Rachel Bellwoar reviews the ninth episode of Marvel’s The Gifted…
Maybe The Gifted thought it owed viewers time to digest everything that came out during “threat of eXtinction,” but “outfoX” is an episode that feels like it’s missing plot to fill the hour. Stuck in an unfortunate seat filler point in the season anyway, what with the events of two weeks ago and the promise of next week’s “exploited,” conversations go on past when they need to without saying anything groundbreaking. Blink gets a one liner about portals not being elevators you can hold for infinite hugs, but that’s all the good to come out of the schmaltz. Each scene moves closer to the cliffhanger, and it takes too long.
Kate and Reed, especially, stay past their welcome when they break it to Lauren and Andy that their powers, combined, could turn them into monsters. With a wind machine out of Scrubs and some light when they hold hands, this is what the ability to destroy buildings looks like. You don’t doubt that they’re serious, but it’s not complicated. It’s concerning that Lauren and Andy find power addictive, but the lead-up, with their parents, is exhausting.
For one, you’ve got to resent Reed for not wanting to tell Lauren and Andy about their legacy. Isn’t that ‘handing them a loaded gun?” are his exact words, and what kind of a first response is that? How little faith must he have in his kids if he thinks their learning they can destroy stuff will make them go out and wreak havoc?
Kate’s been wondering how she might have raised the kids differently, if she’d known they were mutants from the start, and one easy way to kill time this episode would’ve been to have Kate ask Lauren why she wasn’t comfortable telling her the truth. There had to be a reason, and that’s on the parents, not the kids.
Instead we have Esme trying to rally the others to storm Trask’s lab. Skyler Samuels plays Esme in a curious way. Without changing any of her decisions, Esme could’ve been a sympathetic character, whose desire to reunite with her family gets in the way of her judgement, but in her private moments, she doesn’t look sorry to be giving Polaris nightmares about her baby. She looks addicted to power.
The only thing left to clear up is how bad it will get, when they put their plan into motion. Having Blink be captured first ups the stakes immediately. Dreamer tries to give Lauren and Andy extra time but in the end all four are captured by Sentinel Services, without so much as a chance to cause damage. Maybe the outcome would feel slightly better if they had.
Rachel Bellwoar
