Ms. Marvel‘s fifth episode revealed how Aisha imbued her bangle with magic and Kamala saved her own grandmother in 1947. It also showed the ClanDestine’s fatal attempt to return to the Noor Dimension and Kamran getting his own super abilities. How did any of that happen, though, especially when some things seemed impossible? From time travel paradoxes to a failed trip home to a parallel world, this is what happened in Ms. Marvel‘s emotional “Time and Again” and what the episode says about the power of family.
How Did Kamala Khan Go Back in Time?
In Ms. Marvel‘s fourth episode, Najma attacked Kamala with the same dagger Najma once used to kill Aisha. But when Kamala blocked the knife with her great grandmother’s bangle, the collision sent Kamala to India in 1947. The magical powers of her ancestral jewelry go well beyond manifesting tangible light or shape shifting. Kamala wasn’t merely a spectator watching what happened the night of Partition. She was actually there affecting the events of that fateful evening.
Kamala was the one who helped her Nani when she was a lost young girl the night of Partition; Sana found her father thanks to a trail of stars created by Kamala’s powers.
How was this time paradox possible? How could Kamala save her grandmother if she couldn’t have been born had her grandmother not been saved? The answer lies in Aisha and her bangle.
Aisha Seeks Someone to Save Her Sana
Like the other ClanDestines, Aisha was from the Noor Dimension. None of them could access their Noor powers on Earth, though. (Kamala can at least in part because she was born on Earth.) But that all changed the night of Partition. Before she died, Aisha looked at a photo of her family and repeated the line of poetry her husband once cited to her, the line that then became inscribed on the bangle: “ What you seek is seeking you.”
By drawing on her husband and daughter’s love, Aisha was able to access her Noor power on Earth for the first time. She then used her abilities to transfer her magic into the bangle for a singular purpose. What Aisha was seeking was the protection of her family, and that’s exactly what the bangle sought out via Kamala. It found Kamala—who has sought a way to be true to herself while making her family proud—and brought her back to the moment her family needer her most.
The bonds of family transcended space and time. Both Aisha’s and Kamala’s love even transcended different dimensions, as it let them draw on their innate Noor power. That’s why there was no actual time paradox to overcome and Kamala could go back to 1947 and take a photograph to the present. The power of that family, both their Noor magic and their love, connected all of them forever.
What Happened When the ClanDestine Tried To Pass Through the Veil?
The meeting of Najma’s dagger and Kamala’s bangle didn’t just send the young superhero back in time. It also opened The Veil, the door between Earth and the parallel Noor Dimension. This was the moment the exiled ClanDestine had waited decades for. It was also what Aisha, Kamala, Bruno, and Kamran feared.
Except, when Fariha went to walk through the interdimensional gate, it calcified her body, stripped her of all skin and muscle, and left behind only a skeleton. The only thing missing from her brutal death was Indiana Jones standing five feet away in a room full of fancy cups.
Najma initially thought she could succeed where Fariha had not, but Kamala convinced the ClanDestine leader not to try. Those who worried about the ClanDestine returning home had been right. The Veil allowed the Noor Dimension to consume Earth’s dimension. Kamala needed to close it. Fortunately for her she was able to convince Najma to help her. The ClanDestine leader didn’t care about her own life, but she did care about her son’s. So instead of walking through the gate, Najma sacrificed herself to close The Veil.
Why couldn’t the ClanDestine go home? Was it because they needed both bangles and one remains missing? Is the Noor Dimension corrupted? Or was it impossible because they had all been banished from that realm (for reasons we still don’t know)? The reason could have huge ramifications for both dimensions in the future, but for now we know the closing of The Veil led to more than just saving Earth.
How Did Kamran Get Super Powers?
Najma knew how to close the gate, but she didn’t explain how. Nor did she warn Kamala that her final act would also imbue her son Kamran with his own powers. When Najma stepped into the door her Noor abilities transferred halfway around the world into him. He didn’t need a bangle to gain his magical abilities like Kamala did, but the two both have something important in common.
Kamala and Kamran are each descendants of the ClanDestine. But while that group could never access their Noor powers while on Earth, Kamala and Kamran can because they also belong to this dimension. Each was born on Earth and are the children of two different worlds. And like Aisha with her bangle, Najma used powers from both worlds to help her son unlock his superpowers. She gave them to him using Noor power and the power of her love.
And as Ms. Marvel‘s emotional fifth episode showed, there’s nothing you can’t do when you combine real magic with the magic of family.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.