Rachel Bellwoar reviews the two-hour season finale of Marvel’s The Gifted…
If TV shows were poker games, The Gifted just went all in for their two-hour season finale. A kidnapping became an assassination over the course of two hours. The Mutant Underground’s headquarters got leveled in two hours and, in that disorienting moment of picking up the pieces, before starting over, had key members of their team poached by the Hellfire Club.
Anger may be the key emotion raised by these episodes, but their bombshell design, where the playing field’s been overturned for season two? That’s a dream come true. Whatever happens next, and there are leads for where the show could take things in season two, The Gifted has shown it’s not afraid of change, and change is coming.
What’s frightening is how racism’s being crafted on the show into convincing, political rhetoric. You’d think all Mutants did all day was plot destroying humanity, to hear Dr. Campbell speak. In actuality, all we’ve seen them have time for is staying afloat, and sometimes barely that.
Among mutants, racism is manifesting as a hatred towards humans. For once, Reed and Kate don’t skip a beat when they punch holes in Andy’s claim that all humans are out to get him (an error further exaggerated by Reed and Kate taking the lead when John and Lorna are absent for the Sentinel Services raid).
Andy can’t afford to be having a teenage phase when the stakes are this high, but from what Lauren proposes, his behavior’s a sign of something more permanent. While seemingly too early to be calling Andy a lost cause, that’s basically what Lauren’s saying. This never happens on comic book shows (see: how long Clark tried to make his friendship with Lex work on Smallville), and almost feels sacrilege, but for Andy to be fostering such romanticized views of Fenris’ terrorism, this is serious (and the way he pins everything that’s happened to their family since the dance on Lauren is an example of supreme folly).
Other thoughts on “eXtraction” and “X-roads:”
- While John takes the news of Blink’s past with the Brotherhood as a reason to question her character, it means she’s on her game while everyone else is flustered by what the Frosts’ can offer their cause. All season Jamie Chung has been killing it as Blink, and the finale’s no different, if her kiss with John feels a little soon after Sonya’s death.
- Along with race, The Gifted‘s incorporating issues of class into the split between the Underground and Hellfire Club. There’s something extra unnerving about how Lorna arrives at the Mutant way station, dressed to kill, yet showing no signs of doubt over the airplane or betraying her friends.
- For some reason it never occurred to me that Campbell’s assassination would involve other people dying, but after refusing to be kidnapped at the Humanity Today Summit (where Dr. Campbell reminded us he’s as horrible as the show’s built up, by threatening to shoot a little girl), Lorna blows up the plane he’s flying with Senator Montez, setting them both up to be turned into martyrs.
- What’s Next for The Gifted: With Otto Strucker’s research still at large, the search is on for Ellen’s lead, Madeline Risman. Also, what will become of Jace, since he’s quit Sentinel Services?
Rachel Bellwoar
