Divine Pairing

"Every time the city's been struck with a catastrophe, it's always come down to two people."

―Evita Fusilier^[src]

The Divine Pairing is a concept from New Orleans Voodoo, referring to the numerous catastrophes in the city's history that ended with two people solving the problem, usually resulting in the death and sacrifice of one of the two. A common characteristic of the pairs was that the one who would sacrifice themselves would have a mark on their upper left arm. Chantelle and Evita Fusilier were knowledgeable about this concept and relayed the information to Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen.

History

First Incarnation

"But when she died, they say the land grew fertile again, the fish came back, and from that seed of sacrifice grew the city we would probably know as New Orleans."

―Chantelle Fusilier^[src]

The Choctaw children preparing their ritual

Several centuries ago, before the founding of New Orleans, a Choctaw village in Louisiana experienced a shortage of crops and fish; this scarcity came to be known as the Great Famine. All the men who left seeking help never returned, and the burden of saving the village fell on two youths, a boy and a girl from the community who had remained healthy throughout the famine. Despite the lack of fairness or justice, they prepared a ritual by collecting stones in a woven basket and checking under their armbands for marks. The girl found a mark on her upper left arm, signifying that she would have to bear the weight of being the sacrifice. Leaving the boy on the bank, she walked into a body of water while carrying the basket of stones on her head and drowned herself. Her death miraculously ended the Great Famine, and the aftereffects of her sacrifice eventually paved the way for New Orleans's rise.

Second Incarnation

"And when he died, he not only ended the feud, but the storm as well. And the young city of New Orleans lived to see another day."

―Chantelle Fusilier^[src]

Ewin and Leland Wilson about to duel

In 1793, a feud ensued between the blue-blooded brothers Ewin and Leland Wilson in New Orleans when they fell in love with the same woman. As tensions rose between them, a storm more devastating than any in New Orleans's history broke over the city. To resolve their feud, the brothers decided to duel for the woman in the rain. However, the elder brother, Leland, who bore a black mourning band signifying his heartbreak on his left arm, somehow realized that he would have to sacrifice himself to save his family and deliberately left his gun unloaded, allowing his younger brother Ewin to shoot him dead. His death in the last duel in New Orleans's history ended the brothers' feud, saving the city by causing the storm to subside miraculously.

Third Incarnation

"His mission was executed. And because of this divine pairing, this man without a name was the last soldier to die for the cause."

―Chantelle Fusilier^[src]

Belinda receiving the private's message

In 1815, a month after the War of 1812 ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent the previous year, the Battle of New Orleans continued because nobody on the battlefield knew that the war was over. An unknown young private, wearing a white, blood-soaked bandage on his left arm due to a bullet wound there, was sent to inform General Andrew Jackson of the ceasefire but was too grievously wounded to finish his mission and collapsed en route. Belinda, a young maiden passerby, saw him fall and held him as he handed her his message and died. Understanding the importance of his mission, she left him, running to deliver the message herself, ending the war and preventing any more soldiers from dying.

Fourth Incarnation

"Those who pay attention know, there were other forces at play. And it was because of Jack's sacrifice that New Orleans lived on for one more song."

―Chantelle Fusilier^[src]

Jack Rogers tending to Bobo Smith

In 1918, as the Spanish flu ravaged the world and killed millions, New Orleans lost four thousand people to the pandemic, particularly young and healthy ones. When a dozen people contracted the illness, including the notable jazz clarinetist Bobo Smith, Smith's lover, the young doctor Jack Rogers, treated them in St. Theresa's Church. To save them, he roughly tore a red strip of fabric, wrapping it around his upper left arm as a tourniquet before repeatedly drawing blood from himself. Using his blood, he performed blood transfusions on Smith and the other patients, immunizing them but dying from blood loss in the process. Rogers's sacrifice, beyond directly saving those people, also miraculously caused two dozen other patients in the church to recover, allowing New Orleans to endure for another song. Afterward, a legend arose that his ghost continued to haunt the church and play music at night, attempting to draw Smith back to him again.

Fifth Incarnation

"For some reason, life tossed us together and mixed up our mojo, so if it's on you, it's on me, too, I know that. Shit, Ty, sometimes it's the only thing that I know. And this swirling ball of scary down here is probably nothing compared to that sting when you and I touched."
"Actually... it's exactly that."
"Hold my hand. We'll show these assholes a divine pairing."

―Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson^[src]

Chantelle and Evita Fusilier discuss the fifth pairing

In 2017, after damage caused by a past oil rig explosion, a combination of Darkforce and Lightforce energy started affecting people in New Orleans, transforming them into aggressive and unstable Terrors. The Voodoo priestess Chantelle Fusilier and her niece Evita, both knowledgeable about past savior pairs, identified Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen, two teenagers who had gained powers derived from Darkforce and Lightforce, respectively, from the explosion, as the latest incarnation of the pairing. After Johnson sustained a laceration on his upper left arm during an encounter with the Terrors, Evita found him and Bowen after they took shelter in St. Theresa's Church and informed them of their status. As Bowen had learned from Peter Scarborough that the Roxxon Gulf Building's mechanisms were unable to reach the Roxxon Gulf Operations Facility's equipment controlling the energies, the pair went to the latter to enter its core and shut it down manually.

Johnson and Bowen confront the Terrors

With help from Brigid O'Reilly, Johnson and Bowen confronted and defeated the Terrors and James Connors at the facility. Johnson, who believed that his teleportation powers necessitated him to be the half of the pairing who sacrificed their life to resolve the crisis, teleported himself into the core over Bowen's protests and shut down the valves, but the energies continued building. Flabbergasted, Bowen rushed after him and sliced her way into the chamber, ignoring his demands for her to leave. As they argued, a tremor caused by the rising energies made Bowen stumble and collide with a leaking pipe, wounding her as well on her upper right arm as she continued insisting that they would bear the burden of sacrifice together. Johnson then realized, from her persistence, that they could combine their powers in the same way the energies were interacting; holding hands, he and Bowen absorbed all the Darkforce and Lightforce into themselves. He then teleported them both onto a rooftop, where they were able to release the energies safely into the sky, saving New Orleans without either having to die.

Johnson and Bowen safely dissipate the accumulated energies

Having survived their ordeal as a pairing, Johnson and Bowen went on to save the people of New Orleans from D'Spayre, a Loa who was trying to drain the hopes out of all of its inhabitants, after which they left the city. A few months later, they would also encounter Nico Minoru and aid the Runaways in rescuing Alex Wilder from Morgan le Fay and AWOL in the Dark Dimension. Both survived all of these events, as they had with their first mission.

Appearances

In chronological order:

• Cloak & Dagger | Episode 1.06: Funhouse Mirrors (mentioned)
• Cloak & Dagger | Episode 1.09: Back Breaker (mentioned)
• Cloak & Dagger | Episode 1.10: Colony Collapse
• Cloak & Dagger | Episode 2.01: Restless Energy (mentioned; flashbacks)
• Cloak & Dagger | Episode 2.04: Rabbit Hold (mentioned)
• Cloak & Dagger | Episode 2.10: Level Up (mentioned)

Behind the Scenes

• Speaking about the creation of the Divine Pairing mythology, showrunner Joe Pokaski said: "As for the pairings, the more we learned about Vodun, we learned there is a duality two it. Auntie Chantelle talks about hopes and fear being the same things and sides of the same coin. If you look at some of the Loa in Voodoo, there are some pairings like Baron Samedi is a legend to be married to Maman Brigitte. There are all these pairings you find within. At every point it was fascinating to learn and it seemed like it was destined to become part of the Cloak & Dagger mythology."