So far, Runaways has moved at an energetic, yet believable speed. This is the first episode in which Schwartz and Savage seemed be leaning into some of their former tendencies: In 50 minutes, we saw the origin of the Pride, along with Nico, Alex, and Gert carrying off a mission to steal data from Tina Freaking Minoru, Molly recklessly letting Catherine in on their secret, Jonah in action with Leslie, Victor discovering his wife’s infidelity and getting cured of his brain tumor, and — deep breaths — the kids’ dynamic seismically shifting because of crushes come to light. It’s a lot. And it does tend to happen when galas are involved.

But of course, we’re not quite there yet. The hour begins with the Pride’s humble beginnings, as Jonah makes good on his promise to make Geoffrey and Catherine Wilder powerful. He takes them to the Murder Library, and while the Wilders gawk at their surroundings, Jonah explains that they’ll be doing things there they won’t want their neighbors knowing about.

Obviously, we know what that is. But during the first ritual, none of the Pride members other than Leslie knows exactly what’s going on — after all, they’re being played against one another to satisfy Jonah’s wishes, as they’re all indebted to the mysterious villain. Leslie assures her first sacrifice, a young man named Brooks, that the process will be beautiful, and in a way, it is: Victor’s box works as it should, lights up, and, poof! There goes Brooks.

It’s only after the demonstration that Leslie tells them what happened, with an assist from Victor: The box transforms human bodies into energy that can be converted and absorbed, and, well, in other words, yeah, Brooks is dead, but like, his life force is just in someone else, that’s all. So…mostly dead, you know?

The other couples are appalled to find that this strange ritual they’ve been asked to participate in for which they have to wear blood-red robes is for a totally creepy, awful thing, but they can’t turn back now. They’ve been filmed and the video has already been uploaded to a server set up by Tina, who doesn’t appear to feel all that bad about brandishing a wand and helping to melt a guy. That’s just a deal with the devil for ya!!!!

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