‘Cloak and Dagger’ S1E5: “Princeton Offense”

Last week on Cloak and Dagger, Tandy realized that maybe her half-drunken paranoid mother was right, thanks to the efforts of her mom's recent-yet-now-deceased lawyer/booty call, the Roxxon Energy Corporation is behind her father’s death and has something to hide.  Now, able to control her light powers, she’s going to try and take the fight to the corporation.

The episode begins with an infomercial for the Roxxon Energy Corporation showcasing the “good” that the company does, as one of their executives is a veteran who was gifted with a mechanical arm (one eerily similar to the one Misty Knight has on Netflix’s Luke Cage) and talks up the benefits the corporation does for humanity.  Tandy, watching the infomercial on her phone, knows something else is up, and the church she’s squatting in is scattered with the lawyer’s investigative paperwork.

Meanwhile, Detective O'Reilly, who we didn’t see much of last week, returns.  She’s in the middle of having back seat police car sex with a colleague in the parking lot (once again, this isn’t ABC Family, it’s Freeform and a completely different type of show than the family-friendly programming we are used to from the channel).  Just as she and her colleague are finishing up their rendezvous, she gets a call that Tyrone is in the station and she sets up an interview.  Turns out, she’s found his bike that was “stolen.”  Knowing he’s up to something else, the two have a conversation about corrupt cop Detective Connors.  Being a member of Vice, he really has no record as a cop (to protect his own identity).  Tyrone tells her that he can bring her evidence that Connors is dealing drugs, drugs that he stole from the police department.  She advises that she will look into it.

Tyrone gets back to school and it’s the week of the big game, the state championship.  He comes to his locker and sees that it’s been made up by his girlfriend.  He’s approached behind and at first thinks that it’s his girlfriend Evita, but instead, it’s Tandy.  She tells him that she has learned how to control her Dagger powers, and that she learned it from when she tried to kill herself in last week’s episode.  She tells him that she plans to use it for good use and stop Roxxon.  Tyrone isn’t too keen on her using her light powers to learn about her enemy’s hopes.  She encourages him to try to learn how to control his powers in the same way.  Based on their connection, if she can control her powers, he can do the same for his.  After using his school’s computer lab to print her research, she learns of the corporate hierarchy, and will go after them.  She see’s Tyrone’s pep rally and manages to steal the preppy school uniforms from some of the girls at school, which she uses to dress fancy and apply at an escort agency. In the hopes of getting close enough to the executives at a party so that she can see their hopes and figure out a way to stop them.

O'Reilly continues her investigation into Detective Connors.  She first approaches Tandy’s boyfriend, currently locked up and asks about anyone dealing drugs on the street that matches what Connors is supposed to be dealing.  At first, Liam plays it cool and is not telling her anything.  Of course, his anger towards Tandy can be used as motivation to get him to start talking.  He tells her about a club where a local woman deals out of the club.  O’Reilly is able to flip the girl to become her local informant.

Tyrone has the basketball championship.  For the most part, the game is going well as it’s a pretty even match between his school and the other team.  He notices that the referee is making unnecessary calls against the opposing team, calling a foul against his opponent who didn’t touch him.  This rubs him the wrong way.  When he gets involved in a jump ball scuffle, he accidentally touches the referee and his darkness power is activated.  The ref’s fear is that he will be stabbed by local criminals, meaning that the ref is trying to throw the game.

Tandy is at a fancy party full of Roxxon executives.  Knowing the corporate hierarchy, she sees persons of interest and begins to flirt with them and by touching each of them, she is able to see their hopes.  One thing that most of them have in common is that they hate their boss.  They envision attacking him, tying him up, or even having him give another executive oral sex.  They all hate this mystery guy or fear him.  Either way, he’s the one at the top that she has to find.

While Tandy is working her magic, it’s also effecting Tyrone.  During the halftime break, he is teleported to the party where he and Tandy start talking.  Tyrone just wants to get back to the game.  Just then, Tandy notices a poster on the wall at the party which showcases the main guy she needs to find.  She learns that his name is Peter Scarborough.  She then realizes that he was one of the main guys who collected evidence after her father’s death.  She now knows who she has to stop.  Tyron is still trying to get back to the game.  He pleads with Tandy to send him back.  she tells him that he has to focus his powers, and gives him a little “push,” right off the second floor into a fountain.  Luckily, he teleports right back to the locker room, a little wetter.  He then plays the rest of the game, but now he knows how to activate his powers of touch as well.  As he is playing and brushing against other players, he’s seeing their darkness and fears.  Many of them have problems with abusive parents, gang violence, and other things.  Tyrone starts to feel sorry for them.  The end of the game is on the line and it’s up to him.  Instead of winning the state championship, he purposely shoots a brick, allowing them to win the game.  Tyrone heads home to find his girlfriend in his room.  He had previously given her his letter jacket and assumes she wants to give it back.  She tells him she knows why he threw the game and is cool with it.  She removes his jacket to reveal she’s not wearing much and the two proceed to have sex.  The next morning after she leaves, Tyron teleports to Connor’s location where he finds out Connors has a partner, his brother’s former friend.

O'Reilly is in the evidence room snorting coke (a bold move to do).  Just then, Connors walks in.  At first, it looks like the two may be in cahoots, but it turns out that she’s working him.  They proceed to snort lines together and he inquires about her coke connection.  O'Reilly now has an angle to stop him.

Tandy goes to Scarborough's home faking a flat tire (caused by her daggers) in order to gain access to him.  Scarborough proceeds to help her change the tire.  This gives her the opportunity to kill him as he’s changing the tire.  Instead of going forward, she touches him and uses her light powers to see what his hopes are.  In his vision, he’s walking through water after the oil rig explosion where he’s picking up giant rolls of cash off of dead oil workers.  Yeah, he’s truly the bad guy!