Runaways season 1, episode 8 review: Tsunami

Secrets are finally coming out in this new episode of Runaways.

Last time on Runaways Victor Stein was shot by his wife Janet, after he tried to physically hurt his son Chase. “Tsunami” opens up right there and then as the rest of PRIDE arrives at the crime scene. Molly is sent to live with a relative and Gert frees her pet dinosaur to meet with the rest of the gang. At the same time, Nico and Alex get into an argument as we discover why Alex didn’t go to Amy’s funeral. Apparently, it was her mother, Tina, who prompted Amy to commit suicide.

Back at the Stein’s house, PRIDE and the Yorkes try to revive Victor via the clinical way, but that goes unsuccessfully. PRIDE then contacts Frank. He tries to revive Victor using the miracle gloves he acquired from Jonah last episode, but that too fails. In a moment of desperation, Tina calls Jonah, who everyone was trying to avoid. When he enters the scene he takes out the sacrificial machine that brought him back to life. That’s when he also tells PRIDE that in order to revive Victor, one of them must be sacrificed. Jonah picks Janet, but Robert Minoru quickly intervenes and picks himself. As he is about to enter the machine Tina breaks out her magical staff and pulverizes the machine, leaving Jonah to put Victor’s body under some type of preservation state.

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When Gert and the gang finally meet up, Alex tells them that he has decrypted the video file. With new proof that their parents are committing murder, Chase makes the choice of destroying Alex’s computer, to save his dad.

While it seems like all proof is lost, we quickly cut to Molly finding a VHS tape of presumably PRIDE’s crimes. Nico also finds Amy’s phone and backpack. The episode ends with the possibility that Amy might have faked her own death.

Once again Runaways doesn’t fail to deliver a wonderful episode. Even though “Tsunami” took place in primarily one setting, the Stein’s house, the episode felt spacious and rich. This was mostly due to the character dynamic between the parents. “Tsunami” was the first time we saw all of them together in a state of panic, so we got to see all of the older cast offer some serious nuance. In other words, their acting went from zero to 100 real quick. And indeed, it was phenomenal to see.

This episode didn’t give the young gang much to do, but Gert was the standout. Her scenes with her pet dinosaur were utterly hilarious, proving once more that we need to see the gang using their abilities more.

While this wasn’t an episode full of crazy revelations, we finally got more insight into Amy Minoru’s life before she was disappeared. “Tsunami” made it seem like her mother Tina helped Amy fake her own death. That’s definitely the more optimistic way of interpreting it, as a more gruesome way of taking it is that Tina had her own daughter killed, because she knew too much about PRIDE.

I guess we’ll have to wait until next episode to find out.

Top Moments:

• When Dale Yorkes took out a gun and started threatening to shoot everybody was one of the funniest bits the show has thrown at us.
• The CGI is not always great on Runaways, but this episode nailed the look and feel of Gert’s pet dinosaur.
• Jonah has supposedly lived for a long, long time. He mentioned how he has revived himself several times throughout the course of history. Like a DC villain, Jonah is the Ra’s al Ghul type.
• It looks like Chase will betray the young Runaways. Alex was the one who did so in the comics, though.

Next: 50 greatest superheroes in comic book history

Stay tuned for more episode reviews of Runaways.