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The Gifted: eXploited

Review by An Honest Fangirl

"Time to go, boys and girls. The fun's just starting."

Wait, what? What? Did that just? What?

Okay, I'm sending up the flare. You got until January 1st to catch up. Now's the time to do it.

Let's start with what shocked me the most. Dreamer is dead. She was murdered. Shot in cold blood. What? I was completely not expecting that. Up until that moment, I was kind of distracted while I watched the episode. Afterwards? I couldn't look away from the screen. This was our first major casualty, right?

I thought for sure that Clarice, if anyone, would be killed. When she told Dreamer that Johnny loved her, I thought that that was the resolution of the love triangle that's been hovering around the edges of this show. I suppose my gut feeling was right: the love triangle is now over. I just backed the wrong girl.

This episode did a very good job of solidifying Dr. Campbell as a serious, major threat that we can easily hate. He simply has a complete lack of humanity, of empathy. Even when he's talking to non-mutants, his speech patterns and tone of voice are so detached. I've liked Garret Dillahunt ever since I saw him in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but this is really raising my respect for him as an actor.

What did he mean when he said that they discovered a way to permanently end the mutant threat? Is this an X-Men: The Last Stand thing with a cure, or an X-Men: Days of Future Past thing with robots that exterminate all mutants? I'm assuming that it's the latter, if only because that would make for more exciting television.

While Dr. Campbell was made into an uncomplicated villain, Agent Turner got more shades of grey. I loved every second of the confrontation between the Turners and the Struckers. There were so many quiet, small glances between the different characters and at the gun in Caitlin's hand that it just raised the tension higher and higher. And they actually managed to change Turner's mind. He finally broke away from Campbell and did the right thing.

Which is why I'm frustrated that all that growth was thrown away in an instant. There's no way that his hatred against mutants isn't going to be fully renewed after Esme's attack. Turner is right back where he started, effectively wiping away a lot of sympathy that I gained for him. It turned his decision to do the right thing into nothing more than a plot device to get everyone into position for Esme's rampage.

I knew that Esme was manipulating everyone, but I didn't expect her to slaughter Sentinel Services. I thought that she was just desperate to get her family back, and I guess that much was true. She just also has no regard for human life. Or I guess it's better to say that they have no regard for human life, seeing as the three sisters act as a sort of hive mind/consciousness. I'm excited to see them step up as a kind of Big Bad. Our mutants have only been underground freedom fighters. It'd be nice to see someone more along the line of Magneto's thinking. Of course, we have to wait three weeks in order to see.

Random Thoughts

Marcos and Lorna are having a bit of a growing divide. Lorna is more than ready to fight and spill blood, but Marcos is far more wary.

Why would Sentinel Services/Dr. Campbell keep mutants who know each other right next to each other? That just seems to be asking for trouble.

I don't have to explain the adamantium reference, do I? It was interesting that Andy and Lauren couldn't break it, though.

Esme is, as speculated on the Internet, Esme Cuckoo. In the comics, she and her sisters are clones of Emma Frost, one of the most powerful known telepaths. I'm curious to see how much of their origin will remain the same.

Also, RIP Turner's partner. He didn't deserve to go out like that.

Quotes:

Agent Weeks: You expect us to believe you were looking for a bathroom?
Clarice: Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go.
Agent Weeks: You think you're going to escape like last time. You got lucky once. Won't happen again.
Clarice: Actually, luck had nothing to do with it. I made you guys look like idiots. It's a pretty good skill.

Johnny: That's enough! There's no more "yours" or "ours." Andy and Lauren. Sonya and Clarice. They're all our people now.

Esme: Fire.


I thoroughly loved this episode.
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An Honest Fangirl loves superheroes, science fiction, fantasy, and really bad horror movies. 

2 comments:

  1. Message received. I hope the final three are good. Any word on renewal yet?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nothing yet. If I had to guess, they're waiting until the final episodes play. The ratings haven't really been that good. They drop every episode, so I don't know. We shall see.

    ReplyDelete

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