Marvel’s Runaways have suffered a great loss. In “Cheat the Gallows,” Chase (Gregg Sulkin) seeks to correct the past, while dealing with a turncoat in the group. This episode might get a little confusing. So let’s do this in three parts.
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It’s June 14, 2028 and Chase is speaking to a camera. He wants to make up for his mistakes in the past and make things better. Including what happened to Gert (Ariela Barer). He touches his watch and disappears.
THREE YEARS AFTER GERT’S DEATH
All of the Runaways went on with their lives. Molly (Allegra Acosta) went back to school, like Gert hoped she would. She lives at the hostel with Old Lace and Chase, who is busy on a super secret project. Well, not that secret. Alex (Rhenzy Feliz) is helping him by giving him formulas from the Gibborim abstract. Does this mean Alex can still read that thing?
Alex is now the owner of Wilder Innovators and is doing a lot of good for Geoffrey’s (Ryan Sands) former neighborhood. Geoffrey remarried and has a happier life. So does Karolina (Virginia Gardner). She is attending UCLA and lives with new girlfriend Julie (Claudia Sulewski). As for Nico (Lyrica Okano), well she disappeared after Gert’s death. Nico decided it was time to gain control of her powers and train with a master. She didn’t tell anyone where she was going or have any contact with them while she was gone. One big change is that she has a more natural look to her.
Things get crazy when Future Alex shows up to kill Nico. Nico is able to stop him without the staff only to have Future Chase show up and “save” her. Ha! Chase gather everyone, except his past self. That Chase is working on time travel…very essential to Future Chase’s mission.
Sometime between now and 2028, some of the Runaways took on some of Pride’s devious behaviors. One of them tried to kill Alex by placing a bomb in his office. He doesn’t know who did it, so he decided to eliminate all of them, just to be sure.
Like with all time travel, there are rules. It is disastrous to interact with your past/future self. Chase can’t tell anyone their future for fear they could alter the timeline, causing more devastation. So says Future Chase.
Nico suggests putting Alex in quarantine at his location of choice. That way the timeline changes anyway and Future Alex never comes back to kill them. Molly doesn’t think that’s fair because Present Alex hasn’t done anything wrong. He’s not the one they have to worry about.
Chase says Future Alex is relentless and will go after people they all care about. Like Julie. Julie finds Alex outside of her apartment waiting for Karolina. He says he has something to give her. When he reaches into his bag, he pulls his gun.
Karolina rushes home to find Julie on the floor. Future Alex emerges, ready to kill Karolina and Nico stops him with her magic. Chase searches for something on Alex, but can’t find it. Alex pulls out the jump device and disappears.
While Chase tries to figure out when Future Alex jumped to, Nico meets Julie. Talk about awkward. Karolina takes Julie to their bedroom to lay down and Nico has some feelings about all of it. To be fair Nico did leave without telling anyone where she was.
Julie is a little concerned after meeting Nico. Karolina told her all about Nico…well, not everything. She reassures Julie that Nico coming back means nothing.
Chase figures out that Future Alex went back to the day before the kids found out about their parents. Back when they were in high school and didn’t know anything about their powers. Back to Episode One! This should be fun.
RETURN TO EPISODE ONE
Chase gives everyone a time traveling watch with four jumps each. He and Future Alex are down to two jumps. When they get to the past, he tells them to find and guard themselves, but don’t interact.
Each of the Runaways finds themselves easily. Seeing Gert is a little emotional for both Molly and Chase. Chase even confronts Gert to 1) save her, and 2) let her know how he feels about seeing her. Gert accuses him of messing with her saying he’s acting suspicious.
Future Alex emerges and everyone chases him to the buses where a teacher is waiting for Alex to go on a field trip. Everyone boards the bus with him. Alex of the Past boards the bus and everyone freaks out. Future Alex grabs a student and holds a knife to his neck. Nico throws a spell and knocks everyone out, including Past Alex. They mind wipe the students and send them on their way.
Chase takes Future Alex to the gym where Present Alex confronts him. He wants to know why he becomes so evil. Future Alex reminds him of what happened in the Dark Dimension. He says Alex embraces his true nature and becomes someone who will do whatever it takes to win.
Having two Alexes with the group is complicating. So Chase sent Present Alex back to the present time. Alex promises not to turn out like his future counterpart and says he wants to be good friends with Chase.
There is some animosity between Future Alex and Nico. He accuses her of always trying to control people and things. She says it’s because she has the power to save everyone and she couldn’t. That’s why she left. Now that she can control her powers, she will do whatever it takes to keep everyone safe.
Chase plans to take Future Alex back to their time and turn him in…for time traveling? He really didn’t do anything wrong but try to kill someone in the past and Chase doesn’t have any evidence to prove it. As for everyone else, Chase tells them to go back to their timeline while he goes on one more errand.
Chase’s purpose for figuring out time travel is to go back and save Gert. After hearing this, Molly, Karolina, and Nico insist on going with him. Alex says it’s risky. Their timelines could change by saving Gert. They don’t seem to care. They all just want Gert back.
THE NIGHT GERT DIED
We return to the previous episode when the Runaways and Pride join forces to face Morgan le Fay (Elizabeth Hurley). Chase’s plan is not to disrupt what happened that night except to pull Gert out of harm’s way. That means someone else will have to complete the circle of salt that traps Morgan.
Everyone volunteers and don’t see Alex slip away. Molly says they shouldn’t have brought him, but Chase had no choice. He only had enough jumps to get to that night and then back to his timeline.
Everyone splits up and can’t help but get involved somewhere. Future Nico leaves to confronts her past self, telling her to stay and fight for Karolina. What they have is more powerful than magic. Chase finds his past self and knocks him out. He grabs the Fistigons. Future Alex is lurking about, but we don’t see what he’s up to.
Gert retrieves the bowl of salt and Future Chase stops her. He admits he’s there to save her, saying his life without Gert is unbearable. He takes the salt and goes to the foyer where Morgan has just thrown everyone around, except for Gert, preventing the moment when she gets the fatal injury.
Morgan starts talking about how powerful she is and how they don’t stand a chance against her. So this time Chase interrupts with a speech countering hers, anything to keep her from seeing the salt fall out from the bottom of his pants. Morgan starts to attack him and Future Nico blocks her. At first she’s confused, unsure of where the magic is coming from. Then Future Alex yells, pointing out Nico’s location.
Future Molly knocks him out. Morgan saw her and she knows there more at play than just Tina (Brittany Ishibashi) and Nico. Future Karolina hits her with a light beam and Morgan blasts them back. Gert emerges to help Chase and Morgan pushes Gert back, making her hit the wall. Old Lace is locked up and going nuts when Gert get hurt.
Chase blasts Morgan with the Fistigons and she counters with shards from the chandelier, stabbing Chase in multiple places. He falls to the floor and completes the circle of salt. Tina comes out, just as before and sends Morgan back to the Dark Dimension.
Old Lace wakes up Gert and she runs to Chase. Future Chase dies in her arms with the past Runaways watching. Victor (James Marsters) runs down the stairs to his son at the same time the past Chase, causing some confusion.
Chase says he got punched out by himself. There’s even more confusion when Past Molly finds Future Alex on the floor. Someone suggests time travel.
While they try to figure it out, Future Karolina can feel herself fading away. Their timeline has changed. Karolina asks Nico to find her, no matter what happens and Nico agrees. Nico, Molly and Karolina hold each other as they fade away. Future Chase and Future Alex fade away as well.
The 2019 Runaways are all safe and sound and happy after defeating Morgan. They celebrate with breakfast. Alex almost forgets his wallet and finds it with a note. It’s a list telling Alex to 1. Infiltrate Wilder Innovators 2. Hide Mancha and 3. Kill Nico. He doesn’t know what it means, only that he didn’t write it. Nico yells for him to hurry so he dismisses the note and joins the others as they leave the hostel.
RELATED: Read Marvel’s RUNAWAYS Recaps Here!
THOUGHTS
Thanks Marvel Runaways! That was a fun three seasons!
News Editor, Senior Contributor, and Press Editor. Coordinate breaking news, trailers and press releases. I also contribute reviews, recaps and interviews. Creator of the Indigenerd Wire, a column dedicated to the Indigenous creatives in pop culture.
GGA's resident Indigenerd, a little bit rez, a little bit classy...with a love for all things Star Wars, zombies, science fiction, and Indigenous. My ultimate goal is to start my own podcast.
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