‘Runaways’ Season 1 Episode 4: “Fifteen” Recap With Spoilers

After being spoiled with a three-episode debut on Hulu, Marvel’s Runaways goes to the weekly grind with “Fifteen.”

The episode begins with a flashback in Amy Minoru’s room, alarm clock blaring. A less goth-y version of Nico enters the room to see her sister dead, a bottle of pills nearby. She tries to call 911, but Tina would rather “clean and contain” the situation, using the Staff of One to knock her daughter out.

Nico is locked in her bedroom when she comes to, but uses their house AI to spy on Tina’s office. Her mother is consulting with an older guy in a suit, who tells her he’ll take care of the situation.

Back in the present, Nico’s looking at her sister’s diary when she’s interrupted by a group video call with her friends. They’re all freaking out over the news of Destiny’s body being found — Gert and Chase ignore a chance to reveal they found a dinosaur in the Yorkes’ basement. Some of the kids are coming to terms with their parents possibly being killers, while others want to search for another explanation.

Chase implores them to be able to protect themselves and terminates the call, revealing he’s working on a prototype of the Fistigons.

Alex checks out his dad’s office, but the coaster-switch that opens the secret door to the Murder Basement doesn’t work anymore. Searching daddy’s desk to find another possible switch, he instead finds a hidden panel in a drawer, revealing a handgun inside.

Victor Stein takes a morning drive in his van as a woman, bound and gagged, screams in the background. Looks like he found another victim… or is he losing his mind?

Victor Is Insane

The Yorkes’ parents argue about whose fault Old Lace escaped, thinking the door was unlocked and not knowing Gert was to blame. The girls meet them in the kitchen for breakfast, prompting the classic Dale and Stacey reactions that only serve to raise suspicion. The parents ignore a PRIDE summoning in order to use a drone to search their neighborhood for the missing dinosaur. Because dinosaurs are stealthy like that.

Victor arrives at Geoffrey Wilder’s house, where he and Robert Minoru wait for their new sacrifice. But when Victor opens the back of the van, the person he supposedly captured isn’t there! Victor is losing his mind, because being an abusive jerkface is definitely taxing on the human brain.

Nico meets with Alex before school, telling him about Amy’s diary. She believes her sister was happy and wouldn’t attempt to kill herself, thinking it was a set up by her mom and PRIDE. She wants to go to the police and tell them about Destiny and her sister. Alex thinks it’s a terrible idea, because they have no proof and their parents are some of the most powerful people in the city, but he cannot convince her otherwise.

The parents all hand wave Victor’s screw up away, because they’re bad people ignoring an obviously sick person’s signs begging for help, and instead send him to retrieve yet another victim for the sacrifice. Leslie Dean implores them to be quick about it, because the flaky being in her office is getting sicker.

Tina sends Robert along with Victor for the kidnapping jaunt, still spurned after her underwear trick fell flat, while she goes to guilt the absent Yorkes for ignoring their meeting.

 

 

Dismantling the Patriarchy Will Have to Wait

Gert meets Chase at school and thanks him for not telling about their run in with the dinosaur, but they’re surrounded by the lacrosse team. His former friends try to posture him, demanding an apology for the fight. Chase asks if they’ll apologize to Karolina for what they tried to do when she passed out at the party, and one of them says no.

“I’ve got a broken rib because of that bitch,” one says.

“Good thing you got 23 more!” Chase says before kneeing him in the chest, and starts another brawl. The lacrosse coach, Karolina, and Gert break up the fight, with the boys being sent to the office.

The stereotypical, mean-girl cheerleader blames Karolina for ruining the team’s chances at winning the state championship, saying it wouldn’t have been like this had Karolina not gotten wasted and hooked up with the two boys, taking the victim-blaming cliché to an absurd level. Karolina is shocked to learn people think that, as she has no recollection of the night, and Gert attempts to console her.

Leslie Dean attempts to console the crusty person on life support by stripping down and hopping in bed with him, causing their crotches to glow, and setting further unobtainable expectations of sex for today’s youth.

Frank is waiting outside for her, obviously paranoid of her groin-glowing endeavors, but she sets his insecurities aside by telling him that he’s ready to go Ultra.

At school, Karolina wants to find out what happened to Chase, who is in the middle of a team meeting where the coach tries to guilt him for beating up his teammates after they tried to rape a girl.

With Chase busy, Karolina steals Gert from the first meeting of her “Dismantling the Patriarchy” club in order to investigate Church of Gibborim documents to find out if all of their parents were involved in a weird ceremony. They run into Alex, and their unity inspires him to catch up with Nico and support her in making her confession to the police.

 

All of the Lights

Robert Minoru and Victor Stein attempt to kidnap a homeless person for a sacrifice. But the homeless person from the streets of LA is going against two affluent rich guys; he easily beats their asses until the cops arrest the PRIDE members.

In their investigation, Gert gains a newfound respect for Gibborim as she learns more. They discover Leslie Dean’s laptop, with an encrypted folder labeled “ULTRA.” They copy the contents to a USB drive to give to Alex, in hopes of getting him to unlock its secrets. But they’re interrupted by Chase, who wants to come clean to Karolina. They kick out Gert, forcing her to wait for her Lyft in the hot sun.

Nico is surprised to see Alex followed her to the police station, and they attempt to report two murders to an incredulous police officer.

Chase reveals what happened at the party with Karolina, adding that he quit the lacrosse team because of it. He assures her that nothing happened, and Karolina thanks him by showing off her glowing abilities.

While waiting for a detective to take their statements, Nico and Alex notice Robert Minoru and Victor Stein walking into a detective’s office. Then Nico recognizes the detective — the same person who helped clean up her sister’s suicide one year before. They bail before they’re seen.

She tells Alex about the crooked cop, and he shows Nico the gun he took from his dad. “Chase was right. We gotta protect ourselves,” he tells her.

In her home office, Tina Minoru meets with a bearded man named Kincaid, who appears to have been spying on the Yorkes. He informs her that they intend to go somewhere away from Los Angeles, implying that they seem like nice people. Tina thanks him with a thick stack of cash, looking over Kincaid’s findings.

 

Molly vs. Old Lace

Meanwhile, the Yorkes are tripping out about their dinosaur being missing, having no luck in tracking it down. They decide to run away, taking the girls with them, and escaping the reach of their PRIDE colleagues.

Karolina continues to confide in Chase, while Molly comes up with a list of questions about her parents for Catherine Wilder.

The youngest gets interrupted by a noise in her house, and when she goes to investigate she gets in a fistfight with Old Lace, who has returned home. Her superstrength kicks in, and the two start brawling through the house.

Gert interrupts before the fight can continue, commanding the dinosaur to stop, realizing she can control it with verbal commands. Just as she’s coming to grips with her connection to the creature, her parents arrive. They lock the dinosaur back up in the bunker, and are surprised to learn Gert can control the dinosaur. Before they can explain why they have a dinosaur in their basement, they’re interrupted by a doorbell.

Tina Minoru arrives at the Yorkes residence, revealing that she knows they plan to leave PRIDE and run away to a ranch in the Yucatan left in their trust by Molly’s parents when they died. Tina intimidates Dale and Stacey, warning them in no uncertain terms what would happen if they try to leave when there’s so much work to be done.

 

Time to Save Alex

At the Timely Coffee shop, Alex and Nico break into Leslie Dean’s file that Gert and Karolina copied, where they discover the Church of Gibborim has been providing 17-year-old runaways to PRIDE for their sacrifices every year for over a decade.

Chase works on his Fistigon prototypes when he’s caught in the lab by his father, who continues to be distressed by his mental condition. But Victor is intrigued by his son’s invention and pledges to help him build it. Chase is obviously happy that his dad isn’t threatening to beat him and welcomes the assistance.

While looking through the list of runaway sacrifices, Nico and Alex don’t find any mention of Amy Minoru, but they do realize Leslie Dean has been finding the teens for the PRIDE. Nico calls Karolina to warn her about her parents, just as Alex’s car alarm starts blaring in the coffee shop parking lot.

But when Alex doesn’t return, Nico tries to find him only to see him being snatched and placed in a black SUV, kidnapped by an unknown assailant.