In Cloak & Dagger Season 2, Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson fought their greatest enemy yet: themselves. When Andre Deschaine transitioned from a metahuman to a loa, he became D'Spayre, a godlike entity that feasted on fear and hopelessness. So, when Tandy and Tyrone attempted to stop him, they had to overcome their own worst fears. Tandy faced down her past in the form of her abusive father, while Tyrone battled the "perfect" version of himself. The finale culminated as the divine pairing overcame their own fears and defeated D'Spayre once and for all, having learned more about themselves and each other in the process.
Speaking to CBR, Cloak & Dagger showrunner Joe Pokaski reflected on the events of Season 2, from exploring Tandy and Tyrone's worst fears to finding a satisfying end for the show's human trafficking plot. He had plenty of teases for what Season 3 would look like if the show is renewed, describing it as a "love story" and confirming that Emma Lahana's Brigid O'Reilly would be involved. He also dropped an intriguing hint about where Tandy and Tyrone are headed when they took off on a bus together and more.
CBR: I wanted to start out with Andre. Tell me about how you developed this character and how he became D'Spayre.
Pokaski: As we started circling what we wanted to do in Season 2, we talked a lot about human trafficking as this evil in the real world that we wanted to expose, that we wanted to at least shine a light on, and we talked about what is a distinctly unique New Orleans aspect. I think what we ended up doing was coming together with an idea of a villain who you could understand, a man who had certain noble intentions on being a musician, that understanding how a lot of our noble intentions can kind of turn into selfishness and some selfishness can turn into taking advantage of other people without even knowing it and that can snowball. So, you know, it was part of the beauty of casting Brooklyn [McLinn] as the character. We were able to tell this character that you can relate to and then you couldn't relate to and then could relate to. The beauty of Marvel villains is when they're good, they help carry a season or a movie, and almost all the time, when they really work, you can kind of see a little bit of yourself in them.
He actually reminded me a lot of how Ty was when he was introduced in the comics. Was that something you hoped to explore with this character?
Partially. I think we wanted him to be a darker side of both Tandy and Tyrone. There's a point in episode 6 where Andre points out, like, "Tandy, last season, in episode 9" -- I don't think he said that -- he said, "Last season, you were stealing hope from people. How is that different from what I'm doing?" So we wanted to touch on that as well as when he talks to Tyrone. There's a scene in episode 7 where he says, "You know, the world has taken to you. You're trying to make your way." I think we wanted to see a little bit of Tandy and Tyrone's worst instincts in Andre.
This season has had a lot of fun with the source material. Why was it important to you to kind of loop everything back to the comics?
I think the comics are fantastic! They're a product of their time and they're a different medium, so I think that needs to be dealt with, but I think the idea of a young woman who is so cynical being saddled as a champion hope and a young man who is taught to be afraid who has to be brave despite the fact of being consumed by fear still works. We kind of accidentally found our way creeping back to the Tandy and Tyrone in the comics this season, only because in the Marvel Universe they're the champions of the lost children. When someone goes missing or someone falls between the cracks, it's Tandy and Tyrone who are kind of doing the dirty work in the Marvel Universe. So it's interesting place to inhabit, and I feel like it's unique. It's our own kind of corner of the Marvel Universe.
Season 2 has had a lot of self-reflection for Tandy and Tyrone, but what has been especially compelling to watch is the way they're confronting their fears. How did you go about selecting their worst fear, particularly for the finale?
Some of it was unfinished business from Season 1. We had very early discussions. The Season 1 finale was about standing up to a bigger threat and kind of dealing with who they were dealing with, but we wanted Season 2 to be even more personal, so we started with the simple question of "What is their biggest source of despair?" And for Tandy, it was the idea of facing off against her dad for the abuse that she kind of ignored, or at least didn't acknowledge. For Tyrone, our writers in the room -- particularly the black men -- talked about the idea of fighting perfection and how, if you're growing up and you're a young black man in America, you're expected to be perfect more than anyone else or you're discounted. And so we fell upon those pretty quickly, and the D'Spayre story -- the D'Spayre mythology -- allowed us to tell a story in our last episode where he put them up against their own fears. Because they're Tandy and Tyrone, they were able to switch partners and help pull out the light in each other's stories and help fight for each other.
That montage of Tandy and Tyrone revealing what they love so much about each other was brilliant. Tell me a little about how that scene came together.
There's a few lines where we kind of stake it down, where we talk a lot about how it's easier to deal with other people's baggage than it is your own. It's easier to look at a friend and say, "You're more amazing than you think." We loved the idea of while we fight our own demons, there's a bit of a fantasy if we could allow one of our friends -- if we could fight for each other, we might be better off. So it just felt so right. As we start moving towards that last moment in the finale, it not only allows us to show what great friends they are, but I think subconsciously or consciously they start to realize how much they love and how much they rely on each other.
The season has focused on human trafficking, which is a difficult topic to breach and an even more difficult theme to bring to a satisfying close. Why did this story arc have to end the way it did?
We wanted Tandy and Tyrone to represent us: the human beings watching the show, the human beings making the show. We didn't want to tell a story where we solved human trafficking by the end. That's kind of the reason why we had that shot of Lia pulling up another missing girl poster. The beat goes on and there's horrible things still happening, but what we wanted to do with Tandy and Tyrone -- well, starting with Tyrone, we wanted him to see there was a problem, understand he wasn't going to fix it but make it better and that's why we kind of had that moment in episode 9 where he says, "No more feeding drugs to traffickers." When he sees at the end, during that end montage, that Solomon and David -- who he's working with -- say no to that guy with the women in the back of the car, it's us understanding we're helping a little or that we can help a little.
And then, for Tandy, what Olivia [Holt] did this season was kind of supernatural in its own way. She started off as kind of being cynical about support and abuse. She went so far as to victim blaming her own mother, became a victim herself and then I think what Olivia did so great in the finale in such small time was kind of marginalize and put her dad away. She compartmentalized her dad as best she could and then came out of it saying, "I'm not going to be a hero that kind of solves the problems that come at me. I'm going to go out and look for women who have been through this." Hopefully that's what we can all do, is look for the problem and solve it a little more actively. She's on a bus with Tyrone with some information from Brigid [O'Reilly] and she's going to try and help some girls. The arc of Tandy Bowen has been one from passive to more almost hungry to help people.
If we get a Cloak & Dagger Season 3, do you know what direction you'd like to take the show?
Yeah! I don't want to spoil too much or sing too much, but I think it's about time to explore the possibility of a love story. The reason we had them hold their hands and get out of town is we want to start opening that door and see if Tandy and Tyrone are romantically compatible and to see -- because we're us -- what kind of obstacles we can put in the way of that.
Season 1 tackled suicidal tendencies and classicism. Season 2 took on human trafficking. Do you have an idea for what Season 3's overarching theme would be?
I don't know the specifics on a lot. I know I want to tell a love story. I'm not sure to what degree. We need to get a whole writers room together to figure out the best metaphor to approach.
You're probably not going to answer this question, but you know I've got to ask: where are Tandy and Tyrone headed in that last shot?
Out of town! I thought I was really clear that they were leaving New Orleans. Was that not clear by the story?
Do you know where they're headed?
I do, but I'm not allowed to say.
Their powers have, of course, steadily developed and sort of climaxed in that moment where Tandy bursts out of Ty's Cloak with her light sword. In what ways would you like to see those super abilities continue to grow?
In more ways like that! I think one of the beauties of Cloak & Dagger is it starts off, they each have a word. He has a cloak. She has a dagger. Over the course of the series, they evolve into different things. I think, honestly, so long as we can keep the metaphor that we've always maintained -- that it needs to come from them emotionally -- that sword coming from Tandy in the finale was very much her anger growing and her managing it at the same time. So as long as we can stay true to the emotions and stay true to the amazing performances that Aubrey [Joseph] and Olivia give, the sky is the limit.
The season finale leaves Brigid in an interesting state. Can you elaborate on the decision to leave her split, but together? Does she still have superpowers?
She absolutely still has superpowers! When you see her fight those three cops in the finale, she is about twice as strong and twice as fast as other human beings. I think the thing we loved about Brigid -- we lucked out when we got Emma Lahana to play Brigid because what she's done as both Brigid and Mayhem has been amazing. I think watching her battle, now turned into an internal struggle, we wanted to create a woman who part of her wants to comply and part of her wants to believe in the system and the other part wants to hurt people and wants to scream and wants to burn the whole world down. I think that's how a lot of us feel. I can only imagine how some women feel, but I feel like we're in a time where we need to see a complex character like that.
Would she be involved in Season 3, seeing as Tandy and Tyrone are now out of town?
Let me answer that question with a question: if you got to work with Emma Lahana or Ally Maki for that reason, would you stop, if you didn't have to?
Absolutely not!
Okay! So that's your answer. There is no way, so long as I have any power to control it, that Emma or Ally aren't a big part of Season 3.
Where does Adina Johnson go from here?
The good news is she won, technically. She got everything she wanted. All of her plans kind of worked. She was able to get away with the murder of the man who killed her son. I think, when we move forward, because you have Gloria [Reuben] and because you have such an interesting character, now she gets to battle herself the way Tyrone has been battling himself and I think that's kind of where we get to see Adina as we move forward.
Does Tandy's mom Melissa know about her powers now?
You know what? It's funny. We had a long conversation with Olivia and Andrea [Roth] about this and they kind of worked it out, without saying a word, that there's a look when Tandy has that sword digging into Andre where her and her mom share a look and then there's a look as she's packing up where we didn't want to say it, but we wanted the audience to interpret it. If you look at those scenes again, it's pretty clear that she knows something is up and it's pretty clear that she's not all that surprised.
What was your favorite moment or scene from Season 2?
Oh, man! I knew you were going to do this to me. You know what? I was a sucker for -- this was early on -- but Tandy Bowen with her lights glowing as she's practicing ballet after she has learned, and crossing with Tyrone going stir crazy playing basketball. Whenever we inter-cut them, there is something so interesting. I have to say it's either that or the gigantic fight they let me film at the end of episode 7 where they tore up the motel and were going left to right and found each other. It's kind of a tie between those two.
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.