SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for the Cloak & Dagger Season 2 premiere.


Mayhem is here. In "White Lines," the second part of the Cloak & Dagger Season 2 premiere, the venomous anti-hero arrived -- but she was far from what fans expected. Instead of appearing as Detective Brigid O'Reilly's murderous alter-ego, Mayhem is a separate character altogether.

Since Detective Connors shot her in the Season 1 finale, Brigid has struggled to recover from the trauma. Worse, during the events of the Season 2 premiere, Tyrone Johnson inadvertently botched her investigation into New Orleans' local gangs when he stole from them. She tried to rectify that by organizing a sit-down with a neutral mediator. However, the meeting went very wrong; someone interrupted and killed every mobster in the room. When Tyrone and Tandy Bowen informed her of this, she called the murders in anonymously and left to drink her sorrows away at a local bar, ignoring multiple calls from her boss all the while.

RELATED: Cloak & Dagger's Olivia Holt Shines a Light on That Major Mayhem Twist

Eventually, she stumbled out of the bar and doubled over on the sidewalk. As she stared into her own reflection in a puddle, another face appeared over her shoulder -- and it was a twin of her own. "Pathetic," Mayhem, her doppelganger, said. "Look at yourself. Look at yourself! Just absolutely pathetic... I always knew that you were weak. Just a scared girl pretending to be brave, pretending to be police. Well, you've had your chance. It's my turn now."

In her next scene, Mayhem turned up at the scene of the crime and suggested only one person committed all of the murders. When her fellow officers scoffed at the idea, she followed her next lead, which led her to intimidate one gangster's family. Because of her harsh methods, she got the information she was looking for. She followed the tip to a salvage yard that served as a home to a squadron of private ambulances, where she found Tandy, who was searching for information about the people who kidnapped her friend Mikayla. Together, they captured Mikayla's abductor.

RELATED: Cloak & Dagger S2 Gives Its B-List Marvel Villain a Killmonger Makeover

Meanwhile, Tyrone headed to Brigid's apartment with some urgent information. When he turned up, he heard her struggling on the other side of the door and teleported himself inside, only to discover her bound and gagged. "We have to get out of here," she told him as he freed her. "She's coming back." When Tyrone asked who she was talking about, she replied, "Me. We're in danger, Ty. You, me and Tandy. She knows what I know. That puts us all in danger."

On that dire note, Tyrone teleported them both to Tandy's last location. Tandy was shocked to see Brigid, to say the least. They ran over to Mayhem just in time to watch her kill the kidnapper. Blood splattered all over her face, she stood and came face-to-face with her lookalike. "Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag," Mayhem said with a smirk, and the episode came to an abrupt close.

NEXT PAGE: The Show vs. the Comics

In the comics, of course, Brigid and Mayhem are one and the same. During a bust at a warehouse in 1983's Cloak & Dagger #5, the corrupt cops in Brigid's department led her right into a trap. When she discovered a piece of evidence in plain view, she approached with two other cops, only for a plastic cage to emerge from the floor and trap them inside. What's worse, the plastic cage turned out to be a gas chamber. Gas immediately seeped in through the floor and, despite a few valiant efforts to escape, all three officers suffocated to death.

Nevertheless, this wasn't the end of O'Reilly. Cloak and Dagger discovered her too late to save her, but Dagger tried to resuscitate her anyway. Dagger's efforts brought something back, but it wasn't wholly O'Reilly. O'Reilly transformed into a creature with pallid skin and pupil-less green eyes; what's more, she now had strange new abilities, including the power to emit venomous gas from her pores, a scratch that paralyzes and flight. Following her transformation, Mayhem abandoned all the principles O'Rielly clung to as a cop, becoming "the ultimate vigilante."

RELATED: Cloak & Dagger: How and Why Season 2 Addresses Human Trafficking

Per Cloak & Dagger's Season 2 premiere, Brigid and Mayhem are two separate characters, though they have the same physical appearance. Like the comics, Mayhem's powers seem to rest in her fingernails, as she can be seen murdering Mikayla's abductor with her talons. The show's version of Mayhem also disregards the rule of law, resorting to violent methods to get what she wants. As such, Mayhem poses a major threat to not only Brigid's career, but also Tandy and Tyrone's mission to stop a human trafficking ring.

By splitting Brigid and Mayhem into two different characters, Cloak & Dagger sets up an opportunity for star Emma Lahana to stay on the series, should it be picked up for another season. After all, this allows the protagonists to defeat Mayhem while Brigid remains on the show as a main character. Unfortunately for the detective, though, Mayhem will be able to wreak a lot of havoc on her life because they share the same face.


Airing Thursdays at 8 pm ET/PT on Freeform, Cloak & Dagger stars Olivia Holt as Tandy Bowen/Dagger and Aubrey Joseph as Tyrone Johnson/Cloak, as well as Emma Lahana as Brigid O'Reilly/Mayhem, Andrea Roth as Tandy’s mother Melissa Bowen, Gloria Reuben as Tyrone’s mother Adina Johnson, Miles Mussenden as Tyrone’s father Michael Johnson and J.D. Evermore as Detective Connors.