with Mayhem came with the origin of her powers, which she got from the Roxxon material, same as Tandy and Tyrone.

​Yeah, we liked the idea of putting them on the same power spectrum for lack of a better word. Particularly for the next season, but yeah I think the idea that there’s something inside the cloak that was so exciting and something we couldn’t have tackled in season one kept it grounded so it was something we were happy to kind of keep locked in and explore next season in a cool way I think.

Obviously that all culminated in like a post credit scene which is a very Marvel thing to do. When did you know that’s the route you wanted to go with the show?

Honestly, that was very early. We knew that we were gonna do Mayhem. It just felt like, “What do we want to see as TV viewers?” Marvel cinematic universe does it so well. I remember people were talking about when I was on Daredevil all those years ago seasonone we had talked about doing it and this felt so right. We loved the idea of starting with the bee and making out the kind of cool thing that, it’s hard probably to tell with the light, is that the place where Mayhem comes up at the end is exactly where the little girl walked in with the basket in the very very first flashback of the episode. So there was a cool symmetry with that. I think we got so excited we put it there and God bless the people at Marvel for letting me put the title card before it.

So, with Season 2 on the horizon, where does O’Reilly find herself going forward?

In an interesting place. I don’t want to say much more about that. But, I think we hit the ground running.

In addition to Mayhem, you also got to debut the true extent of Tyrone’s powers in the finale, and we saw him absorb Connors into the void of his cloak. Very much like the comic. Will we see that situation play out in the future?

I think it’s another thing that we’re happy that we’re kind of patient putting up that cloak for the first time in our finale. All I can say is sometime season two we’re gonna understand where he went.

Not only did the cloak powers get saved for the finale, but the black hoodie from the premiere was finally returned to Tyrone when he needed it most.

The sweatshirt. We’re all very excited about the idea that she took his sweatshirt eight years ago. For nine and a half episodes she had it.

I think hopefully we got to the point where the audience almost forgot she had it, almost forgot it was his brother’s. Then at the end, at the point, we kinda wanted to set up the Mardi Gras Indian’s cloak, which we weren’t able to the last episode, I don’t think.

As kind of a head fake as what his real connection to his brother was. So when the sweatshirt comes in, we were very restrained. Every once in a while we had in episode six or eight, “What if she gave him the sweatshirt then?” And we were like “No. Finale. Finale.”

Going into the second season, will the show pick up right where it left off?

​I read somewhere once that had said, with TV, it’s always nice to take off as much time as the audience has taken off. If we can manage it I think I want to try to do that. I think it just helps reset your story and also accounts for the fact that you’re a kid, but sadly you’re getting older.

Which gives Tandy and Tyrone a lot of time to settle into these reversed roles. Tandy returned home, and Tyrone’s on the run. What’s next for the two of them?

I think you hit the nail on the head that we’ve put them in very different positions. It’s kind of a beware what you wish for where Tyrone is kind of smothered. He’s living in this gilded cage all of season one. And Season 2, we find him with no cage and no family. You know, he sees his mother smothering him and all he wants to do is see her but now he’s gone. He still a fugitive. He’s still wanted for murder and it’s going to take a little while to sort out, if at all. And then on the Tandy side, she finally kind of sees her mom as more heroic than she had seen her and she sees her mom as the real parent she should’ve been holding up on a pedestal. So putting her with her mom, having them work out some of the revelations of last season, it is kind of where we placed Tandy in the beginning.

And Mina, having been infected during the finale, will have a lot to deal with in Season 2 as well.

That’s kind of the thing that interested us from a character standpoint. The idea. I don’t think you really get to see this in TV storytelling too much, that this woman was affected by this thing almost violated by this disease and now the logical thing would be for her to dwell on it and her to study it. That kind of comes to play in Season 2.

With the Roxxon threat sort of under control, at least for now, where will the danger come from next season?

I think Tandy and Tyrone were thrust into the heroic role in season one whether they liked it or not. Thrust into each other’s arms to some degree. Literally, I guess, at the end. And she’s choosing to do the right thing. Now you know you can do the same. Do you choose to become a vigilante? What kind of vigilante do you want to become? If they cross paths with Mayhem, how does her vigilantism help them decide what’s right and what’s wrong in the real world when you want to make change? So Tandy and Tyrone are a little more active. They’re looking to do well and because it’s our show, that’s gonna be accomplished.

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Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger has been renewed for a second season by Freeform, and is set to air at some point in 2019. For now, you can catch all 10 episodes of the first season on Hulu and Freeform.com.