The final two episodes of Disney+ & Marvel Studios' Ms. Marvel can sometimes be a little frustrating to watch. Not because they are bad, but because there are just some things that are conflicting with each other that make the two episodes stumble when it comes to working as a cohesive whole. However, the series did do a very good job of portraying an origin story for Kamala Khan and also exploring the idea of identity and generational trauma. That trauma was much more apparent in episode five, and when episode four aired, there was a concern that they would spend the entire episode in the past, and they pretty much did. While that backstory is important thematically and beautifully done, it leads to the problem that the show's sixth episode and several plot points felt rushed. It's frustrating, though, because those scenes exploring the Partition are incredibly well done. It's so lovely that they exist, but Ms. Marvel feels like another show that could have benefited from a seventh episode.

The final scenes back in the present and how the Clandestine plotline is ultimately solved feel anti-climatic. Ms. Marvel felt like it was going to focus on smaller things; that's why bringing in Damage Control at the beginning of the series and having them being an antagonist makes sense. We don't need any world-ending scenarios here. However, in an attempt to make Kamala's new origin story make sense and to explore the idea of generational trauma with Kamran and Kamala, the Clandestine feels underutilized. Their intentions were world-ending which felt so out of place for this show. You can't start off with this smaller story in scale that feels much more grounded, switch to "we need to stop the bad guys before they destroy the world" for exactly two episodes if you're being generous, and then move on. Najma and her relationship with Kamran helped expand the show's themes, but the plotline wasn't given enough time to breathe, a common theme across nearly all of these shows.

It also means that the Damage Control plotline feels like it came out of nowhere. We've spent the last two episodes of Ms. Marvel in Karachi, and two weeks have passed in real-time. The break to Karachi was important for plot and theme reasons, some of the best scenes in the show are in Karachi, but it means that the Damage Control plotline had to take the backseat, which is why it returning in force in episode six felt so jarring. All Kamala and Nakia's issues had to be sorted out in maybe three sentences because there wasn't any time to focus on rebuilding that relationship. Then Zoe showed up all gung-ho to help Kamala, and it feels like her scenes were left on the cutting room floor. Zoe was only in three episodes, and we haven't seen her since episode two, so her showing up here was incredibly weird. Damage Control was the perfect antagonist for Kamala to face; it was the perfect scope for a show like this, yet the need to bring in the Clandestine and make their intentions apocalyptic really undercut nearly everything.

This is, again, frustrating above all else because thematically, they are incredibly important. The idea of generational trauma and breaking the cycle of trauma within your family is something we have seen in Ms. Marvel. One of the most important aspects of the Karachi-centric episodes was that Muneeba repaired her relationship with her mother and, in turn, repaired her relationship with Kamala as well. The cycle was broken, and now the women in this family can move forward with forgiveness, love, and trust, which is something they didn't have before. Najma, in the end, decided to break the cycle of trauma by sacrificing herself to save Kamran even though she left him behind and didn't feel worthy of returning to him. Her actions were the reason why we get the final fight with Kamran and Kamala as he loses control of his new powers. He also chooses to stop lashing out and accept the help that Kamala is offering him, something that Najma was unable to do, once again breaking the cycle. It's important for his character and the show's theme to have the Clandestine there, but there had to be another way of making them a threat that was taken care of in a single scene after a long flashback.

The frustrating things continue to come back and haunt us in the final episode. There aren't a lot of secret identities in the Marvel universe, but Kamala is a character that has spent the entire six-episode arc trying to figure out who she is. By the sixth episode's end, everyone who matters to her knows about her powers and accepts her. It's the kind of full acceptance that teenagers strive for in these series, and using superpowers as a metaphor for accepting all aspects of your loved ones is something comic book movies have been doing since 1999. Everything about Kamala now, from her powers to her costume to the name Ms. Marvel links back to her family and not taking up the mantle of her hero. It's so much more personalized and also means that Kamala stands on her own next to Carol in terms of having her own identity. In the comics, one of the first things Kamala does with her powers is quite literally take on the appearance of Carol Danvers. While the MCU Kamala is probably going to lose her mind when she meets Carol, her entire superhero identity links back to her and only her. It's the right move for the show since taking on previous names is something the MCU is only just starting to explore, and Carol never had her Ms. Marvel phase anyway.

Those little moments are the moments that really make this series shine. The fact that every part of Kamala's costume comes from someone that cares about her; the mask is from Bruno, the sash is from Kareem, the fabric of the costume was given to her by Waleed is made by her mother, her superhero name is given to her by her father, and the logo is from Kamala's name. All of these small details, linking everything back to history and family, were the right move to adapt this character. It's amusing that Kamala is looking to be a mutant because that almost feels like it takes away from the family aspect of her origin story for the sake of worldbuilding. Instead of her getting her powers from her family solely, part of the reason she has them is [depending on how they approach mutants in the MCU] a one in a million genetic fluke. Thor: Love and Thunder also fumbled when it came to integrating worldbuilding for new stories later on, and one has to wonder if it has always been this clunky and we are just noticing or if it has gotten worse. Unlike Thor: Love and Thunder, which ground its second act to a halt for clunky worldbuilding, this one is at least a handful of sentences at the end of the episode.

So, where do these final episodes leave us? Is Ms. Marvel yet another show that fails to stick the landing? It's not bad, and in terms of rushed finales, it's not nearly as egregious as some other shows. However, the way things are paced and the fact that it felt like we needed just one more episode between the events of five and six is a reoccurring theme. You can't have an exposition-heavy episode and then try to go out with a bang. It doesn't flow well; hopefully, this is a habit that Marvel will break soon. It's up there with WandaVision and Hawkeye in terms of finales that work more than they don't, but the fumbling of the Clandestine plotline and how much everything about it just didn't work really drags the whole series down. There had to be another way of explaining Kamala's powers, putting her on the defensive, and reinforcing the theme.

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