“Data log. June 14, 2028. The two most powerful forces in life are invisible. The first is love and the second is time. I'm about to harness one in service of the other. If it doesn't work, if for some reason I don't come back and you see this, please know that I'm attempting all of it because I'm trying to make up for my mistakes in the past. And I want to make things better. And that includes what happened to her -- Gert, I mean. It was always her and only her.”
"Cheat the Gallows" is the series finale of the MarvelHulu series Runaways. It is the tenth episode of the third season, and the thirty-third episode of the series overall. It aired on December 13, 2019, along with the rest of the season. It was written by Quinton Peeples and directed by Ramsey Nickell.
Splintered by the battle with Morgan, a new configuration of The Runaways is forced to face the past.
Two years after their battle, the Runaways have gone their separate ways and grieved for a fallen friend, but their new lives are interrupted when an Alex from the faraway future tries to kill them. After stopping the attempt, a Chase from the same future leads them back to the day before episode 101, where future Alex seeks to stop the Runaways before they even begin. After rescuing their past selves, they decide to return to the moment they lost one of their own. But to undo the past, one Runaway must make a heroic sacrifice.
This episode shares some similarities with Avengers: Endgame. Both serve as a conclusion to a story, deal with time-travel, have the group facing a past-version of their enemy, and result in the antagonist, turning to dust.
The rules of time-travel established in Avengers: Endgame, differ from the rules seen in this episode. In the episode, they are able to successfully change the past, which wasn't something they could do in the movie.
This episode made reference to Victor Mancha. In the comics, Victor Mancha was the cyborg child of supervillain Ultron, and would later join the Runaways.
