Ms. Marvel (Season 1), Episode 5 Recap & Ending Explained: Ms. Marvel had its most eventful episode last week, where Kamala went to Pakistan with the hope of unraveling the mystery behind the bangle and her connection with it. Red Daggers were introduced and the episode ended with Kamala traveling back in time to the night of partition, where her grandmother Sana got lost but eventually found her father Hasan following a trail of stars.
This episode revealed and explained everything except the story behind the bangle which will most likely be revealed in the season finale next week. Although it would have been better if it was longer and the new characters were a bit more fleshed out, the episode still manages to achieve a lot.
Ms. Marvel (Season 1), Episode 5 Recap:
The typical MCU intro music is replaced by the famous “Tu Mera Chand” by Suraiya from the 1949 Bollywood movie Dillagi and the Marvel logo turns into sepia. A 4:3 ratio montage starts to play about the partition between India and Pakistan and the effect it had on the people of both nations.
We get the usual ratio and colors back and go back further in time. The year is 1942 and we see Aisha (Mehwish Hayat) running from the British army, wearing the bangle and killing one of the British army people by throwing a dagger at him. Soon, she comes across a young man called Hasan (Fawad Khan, in his Hollywood debut making quite an impact) who is fighting against the British oppression of Indians.
Hasan has one damaged leg, walks with a branch that he uses as a stick, and has a garden full of roses. The first meeting of Aisha and Hasan is somewhat curt as her being cautious and skeptical of a man she doesn’t know and him not being overly nice but still polite enough. But as the story moves forward, we see Aisha being drawn to Hasan. Soon, they fall in love and get married and we find out Aisha is now pregnant with Sana and she has made Hasan an actual stick for walking.
Time flies by and Sana is now five years old. The year is 1947 and the troubled time of Partition has arrived and started to affect Hasan and Aisha’s blissful life. Hasan is angry and frustrated as he is not able to sell his flowers anymore to people as he is a Muslim. He is also worried and sad about leaving his ancestral home in India and moving to Pakistan where all Muslim people are going.
In the midst of all these, one night Aisha finds Nazma outside their home standing a little far hiding in the shadows of night. They meet and both of them are elated to see each other after all these years. Nazma wants to go back home and asks Aisha about the bangle. Aisha, looking somewhat uncomfortable, lies that she has kept it hidden and it will take some time for her to retrieve it.
The next night, Aisha, Hasan, and Sana leave to catch the train to Pakistan. Aisha is looking visibly anxious and trying to walk very fast but Hasan is having trouble with his damaged leg and struggling to catch up with her. Aisha still asks Hasan to hurry up and he gets frustrated and confronts her about the night before when he saw her getting out and talking to Nazma. He says that he has always known that there is something magical about Aisha but he never cared about her past because she chose him over everything. Aisha shows him the bangle and blue light glimmers around it. She asks Hasan to get Sana on the train no matter what happens and gives Sana the bangle.
They start moving towards the train again, jostling with so many people with the same agenda. At this point, Aisha spots Nazma and asks Hasan to get away with Sana without asking anything. Hasan hesitates but for Sana’s sake keeps moving. Aisha turns around and goes to face Nazma. She gets confronted by Nazma who blames her for betraying their people. Nazma asks for the bangle from Aisha and Aisha begs her to let her family go but Nazma stabs and moves forward to find Sana and Hasan. A dying Aisha screams that the bangle would not work.
Sana gets lost in the crowd at this moment and Hasan tries to find her but he fails. Little Sana cries and screams “Ammi Abbu” in the midst of a sea of people but that doesn’t work out. Right at this point, Kamala arrives at the station from the future (where the previous episode ended). She is shocked at first but soon she realizes it is the night about which she keeps hearing and the one she keeps seeing.
She manages to find Aisha who is almost dead and confuses her with Sana by seeing the bangle in her hand. Aisha is also elated to see the bangle works. She tells Kamala everything will be alright now that Kamala is here. She dies in Kamala’s arms and Kamala finds a picture of Sana, Aisha, and Hasan in her hand. Kamala then manages to find Sana and sees Hasan from far and realizes that she has to make Sana go to him. Unable to reach Hasan because of the crowd Kamala conjures up a circle of light which eventually gets broken into a train of stars and Sana reaches Hasan. Kamala realizes it was not Aisha but her, who saved her grandmother.
Right after this moment, she gets back to the present in the marketplace with Nazma, Fariha, and Kareem and sees the veil between the two worlds has opened. Nazma and the Clandestines are excited to see that and they get ready to get home. Kamala asks them not to because going through that veil would have dire consequences. But Fariha tries to go anyway and within a minute she turns into ashes. The veil gets bigger and Kamala tries to use her power to contain it as Kareem managed to rescue the civilians around.
While Kamala almost manages to close it Nazma tries to go anyway despite Kamala asking her not to because that would destroy everything. Kamala even reminds her that she has Kamran at least but Nazma looks back at her and says she left him behind and walks into the veil of light and becomes ashes just like Fariha. The gate finally closes as Kamala sees Muneeba and Sana have reached there thanks to phone tracking.
Muneeba, now realizing it was Kamala who was the “light girl” all along is overwhelmed and Sana is happy to realize that her purpose has now been finally fulfilled. Kamala bids Goodbye to Kareem who gives her his red scarf and tells her she can always ask for his help. At home, Kamala reminisces about the past and present with her mother and Grandmother while discussing how magic has always been in their family. Kamala also gives Sana the photograph she found in Aisha’s hand.
Meanwhile, Nazma manages to transfer her clandestine power to Kamran right before dying. Kamran, still in Damage Control Supermax prison acquires the power as his right-hand glimmers similarly to Kamala (although the color is a little different) and is visibly shocked. However, he manages to go to Bruno as he doesn’t have anywhere else to go. But the Damage Control Department finds him and a drone follows Kamran, who manages to blast a surge of light from his hand in front of a shocked Bruno and destroys the drone.
Ms. Marvel (Season 1), Episode 5 Ending Explained:
Before everything, let’s just praise Marvel for this episode intro where they included every single Indian subcontinent language to show the title Ms. Marvel.
Now, let’s talk about the ending. Kamran getting power definitely takes the show closer to the comics although in the comics Kamran is an inhuman and he gets power differently. Deviating from comics might also mean Kamran might actually be an ally in the show, unlike his comic counterpart who is actually a villain.
Given Kamala’s family origin story is now rounded off all that is left now is to find out the origin story of the bangle and how did the Clandestines get hold of it in the first place. Money is still on that Skrull theory which will establish a direct connection to the Captain Marvel storyline.
With no big bad villain left in the show, it would be a good idea to explore the character of Nakia and Bruno further who got sidelined after getting prominent arcs in the initial episodes. That is also an unfortunate result of Disney’s six-episode season strategy where the episodes are really short. However, unlike every other show, Ms. Marvel might not suffer that much because most of the mysteries are already revealed. Even though a longer episode format would have probably helped the show better.
We should find out whatever that is left to find out in the finale next week, hopefully.
