THE GIFTED Season 1 Episode 2 Review: rX

The second episode of THE GIFTED was a better than its pilot. The story is moving, albeit extremely slowly. Instead of the characters moving in any forward direction; things went a little sideways. When Blink closed the portal and everyone got through, she went into having a series of seizures. These seizures caused her power to go haywire, constantly opening a portal to a particular road. No one knew what the deal with this road was, but it seemed important to her. I assume it will be something the show will follow up on in time. 

These seizures and the road were the source of this episode’s conflict. They needed to get her under control while not letting anyone through the portal from the other side. This is where that plot line split. You had Amy Acker going to get medication for Blink while Laura had to do her best to keep the portal closed. 

The other stories involved Strucker being detained by Sentinel Services and then Polaris’ time in jail. Because of the four-plot-split, some of these stories got the short end of the stick. For example, Polaris’ time in jail didn’t really do anything except show us how bad things are for mutants in prison. Which, given the state of the world, could be assumed. Not really sure why we had to spend five minutes watching her hair turn back to green, unless it was just to show some shower time (also unnecessary). 

As always, X-Men has been a political metaphor for discrimination. That continues through THE GIFTED, in the jail scenes for one, but also during the hospital scenes. Where the doctor assumes that mutants are aggressive and Amy Acker can’t believe that mutants are treated the way they are. I’m glad they aren’t shying away from that. I do wish they could less heavy handed about it. The idea that Mrs. Strucker could suddenly be so willing to help all mutantkind felt a bit much. Maybe it happens faster when your kids are involved. 

The show's effects are still holding up. The scene where Blink’s powers go nuts and there were portals everywhere was an inventive use of her powers. Eclipse’s powers are also very cool. Nothing wrong with lasers, right? The budget seems to be fairly steady when it comes to the effects, so I’m hoping that remains. 

As for where this series is going in the future, who knows? Right now not a whole lot is happening. Everything is moving incredibly slowly. We’re still left in the dark on what the season’s overall plot is. It can’t be the family on the run forever. Thankfully we got a tiny, tiny glimpse into that in the final scene. One with a doctor who wanted to know about mutant siblings. I can only hope that he’s the main villain of the season and will give us a bit more direction.

Written by Peter Freeman, THE GIFTED Beat Writer

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