Kamala Khan makes an appearance in “Ms. Marvel is working on the 5th episode

Warning: This summary contains spoilers for Mrs Miracle episode 5

We have now arrived at the penultimate episode of Mrs Miracle, and like many of the MCU shows that came before it, it serves multiple purposes. In a rather mediocre show (Falcon and the Winter Soldier, hawk eye, moon knight), it’s about the time when the show gets “good,” usually anchored by a powerful lead, while we get a big revelation about the task at hand. For a show that was more consistent across the board (WandaVision, Loki), it adds more depth; The revelations work much better on an emotional level before culminating in a familiar Marvel-friendly finale.

Mrs Miracle plays in that direction, and functionally, “Time and Again” is closer in tone and execution to the latter vein of the penultimate Marvel episode. but Mrs Miracle trusts his audience and story enough that his emotional anchor doesn’t just rely on his hero; Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) doesn’t appear until about 19 minutes into the episode, but it never falters.

After a brief newsreel that broke down a sanitized version of the partition—after India’s independence, Britain divided India into two countries and considered Pakistan to be Muslim, while India would be “a secular Hindu-majority state”—we’re thrown back to 1942 thrown in India shortly after Kamala’s great-grandmother Aisha (Mehwish Hayat) escaped British forces in Episode 3 with the bracelet in tow. In a small village she meets a man named Hasan (Fawad Khan) who later offers her food, shelter and recites poetry. One of the stanzas, “What you are looking for is looking for you,” is the phrase that later appears on the bangle worn by Kamala.

It doesn’t take much guesswork to figure out what happens next. Over several years, she and Hasan fall in love, marry and have Sana. Hasan, perhaps the most understanding husband in the world, doesn’t push Aisha into what she’s been running from, but he senses something in her. “[Sana] looks at you like you’re magic,” he says to Aisha. “I can’t say I blame her.” Hayat and Khan don’t have much to do – they only have to build a love story in a few scenes – but they both do an excellent job.

What drives Aisha and Hasan to take the train to Karachi is not only the reality of the split, but also the sudden reappearance of Najma (Nimra Bucha), who gives her old friend a deadline to return the bracelet. Pushing the move, Aisha insists that Sana must be on that train, a point she reiterates before Najma shows up at the station; Sensing betrayal, Najma stabs Aisha to death. When Kamala shows up after going back in time at the end of Episode 4, Aisha reiterates that Sana – who is now separated from Hasan – must be on the last train of the night, and gives Kamala a photo of her family. Like previous appearances of the station, the scene is largely stripped of variegated hues for a more sepia tone, an effect that makes the sequences appear more somber.

What happens next with Kamala’s abilities creating the path a much older Sana (Samina Ahmad) remembered following as she followed to reunite with her father creates a small (but very important, for Kamala’s family) causal loop: Kamala was always destined to create this path. Father and daughter reunite and Kamala returns to modern-day Karachi, where an opening to the veil was offered. Fariha (Adaku Ononogbo) tries to enter but is killed and her body destroyed in the process. Kamala tries to close it but only succeeds with Najma sacrificing herself. But by thinking of her son Kamran (Rish Shah) before she dies, she gives her abilities to him.

It is at this point that Muneeba (Zenobia Shroff) and Sana stumble upon Kamala, Kareem (Aramis Knight) and the wreckage of the final fight in Episode 4. For someone who said a few scenes earlier that she would have microchipped Kamala if it legal (and felt sorry for Night Light’s mother even earlier), Muneeba is fairly accepting of her daughter’s abilities, and Sana gets the closure she needed with her old photo of the mother. Among the funnier sequences in an episode that focuses mostly on drama, they all connect via photos of Muneeba during her rebellious teenage phase, one where she ran away at age 17 to follow Bon Jovi (though Sana thinks that it was “Bruce Springfield”).

For the most part, this ties a nice bow around much of the emotional core Mrs Miracle and more of the mystical elements. But the final minutes take us back to Jersey City and the shadows of the MCU as Kamran, now on the run, goes to see Bruno (Matt Lintz) after having nowhere else to go. It’s awkward at first – Kamran has been calling him Brian the whole time, a mistake he’s only now realizing – but they agree to start over and even find common ground in that neither of their parents are in the picture; Kamran, seemingly unaware that Najma has died, believes she is coming back. One of the Department of Damage Control drones spots Kamran through the window, and after blasting it away with the same type of energy Kamala can control, the drone falls before hitting the corner shop that Bruno’s Nonna owns. But right now Bruno is rather shocked that Kamran also has powers.

Mrs Miracle seems to be setting the stage for a typical sort of Marvel finale, one that pits them squarely against the DODC. We also know, based on the trailers, that Kamala will get her main costume at some point in the finale (another benchmark of the MCU series); She already hinted heavily at the mask and her costume in the last two episodes. There may be cameos that may even lead to Kamala’s appearance The wondersthe Captain Marvel sequel starring Kamala, Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris).

Until now, Mrs Miracle was consistently one of the stronger MCU shows, with its strong ties to family and community among its strengths. We can only hope the show doesn’t lose sight of that in next week’s finale as it checks those all-too-familiar boxes.