"The universe keeps pushing us together."

"The universe keeps pulling us apart."

— Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen (Cloak & Dagger, S1E4 "Call/Reponse")

As this is an informal opinion piece, it is not attached to any sensitivity readers. If I step into anti-black sentiments, that is of my own mistake, and I would like it to be pointed out so I can fix it.

So, it's time for me to do what I do best: talk about media. It's all I pretty much know how to do, and it's one of the things I enjoy writing about the most. In 2018, Cloak & Dagger came to Freeform as the second non-Netflix Marvel show (the first was Runaways). Cloak & Dagger follows Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson, a superhero duo who first debuted in Marvel comics decades ago. Their origin story doesn't fit with the modern times and have been updated in the show. Tandy (Olivia Holt) is a young, white girl from a formerly rich family, who fell into poverty after her dad died in a car accident and her dad's research and assets were seized by the company he worked for. Tyrone (Aubrey Joseph) is a young, black boy from a rich family, whose brother died the same night that Tandy's father did after being shot by a police officer. The show tackles both of their stories in conjunction — what it's like to be a black boy and a white girl in America — and I'm going to talk about both of them today, together.

Because that's what Cloak and Dagger is about. They're a duo, and their dynamic is centered on them working together as friends and as a team. For the purposes of this piece, I'll only focus on season 1 of the show since that's all I've seen so far (yeah, I know). Tyrone's main plot is bringing the officer who killed his brother to justice, and Tandy's main plot is redeeming her father's name since, the night he died, an oil rig he was working on exploded and the tragedy was attributed to his research. While their plots don't directly seem like they would tie into each other, Tandy and Tyrone constantly revolve around each other's lives as characters. They developed superpowers from the night that tragedy struck them both, and their powers don't manifest until they run into each other again, years later as teenagers. Tandy can create daggers of light (hence the "Dagger"), and Tyrone can shadow-teleport (hence the "Cloak", also I know that's not exactly what his power is but brevity). Additionally, when Tandy touches someone, she can see their brightest hopes, and when Tyrone touches someone, he can see their darkest fears. This is important.

Tandy and Tyrone's characters have many nuances that isn't seen in a lot of media often; the fact that they're presented as a duo greatly helps their character development as well as highlights an important message: they can't accomplish their goals without each other. They're complements — light and dark, poor and rich, cynical and hopeful, girl and boy. Privileged and underprivileged. In one scene, Tandy shows up to Tyrone's private academy and is there to steal another student's uniform so she can disguise herself (it's a whole thing). She's clearly not dressed like all the other students, so Tyrone immediately gets worried about her getting caught. It's a valid concern but one that Tandy probably doesn't realize is also the product of Tyrone living his entire adolescence as a black boy who had to watch how he acted, talked, and behaved. For a good amount of her plotline, Tandy does things that Tyrone simply can't. She's bold and risky, stealing from people (she's introduced as a pickpocket, which is how Tyrone meets her) and breaking into places she shouldn't be. The truth of the matter is that Tandy might have never had to consider how easy those things were for her — if she got caught, she probably wouldn't be shot or beaten. She might even be let off with a warning or a slap on the wrist. On the other hand, Tyrone is more than aware of this. He leans toward being more lawful and mindful of authority than Tandy does, being worried about breaking rules because he knows firsthand what the consequences of that are for him as a black boy in America.

I mentioned that their initial story doesn't fit with the modern times. Cloak and Dagger's origins had Tyrone be a thief who almost stole Tandy's purse — until another thief beat him to the punch, so Tyrone chased after him instead. I'll be honest, I like the show's version better. By switching around their socioeconomic statuses so that Tandy is the one who's poor and Tyrone is the one who's rich, their wealth and standing in society isn't tied to their race. Not every black person is from poverty, and not every white person is from wealth (although, Tandy is implied to have been well-off before her dad died). But this backstory change allows more things to be said through the characters — Tyrone's parents get upset when he skips school and gets into trouble as he goes deeper into the investigation of his brother's shooting because they worked so hard to get him into a private academy and because they're a black family with money. Because, even with that money and status, it's not a privilege for them. It's not even a luxury because any wrong move could destroy their social standing, could have the police knocking at their door or arresting Tyrone — and at the end of the season, they are once Tyrone becomes the prime suspect for said officer's disappearance. His socioeconomic status doesn't protect him because his race is the bigger target. Tyrone isn't listened to when he's a child, telling the police what happened because he witnessed his brother's death (which, as shown, isn't his brother's fault as his brother wasn't trying to get in trouble that night, but honestly, it shouldn't matter), and in his teen years, he isn't listened to again as he tries to bring a man to justice only to face the boot of the corrupt system that wants to silence him.

In Season 1 Episode 3, there's a dream sequence where Tandy and Tyrone both enter a parallel universe limbo where they see alternate versions of themselves. Tandy, in a forest during the day, watches as Dream!Tyrone picks up various objects from a table (a whip, I believe, a rope tied into a noose, and a gun) in order to try and take down the officer who killed his brother. The dream resets every time Dream!Tyrone does kill the officer, but he's chased by the police as a constant. After a few resets, Tandy steps in and presses Tyrone to see the truth — that he can keep trying to let his anger out as revenge, but it won't change the end outcome. He has to try something different. Because this is a scene about a metaphor, this conviction triggers Tandy's powers, and one of her light daggers form in her hands. She places it down on the table, and Dream!Tyrone reaches for it — and it turns into a pair of handcuffs in his hands.

The dream limbo then cuts to Tyrone's perspective. In his parallel universe, he's in a forest at night (another contrast is that Tandy's scene saw her in an open clearing with sparse trees while Tyrone's scene sees him in a thick forest with crowded trees, I'm sure there's meaning behind that), watching as the board of Roxxon, the company Mr. Bowen worked for, delivers his verdict. Mr. Bowen himself is tied up in a chair at the head of the table, unable to get out. The boardroom is in a glass box, and Tyrone and Dream!Tandy are stuck outside with no way in. Tyrone watches as Dream!Tandy repeatedly runs away as Roxxon's board members torture her dad until he gets frustrated and yells at her to stop running. He holds out his hand, and the shadows that aid his teleportation powers reach out to her, triggering her own powers. Dream!Tandy summons a light dagger and steps toward the glass box, now having a way to cut through and enter.

Yeah, it's one big metaphor, and it's a pretty obvious dream sequence, but I think that it's an important part of the show. The scenes fall in Episode 3, early on in the season, right at the peak of Tandy and Tyrone having met each other but deciding that they don't really want to get involved in all of that, whatever "that" is. Tandy is on the run after attacking a guy who tried to assault her out of self-defense with her powers (that's a whole other post), and Tyrone just wants to be normal and play basketball... and maybe bring a police officer to justice while he's at it. However, their lives are inherently intertwined from the night Tandy's father and Tyrone's brother died until now. Episode 3 marks the point where the pair begin to realize that they can't avoid each other and that they need each other. The dream sequence perfectly encapsulates that, too.

Left on to their own devices, Tyrone is a black boy trying to bring a white man to justice in a system that is already unfavorably stacked against him — he knows the dangers but sees it as worth the risk — and Tandy is a girl who has resorted to running away from her problems instead of confronting them. If they repeat the cycle by doing the same things over and over again, there will be no change. It's only when they work together that something does change — Tandy's white privilege gives Dream!Tyrone access to handcuffs (she has a pull and voice in society that he doesn't, even if he is wealthier than her), and Tyrone's compassion and determination forces Dream!Tandy to stop falling back on her normal coping mechanisms, to stand up and do something about her situation instead of run away.

So, what does this mean in real life? It means that we need to work together. Racism, especially anti-black racism, is prevalent in all communities, but it is our responsibility as members of those communities, no matter what skin color, to be introspective and look at ourselves. Are we using the n-word in casual conversation when there aren't any black friends around? Do we think that's okay because we grew up in social circles that condoned that? Are we co-opting black language, black mannerisms, and black culture — and then turning a blind eye to black pain, grief, and suffering? How many black deaths is enough for us to start caring? This is not about how all lives don't matter. It has never been about that. In the conversation that Tandy and Tyrone start with their narratives, never once do they fight with each other over whose issues are more important. At times, they do clash when their own priorities endanger each other (Tandy locks herself in a man's mind because the man has the last living memories of her father and she wants to relive them on a loop), but it's never about their race, moreso about them as individual characters. When people say that black lives matter, it's not an invitation to counter with "but don't all lives matter?" Yes, all lives matter — which means black ones should, too, yet as current events continue to display, they don't matter enough to many.

Are you one of the many? Should it matter what George Floyd was doing before he died? Should it matter how much percentage of crimes are committed by black people? The more statistics are pulled up, the more blatantly tone deaf your argument sounds. Black people are crying out for help and understanding — they want to live in peace when they have lived their entire lives in fear, and instead, statistics and numbers are being thrown back at them. Black people are not numbers. They shouldn't be; they're humans, and they matter. The #BlackLivesMatter movement is asking for support — for white people to use their privilege to help their oppressed, black voices be heard better. For Asians and Hispanics to look at the anti-black racism prevalent in their own communities and shut that down. We have to work together and be better than we have been. This is not about attacking white people, and it's not about hating cops. It's about supporting the most downtrodden, unfavored, oppressed racial group in America that has never had anything stacked in its favor.

If you want to talk numbers, then give me one for this: how many posts and protests will it take until America topples the racist system that was built on the backs of black slaves?