“Ms. Marvel” Episode 3 explores the secrets of the bangle and reveals more about its past. Kamala finds out from Najma that she has djinn ancestry, but the bad news is that not all djinns are good. The episode thus puts to test Kamala’s powers as well as her love for family and friends.
Episode 3: Recap Summary – Is the Bangle’s Past Connected to Kamala’s Present?
It is 1942 in British-occupied India. Najma, Aisha, and their peers are searching for the mystical bangle among the ruins of a cave. There are two such bangles, but they are able to find only one. As the cave begins to crumble, Najma and Aisha go separate ways with the promise of finding each other soon.
We come back to the present. Kamran and her mother Najma bring Kamala to their home, where Najma tells Kamala about her past. She reveals how Najma, Aisha, and their kind are all Djinns who hail from the Noor Dimension. And Kamala’s bangle is the only way to get them back to their dimension. Kamala returns home and informs Bruno about it, who starts searching for information about the Noor dimension and interdimensional travel.
Agent Sadie Deever and a DODC team arrive at the town mosque to search for the super-powered individual. But they are unable to search the premises, thanks to Nakia, who tells them that they need to have a signed warrant. They leave. Nakia returns to Kamala’s place and gives her the news that she has won the mosque board elections. But Kamala is more troubled as she finds out that the DODC is looking for her.
It is Tyesha’s Mehndi ceremony. Many of Kamala’s relatives have arrived for the occasion. It is here that the Imam of the town mosque reveals how some Damage Control agents came poking around. Apparently, the agents know that the girl in question is brown and Muslim. Kamala’s mother gives her a box that Bruno left for her. She asks the Imam, Sheikh Abdullah, how the mysterious girl can turn things around and make herself look good to others. He tells her that good is not something one can be, but something one can do. She finds a personalized domino mask inside the box that Bruno left for her.
It is night time. Back at the store, Bruno’s shift isn’t over, which is why he couldn’t come to the Mehndi ceremony. He has been researching Djinns and the Noor dimension and making notes. This is when Kamala’s father, Yusuf, arrives at the store for some secret chocolate break from his wife. Noticing Bruno’s notes on Djinn, he tries to translate the Urdu inscriptions that a reluctant Bruno has printouts of. According to the inscriptions, a group of Djinns, also called genies or demons, were exiled from their home planet and damned to spend the rest of their days on Earth. And they are still looking for a way to get back home, for which they need a “primordial power.”
Bruno tells Kamala that interdimensional travel is possible, but if anything goes wrong, the destruction will be large-scale. Kamala believes that the bangle came to her for a reason and that she has to help Najma. However, Bruno tells her that it is too soon. She texts Kamran that she needs more time. Kamran tells this to her mother, Najma, but she clearly states that she will not wait anymore.
The next day, at the wedding of Aamir and Tyesha, Kamran arrives to warn Kamala about his mother and her Clandestine peers who are coming to get her. A few moments later, the wedding is gatecrashed by Najma and her peers, who intend to take the bangle from Kamala, even if by force. Kamala somehow manages to get her family out of danger by pulling the fire alarm. Then a fight takes place between her and Kamran, and Najma and the rest. Unfortunately, Kamala and Bruno end up being surrounded by the Clandestines. As Najma approaches Kamala and puts her hand on the bangle, Kamala and Najma have a vision of a train to Karachi (Pakistan). The very next moment, the DODC arrives and arrests them. Kamala barely manages to escape with Bruno, only for Nakia to find out that Kamala is the mysterious “Night Light.” Kamala promises to tell her everything later and rushes back home.
Once home, she finds herself being questioned by her worried parents about the people with whom she was with and who they really were. She knows she cannot reveal anything to them, so she doesn’t. Her parents are clearly worried but don’t say anything. That night, she gets a call from her grandmother, Sana too. She tells Kamala that she and her mother, Muneeba, “have to come to Karachi.”
‘Ms. Marvel’ Episode 3: Easter Eggs Explained
The Ten Rings: At the beginning of “Ms. Marvel” Episode 3, as Najma, Aisha, and the others are searching for the bangles, we see the symbol of the Ten Rings on the ground. This is the same Ten Rings that Wenwu headed for a thousand years before passing it on to Shang-Chi. So, we know that Kamala’s bracelet, amulet, or bangle, has the ability to communicate with another dimension, i.e., the Noor dimension. Also, in the post-credit scene of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, a beacon inside the bangles was seen sending a message somewhere. Considering that the cave was home to both the Ten Rings and the Bangle, is it possible that the beacon is sending the message to the Noor dimension pretty much like the bangle’s apparent purpose? This also brings in the possibility of Shang-Chi turning up in the show or probably in The Marvels, which will bring Kamala face-to-face with her idol, Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel.
Clandestines or Clan-Destines: Djinns are mythical creatures first introduced in Alan Davis’s Marvel Comics Presents # 158 (1994). Their family tree begins with Adam, aka Adam of Destine, and djinn Elalyth who became lovers after the former freed the latter from within a gem, and the latter made the former immortal in the 11th century AD. Over the centuries, they have produced many children. According to the comics, the Djinn thrived on Zanadu, a land near Asgard, while in the show, they are from an altogether different place, the Noor Dimension. The Noor Dimension didn’t exist in the Marvel universe until now.
Erik Selvig: Bruno mentions Erik Selvig when Kamala asks him about the Noor dimension and interdimensional travel. Erik Selvig, the renowned astrophysicist, played by the great Stellan Skarsgard, is someone we first came across in “Thor (2011).” He then made his appearance in “The Avengers (2012),” “Thor: The Dark World (2013),” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).” He was brought back by Bruce Banner after the blip in “Avengers: Endgame (2019).”
‘Ms. Marvel’ Episode 3: Ending Explained- What’s In Karachi?
Kamala’s parents were from Karachi. Even her grandmother, Sana, grew up there. And since Sana wants Kamala to come to Karachi, it makes sense to think that whatever the bangle has in store for Kamala will be revealed in Karachi only. There is also the Train-to-Karachi vision that she and Najma had. Is this the same train on which Sana and her father came to Pakistan? This means that the vision also relates to Kamala’s great grandmother, Aisha. The event at the beginning of “Ms. Marvel” episode 3 occurred in 1942. According to Kamala’s father, Yosuf, the Partition of India in 1947 was when Aisha disappeared. So something must have happened in the interim 4 years. Also, Najma tells Kamala that they searched for her after the partition but couldn’t find her. Perhaps, the trip to Karachi will reveal more about all that lost time that is unaccounted for as of now.
