Cloak & Dagger: Back Breaker

July 26, 2018 8:12 PM - Season 1, Episode 9

Tandy is in a downward spiral, lashing out at strangers and loved ones alike. As Tyrone tries to pull her out of it and reconcile with his own family, his success is upended.

Den of Geek - Tandy starts stealing people's hopes as Tyrone confronts his mother about Billy's death in the season's penultimate episode.

posted by oh yeah! (10 comments total)

Can anyone explain who the Den of Geek recap is referring to by "Cloak and Dagger actually filmed a short montage of the back breaker's origin story. Damn. " ?
posted by oh yeah! at 3:59 PM on July 27, 2018

At just before 27 mins - there's a montage of a tree felling, then someone working a lathe, then a cop wearing gauntlet gloves picking the back breaker up from a box, then a riot where the cop (in a surgeon's mask) uses it to strike someone at the front of a group of men in turn of the 20th century(?) garb (all also wearing masks). The montage lasts all of 10 seconds.
posted by pipeski at 4:28 PM on July 27, 2018

On my recording, Around 27 minutes is a return from the commercial break that starts with O'Reilley drinking in the bar, as an Irish song plays, and with the Father Delgado continuing his class lecture about heroes, and Tandy raids her statue money stash and goes to the police station to bail out Liam. Is this some kind of Freeform-online/app-only footage?

I guess what I mean is, what/who is the back breaker? Is there an entry in some Marvel wiki that would explain it?
posted by oh yeah! at 4:51 PM on July 27, 2018

There's a brief, very brief, flashback to a piece of wood being turned on a lathe and then a crate of... truncheons(?), like the one on the wall in the bar, which is shown in the flashback being used by white cops to beat black civilians. I don't know the historical context and none was given.

This episode very much felt like treading water to me and the on-the-nose heroes journey narration was more annoying than clever or illuminating.
posted by runcibleshaw at 5:55 PM on July 27, 2018

("Back Breaker" is written on the plaque under the truncheon in the bar, so I assume it's the name of the weapon itself)
posted by runcibleshaw at 5:56 PM on July 27, 2018

I look forward to the episode where they explain lampshading.

I kid. I really enjoyed the episode, and enjoyed how they are putting the pieces together.

I don't agree with the Den of Geek on this: "this is one of the few superhero dramas that intersects its superhero storytelling with issues of class, gender, and race, and it is doing some nuanced work in a genre that isn't exactly known for its subtlety." What makes this work even more for me is how un-nuanced and subtle this is, it's hitting these issues extremely head-on and explicitly. This isn't mutants as metaphors.
posted by jimw at 10:18 PM on July 28, 2018

Yeah I was really impressed that they straight up talked about white cops killing black kids and that they'll get away with it. It's nuanced insofar as the range of emotions of how black folks really feel, but the tackling of the issue is full-force. This show and Black Lightning are shining a light on these things and I really appreciate it. There are many other shows of non-superhero genre that are also not shying away from these racial issues, but when every type of show does it, it creates more opportunities for real world dialog to happen and that is so necessary.
posted by numaner at 12:29 PM on July 31, 2018

I'll admit, I wasn't expecting this episode at first. To me, it felt like the season wrapped up at the end of episode 8--or at least enough was concluded to writ done to the first arc while retaining enough threads to weave into the start of the second season. Then, when I saw this episode was up, I wasn't sure where they were going to go. I'm still not entirely sure, but I'm interested to watch.

I was so angry at the cops in the bar who just stood around watching Connors kicking and beating O'Reilley when she was clearly drunk and on the ground already. Apparently the whole force is nothing but a bunch of creeps and scum.
posted by sardonyx at 10:24 AM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]

Fuchs had told her that the department pretty much cover for Connors, that she'd be going against the entire place if she went after him. I assume that's why he can basically get away with all that.
posted by numaner at 5:09 PM on August 1, 2018

And yeah dear lord the lecture on Campbellian monomyth, I mean OK the people the show is targeted to might not be familiar with it but whuf.

I agree that the pacing of the season felt _odd_ in a way I can't really explain. Having seen the final episode, sure I get it now, but these last two episodes felt like they sort of got tacked on to possibly close out a story if they were unsure of a second season.
posted by Kyol at 7:34 AM on August 3, 2018