'Runaways' Recapped: Everything You Need To Remember Before Diving Into The New Season

Alex Wilder (Rhenzy Feliz) is the glue that holds these burgeoning teen heroes together. When we first meet Alex, the introverted computer nerd and brainiac misses hanging out with his group of friends – all of whom went their separate ways following the death of Nico Minoru's (Lyrica Okano) sister Amy, each of them leaning hard into various high school stereotypes: Nico has become a super-goth Wiccan. Chase Stein (Gregg Sulkin) is a lacrosse player who is often underestimated and dismissed as a dumb jock. Gert Yorkes (Ariela Barer) is a woke riot grrrl type and social activist. Karolina Dean (Virginia Gardner) is a wholesome blonde girl rebelling against her parents, who are uber-religious and involved in some kind of scientology-like organization. Molly Hernandez (Allegra Costa) is the youngest of the group; a sweet and naive (or so they think) tag-along pal who was adopted by Gert's parents after the mysterious death of her own.In the very first (and rather eventful) episode, the teens reluctantly come together and discover their parents performing a ritual sacrifice with a young woman in a hidden area of Alex's house. Throughout the first season, the teens realize they each have powers and abilities of some kind: Karolina is an alien-human hybrid who can fly and project beams of light. Alex is a computer and tech wiz (obviously). Nico can cast spells with a powerful weapon known as the Staff of One. Gert has a telepathic link with a genetically-engineered dinosaur her parents developed in their lab. Chase is every bit the engineering genius as his evil father, who makes terrible weapons; unlike his dad, Chase has chosen to use these creations for good – like the "fistigons," a pair of high-powered gauntlets. And Molly has the power of superhuman strength and invulnerability; her eyes glow a conspicuous shade of green, like a certain smashing superhero we know and love.

Over the course of the season, the kids do a little digging and uncover some unfortunate truths about the PRIDE, their heritage, and what really happened to both Amy and Molly's parents. With Alex's help, Karolina finds out that her mom has been sacrificing people from their church for years. Further investigation leads to the discovery of Jonah (career bad guy Julian McMahon), the real leader of the PRIDE; Leslie has been sacrificing her congregants to restore an ailing and decrepit Jonah back to his human-shaped glory. Via flashback, we see how Jonah made deals with the parents; in exchange for their loyalty, he grants them each immense wealth and success in their endeavors. When he first fully wakes up in episode 5, Jonah demands to see Karolina – as it turns out, he is actually her biological father. Meanwhile, Frank appears to know about his wife's weird beneficial relationship with Jonah and doesn't seem to mind, especially after the smooth-talking supervillain gives Frank (who failed to ascend to the highest level of his church) some powerful healing gloves to aid in his "ministry."While giving a speech at a gathering for the PRIDE, Victor reveals that he knows about his wife Janet's affair with Robert before collapsing from a brain tumor. Jonah uses his mysterious healing powers to revive Victor, who acts bizarrely affectionate and kind toward his family. Unfortunately, it's not long before he reverts back to his old, abusive self. Despite receiving a message from the future, in which Chase warns his dad not to pick up the fistigons, Victor does just that during a heated argument with his son – and Janet shoots him. Frank attempts to revive the Stein patriarch with his healing gloves, but it merely renders Victor comatose.As for Amy, the details of her alleged suicide began to come into focus throughout Season 1. One day, while hanging out at a coffee shop, she asks Alex to help her with a problem on her laptop. Alex discovers that someone has hacked Amy and is logging all of her keystrokes – a fact he neglected to share with Nico all this time. Amy freaks out and meets with a man named Kincaid, to whom she confesses to meddling with her mom's accounts and passwords in an attempt to "beat" her. When she attempted to hack into Wizard – the system that holds evidence of the PRIDE's evildoing – Tina was notified of the breach, along with the rest of the PRIDE. Kincaid urges Amy to tell her mother about this, but she declines. On the day that Amy allegedly took her own life, she received a text from an unknown number that read "He found out. LEAVE THE HOUSE NOW!!!" But before she could, a dark figure stopped her. That figure was, of course, Jonah. Concerned that Amy had gained access to the videos of all the PRIDE's ritual sacrifices, he took measures to protect the group – which meant killing Amy to keep her quiet.We learn the truth behind the death of Molly's parents in episode 9. After letting slip to Catherine that she knows about the PRIDE, the Yorkes have no choice but to send the little one away to live with a relative named Graciela, who hands Molly a letter from her parents. Inside, she finds a key which leads to a locker containing a VHS tape. On the tape, Gene and Alice Hernandez warn their daughter about the PRIDE. In the years since Gene and Alice were killed, no one in the PRIDE has taken responsibility for their deaths, but a flashback reveals that Leslie planted a bomb in their home and watched them die while she was on the phone with Tina. Gene and Alice were geologists, and the dangerous glowing rocks they discovered prior to their death are what gave Molly her powers. The parents aren't the only ones keeping secrets: Despite vehemently denying Gert's outspoken assumption, Karolina is, in fact, gay. During the first season, she kisses Nico and reveals a longstanding crush, and it seems Nico is receptive to the overture. Meanwhile, Gert pursues a longstanding crush of her own – and ends up hooking up with Chase.