Ms. Marvel has largely become a breakout force in the MCU because of the immense charm of its cast, mainly star Iman Vellani, and its personal coming of age origin story. Now as the series tries to answer some of its questions surrounding Kamala’s ancient bangle, by heading back to its cultural roots, Ms. Marvel Episode 3 in intrigue for an episode that does just enough to not be considered filler.
After Kamala (Vellani) learns that her Nani knows about the visions she’s having, she and her mother Muneeba (Zenobia Shroff) travel to Karachi still with a lot of tension between them after Aamir’s (Saagar Shaikh) wedding. Kamala going to Pakistan does create some interesting cultural obstacles and moments that show her as a second-generation American. Although she has a strong Muslim community back in New Jersey, Kamala still finds herself a little out of place at times in Pakistan. When it comes to experiencing local food and understanding the area, it can be interesting to see Kamala be a bit of a fish out of water. Unfortunately, that’s about all that’s intriguing about Kamala seeing her family in Karachi since we don’t learn much more about the bangle.
Nani doesn’t provide too much new information, aside from confirming that Kamala is a Djinn, and even what we get later in the episode when Kamala comes across the Red Dagger clan isn’t much. As Kamala investigates the nearby train station, she has quite a conflict with a red scarfed assassin named Kareem (Aramis Knight), who introduces us to the Red Daggers. The Red Daggers are yet another clan in the Marvel world that are now in the MCU and while it’s pretty awesome to see an underground thief-like group of assassins in the MCU, it’s starting to become overcrowded.
One of the big issues currently in the MCU is a lack of direction as to where things are heading. Currently Kang the Conqueror seems to be the next big baddie lined-up to terrorize the MCU, but nothing outside of Loki has really built up towards that yet and there’s also all this talk about the MCU kind of splitting between more cosmic threats and everything happening with the multiverse. So, when a new hero or entity, like Moon Knight or the Ten Rings from Shang-Chi, gets introduced, it’s tough to get excited for it because it doesn’t have much of a place in the MCU yet. The Red Daggers have cool potential, but don’t make a big impression like they’re going to be anything special outside of Ms. Marvel. Honestly, there’s already too much going on and too many things being introduced in Phase 4 and now adding the Red Daggers only adds to the overstuffed roster.
Plus, what they bring to the table isn’t all that pivotal. Kareem’s leader Waleed (Farhan Akhtar) teaches Kamala how to use her powers better, although it’s not as fun or engaging as when her and Bruno (Matt Lintz) were testing stuff out. Waleed also sheds some light on what Najma (Nimra Bucha) and the Clandestines are after, but I hope it’s something more than this. Essentially, Najma just wants to combine their world with ours to eventually consume it and it just comes off like a typical “take over the world” evil plot. There’s got to be something more to this since we still don’t know much about why the Clandestines were exiled from their world. It seems like answers are around the corner though as Kamala gets transported back in time to when Aisha (Mehwish Hayat) disappeared and maybe we’ll finally get the truth about what happened next week.
This episode also delivers the biggest action sequence of the series thus far as Kamala, Kareem, and Waleed go on the run through Karachi after Najma and the Clandestines attack them. The sequence is pretty thrilling with some memorably fun action moments and strong direction from Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. However, the lead-up to it feels rushed. Najma and the Clandestines escape from the DODC without any real issues and just suddenly show-up in Karachi somehow. The dialogue also takes a different tone here with Kamala and Kareem trading some snarky one-liners and it just feels out of place from the Kamala we’ve been seeing. Also, in true cliché mentor fashion, Waleed bites the dust in the middle of the chase sequence only further making you wonder what kind of role the Red Daggers will have going forward.
Kamala’s trip to Karachi just isn’t as fun, exciting, or intriguing as past episodes and Ms. Marvel Episode 3, ‘Seeing Red’ will likely be seen as a weaker episode of Ms. Marvel for its lack of strong answers and only further overcrowding the MCU with more heroes and clans to keep track of.
