In its final outing Runaways Season 3 offers a fun potpourri of Marvel teen heroics. Super powered punches clash against dark magic. Aliens tinker with otherworldly technology. A psychically controlled velociraptor sprints through the woods. Here, the show’s creatives have effectively blended the assortment of comic book iconography found in Brian K. Vaughan’s and Adrian Alphona’s crafted super team, continuing to capture the spirit of the source material with heart and humor.
Season 3 of Runaways picks up from last season with Nico (Lyrica Okano), Alex (Rhenzy Feliz), Karolina (Virginia Gardner), Chase (Gregg Sulkin), Molly (Allegra Acosta), Gert (Ariela Barer), and Xavin (Clarissa Thibeaux) dealing with the body snatching alien family known as The Magistrates. Unfortunately, evil extraterrestrials aren’t the only villains on the team’s plate this time — an ancient and powerful sorceress named Morgan le Fay (Elizabeth Hurley) has budding witch Nico in her sights as well as a plan that could threaten the fate of dimensional existence itself.
With 10 episodes, Runaways Season 3 is an easy binge thanks to an engaging pace; sometimes in a streaming series you can feel the writers stall a storyline to fill out the course of the show’s length. Not here. The writers of Runaways Season 3 create a plot that moves swiftly. It wraps up storylines when they feel complete only to then introduce a new exciting development to keep you hooked. Within this story, Runaways has a huge ensemble featuring not only the teens but their parents as well, and the plot does a pretty good job at giving everyone something to do. In some moments it can feel like characters are waiting on the sidelines, but the story does make sure that everyone gets a moment in the spotlight and feels essential to the narrative at one point or another.
And what of the new villain? Morgan le Fay presents a new type of threat that the Runaways have to stop in that she’s a magic user – someone that’s not their parents, or someone that looks like their parents either. As Morgan, Elizabeth Hurley seems to have a palpable blast being the wicked magic user; as she tries to tempt Nico in the ways of dark magic she’s like a fairy godmother from hell – equally parts charming and manipulative.
Speaking of Nico, Runaways Season 3 gives actress Lyrica Okano a chance to truly standout amongst an already talented ensemble. This season her character not only participates in heroic moments of action, showcasing Okano’s talent in fight choreography, but also struggles with the darkness within her, allowing Okano to showcase her acting chops in small moments of internal and external conflict.
And what’s sure to be a big moment for fans of either the Runaways comics or Freeform’s, also recently ended, Cloak and Dagger is the crossover episode between the two. Not giving away any plot details, I’ll say that the show does an excellent job at introducing the New Orleans-based heroes Tandy/Dagger (Olivia Holt) and Tyrone/Cloak (Aubrey Joseph), quickly summarizing their backstory and powers to audiences who might be unfamiliar.
Joseph and Holt have great chemistry with the Runaways cast, and a part of the fun is seeing how the two teams attempt to figure each other out. For fans of Cloak and Dagger who may want to use the episode as a way to say goodbye to Tandy and Tyrone I’d say there’s enough context thrown about for newcomers to be able to jump in; you can also tell the writers did their homework as Tandy and Tyrone feel just like the characters in their own series.
In the end, Runaways Season 3 is one that’s sure to be rewarding to fans of the previous two seasons with its various satisfying elements. Though the series couldn’t outstep the premature ending that has recently faced most non-Disney Plus Marvel properties, fans should know this is still well worth watching and that it reaches a fulfilling conclusion. When we look back at Runaways as a series amidst the planet-sized pile of superhero content in the future, I think it’ll be noted as one of the ones that was able to reach the soul of its source material and run with it to make a successful project.
Runaways Season 3 debuts on Hulu Friday, December 13, 2019. Seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming.
