Ms Marvel spoilers follow.
The Department of Damage Control (DODC) came out swinging in the finale of Ms Marvel. Just when she thought she'd dodged all of her troubles with the defeat of The Clan Destine and the closing of the veil, Kamala (Iman Vellani) was hit with more problems on the home front.
The DODC tracked down Kamran (Rish Shah) and intended to take him in by any means necessary.
Bruno (Matt Lintz) found himself tangled in the whole mess and it was up to Night Light?Light Girl? Kamala to come up with a cockamamie plan to solve the whole conundrum.
It's a good thing she had a piece of chalk and a blackboard to hand.
It was bold, it was beautiful, it was culturally embracing. It was, simply put, "perfect" to hijack Mr Khan's affectionate quote.
What to Read Next
Are you ready to embark on the wild and crazy plan of Kamala's one last time?
Ms Marvel ending explained
After revealing to her family that she is Night Light (name in progress) Kamala gets the supportive blessing she's always craved for being different. This is very good considering what's about to be dumped on her plate.
She learns from Nakia (Yasmeen Fletcher) that Bruno and Kamran have attracted the attention of the DODC and need her help. Thank goodness Ammi (Zenobia Shroff) bestows upon her a kickass superhero costume (Pakistani-made of course) because in the right outfit, a person can do anything. Seriously. Did you catch the knee pads? Stylish yet practical.
Bruno and Kamran attempt to hide in the mosque before Nakia points out that on a Saturday their vacant school might be a better option. However, before they can leave, the DODC show up helmed by Sadie Deever (Alysia Reiner) and her poorly disguised bigotry.
Ms Marvel's nod to discrimination against Muslims does not go unnoticed. It can be easy in this current climate to sweep these matters under the rug because they don't appear to affect the masses but what Ms Marvel has done is perfection.
The show's creator Bisha K Ali craftily draws this injustice out for examination in a context that makes sense in an MCU world and it works. The worshippers protect Kamran and Bruno until they can safely leave while showing a united front of peace and strength. This simple depiction of Muslim community is the polar opposite of the narrative that bubbles under the surface in the real world. Representation matters.
Kamran's out-of-control powers don't help matters much when it comes to stealth. They continue to explode out him against his will but fortunately the group make it to safety.
All this leads to a showdown in the high school. Despite Deever being ordered to stand down, she presses ahead with her attack.
There's barely enough time for Kamala to chalk up her illustrated plan of attack, which even involves student influencer Zoe (Laurel Marsden), who feels she owes Kamala for previously saving her life.
There's mad science, softballs, fire extinguishers and Urdu-language music involved in addition to a call to arms from Zoe's social-media following.
Kamala hopes to distract the DODC long enough for Zoe's raised awareness to shine a light on the DODC's antics and persuade them to back off.
Knowing that is a long shot she enlists the help of the Red Dagger, who arranges someone to meet Kamran at the docks and deliver him to safety.
Kamala and Kamran find the time to share a moment which ends in an almost-kiss until Bruno interrupts them. The DODC are moments away, he warns, before offering to distract them.
Kamran continues to press Kamala about the fate of his mother Najma (Nimra Bucha), guessing that she's died. Kamala can no longer keep the truth from him and explains what happened.
This of course sends Kamran and his unstable powers into a frenzy. A mixture of grief and raw power causes him to lash out.
He almost takes out the crowd outside and narrowly avoids killing members of the DODC and the public alike thanks to Kamala. She gets to use her embiggened powers. For the first time we see her tripling in size to stretch out and catch a vehicle that's heading for the crowd, a sign that the MCU is slowly beginning to lean more into her comic-book powers.
Kamran explodes out of control, his powers threatening to pierce everyone in close range but Kamala is able to cocoon them both within her own.
Naturally he is remorseful but fears no one will ever accept him (and by extension Kamala) because of their gifts.
She tells him that his mother gave up the hope of returning to their world to protect him in this and that it isn't their powers that define them but what they do with them.
She buys him time to get to the harbour by punching a massive hole into the ground for him to escape into. (That one is a little woolly but we'll forgive it because it's grandiose and we were caught up in the excitement.)
The DODC is about to descend on Kamala when the public create a protective circle to shelter her. Even members of the Jersey City PD step in to stand by her side.
It's wonderful and warming but ineffective against an organisation with alien weaponry. It does, however, buy time. Kamala jumps to safety, crystal hopping her way out of there just as Deever gets a call from her boss relieving her of duty and ordering her to get out of there.
Ms Marvel begins to draw to a close but there are still a few more cherries to enjoy.
A heart-to-heart with her Abbu (Mohan Kapur) reveals that her parents gave her the name Kamala after they struggled to conceive her. To them she was perfect, so, he says, they gave her a name that means 'perfection' in Arabic, or, in Urdu, 'marvel'.
"You sure are and always have been our own little Ms Marvel," he explains. After freaking out that she shares the same name as Carol Danvers, Kamala adopts the mantle.
Kamala's almost-kiss with Kamran convinces Bruno his romantic affections towards her are one-sided and he decides to leave for Caltech. Before he goes, however, he reveals to Kamala that he has been looking into her DNA on her brother Aamir's request as he too wanted to know if he had powers (he wishes he was that cool).
Bruno's research exposes something much more exciting about Kamala's genetic make-up. Yes, she is Djinn which gives her access to the Noor and allows her to wield it, but comparing her to the rest of her family he found something different in her genes: a mutation.
As in Mutants.
*Fist pumps the air in ultimate glee*
This would also explain why Najma didn't display any active powers despite being Clan Destine, but Kamran, who tapped into his powers after her death, could. It's possible he too is a mutant while his mother was not.
While some may be devastated about the loss of Kamala's Inhuman origin (us, we are some) the potential this unleashes for the MCU is geekgasmic.
Ms Marvel credit scene explained
As if the mutant reveal weren't enough – pause… *screams into pillow* – they throw in another curveball. Kamala's confidently laying on her bed having saved the world, come out to her parents and even figured out her superhero name.
To all intents and purposes she’s got her whole world figured out. Now she's just your average powered teen avoiding science homework.
Her bangle tingles, glows and then BAM! she is thrust backwards into her closet as her powers cause her to dematerialise and rematerialise in a glorious scribble of colours.
However, as she emerges, Kamala has… changed. She's freaking Captain Marvel (played by Brie Larson).
Judging by the confused look all over Carol Danvers' face, Kamala appears to have switched places with the real Captain Marvel. Which begs the question, if Carol Danvers is in Jersey, where's Kamala?
Given the events of Captain Marvel and WandaVision, which saw Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) meet with the Skrulls, many have theorised that The Marvels storyline could be off-world and centre around the Skrull-Kree wars. If that's true, Kamala could have taken the place of Danvers on another world.
We know that Parris will return to the MCU in the The Marvels and a tiny Kree clue dropped inconspicuously into episode three of Ms Marvel also adds weight to this theory. The fact that Najma prised Kamala's bangle off the cold, dead hand of a Kree before giving it Kamala’s great-grandmother is presumably no mere accident.
Kamala's powers (mutant and djinn) in connection with her bangle could be the key to aiding Danvers in her mission to protect the Skrulls from the Kree.
Captain Marvel last appeared in Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings' post-credits scene, where we discover she is searching for magical items like the Ten Rings.
It's possible that she could have found the missing bangle to Kamala's pair and activated it by mistake.
The other possibility is that Kamala has found a way to travel not just back in time (as happened in the previous episode where she went back to the days of the partition) but also to different locations. However there are holes in both theories. For instance how would Danvers be able to access the Noor energy, not being Clan Destine? Yet if Kamala was responsible why did she change places with Danvers instead of simply teleporting?
So many questions!
We know from the comics that Kamala became Captain Marvel's sidekick for a brief spell but whether or not that will materialise in the MCU has yet to be revealed. She also has the ability to shapeshift in the comics, so the scene *could* actually show her taking the form of Carol Danvers rather than changing places with her. (But if that were so, she probably wouldn't look so confused at her surroundings.)
Marvel has already promised a "cosmic adventure" for The Marvels, so we expect this new superhero team-up to be… well… cosmic.
Ms Marvel is now available to stream in full on Disney+.
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TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
